Astronomy

SPACE ODDITY

Blast off with sufjan stevens

SPACE ODDITY

Tracy K. Smith reads with Tina Chang

Free Will Astrology: August 15-21, 2012

Take Cover from the Space Storm! Two Solar Flares Hit Earth, NASA Says

Today's space-weather report tells of a different kind of sunny sky: Two flares, including the second biggest of the Sun's 11-year solar cycle, hit earth early this morning and could cause the biggest solar storm in five years, NASA says. Now, what the hell does this mean, exactly? Every so often, ... More >>

NASA's Kepler Mission Finds 26 New Planets in 11 Different Solar Systems

NASA announced on Thursday that it has discovered 26 new planets in 11 different solar systems. This brings the total number of confirmed planets to 729, with about 2,300 additional possibilities. These particular planets were discovered as part of the Kepler mission, a $600 million program which ... More >>

Watch This Morning's Total Lunar Eclipse [VIDEO]

People in the Western part of the country were treated to a total lunar eclipse this morning. Luckily you don't have to be a resident of California or an early riser to see it--someone already videotaped it for you. Check it out above.

Seeing a Supernova With Your Own Eyes: A Guide

via the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory​Starting this weekend, you will be able to see a cosmic phenomenon without the aid of a mountaintop telescope or highly politicized university grant. Researchers at the Palomar Observatory in Southern California found a white dwarf star about 1.4 t ... More >>

Collision of Galaxies Imminent

via NASA's Image of the Day Gallery​The galaxies you see in the image to the right, VV 340 North (top) and VV 340 South (bottom), are careening towards each other and on a cosmic collision course. The Hubble Telescope took the photo and it shows the two galaxies "in the early stages of their i ... More >>

Start Bracing for Solar Storms

​The magnetic storm that has been developing on the Sun's surface may cause problems down here on Earth soon. Reuters reports that above average solar activity is proving to be a real concern for the Space Weather Prediction Center. They warn that communications and GPS satellites could be aff ... More >>

Andrei Finkelstein, Russian Astronomer, Says We'll Encounter Aliens Within Twenty Years

​Andrei Finkelstein, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Applied Astronomy Institute, is pretty sure we're not alone in the universe. Reuters reports that Finkelstein told attendees at a forum dedicated to the search for extraterrestrials, "Life exists on other planets and we will fin ... More >>

Dog Star Man

Robert Burnham Jr.'s 1983 Testament: An Astronomer-Recluse Inscribes His Universe (Part II)

Burnham in his Prescott, Arizona home lab, circa 1960.​ Yesterday, we published the first half of a 24,000-word "self-interview" by Lowell Observatory astronomer Robert Burnham, Jr. on what would have been his 80th birthday. Burnham died in 1993 at the age of 61. He was known not only for hi ... More >>

Robert Burnham Jr.'s 1983 Testament: An Astronomer-Recluse Inscribes His Universe (Part I)

Burnham, circa 1960, at the telescope Clyde Tombaugh used to find Pluto 30 years earlier​ Today, June 16, 2011, would have been Robert Burnham Jr.'s 80th birthday. Burnham was an Arizona astronomer who produced one of the most unusual, and most beloved, set of books of science, his Burnham's ... More >>

Today's 100-Minute Lunar Eclipse Will Be Presented by the Internet

​Alert: There will be a massive lunar eclipse, today, the first in 2011! It will start at 2:20 Eastern time. However, you won't be able to actually see it in real life, unless you happen to live in the eastern portion of Africa, the Middle East, central Asia, or western Australia. North Americ ... More >>

Robert Burnham Jr.'s Strange, Wonderful Manifesto Coming in One Month

Burnham, circa 1960, at the telescope Clyde Tombaugh used to find Pluto 30 years earlier​ One month from today, the Voice will make public for the first time a 24,000-word autobiographical essay written by a man named Robert Burnham, Jr. Burnham died in 1993 at the age of 61. On June 16, had ... More >>

Genius or Gibberish: Two Columbia Profs Face Off Over String Theory

Life, the universe, and everything

The Sun is 'Waking Up' in a Crappy Mood

Two scoops of pain!​Good news! Our sun is about to enter "solar maximum," the time in its life-cycle when it's at its most active. Wait a second, that's bad news. National Geographic reports that within the next couple of years, massive sun storms will possibly knock out GPS systems, blow up p ... More >>

For the Next Two Days, Blame Everything Bad on the Evil Solar Flare

​You would have had no way of knowing it, geography being what it is, but a solar flare exploded over the sun on Monday. Now we're getting the trickle-down effect of its radiation, the biggest effects of which will be felt over the next 24 hours. So far China is blaming the solar flare for dis ... More >>

Green Investigates Corrupt Interplanetary Elections!

