Abstractions blog
Why Are Black Holes So Bright?
And why is the black hole at the center of our own galaxy so dim?
Q&A
Prepping for a Flood of Heavenly Bodies
Mario Jurić is leading the push to get astronomy ready for the torrents of data that are about to flow.
cosmology
Whisper From the First Stars Sets Off Loud Dark Matter Debate
A surprise discovery announced a month ago suggested that the early universe looked very different than previously believed. Initial theories that the discrepancy was due to dark matter have come under fire.
astrophysics
Hidden Supercluster Could Solve Milky Way Mystery
Astronomers generally stay away from the “Zone of Avoidance.” When one astronomer didn’t, she found a giant cosmic structure that could help explain why our galaxy moves so fast.
Q&A
Searching the Sky for the Wobbles of Gravity
The physicist Gabriela González is on the cusp of finding the first direct evidence of gravitational waves — soundlike wobbles in space-time produced by black holes and their kin.
Q&A
The Case for Complex Dark Matter
The physicist James Bullock explains how a complicated “dark sector” of interacting particles may illuminate some puzzling observations of the centers of galaxies.