Launched in the 1970s, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 — the first two spacecraft and human-made objects to leave our solar system — have reached interstellar space and now beam back images from this mysterious region.
astronomy
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
What Falls to Earth
Grieving the mysterious death of her father, Susanna Space seeks refuge in the study of meteors.
Posted inEditor's Pick, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction
What Falls to Earth
Grieving the mysterious death of her father, Susanna Space seeks refuge in the study of meteors.
Posted inFeature
The Hunt for Planet Nine
What will it take to find the biggest missing object in our solar system?
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Quotes, Science & Nature
The Telescope That Sees into the Heart of Hawaii
Trevor Quirk reports on how native Hawaiians protested the construction of a telescope on spiritual grounds — the presence of which cuts to the very question of who gets to decide what happens on Hawaiian soil — and who the soil belongs to.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Practical Cartography: I Am Mapped, Therefore I Am
Lois Parshley’s wide-ranging, fascinating story on mapping the unmapped — from black holes, to the bottom of the sea, to the populations of the Congo and Haiti — looks at not just the science of map-making, but the morality.
Posted inBooks, Fiction, Quotes
The Weirdness of Near-Future America
You, Little Sylvia, will come up knowing the truth, but to the rest of the world–to jellyfishes, crackers, finkies, and swells, to Bosom families and Consolidated alike–the stars are not real. The planets are not real. Astronomy, if spoken of al all, is regarded as a delusional cult scarcely more respectable than the Jesus Lovers. […]