Dr Robin George Andrews

In just a few seconds, gamma-ray bursts unleash the same energy as 1,000 suns blazing for 10 billion years. They're cosmic superweapons—and scientists thought they understood them. But then along came Dynamite, Bonfire and Lucifer. Me @sciam.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/thes...

One of the features I’m currently working on – for @sciam.bsky.social, which remains an incredible powerhouse of science journalism, by the way – is genuinely freaking me out a bit. The subject matter is, uh, a thing of global significance! A looming menace. Very disturbing, and fascinating. 😬

The constellation in Van Gogh’s The Starry Night may be based on a real cluster of stars in the Taurus constellation. Researchers make a compelling case with evidence from astronomy, weather analysis and Van Gogh’s letters. sciam.com/article/astr...

NEW: How, exactly, did Earth and Mars form? Often cast as siblings, a new study thinks they may be strangers, with Mars mostly resulting from giant space rock collisions, while Earth was pieced together by a self-assembling swarm of pebbles. 🌎 ☄️ 💥 Me @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/10/22/s...

This is my favorite @technologyreview.com cover of the year. And the issue is packed with excellent tales of impossible—or maybe not so impossible—things, from a group of very talented reporters and writers. I hope you'll check it out. www.technologyreview.com/magazines/th...

NEW: How, exactly, did Earth and Mars form? Often cast as siblings, a new study thinks they may be strangers, with Mars mostly resulting from giant space rock collisions, while Earth was pieced together by a self-assembling swarm of pebbles. 🌎 ☄️ 💥 Me @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/10/22/s...

NEW: On Oct 20, Japan will launch its most audacious space mission. It’s hoping to fly to Mars, land twice (!) on Phobos (“fear”), steal pieces of that alien moon, and bring ‘em home. That’s right: to pull of this heist, Japan must confront fear itself. @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

MMMMMMMMMMXXXXX! 🚀

GO GO GO FOR MMX

Today’s the day! Let’s go Japan—we all crave little pieces of the alien fear moon. 😨 🌑 🚀

NEW: The US wants to put a base on the Moon. So does China. Both could develop into small cities. One problem: the Moon is a comically lethal place. It will do its best to try to kill you. So can it be done? Should it be? A deep dive: @technologyreview.com www.technologyreview.com/2026/10/12/1...

NEW: Just in time for spooky season, I wrote about three ghostly galaxies whose pallid appearance is the least weird thing about them. The weirdest thing? They lack dark matter—the invisible glue that stars and galaxies need to form. Me @quantamagazine.org www.quantamagazine.org/triplet-of-g...

Fun fact about this story: JAXA enjoyed it so thoroughly that a framed copy is going to be put up on the JAXA ISAS Director General's office wall. Honestly a bit flabbergasted by that. How cool! JAXA rocks. And so does MMX. I loved writing this story for @science.org.

NEW: Just in time for spooky season, I wrote about three ghostly galaxies whose pallid appearance is the least weird thing about them. The weirdest thing? They lack dark matter—the invisible glue that stars and galaxies need to form. Me @quantamagazine.org www.quantamagazine.org/triplet-of-g...

An ancient collision may have left three galaxies without dark matter. That spells trouble for alternative gravity theories. @squigglyvolcano.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/triplet-of-g...

I had a blast editing this feature from @squigglyvolcano.bsky.social on building permanent human settlements on the moon for @technologyreview.com's upcoming Impossible issue. Shoutout to @shannonstirone.bsky.social for her 2021 Mars piece, which remains forever lodged in my brain ter.li/klow8kli

My favourite bit of reporting for this story was finding out ISS astronauts were growing little gardens in their quarters in secret—and only this summer have NASA explicitly permitted them to do this. Astronauts are, in many ways, just regular, hopeful humans. 🌱

Wife and Wolf adventure appreciation post, just because. :)

This week on the @science.org podcast, Japan's mission to a martian moon w/ @squigglyvolcano.bsky.social www.science.org/content/podc...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: NASA’s Artemis II lunar mission may be more than half-year in the rearview, but it’s still got more to show us. The space agency has just released more than 800 gigabytes of sights and sounds from the crew’s close encounter with the Moon. By @squigglyvolcano.bsky.social.

NEW: Yesterday, a Russian drone struck Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv. For @nytimes.com, I looked into the institution, and found out that it was (is) a powerhouse of research—yes, in military terms, but also in astronomy, nuclear physics and health. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/s...

