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December 2018 magazine cover
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Think Big!

Life in the Cosmos

How Astrophysicists Found a Black Hole Where No One Else Could

A new method could help scientists peer inside universe's densest star clusters to find undiscovered black holes
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History

The Story of the Astrolabe, the Original Smartphone
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Looking Up

Introducing the Global Effort to Map the Night Sky
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Big Ideas

The Hidden Connections Between Darwin and the Physicist Who Championed Entropy
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The Search for Life

Salty Water Under the Surface of Mars Could Have Enough Oxygen for Life

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TESS Space Telescope Will Find Thousands of Planets, But Astronomers Seek a Select Few

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Our Galaxy Is Really Greasy and Smells Like Moth Balls

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Is This Backwards-Orbiting Asteroid an Interstellar Visitor?

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A New Look at Old Data Suggests Europa Shoots Watery Plumes Into Space

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Past, Present, Future

The Story of the Astrolabe, the Original Smartphone

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The Hidden Connections Between Darwin and the Physicist Who Championed Entropy

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Astronomers Have Found the Brightest Supernova Yet

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Watch the Universe Evolve Over 13 Billion Years

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What Does the Future of the Universe Hold?

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How We Explore

Introducing the Global Effort to Map the Night Sky

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The Hunt for High-Energy Photons Takes Place From a Mountaintop in Mexico

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The Detection of Gravitational Waves Was a Scientific Breakthrough, but What’s Next?

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These Dragonflies Helped an Astronomer Find Ghostly New Galaxies

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How Two Pigeons Helped Scientists Confirm the Big Bang Theory

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Galaxies, Quasars, Clusters

The Milky Way Ate One of Its Neighbors 10 Billion Years Ago

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This Pulsar is Giving Off Weird Infrared Light and We're Not Sure Why

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Astronomers Spot Galactic Wind From Early Universe

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Understanding the Cosmos

How Astrophysicists Found a Black Hole Where No One Else Could

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Meet the Team of Scientists Who Discovered Gravitational Waves

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Stephen Hawking on Why Black Holes Are Worthy of Your Consideration

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Tags

Thinking Big on Cosmology

Why Theoretical Physicist Sylvester James Gates Sees No Conflict Between Science and Religion

Astrophysicist Mario Livio on the Intersection of Art and Science

Guy Consolmangno, the Vatican’s Chief Astronomer, on Balancing Church With the Cosmos

Neuroscientist David Eagleman on What Is Possible in the Cosmos

From the Future is Here Festival

The Future Is Here Festival Considers Extraterrestrial Life and the Essence of Humanity

In the festival's final day, speakers turn to the cosmos and our place within it
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Day One: Science Fiction Becomes Science Fact

Speakers at <em>Smithsonian</em> magazine's "Future is Here" festival said be patient, persistent, but never, ever pessimistic
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Future is Here Speaker Series

Planetary Scientist

Sara Seager

Director of SETI

Seth Shostak

Philosopher and Author

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

From the Future is Here Issue

This Expandable Structure Could Become the Future of Living in Space

A Nevada real estate magnate has poured $290 million into a wild dream of being a landlord in outer space. His first tenant: NASA
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Inside the Grand Plan to Send Humans to Mars

NASA's innovative deputy administrator Dava Newman explains just how close we are to sending astronauts far, far away
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The NASA Robot That Failed to Do Its Job

A cautionary tale about the android who just wasn't suited for the task at hand
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An Oral History of "Star Trek"

The trail-blazing sci-fi series debuted 50 years ago and has taken countless fans where none had gone before