The High Desert City That’s Lost in Space

Earth to Palmdale: It’s Time to Focus on Your Community, Not the Cosmos

Hello, Palmdale. It’s planet Earth calling. Are you ever coming back here?

You, a sprawling and struggling working-class exurb of 160,000, may be located in the Antelope Valley, at the north end of Los Angeles County. But your civic head lives in outer space, where you endlessly formulate far-fetched schemes to make yourself a portal to the future.

I don’t know whether it’s your hot desert air, your elevation (2,657 feet above sea level), or all the psychedelically orange poppies that bloom in springtime. But you are always madly charging toward some …

by Joe Mathews | December 8, 2020

Can Earthlings Save Our Planet, Achieve World Peace—And Make a Home on the Moon?

Space Exploration Won’t Create the Utopian Society of Star Trek… Unless We Solve Our Problems Here on Earth First

by Sarah Rothbard | October 15, 2020

The title question of last night’s Zócalo/ASU Interplanetary Initiative event was “Can Space Exploration Save Humanity?” But it quickly became clear that an inversion was required. According to a panel …

The Expansion of the Universe Raises Unnerving Questions

Princeton Cosmologist Jo Dunkley Explains Why We Are Always Updating Our Understanding of How We Got Here

Interview by Lisa Margonelli | March 12, 2020

Jo Dunkley is a leading researcher into the origins and evolution of the universe and professor of physics and astrophysical sciences at Princeton University. In her work, Dunkley uses the …

Before We Settle on Mars, Let’s Make Sure It’s Not Already Occupied

While the Technology Is Within Reach, We Haven't Figured out How to Minimize the Risks to Both Humans and Martians

By David Weintraub | June 20, 2018

Humanity has dreamed of going to Mars for decades. Mars appeals to us as a possible second home because of how Earthlike it is—and how much more Earthlike it might …

How the Industrial Age Fuels Our Belief in UFOs

Fears of Zeppelins, Rockets, and Drones Have Replaced the "Celestial Wonders" of Ancient Times

By Greg Eghigian | January 30, 2018

In 1896, newspapers throughout the United States began reporting accounts of mysterious airships flying overhead. Descriptions varied, but witnesses frequently invoked the century’s great technological achievements. Some sources reported dirigibles …

Who Should Be Our Alien Liaison?

If Extraterrestrials Make Contact, Science Fiction Has Some Advice for Selecting Humanity’s Spokesperson

By Joelle Renstrom | September 9, 2016

On May 25, 2015, a radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya, Russia, picked up a signal coming from star HD164595 in the Hercules constellation. We don’t know much about this star located …

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