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

Megaconstellations could destroy astronomy and there's no easy fix
By Paul Sutter published
Global satellite-based high-speed internet access will come at a cost, polluting the skies and contaminating astronomical observations.

Who was James Clerk Maxwell? The greatest physicist you've probably never heard of.
By Paul Sutter published
James Clerk Maxwell is the scientist responsible for explaining the forces behind the radio in your car, the magnets on your fridge, the heat of a warm summer day and the charge on a battery.

Black holes warp the universe into a grotesque hall of mirrors
By Paul Sutter last updated
If you were to place a galaxy behind the black hole and then look off to the side, you'd see a distorted image of the galaxy. Here's why.

1st sign of elusive 'triangle singularity' shows particles swapping identities in mid-flight
By Paul Sutter published
Physicists sifting through old particle accelerator data have found evidence of a highly-elusive, never-before-seen process: a so-called triangle singularity.

Is dark matter made of 'Fermi balls' forged in the Big Bang?
By Paul Sutter published
A new theory suggests dark matter may have come from quantum bags that got squished together in the early universe.

Primordial black holes may flood the universe. Could one hit Earth?
By Paul Sutter published
What are the chances that a primordial black hole forged in the earliest moments of the universe will come wandering toward Earth?

Traversable wormholes are possible under certain gravity conditions
By Paul Sutter published
Certain weird gravity conditions would make it possible to travel through a wormhole and back.

What can we do with a captured asteroid?
By Paul Sutter published
Asteroids are packed with gold and other valuable resources. And the best way to harvest those metals may be to bring space rocks to Earth.

How can we take pictures of Earth-like exoplanets? Use the sun!
By Paul Sutter published
If we ever want to take pictures of an Earth-like exoplanet, we need to think bigger than the biggest telescopes on Earth.

Happy birthday, Fermi! Top 5 highlights from 13 years of the gamma-ray telescope
By Paul Sutter published
On Aug. 4, 2008, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope began full science operations, scanning the entire sky through the highest-energy form of light.

Who's going to fix the space junk problem?
By Paul Sutter published
The growing problem of space junk poses a risk to future space missions, but the solution isn't going to be easy.

Move asteroids now before they become a threat, researchers argue
By Paul Sutter published
A pair of astronomers have proposed two new strategies for preventing possible asteroid impacts.

Seeing the 'real' Big Bang through gravitational waves
By Paul Sutter published
The earliest and most momentous epoch in the history of the universe released a flood of gravitational waves, tiny ripples in the fabric of space-time.

Can rocky worlds exist between alien gas giants?
By Paul Sutter published
A wild variety of star systems exist in the nearby regions of the Milky Way, and astronomers are eager to know where they might find an "Earth 2.0."

Could we really terraform Mars?
By Paul Sutter last updated
With its frigid temperatures, remoteness from the sun and general dustiness, changing Mars to be more Earth-like is more challenging than it seems (and it already seems pretty tough).
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Our universe might be a giant three-dimensional donut, really.
By Paul Sutter published
Astrophysicists say our universe might be shaped like a three-dimensional donut, meaning you could point a spaceship in one direction and eventually return to where you started.

With all these planets, why haven't we found any exomoons?
By Paul Sutter published
Despite numerous attempts, astronomers have not yet confirmed the detection of an exomoon, a moon orbiting a planet around a distant star.

Can we solve the black hole information paradox with 'photon spheres'?
By Paul Sutter published
Theories that attempt to resolve the so-called black hole information paradox predict that black holes are much more complicated than general relativity suggests.

Can we explain dark matter by adding more dimensions to the universe?
By Paul Sutter published
Dark matter could be even weirder than anyone thought, say cosmologists who are suggesting this mysterious substance could interact with itself in a higher dimensional universe.

Did a dark energy discovery just prove Einstein wrong? Not quite.
By Paul Sutter published
The Dark Energy Survey just released its most comprehensive results. But did they really prove Einstein wrong?

How to make a universe
By Paul Sutter published
If you'd like to "bake" a universe, you need two essential ingredients and one optional ingredient.

Can we see dark energy from Earth? New experiments offer hope.
By Paul Sutter published
New research shows how a hypothetical form of dark energy might be made inside the sun and could be detected here on Earth. In fact, we may have already seen it.
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