Astrophysics

Astrophysics

how much dark matter
The Universe gravitates so that normal matter and General Relativity alone can't explain it. Here's why dark matter beats modified gravity.
Unfortunately, the Lunar Ark project is an idea more at home in science fiction than science fact.
1.9 billion years ago, a star's explosive death created a black hole. Its light just arrived at Earth. But did it set a cosmic record?
Holograms preserve all of an object's 3D information, but on a 2D surface. Could the holographic Universe idea lead us to higher dimensions?
rubble pile
Most asteroids aren't what you think they are.
super-habitable exoplanet
NASA is creating a planet habitability index, and Earth may not be at the top. With our current data, ranking habitability is guesswork.
Over the past 50 years, 27 leap seconds have been added to our time.
With its first view of a protoplanetary disk around a newly forming star, the JWST reveals how alone individual stellar systems truly are.
The Universe begins with negligible amounts of angular momentum, which is always conserved. So why do planets, stars, and galaxies all spin?
Venerated astrophysicist Carl Sagan entertained the possibility.
Cherenkov neutrino radiation
Before we discovered gravitational waves, multi-messenger astronomy got its start with light and particles arriving from the same event.
From the tiniest subatomic scales to the grandest cosmic ones, solving any of these puzzles could unlock our understanding of the Universe.
It's the very closest stars to us that hold the key to unlocking the possibilities for life in star systems all throughout the Universe.
universe temperature
In the 20th century, many options abounded as to our cosmic origins. Today, only the Big Bang survives, thanks to this critical evidence.
universe
The Big Bang is commonly misunderstood, warping our understanding about the Universe's size and shape.
The James Webb Space Telescope viewed Neptune, our Solar System's final planet, for the first time. Here's what we saw, and what it means.
When people pick the greatest scientist of all-time, Newton and Einstein always come up. Perhaps they should name Johannes Kepler, instead.
Recent research suggests that Earth’s magnetic field bounced back just as complex life was starting to emerge on our planet.
how big is the universe
You would think that with all our technology, like the James Webb Space Telescope, we would know how big the Universe is. But we don't.
central black hole jet
Black holes aren't just the densest masses in the Universe, but they also spin the fastest of all massive objects. Here's why it must be so.
On the morning of June 30, 1908, an explosion of more than 10 megatons occurred above the sparsely populated Siberian Taiga. What caused the so-called Tunguska event?
schwinger effect
In our common experience, you can't get something for nothing. In the quantum realm, something really can emerge from nothing.
jwst cartwheel
The first set of James Webb's images blew us all away. In just 2 mere months, it's seen highlights that no one could have predicted.
FU orionis illustration
As recently as 1990, we didn't know of any planets beyond our Solar System. Today, with 5000+, we're deep into the weeds of how they form.
multiverse
Each of us carries our own version of the Multiverse in our heads.
An astrophysicist explains these shortcuts through space-time.