Science & Technology
Are we alone? Setting some limits to our uniqueness
Are humans unique and alone in the vast universe? This question– summed up in the famous Drake equation–has for a half-century been one of the most intractable and uncertain in science. But a new paper shows that the recent discoveries of exoplanets combined with a broader approach to the question makes it possible to assign a new empirically valid probability to whether any other advanced technological civilizations have ever existed.
Science & Technology
Secret to Peanut-Shaped Star Orbits Peeled Away
Alice Quillen, professor of astronomy, and collaborators have created a mathematical model of what might be happening at the center of the Milky Way.