Metropolitan Playhouse hosts Chris Harcum's whirlwind solo sci-fi show

The Solar System Has a Badass New Planet Named Tyche

This is Jupiter; Tyche is Way Cooler than Jupiter (photo via Joshua Bury)​When the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto from planet to icy space rock, our solar system lost a spunky outsider with a weird orbit; the perennial underdog. The Independent reports that little Pluto may alr ... More >>

NASA Just Discovered 54 New Planets, and Humans Might Be Able to Live on Them

​NASA has discovered 54 new planets that might be habitable to humans, either giving us a planet for vacation homes or an escape plan for the end of the world. The planets are part of a larger discovery by Kepler telescope that includes 1,235 possible planets outside Earth's solar system. Exci ... More >>

You May Not Be a Virgo After All, and Other Ways the Stars Lied

No you're not.​This is horribly upsetting to some of us, and therefore we'll just come out with it, kind of like ripping off a Band-Aid, but then finding out it was actually not a Band-Aid at all but simply a piece of tape that somehow got stuck to your leg. Your Zodiac sign -- that thing you' ... More >>

10-Year-Old Girl Discovers Supernova Over Christmas Vacation, You Lazy Bastards

via The Star​Yeah, so, what did you do over your holiday break? If you're like us, you survived mainly on videos of kittens and antipathy. But if you're like 10-year-old Canadian Kathryn Aurora Gray, you became the youngest person ever to discover a supernova. (If you're like us, you wouldn't ... More >>

Watch Last Night's Eclipse in Time-Lapse Video

Did you catch the eclipse last night? Or did you only watch it in your pillow? Fear not, here's a pretty cool time-lapse video of what you missed. Turn down the creepy-dramatic music and sub in whatever's to your liking. Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse from William Castleman on Vimeo.The Atlantic als ... More >>

Tomorrow, the Moon and Sun and Earth Will Behave Unusually!

via NASA/Mr. Eclipse/Fred Espenak​Science nerds, astronomy fans, and people who like to look up at the sky and see things: There will be a total lunar eclipse Tuesday morning -- meaning that the sun, the Earth, and the moon will all align, with the moon entirely in the Earth's shadow. This is ... More >>

Baby Universe Aims for the Stars

Wakka Wakka mounts their puppet opera at Baruch

Live: Dimitri From Paris And François K Push Deep Space Even Deeper At Cielo

Dimitri and François, classing the joint up. Pics by Chris, more below.​Deep Space with Francois K (Featuring Dimitri From Paris) Cielo Monday, December 6 Since its premiere in 2003, François Kevorkian's Deep Space party has explored the outer reaches of dub astronomy in all its forms, thri ... More >>

Sarah Sze's Return of the Real

The sculptor conjures a low-budget cosmos. Plus, Alejandro Almanza Pereda's concrete cascade.

Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler, and Friend

Hustlin'​Jack Horkheimer died last week. Son of a bitch. I didn't hear right away because I was on my way to a week in Maine. An e-mail got through to me on the road. Well, I thought, I'll just wait for the canned "Star Gazer" obits to appear, and when I get back to town I'll get around to wr ... More >>

STARRY NIGHT

Passion Pit spin you into the cosmos

Hubble 3D As Gripping as Plumbers Snaking a Drain

NASA finds water on the moon

​NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Mission (LCROSS) probe discovered organic materials and "significant" amounts of water at the bottom of the Cabeus crater near the South Pole of the moon.

A Columbia Skyscraper Clouds Views for the University's Astronomy Students

New Yorkers Rise Early for Moon Mugging

​A group of die-hard New York stargazers met this morning in Inwood, in the northernmost tip of Manhattan near Spuyten Duyvil Creek, to watch the LCROSS lunar probe crash into the surface of the moon. The mission's objective is to see if there is water on the moon. Jason Kendall, the founder ... More >>

Comet Hits Jupiter, Times Acts Like Uranus

​A man who built his own telescope and takes images of the planets with it that would rival those taken by the best professional observatories only a few decades ago shocked the world last week with news that he'd spotted a major impact on Jupiter.The Jupiter sucker-punch made for big news, and th ... More >>

Tom Wolfe Whines on Moon Shot Anniversary

It's the anniversary of NASA's moon shot, which means we get yet another bitch session from a disappointed Great American about our shocking lack of colonies on other planets.We remember a nearly identical whine from Tom Clancy some years ago, no doubt on another portentous anniversary -- it might h ... More >>

'Observer' Observations Maybe Don't Include Observing Stars, Galaxies

SOMETHING SILVER

Mercury Rev's senses and Muses are on fire

Mac Wellman Stakes Out His Own Corner of the Galaxy in 1965UU

Space oddity

January 11 through 17, 2008

Horoscope

Rockie Weekly Horoscope October 14–20

Film

Let There Be Light

What's So Popular About Popular Science? Three New Books Take on Life, the Universe, and Everything.

What Time Is It There?

••• Cosmic Profs Beat The Clock

Brothers to Another Planet

NASA Tries to Launch Space-Science Dreams

Jody Does Loie

Conjuring a Fairy of Light

Science Fair

The Outer Limits

Tina Landau’s 'Space' Invaders

When Words Collide