Cosmic Perspectives from Amid the Stars:
Astronomy Blog

Space: the final frontier... For 60 years the Star Trek franchise has brought its viewers along for spectacular trips across the galaxy and back. Generations of physicists, astronomers, astronauts, and more were inspired to explore their universe thanks to the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. But that continuing mission to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no one has gone before was only possible thanks to warp driv

In the late nineteenth century, astronomers believed they had discovered canals on Mars. These obviously artificial structures had to be the work of a civilization on the Red Planet. The idea was so popular that it even influenced H.G. Wells to write The War of the Worlds. The idea that there was life on Mars entered the mainstream mind. However, later observations with better telescopes proved there were no such artificial structures on Mars. It was simply an optical illusio

One of the most iconic scenes in Star Wars is the famous twin sunset over Tatooine, a desert planet that orbits not one, but two stars. Science fiction often takes creative liberties with its fantastic planets, but what about this one? Can a planet really have two suns?