Space & Physics: Whatever happened to Breakthrough Starshot?

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September 18 — This week, we're wondering whatever happened to Breakthrough Starshot, a billionaire's $100-million project for interstellar flight. Also: advancements in time crystals, a new view of a dark matter-filled galactic collision, the future of fusion energy, and more. Enjoy! —Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space and Physics

Top Stories

How a Billionaire's Plan to Reach Another Star Fell Apart An abandoned plan to visit another star highlights the perils of billionaire-funded science Sarah Scoles

Mesmerizing New JWST Image Sharpens Our View of Dark Matter's Intergalactic Playground A swarm of galaxies called the Bullet Cluster is the biggest, best natural laboratory for studying dark matter that astronomers have ever seen Phil Plait

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Weird 'Time Crystals' Are Made Visible at Last Time crystals, a state of matter once thought physically impossible, could soon be on a banknote Elizabeth Gibney, Nature magazine

Your Name Could Orbit the Moon with NASA's Artemis II The public can submit names to travel along with four astronauts on an orbital journey to the moon next year Clara Moskowitz

See How Fusion Energy Could Power the Future Inertial confinement reactors, stellarators and tokamaks each have pros and cons Clara Moskowitz, Matthew Twombly

What's the Plan for 'Golden Dome'? Even Experts Aren't Sure A sweeping U.S. missile defense program comes with many risks, costs and uncertainties, analysts say Ramin Skibba

This Rock May Hold Proof of Life on Mars The Perseverance rover's new findings set the stage for bringing Martian samples back to Earth to test whether microbes once inhabited the Red Planet Humberto Basilio

The Ozone Hole Is Steadily Shrinking because of Global Efforts After nearly 40 years of global efforts, the ozone hole over Antarctica is continuing to heal Meghan Bartels

Scientists Clash over whether Polar Geoengineering Is a Dangerous Gamble Scientists are beginning to take clear sides on whether or not to use human-made interventions to preserve polar ice, such as pumping up seawater or launching aerosols into the atmosphere to cool the planet's surface Alec Luhn

What We're Reading

Trump's Golden Dome will cost much more than the Manhattan Project. | Ars Technica A Defender of Darkness in the Darkest Place on Earth | New York Times What it's like to run the world's best dark matter detector | New Scientist

From the Archive

$100-Million Plan Will Send Probes to the Nearest Star Funded by Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner and with the blessing of Stephen Hawking, Breakthrough Starshot aims to send probes to Alpha Centauri in a generation Lee Billings

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