Space & Physics: The roller-coaster search for alien life

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August 28— This week, the centuries-long search for alien life. Plus, a successful SpaceX Starship launch, and new infrared instruments check on exoplanets around Proxima Centauri. Enjoy! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

The Search for Extraterrestrial Life Is a Roller Coaster of Hope and Disappointment The search for extraterrestrial life has periodically been turned upside down

Top Stories

The Universe Is Static. No, Expanding! Wait, Slowing? Oh, Accelerating The universe has a habit of disproving "unassailable" facts Richard Panek

SpaceX Successfully Launches Starship Spacecraft after String of Mishaps Overcoming three recent failed tries, Elon Musk's rocket company successfully flew its reusable jumbo booster and upper-stage Starship spacecraft Dan Vergano

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New Instrument Checks on Proxima Centauri's Planets Fresh results from near-infrared instruments foretell a bright future for finding life elsewhere in the Milky Way Ivan Farkas

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If This Asteroid Hits the Moon, Watch for Shooting Stars and Stricken Satellites The 60-meter asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 4 percent chance of hitting the moon. Could such a lunar collision create a dangerous new meteor shower? Phil Plait

Controversial Quantum-Computing Paper Gets a Hefty Correction The journal Science has lifted an expression of concern on a paper claiming evidence of Majorana quasiparticles, but concerns linger Dan Garisto, Nature magazine

Can SpaceX Solve Its 'Exploding Starships' Problem? After a string of fiery failures, SpaceX's biggest rocket faces another test flight with sky-high stakes for U.S. space ambitions Adam Rogers

What We're Reading

Astrophysicists Find No "Hair" on Black Holes | Quanta James Webb Space Telescope has revealed new details in the core of the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302. | ESA "A remarkable discovery:" Astronomers find first exoplanet in multi-ring disk around star | Space.com

From the Archive

Why We Probably Won't Find Aliens Anytime Soon Odds are that we're not truly alone in the cosmos. But practically speaking, we might as well be Christopher K. Walker

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