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astronomy

Abstractions blog

Physics Nobel Awarded for Black Hole Breakthroughs

By Natalie Wolchover
October 6, 2020
Read Later

Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their studies of black holes.

Distorted galaxies
Abstractions blog

A New Cosmic Tension: The Universe Might Be Too Thin

By Charlie Wood
September 8, 2020
Read Later

Cosmologists have concluded that the universe doesn’t appear to clump as much as it should. Could both of cosmology’s big puzzles share a single fix?

Photo of a sign reading “To Telescope” near Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
Quantized Columns

Social Distancing From the Stars

By Emily Levesque
August 11, 2020
Read Later

Professional astronomers may not point their telescopes by hand anymore, but COVID-19 has still closed observatories and impeded research.

Magnetic fields in the universe.
cosmology

The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View

By Natalie Wolchover
July 2, 2020
Read Later

Astronomers are discovering that magnetic fields permeate much of the cosmos. If these fields date back to the Big Bang, they could solve a major cosmological mystery.

A magnetar.
astrophysics

A Surprise Discovery Points to the Source of Fast Radio Bursts

By Shannon Hall
June 11, 2020
Read Later

After a burst lit up their telescope “like a Christmas tree,” astronomers were able to finally track down the source of these cosmic oddities.

Video of hot gas falling into a supermassive black hole.
Abstractions blog

Why Are Black Holes So Bright?

By Liz Kruesi
April 22, 2020
Read Later

And why is the black hole at the center of our own galaxy so dim?

Antares photograph.
Abstractions blog

New Wrinkle Added to Cosmology’s Hubble Crisis

By Natalie Wolchover
February 26, 2020
Read Later

A problem confronts cosmology: Two independent measurements of the universe’s expansion give incompatible answers. Now a third method, advanced by an astronomy pioneer, appears to bridge the divide.

Painting of a planet and a star.
exoplanets

New Exoplanet Search Strategy Claims First Discovery

By Nola Taylor Redd
February 18, 2020
Read Later

By watching for a special kind of flare, astronomers have identified the fingerprints of an Earth-size planet orbiting a distant star.

Illustration of interstellar objects entering our solar system
Quantized Columns

The Age of Interstellar Visitors

By Michele Bannister
January 29, 2020
Read Later

As astronomers get better at finding the comets and asteroids of other stars, they’ll learn more about the universe and our place in it.


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