Scotland’s gorgeous, by the way.

NEW: So, the US military has (weirdly casually) mentioned that it’s got space weapons in orbit around Earth. For NatGeo, I dig into the deets: a short history of space weapons, what the new weapon may be, and (!) where it might be found. www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

NEW: In Spring 2024, an asteroid perhaps as small as 30 feet across slammed into the Moon with the force of an atomic bomb, carving out a Coliseum-sized pit and scattering debris over 60 miles away. Moon bases, beware. The Moon’s trying to kill you. Me @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/s...

NEW: This summer, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory became fully operational. And it's already seeing far-flung collapsing stars, diamantine galaxies and effervescing comets. There’s also a chance that, one day, Rubin will save the world. www.supercluster.com/editorial/th...

Quite enjoy getting this sort of alert. An asteroid has just been discovered before it’ll hit Earth! It’ll enter the atmosphere just northwest of Australia. (Don’t worry: it’s ~1m long, so it’ll just make a cool, brief fireball. We aren’t all about to die.)

NEW: So—did we just catch a glimpse of a dark matter particle? Are we about to find out what invisible glue holds the universe together? Maybe! For NatGeo, I looked into the super cool finding, and the amazing experiment designed to hunt for answers. www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

Happy Asteroid Day, to those who celebrate! Want to know how NASA, @esa.int and a global team of scientists and engineers are racing to save the world from killer asteroids? Then buy my book, HOW TO KILL AN ASTEROID—now available in paperback! ☄️ 💥 ☠️ wwnorton.com/books/how-to...

This is the single biggest physics discovery of my entire lifetime. Or something's wrong with one of the cables. One of the two

Is calling someone a WIMP – a Weakly Interacting Massive Particle,of course – an insult?

NEW: What happened in Nepal and Tibet was horrific. Sadly, in our warming world, glacial collapses like this are becoming par for the course. Is there anything we can do to forecast when the next one will happen—and save lives in the process? Me @ NatGeo www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/...

The Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, scheduled to launch on Sunday, will explore the universe's most enigmatic mysteries, like dark matter and dark energy, and find many new exoplanets. This summer, I spent the day with Roman in a NASA clean room, for Nat Geo: www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

NEW: What happened in Nepal and Tibet was horrific. Sadly, in our warming world, glacial collapses like this are becoming par for the course. Is there anything we can do to forecast when the next one will happen—and save lives in the process? Me @ NatGeo www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/...

NEW: Initially, the glacial collapse in Nepal was thought to have been triggered by an earthquake. It turns out that the magnitude 5.2 quake *was* the explosive force of the landslide itself—involving 400 million tonnes of rock and ice. Me + others @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/w...

NEW: Initially, the glacial collapse in Nepal was thought to have been triggered by an earthquake. It turns out that the magnitude 5.2 quake *was* the explosive force of the landslide itself—involving 400 million tonnes of rock and ice. Me + others @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/w...

A year ago, the Swiss town of Blatter was destroyed by an ice-rock avalanche. Now hundreds are missing Nepal owing to the same kind of disaster. This only going to become more common as the climate warms.

Seismologists! I have a couple of brief queries about how the massive earthquake identified by agencies like the USGS was, in fact, the colossal avalanche and landslide in Nepal. Is anyone free this morning to help me out via email?

NEW: This month, NASA’s Roman Space Telescope is set to be launched. It’ll find hidden planets and moons, and uncover the secrets of dark matter and dark energy. I also found out that it’ll defend Earth from killer asteroids. Me @techreviewjp.bsky.social www.technologyreview.com/2026/08/05/1...

NEW: In 2024, the U.S. claimed Russia was thinking about putting a nuke in low-Earth orbit, hidden inside a satellite. But how would we find out if a bomb was really up there? Answer: supercharge a tiny spy robot using Earth's radiation. Me @supercluster.com www.supercluster.com/editorial/if...

NEW: Back in July 2024, an asteroid exploded above New York. None of it was thought to have survived. It turns out that a huge chunk of this space rock smashed through a house in New Jersey—and it contains the chemistry of an alien world. 🤯 Me @ New York Times: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/s...

NEW: Back in July 2024, an asteroid exploded above New York. None of it was thought to have survived. It turns out that a huge chunk of this space rock smashed through a house in New Jersey—and it contains the chemistry of an alien world. 🤯 Me @ New York Times: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/s...