If you could, would you live on the Moon? Not as one of the courageous early settlers, but as a citizen of a fully-functioning Moon city. What would they be built out of...
Deep beneath the mountains near the Black Sea lies Veryovkina Cave, the deepest known cave on Earth. The cave is filled with narrow tunnels, underground rivers, freezing...
Coastal cities across the globe are planning how they will keep the sea away as it rises. One solution? Just move the city. How much would it cost? How do you lift a...
We can build really big things in space. Okay, not that big – yet. But we’ve packed the Earth’s lower orbit with about 5,000 satellites – some...
The Strait of Hormuz has been closed for more than a month. So, what if it just NEVER reopens? Most people think they know what that looks like. Higher gas prices. You...
They can lift 5,000 times their body weight. They have armies in the thousands. And they outnumber us a million to one. But ants are tiny, right? Yeah, that’s not going...
The sky appears darker. The temperature is starting to drop. Our rivers are freezing, crops are covered in snow! People could go hungry. Is it just me, or is the Sun...
Is alien life really out there? For decades, humanity has looked at the night sky and asked the same question. Now, according to scientists, we may be closer than ever...
Looks can be deceiving. A simple looking Raggedy Ann doll sits behind glass. Harmless, almost nostalgic. The kind of toy you’d expect in a child’s bedroom. But according...
Proxima b is very promising. It orbits a red dwarf star called Proxima Centauri in a system with three stars in it. Proxima Centauri is small. It only has between 7.5%...
In the beginning, there was nothing. Then bang. Our Universe emerged in an explosion of light and energy. Or did it? Let’s shed some light on this. So, how fast is...
Imagine a scenario where the Moon, our constant companion in the night sky, begins a deadly trajectory toward Earth. The consequences would be catastrophic, reshaping...
From prehistoric predators and ancient pandemics to volcanic winters and asteroid impacts, Earth’s history is filled with moments so extreme they would be almost...
You might be wondering how I keep ending up in these situations. Well, let me roll it back a bit. Triton, Neptune’s gargantuan moon, is one of the strangest objects in...
About 50,000 years ago, we shared this planet with different hominids called the Neanderthals. Their species wasn’t human, but they weren’t far from it...
We’ve heard about terraforming the Moon and Mars as we attempt to colonize space, but what about Venus? Could we live here one day? How different would it...
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...
With so many varieties in our skin tones, hair colors, and features, the human race is a marvel of evolution. But what if we all decided to preserve our family traits...
Prehistoric Australia was not the sunny, laid back continent we know today. Between 126,000 and 12,000 years ago, during the late Pleistocene era, humans shared the land...
There’s something approaching from the distance that you can’t stop. It can completely destroy cities and kill tens of thousands of people. It looks like...
