The Milky Way as a laboratory for civilizations Any attempt to chart alien societies has to start with the structure of The Milky Way itself, a disk roughly 100,000 light years across with hundreds of ...

New research suggests that alien radio signals may be transformed by plasma from their home stars — and scientists on Earth ...

Small, rocky planets can coalesce around a wide variety of stars, suggesting that Earth-like alien worlds may have formed early and often throughout our Milky Way galaxy's history, a new study reveals ...

Just three decades ago, astronomers had no evidence that planets commonly orbited other stars. Then in 2025, NASA confirmed ...

As a galactic archaeologist, my job is to reconstruct the past of our galaxy – and read the signs of its future.

On May 22, 2026, the Pentagon released a second batch of previously classified photos and videos showing what appear to be unexplained flying objects. These file dumps were the culmination of a ...

Grain-sized remnants of alien technology may get caught in solar wind and land on plants and moons close to us ...

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has floated the provocative idea that humans might themselves be alien‑made 'autonomous probes,' built through advanced synthetic biology rather than evolving entirely ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning reporter writing about stargazing and the night sky. When will the Milky Way collide with the Andromeda Galaxy?

"Milky Way season," when our galaxy's bright center is most visible, is now beginning in the Northern Hemisphere. The best time to see the Milky Way in the U.S. is generally from March to September.

"Milky Way season," when our galaxy's bright center is most visible, is now beginning in the Northern Hemisphere. The best time to see the Milky Way in the US is generally from March to September.