Why the universe might be a hologram
A quarter century ago, physicist Juan Maldacena proposed the AdS/CFT correspondence, an intriguing holographic connection between gravity in a three-dimensional universe and quantum physics on the universe's two-dimensional boundary. This corresponde.....»»
Dark and gritty The Penguin trailer debuts at San Diego Comic-Con
"America's a hustle, not that I'm complaining." Colin Farrell stars as Batman villain Oswald Cobblepot in HBO's new series, The Penguin. The merging of Warner Bros. and Discovery effectively put an end to one DC Extended Universe er.....»»
Ever see a star explode? You"re about to chance very soon
Every clear night for the last three weeks, Bob Stephens has pointed his home telescope at the same two stars in hopes of witnessing one of the most violent events in the universe—a nova explosion a hundred thousand times brighter than the sun......»»
MCU’s 5 biggest opening weekends ever, ranked
Now that Deadpool & Wolverine has already slashed box office records, it's time to review the Marvel Cinematic Universe's five biggest opening weekends so far......»»
Discovery sheds light on the origins of matter in the early universe
The early universe was 250,000 times hotter than the core of our sun. That's far too hot to form the protons and neutrons that make up everyday matter. Scientists recreate the conditions of the early universe in particle accelerators by smashing atom.....»»
Deadpool & Wolverine’s ending, explained
Now that Deadpool & Wolverine has landed in theaters, let's break down the film and what its ending means for the Marvel Cinematic Universe......»»
Galaxy clusters could be used as dark matter colliders to understand nature of invisible particles, say scientists
What is dark matter? Even for astrophysicists, it's a question that remains unanswered. These invisible particles make up most of the matter in the universe and about a quarter of the universe as a whole. They are thought to be the cosmic glue that b.....»»
High-energy collision study reveals new insights into quark-gluon plasma
In high-energy physics, researchers have unveiled how high-energy partons lose energy in nucleus-nucleus collisions, an essential process in studying quark-gluon plasma (QGP). This finding could enhance our knowledge of the early universe moments aft.....»»
Saturday Citations: Scientists study monkey faces and cat bellies; another intermediate black hole in the Milky Way
This is not a rerun of last week's roundup; another group of astronomers found a second intermediate-mass black hole in the Milky Way and I can't avoid highlighting it. They're cool! They may have formed in the primordial universe, they comprise the.....»»
Astronomers discover what may be 21 neutron stars orbiting sun-like stars
Most stars in our universe come in pairs. While our own sun is a loner, many stars like our sun orbit similar stars, while a host of other exotic pairings between stars and cosmic orbs pepper the universe. Black holes, for example, are often found or.....»»
Surprising ring sheds light on galaxy formation
The question of what triggers the extremely rapid star formation within Hyper Luminous Infrared Galaxies (HyLIRGs), as yet unknown, is of much interest to guide our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies in the universe. A new photo.....»»
How astronomers are using pulsars to observe evidence of dark matter
Tantalizing evidence of potential dark matter objects has been detected with the help of the universe's "timekeepers." These pulsars—neutron stars which rotate and emit lighthouse-like beams of radio waves that rapidly sweep through space—were us.....»»
Supermassive black holes have masses of more than a million suns—but their growth has slowed as the universe has aged
Black holes are remarkable astronomical objects with gravity so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape them. The most gigantic ones, known as "supermassive" black holes, can weigh millions to billions times the mass of the sun......»»
Hubble measures the distance to a supernova
Measuring the distance to truly remote objects like galaxies, quasars, and galaxy clusters is a crucial task in astrophysics, particularly when it comes to studying the early universe, but it's a difficult one to complete......»»
Oxygen tweaking may be key to accelerator optimization
Particle accelerators are pricey, but their cost comes with good reason: These one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art machines are intricately designed and constructed to help us solve mysteries about what makes up our universe. Still, the scientists and en.....»»
Light Is How Astronomers Read the Story of the Universe
Almost everything we know about the cosmos is conveyed by photons traveling across vast distances.....»»
XL-Calibur telescope launched to study black holes
Scientists from Washington University in St. Louis have launched a balloon-borne telescope to unlock the secrets of astrophysical black holes and neutron stars, some of the most extreme objects in the universe......»»
We need to consider alternatives to dark matter that better explain cosmological observations
Do constants of nature—the numbers that determine how things behave, like the speed of light—change over time as the universe expands? Does light get a little tired traveling vast cosmic distances? It was believed that dark matter and dark energy.....»»
Webb captures a staggering quasar-galaxy merger in the remote universe
An international research group led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and comprising 34 research institutes and universities worldwide utilized the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on board the James Webb Space Telescope (.....»»
Searching for dark matter with the coldest quantum detectors in the world
One of the greatest mysteries of science could be one step closer to being solved. Approximately 80% of the matter in the universe is dark, meaning that it cannot be seen. In fact, dark matter is passing through us constantly—possibly at a rate of.....»»
The universe"s biggest explosions made elements we are composed of, but there"s another mystery source out there
After its "birth" in the Big Bang, the universe consisted mainly of hydrogen and a few helium atoms. These are the lightest elements in the periodic table. More-or-less all elements heavier than helium were produced in the 13.8 billion years between.....»»