Paul Sutter
Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute in New York City. Paul received his PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011, and spent three years at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, followed by a research fellowship in Trieste, Italy, His research focuses on many diverse topics, from the emptiest regions of the universe to the earliest moments of the Big Bang to the hunt for the first stars. As an "Agent to the Stars," Paul has passionately engaged the public in science outreach for several years. He is the host of the popular "Ask a Spaceman!" podcast, author of "Your Place in the Universe" and "How to Die in Space" and he frequently appears on TV — including on The Weather Channel, for which he serves as Official Space Specialist.
Latest articles by Paul Sutter
![Two rivers of hot gas are siphoned onto the surface of a neutron star (the collapsed remains of a dead star) in this illustration.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/MzC9bw6KtzfQQm7uzfJFNj-320-80.jpg)
Dead stars sometimes shine again — and gravity itself may be responsible
By Paul Sutter published
Do dead stars glow? A strange gravitational phenomenon could be generating enormous amounts of light around neutron stars, new research suggests.
![The James Webb Space Telescope deep field image showing some of the earliest and most distant galaxies ever seen.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/8YdEfW8BQVC4RoDEyxoYWM-320-80.jpg)
Is the James Webb Space Telescope really 'breaking' cosmology?
By Paul Sutter published
While headlines around the world claimed that these galaxies were "breaking" our understanding of the Big Bang, the truth is much more nuanced — and much more interesting.
![Two barred spiral galaxies, known as NGC 7733 and NGC 7734, are in the process of merging. The lower galaxy has a dusty knot atop its upper arm, which marks a third galactic companion.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mMo5LNhsnHJtAvBA6DkxcX-320-80.jpg)
Is the universe still making new galaxies?
By Paul Sutter published
It's a fun question to tackle because it lets us dig into the messy, complicated, beautiful process of galaxy formation.
![A green aurora rings part of the globe](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/RWBR96vVqYfp5RGBw7QZxJ-320-80.jpg)
Earth's upper atmosphere could hold a missing piece of the universe, new study hints
By Paul Sutter published
Mysterious dark matter could slosh over our planet like a wave. If it does, it may produce telltale radio waves in Earth's atmosphere, new theoretical research suggests.
![thousands of brightly colored orbs of light against a black gackground](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/8YdEfW8BQVC4RoDEyxoYWM-320-80.jpg)
Where is the center of the universe?
By Paul Sutter published
Space mysteries Is there a center of the cosmos, and if so, where is it?
![The clashing galaxies NGC 4568 (bottom) and NGC 4567 (top) as seen by the Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/nbEjhsFjpXZDu6YMPibYuL-320-80.png)
How are galaxies destroyed?
By Paul Sutter published
Space mysteries If you're in the mood to destroy an entire galaxy, you have several options, depending on your desired level of destructiveness.
![Albert Einstein at the blackboard.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Fq2eATwGaMqtAHiDLhrt5Q-320-80.jpg)
How do 'moving rulers shrink'? The strange physics behind special relativity
By Paul Sutter published
Special relativity is beyond weird. Among its many statements are that moving clocks run slow and that moving rulers shrink. But how are we supposed to make sense of this?
![NASA's sky map](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/CXvBYjn5TF2LbnjYJYYYNo-320-80.jpg)
Why a giant 'cold spot' in the cosmic microwave background has long perplexed astronomers
By Paul Sutter published
Leftover light from the young universe has a major flaw, and we don't know how to fix it. It's the cold spot. It's just way too big and way too cold.
![Over 4200 light-years away, this cosmic butterfly takes an odd two-lobed shape.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/URNvwnM7hHSGEe78GND3qi-320-80.jpg)
Giant 'rogue waves' of invisible matter might be disrupting the orbits of stars, new study hints
By Paul Sutter published
New research shows how disruptions to binary star systems could be the key to detecting space's most confounding substance — dark matter.
![a pale yellow planet orbits close to a large orange star](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ciHgL9mcQBLMskbxDaxiGg-320-80.jpg)
How could life survive on tidally locked planets?
By Paul Sutter published
Space mysteries Astronomers are especially interested in the habitability of these kinds of planets, which always face their star with the same side, because they are incredibly common in the universe.
![the orion spacecraft above the moon](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/q3yhCiTsnCTfmhh3AcGyLF-320-80.jpg)
Why is it so hard to send humans back to the moon?
By Paul Sutter published
Space mysteries The Apollo program put humans on the moon in 1969. So why haven't we sent any more since?
![A field of distant galaxies captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/UqKrHFjGaYQ3Fi9rACt6S9-320-80.jpg)
What is the most distant thing we can see?
