Optics

The spin of a particle seems to detach and move without a body—a strange experimental observation that’s stirring up debate

New research harnessed the highly absorbent dye tartrazine, used as the common food coloring Yellow No. 5, to turn tissues in living mice clear—temporarily revealing organs and vessels inside the animals

Even Earth’s mightiest telescopes aren’t up to the task of imaging Apollo lunar landing sites. A lack of resolution is the biggest reason why

Reports of Earth-orbiting astronauts glimpsing the Great Wall of China and many other artificial structures are wildly exaggerated, but humanity’s planetary influence isn’t entirely invisible from afar

It’s possible to see celestial objects during the day, but it’s not always easy

Almost everything we know about the cosmos is conveyed by photons traveling across vast distances

The human brain loves seeing patterns, even when they aren’t really there

Giant bubbles erupting across this red supergiant star’s surface could solve a lingering astrophysical mystery

Polarized light from Sagittarius A*, our galaxy’s supermassive black hole, shows swirling magnetic fields that may hint at the presence of an unseen jet

A nova called T Coronae Borealis spectacularly erupts every 80 years. Your only chance to see it will come any day now

A new technique to make electronic fibers could help solve wearable technology’s flexibility problem

The edge of the world is closer than you think, and simple geometry proves it