SPACE.com: The advent of digital photography has caused a dramatic shift in astronomers’ roles. As SPACE.com‘s Mike Wall writes, in the past, discovery was the time-consuming part—where astronomers used crude telescopes and pored over photographic plates. Now, new and advanced telescopes are generating more and more data, and astronomers are struggling to keep up. For example, the telescope at the Palomar Observatory in southern California detects 1.5 million candidate transients—fleeting astronomical phenomena—every night. So, astronomers are writing computer algorithms and using projects such as Galaxy Zoo, which enlists the public to help sift through the mountains of data.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
Get PT in your inbox
PT The Week in Physics
A collection of PT's content from the previous week delivered every Monday.
One email per week
PT New Issue Alert
Be notified about the new issue with links to highlights and the full TOC.
One email per month
PT Webinars & White Papers
The latest webinars, white papers and other informational resources.
