The closest black hole to the solar system ever spotted may be just 1,000 light-years away. This newfound dark neighbor is at least 4.2 times as massive as the sun, and lives with two ordinary stars whose funny orbits gave the black hole’s presence away, astronomers report May 6 in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Astronomers expect […] More
A fresh look at the world’s oldest religious texts suggests ancient Egyptians saw the sky as a water-filled iron container from which chunks fell to Earth as meteorites More
The sun might be a magnetic slacker. A census of stars similar to the sun shows that our own star is less magnetically active than others of its kind, astrophysicists report in the May 1 Science. The result could support the idea that the sun is in a “midlife crisis,” transitioning into a quieter phase […] More
Ricky & Morty are back on Netflix, a new online exhibition shows art in the making and book A Life Without End sees a writer attempt to avoid death More
Getting your wok scorching hot and preparing your ingredients in advance is the best way to make a tasty stir-fry, says Sam Wong More
Hyperconsumption adds to environmental destruction that brings people into contact with animal viruses that can spark pandemics. We have to avoid the temptation to rely on it to get us out, writes Graham Lawton More
Mark O’Connell’s book Notes from an Apocalypse is an exploration of doomsday preparation from Mars colonists to fallout shelter estate agents More
Counting universes ought to be easy. By definition, you can stop at 1. Trouble is, definitions change. A century ago, the “universe” was defined as the Milky Way galaxy. Heretics who disagreed had long been ridiculed— until science staged what became known as the Great Debate, on April 26, 100 years ago. On that date, […] More
