Black holes are among the most destructive objects in the universe. Anything that gets too close to a black hole, be it an asteroid, planet, or star, risks being torn apart by its extreme gravitational field. By some accounts, the universe may eventually consist entirely of black holes. But is there any way to destroy a black hole? Fabio Pacucci...

In September 1859, miners following the Colorado gold rush woke up to another sunny day. Or so they thought. To their surprise, they soon discovered it was actually 1am and the sky wasn't lit by the sun, but rather by brilliant drapes of light. The blazing glow was a solar storm— the largest in recorded history. So what exactly is a solar storm?...

It's time for the biggest battle in the Universe: the Big Bang. In one corner is gravity— the force that brings all matter together. In the other is pressure— the force that can push matter away. Over the next several hundred thousand years, these two contenders will be wrestling for the fate of the Universe. But what are these powers fighting o...

Imagine a distant future when humans reach beyond Earth, forge cities on planets thousands of light-years away, and maintain a galactic web of trade and transport. What would it take to make that leap? And where would we get enough energy to power that civilization? Fabio Pacucci explores the possibility of harnessing energy from a black hole to...

Since the 1950s, governments, companies, and researchers have been planting flags among the stars. But while it might seem like there's plenty of room in space, some pieces of celestial real estate are more valuable than others. As far as human space exploration is concerned, Lagrange points may be the most important places in our solar system. ...

From asteroids capable of destroying entire species to supernovae that could exterminate life on Earth, outer space has no shortage of forces that could wreak havoc on our planet. But there's something in space that is even more terrifying than any of these -- something that wipes out everything it comes near. Fabio Pacucci examines the probabil...

How do you know you're a person who has lived your life, rather than a just-formed brain full of artificial memories, momentarily hallucinating a reality that doesn't actually exist? That may sound absurd, but it's kept several generations of top cosmologists up at night. They call it: the Boltzmann brain paradox. Fabio Pacucci explores this min...

Today, one of the biggest paradoxes in the universe threatens to unravel modern science: the black hole information paradox. Every object in the universe is composed of particles with unique quantum properties and even if an object is destroyed, its quantum information is never permanently deleted. But what happens to that information when an ob...

In 2009, researchers ran a simple experiment. They took everything we know about our solar system and calculated where every planet would be up to 5 billion years in the future. They ran over 2,000 simulations, and the astonishing variety in results revealed that our solar system may be much less stable than it seems. Fabio Pacucci explores the...

Sending rockets into space requires sacrificing expensive equipment, burning massive amounts of fuel, and risking potential catastrophe. So in the space race of the 21st century, some engineers are abandoning rockets for something more exciting: elevators. What would it take to build such a structure? Fabio Pacucci explores the physics behind mo...

Your granddaughter created a surprise for your birthday: a holographic map displaying everywhere you’ve traveled— not just on Earth, but through the universe. Considering you’re living on a spinning rock hurtling around a sun whizzing through a galaxy, you’ve made some real progress. But, how much, exactly? Fabio Pacucci and Lindsay DeMarchi exp...