If the Universe is full of stars, why doesn’t it appear white? And if it did, what would that look like? Would all the black holes suddenly become visible? And if...
Do you love Jupiter? Do you love it so much that you could look at it every day? I hope so. Because it just took the Moon’s place, and Earth will never be the same...
During Earth’s early days, a gargantuan collision left our planet spinning at an angle. That slight incline allowed life as you know it to flourish. But what if this...
Scroll down for the quiz! There is an invisible force protecting us, keeping our atmosphere in place. Without it, life on Earth would be over very quickly. I’ll...
Welcome to Scotland.The home of malt scotch, kilts, and sea monsters? It’s time to get up close and personal with the Loch Ness monster, affectionately known as...
What if everyone on the planet coordinated to perform the biggest “flush mob” in history? Pushing all the wastewater in the world down the drain, all at once...
Starbucks could save the Amazon rainforest. Okay, maybe not completely, but it could help the Amazon rainforest regrow. And all Starbucks would need to do is dump some...
We visit a lot of planets here on WHAT IF, but K2-141b is the most extreme one yet. Are you ready to jump on board this one-way space shuttle? If you’d rather stay...
Eleven times wider than Earth. Over 300 times more massive. And a million times more terrifying. Jupiter may look like a beautiful ball of swirling clouds, but on the...
For whatever reason, you are the last human on Earth. So what do you do? Eat like a king? Move into Buckingham Palace? Drive fast? Blow things up? Be naked all the time...
With Earth’s geopolitical tensions on the rise, the possibility of a global conflict is becoming more than just a distant threat. But in the modern era, a future world...
Welcome to Earth City. Yeah, you heard that right. You’re not going on a globetrotting tour to see all the planet’s major cities. You’re already there. Today, the entire...
Absolute zero is the lowest possible temperature in the Universe. Nothing gets colder than that. So if the entire Earth suddenly cooled down to the most frigid...
Are you ready for the sun to die?
Ashes and smoke cover the sky. Your hometown is sieged by massive wildfires. You rush to escape. Unaware that behind you, the wind and the heat have created a monster. A...
Welcome to your new landfill: a giant ball of burning gas that we call the Sun. With surface temperatures of 5500°C (9,940°F), it could obliterate any type of trash we...
The Sun isn’t the biggest thing in our Solar System. And it’s not Jupiter, either. But close. It’s Jupiter’s very own magnetic field. What would it be...
The Permian Period, which lasted from about 299 to 252 million years ago, was one of the most fascinating and dangerous times in Earth’s history. It ended with the...
Imagine never being able to dream of landing on Mars or traveling to Saturn. Not because it’s impossible to get there, but because they didn’t exist. Because...
Slavery, America’s original sin, was outlawed by President Lincoln on New Year’s Day in 1863. But the repercussions of this brutality and dehumanization...
