Peter N. Spotts argues that better technology and robust funding is the required fuel to help in the search for intelligent life beyond Earth.
Recent astronomical measurements, scientists say, cannot rule out the possibility that in a few billion years a mysterious force permeating space-time will be strong enough to blow everything apart, shred rocks, animals, molecules and finally even atoms in a last seemingly mad instant of cosmic self-abnegation.
Scientists have long been stumped about the origins of high-energy cosmic rays. They hope a new observatory will substantiate one of several theories on how the rays came into being, and shed light on the origins of the universe.
Cosmologists debate the anthropic principle and the existence of multiple universes at a recent conference.
Astronomers, swamped by a tsunami of data from advances in computing and digital imaging, are developing a new, computational branch of astronomy based on simulations and data exploration. Because its primary tools are computers rather than giant, multimillion telescopes, this new form of astronomy has the potential to democratize science.
Detection technologies developed to search for black holes and supernovae in space have a new down-to-earth application ? helping to fight terrorism. The same technologies used to study astrophysics phenomena at the edge of the universe are also being adapted to search for faint radiation emissions from nuclear materials or nuclear devices.
A look at the scientific and economic case for establishing a permanent outpost on the moon.
Astronomers, schoolchildren and interested amateurs could soon be watching the sky with the help of a network of telescopes controlled via the internet.
Astronomers could be among the first to reap the rewards of plans to turn the internet into a vast pool of computer processing power. The three-year Astrogrid project is attempting to give astronomers a common way of accessing and manipulating diverse data archives.
New research reaches the bleak conclusion that while the universe will expand indefinitely, life will not and "civilization and culture are destined to be forgotten ... there's no long-term future".