Astronomy
The James Webb Space Telescope Has Launched: Now Comes the Hard Part
After years of delay, the most ambitious observatory ever built has at last left Earth. It now faces a high-stakes series of deployments in deep space
Stories by Richard Panek
Space & Physics
How a Dispute over a Single Number Became a Cosmological Crisis
Two divergent measurements of how fast the universe is expanding cannot both be right. Something must give—but what?
Policy
Jim Peebles Richly Deserved His Nobel Prize
Even though, according to Alfred Nobel, he didn’t technically qualify
Bridging a Binary Universe
Modern physicists continue to enshrine the split between the heavens and the earth perceived by our ancestors
Vera Rubin Didn't Discover Dark Matter
She wasn't even convinced it existed
