Lab Notes

Chasing alien megastructures

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In 1960, physicist Freeman Dyson suggested that the energy demands of all technological civilizations would eventually exceed the natural resources of their home planet....

Living with a star

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Just after Christmas 2019, a NASA spacecraft soared past Venus toward the inner solar system, and near the end of January 2020, it passed...

Discovering Ultima Thule

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Four billion miles from the Earth on New Year’s Eve, a spacecraft traveling at 32,000 miles per hour zoomed past a tiny object roughly...

Developing a NASA mission

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Imagine spending years coming up with an exciting idea for a space telescope, proposing it to NASA, and getting approval to develop the concept...

Akatsuki returns from the dead

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It is Dec. 7, 2015. We’re in Sagamihara, Japan, a little southwest of Tokyo. On a clear day like today, you can just make...

Leaving science to the scientists

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When Pope Francis addressed Congress last month he asserted that “climate change is a problem that can no longer be left to a future generation,” casting it as a moral issue rather than a political one. His comments echoed a letter about the environment released by ...

The thundering launch of GOES-R

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As the Atlas V rocket’s inferno lit up the night sky early in the evening of Nov. 19, 2016, it was as if the...

Cheating extinction

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When a huge space-rock fell from the sky 66 million years ago, it quickly brought an end to the age of the dinosaurs. Rat-like...

Probing nearby stars

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Four miles from the launch pad, standing on the roof of the 44-story vehicle assembly building where NASA constructed the space shuttles, I hold...

Experiencing research

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Imagine if you could test-drive your anticipated career before going through all of the effort and expense of obtaining the necessary education. It’s not...

Tracking wildfire smoke

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It’s already been a challenging wildfire season in Colorado, with crews currently battling four major fires around the state. Driven by an exceptionally hot...

Chasing Arctic ice

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In late September, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg led the largest global climate strike in history, inspiring 7.6 million people in 185 countries to urge...