By Paul Sutter published
Space mysteries To the unaided human eye, the night sky is resplendent with over 9,000 individual points of light, but that perspective covers only a bare fraction of the universe.
![a dense field of colorful stars](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VhSw3YuF35K43XszRVS4iX-320-80.jpg)
What is emergent gravity, and will it rewrite physics?
By Paul Sutter published
The idea is still new and requires a lot of assumptions in its calculations to make it work. Over the years, experimental results have been mixed.
![a colorful whirlpool swirls in space](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/JvPzfV2TJjs9tYrofcToCd-320-80.jpg)
What is the big rip, and can we stop it?
By Paul Sutter published
Space mysteries Imagine a future where the universe, all too soon, tears itself apart. Eventually, space-time is torn asunder, rendering the universe uninhabitable.
![dinosaurs look on as an asteroid plumets through the sky](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/syKgwA7NvCzsTZtVcHcHxU-320-80.jpg)
An asteroid will hit Earth at some point. What can we do about it?
By Paul Sutter published
Any day now, it could happen: We could detect an asteroid on an Earth-crossing trajectory. It might be tomorrow; it might be a thousand years from now. So what can we do about it?
![a white spiral of stars and gas in space](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/cUnCVWm2sE4wZQGyXJJVNZ-320-80.jpg)
How do we know what the Milky Way looks like?
By Paul Sutter published
Directly mapping the Milky Way is an extremely challenging task, but observations of other galaxies helped us piece together what our home galaxy looked like.
![The inside of a tokamak fusion reactor.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/9CF6Q4GXZezPEjRUfaFnH3-320-80.jpg)
We've been 'close' to achieving fusion power for 50 years. When will it actually happen?
By Paul Sutter published
![a spherical body crashes into a larger one in space, creating a massive explosion of fire and chunks of planet](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/UmLkkBSxaFfZRK9uddXbWW-320-80.jpg)
How giant impacts shaped the formation of the solar system's planets
By Paul Sutter published
Astronomers still aren't exactly sure how planets get their start.
![a bright white star lights up clouds of gas and dust around it in deep space](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ypUFiWfuBzzPSyeBcqDYFj-320-80.jpg)
Neutron stars could be the ultimate dark matter detectors
By Paul Sutter published
One astronomer proposes that, instead of building gigantic, expensive experiments on Earth, we should try another method of searching for dark matter: Looking to the stars.
![a black orb in space surrounded by colorful gases](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/edivF8kMcct6jFmDntRRcN-320-80.jpg)
Turbulent 1st moments of a black hole's life captured in new simulations
By Paul Sutter published
Scientists modeled how black holes and neutron stars form after dying stars collapse, and explained why some get a hard 'kick' into interstellar space.
![The brightest gamma-ray burst ever seen as observed by the Swift X-Ray Telescope around an hour after it erupted.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/L6ZDSE6foaKbdsPxwBjJx-320-80.jpg)
Weird particle physics stories that blew our minds in 2023
By Paul Sutter published
11 of the biggest stories about the smallest particles from 2023.
![A composite image of the Bullet Cluster, a much-studied pair of galaxy clusters that have collided head on. One has passed through the other, like a bullet traveling through an apple, and is thought to show clear signs of dark matter (blue) separated from hot gases (pink).](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/9an8BsExoeQSSBNpYk9CwD-320-80.jpg)
Life might have been possible just seconds after the Big Bang
By Paul Sutter published
Some physicists have hypothesized that in the earliest moments of the Big Bang, the forces of nature were so extreme and so exotic that they could have supported the growth of complex structures.
![March for Science participants in New York City dress as astronauts to support science.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/DcHYrT4uLbusDJ3wtaDGNf-320-80.jpg)
How can we restore public trust in science? (op-ed)
By Paul Sutter published
In an age of diminishing trust in science, scientists need to change how they work with the public and within the broader scientific community.
![a gray-black dark nebula spreads through space, obscuring dozens of background stars](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/2EkHCJewLt9H6t5Rs9MyJY-320-80.jpg)
How exotic alien life could thrive in the giant molecular clouds of deep space
By Paul Sutter published
An astronomer has outlined a way for methane-producing life to thrive in the molecular clouds of deep space, opening up a new pathway to understanding the potential origins and diversity of life.
![The supermassive black hole Gargantua plays a major role in the 2014 sci-fi blockbuster Interstellar](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Vxy6RS4LV4FkLqxpmQAnJm-320-80.jpg)
Interstellar astronauts would face years-long communication delays due to time dilation
By Paul Sutter published
Due to the mind-blowing distances and speeds required, interstellar travel remains a major spaceflight challenge. But new research highlights yet another hurdle: Communication blackouts.