If LIGO regularly registers gravitational waves, it will more than vindicate Einstein. The observatory may help answer pressing questions about the cosmos’s biggest mysteries, among them black holes, dark matter, and the Big Bang.

Anything with an accelerating mass has a gravitational effect — an atomic bomb, a spinning aircraft carrier, even you. Learn more about these ripples in space and how LIGO is designed to capture the biggest gravitational waves.

LIGO, or the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, is just one of five large-scale gravitational-wave detectors in the world. Find out how they rely on each other to achieve their goals.

Our eyes can only detect a fraction of light in the electromagnetic spectrum — otherwise we’d see gamma-ray bursts, flashes that outshine the sun by a million trillion times, about once a day. Learn more.

In early 2004, two unlikely explorers traveled to the red planet and found strong evidence to confirm water once existed on the surface of Mars, and in sufficient quantity to possibly have harbored life.

So much of what drives cosmic exploration involves the quest to learn whether or not we're alone in the Universe. But that's not the only reason to go to Mars. Find out others from Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The invention of the telescope in the 17th century provided scientists with unprecedented, yet hazy, images of Mars. Some observers saw canals; others saw diagrams drawn for "interplanetary communication."

For all their similarities, Mars possesses unique geophysical traits — traits that early on set Mars on a developmental path distinct from Earth's.

Mercury is the most unusual of the four planets closest to the Sun. It’s also the most neglected. Until MESSENGER, it was the only one of the four that hadn’t been comprehensively imaged.

Discover how scientists are now marrying traditional fieldwork with cutting-edge computer modeling to produce the first animated, theoretical picture of the Basin and Range Province's geological evolution.