A $10 billion initiative called Breakthrough Starshot aims to send a centimeter-wide spacecraft to Proxima Centauri using laser-powered sails, reaching 20% the speed of light. Here's how the mission ...

When Philip Lubin was a little boy, he would stare at the night sky and wonder where it all came from. Decades later, Lubin, now a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has a plan ...

Add Popular Science (opens in a new tab) More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results.

The goal behind the $100 million Breakthrough Starshot initiative is to search Alpha Centauri (the closest star system to Earth, at just 4.37 light-years away) for habitable worlds and alien life. If ...

As a species, we have made magnificent strides in robotic space exploration in the past decade. From exploring Pluto close-up for the first time to discovering our solar system is rife with ...