Stories by Phil Plait

Precisely calibrating clocks on Mars is harder than you’d think, because of some extremely esoteric physics

In our topsy-turvy universe, sometimes the farther away an object is, the bigger it seems to be

A technique called interferometry can greatly magnify tiny objects on the sky, and is powerful enough to reveal the surfaces of nearby stars

Comets don’t just orbit our sun. “Exocomets” are common around other stars in the galaxy, too

Centuries before other galaxies were known to exist, astronomers called them “spiral nebulas.” Today the defunct term still sparks confusion

Observations show the disk of our galaxy is not flat but warped and waving. Astronomers are still working out the reasons why

Huge eruptions from the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole in the distant past may have sterilized much of the inner galaxy

A comet’s brightness depends on how it’s made, how and when we see it, and even a bit of unpredictable luck

Voracious supermassive black holes light up the cores of “active” galaxies across the universe. How we see them, however, is a matter of perspective

If you pick the right time, our home world and our moon could be easily visible from the Red Planet

When space itself expands, weird things can happen—like galaxies breaking the universe’s ultimate speed limit

Many asteroids are related, but their family trees can be hard to trace

Gauging the mass of a black hole is tricky, but astronomers have devised multiple methods to measure the heft of these galactic gluttons

A swarm of galaxies called the Bullet Cluster is the biggest, best natural laboratory for studying dark matter that astronomers have ever seen

Some black holes get extremely massive. Is there an upper limit to their growth?

Superluminal velocities are common but illusory

The 60-meter asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 4 percent chance of hitting the moon. Could such a lunar collision create a dangerous new meteor shower?

Neptune’s discovery was a race that ended not long after this magazine came to be

Bizarre phenomena called light echoes create strange, shifting shapes seen in some telescopic images and help astronomers chart the heavens above

Scientists are uncovering how spinning black holes launch jets, warp spacetime and shape the cosmos

Astronomers think small space rocks from beyond our solar system routinely strike Earth—but proving it isn’t easy

It’s certainly possible to consume water sourced from the icy rings of Saturn, but doing so safely may require extra steps

A new global overview of Mars suggests dust, rather than water, is the source of mysterious streaks there

The future is bright—too bright—for life as we know it once the sun transforms into a red giant star