The idea that planets orbit two suns has long fascinated both scientific curiosity and the human imagination. Popularized by science fiction, such worlds, known as orbiting planets, do exist, and astronomers have identified several planets outside our solar system. But a puzzling pattern has emerged. Many of these planets appear to have disappeared from observation. … Read more
Something strange is swirling in the waters around Antarctica. From the 1970s until 10 years ago, ice floes radiating from the continent continued to expand, even though climate change was already in full swing. Then in 2016, as rising global temperatures appeared to catch up with Antarctica, it suddenly shrunk dramatically, but it has yet … Read more
Among the more than 4,500 known planetary host stars, one surprising pattern stands out. Planets are expected to form around most stars, and many stars exist in pairs, but worlds orbiting both stars are extremely rare. Of the more than 6,000 exoplanets, or exoplanets, discovered to date (mostly by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope and the … Read more