Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Since dark matter eludes detection, the mission will target sources of light that are sensitive to it.
ophiuchus x-ray largest explosion cavity
Ever since the Big Bang, cataclysmic events have released enormous amounts of energy. Here's the greatest one ever witnessed.
Lockman hole galaxy cluster herschel
All the things that surround and compose us didn't always exist. But describing their origin depends on what 'nothing' means.
Never stop looking at the skies in wonder.
Geminids
You can lead an overconfident chatbot to expert knowledge, but can it actually learn and assimilate new information?
globular cluster terzan 5
2022 was a year full of scientific discoveries and the dawn of the JWST. But Hubble's still going after 32 years. Here's the amazing proof!
As far as we know, it's only happened once to one unlucky person in Oklahoma.
JADES JWST z 13
Leaving Hubble in the dust, JWST has officially seen a galaxy from just 320 million years after the Big Bang: at just 2.3% its current age.
magnetic fields galaxy planck
The very dust that blocks our view of the distant, luminous objects in the Universe is responsible for our entire existence.
wolf rayet wr 31a
The most common element in the Universe, vital for forming new stars, is hydrogen. But there's a finite amount of it; what if we run out?
cosmic inflation
We thought the Big Bang started it all. Then we realized that something else came before, and it erased everything that existed prior.
The science fiction dream of a traversable wormhole is no closer to reality, despite a quantum computer's suggestive simulation.
wormholes
Perhaps wormholes will no longer be relegated to the realm of science fiction.
A Carrington-magnitude event would kill millions, and cause trillions of dollars in damage. Sadly, it isn't even the worst-case scenario.
Compared to Earth, Mars is small, cold, dry, and lifeless. But 3.4 billion years ago, a killer asteroid caused a Martian megatsunami.
antimatter
The answer to this question is key to understanding why anything exists.
black hole central singularity
We'll never be able to extract any information about what's inside a black hole's event horizon. Here's why a singularity is inevitable.
We have less time than you might think.
By studying the dwarf galaxy Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte ~3 million light-years away, JWST reveals the Universe's star-forming history firsthand.
singularity
We confidently state that the Universe is known to be 13.8 billion years old, with an uncertainty of just 1%. Here's how we know.
Every time our Universe cools below a critical threshold, we fall out of equilibrium. That's the best thing that ever happened to us.
black hole
The strongest tests of curved space are only possible around the lowest-mass black holes of all. Their small event horizons are the key.
every square degree
The Universe is 13.8 billion years old, going back to the hot Big Bang. But was that truly the beginning, and is that truly its age?
artemis
It is humanity's biggest step yet into the Solar System.
SpinLaunch will cleverly attempt to reach space with minimal rocket fuel. But will physics prevent a full-scale version from succeeding?
earth
We cannot afford to dream about living on other worlds while we continue to destroy ours.
moon base
From astrobiology to geology, a Moon base could serve as a laboratory unlike anything on Earth.
At 1,600 light years away, the black hole is practically in our cosmic backyard.