Skeptophilia

Today's science news involves something called the Chandrasekhar Limit . Stars live for most of their lives in an equilibrium between tw...

A common -- although, as it turns out, completely understandable -- error is to say that the Earth and other planets orbit the Sun. No, I...

In Madeleine L'Engle's seminal young-adult fantasy novel The Wind in the Door , there's something that is making the stars go ou...

Well, thanks to my friend, the brilliant writer Gil Miller , I now have another reason to huddle under my blankie for the rest of the day. W...

I'm kind of an excitable type. I think that may be why I went into science.  The rigorous, evidence-basted methods of science were a nic...

I've been interested in rocks since I was a kid.  My dad was a rockhound -- more specifically, a lapidary, who made jewelry from such se...

Sometimes I have to tell y'all about something not because it's weird or controversial, but purely because it's cool. Today we...

Ever heard of Wolf-Rayet stars ?  They deserve more notice than they get, as one of the most violently energetic phenomena in the universe. ...

I've always thought it would be amazingly cool to witness a supernova. Imagine it.  Within a few hours, a dim, ordinary-looking star i...

This seems to be a month for astronomical superlatives.  Two weeks ago I posted here at Skeptophilia  about the discovery of the three most ...