Miss Congeniality: the Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1672

The interstellar comet 3I/Atlas reached its closest point to the sun. Here's how to follow the rest of its journey away from our solar system.

Driving a spacecraft around a planet isn’t anything like driving on a planet. A physicist explains orbital navigation.

An observatory detected the first radio signal from the interstellar object 3I/Atlas. Here’s what it means.

“Anomalous” heat flow, which at first appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics, gives physicists a way to detect quantum entanglement without destroying it.

The proof, known to be so hard that a mathematician once offered 10 martinis to whoever could figure it out, uses number theory to explain quantum fractals.

What sneaky invisible forces enable these instruments to locate buried treasure?

The same pulling force that causes “tears” in a glass of wine also shapes embryos. It’s another example of how genes exploit mechanical forces for growth and development.

Two mathematicians have proved that a straightforward question—how hard is it to untie a knot?—has a complicated answer.

By shifting water to a higher elevation, the giant Three Gorges Dam caused the Earth to spin more slowly.

After weeks of silence, NASA has officially dismissed speculation that 3I/ATLAS has anything to do with aliens.

A Trump administration pilot program aims for three nuclear startups to reach a key milestone by July 4, 2026. Valar Atomics says it’s the first to do so—but it had some help.

The math behind even the simplest ocean waves is notoriously uncooperative. A team of Italian mathematicians has made major advances toward understanding it.