Catmando/YAY Media AS/Alamy
Much as there is talk about “the scientific method”, the reality is that there are many scientific methods. For example, nuclear and particle experiments tend to rely on collisions in a laboratory. These happen because people set up experiments where they will occur. Astrophysics, by contrast, looks at phenomena that happen to have occurred or be occurring. Those of us in this field don’t prompt the experiment. Instead, we watch the unfolding experiment that is the universe.
This creates unique challenges because we can’t decide to recreate results. If we see a galaxy with a strange shape, we can’t simply…
