Astrophysics

For 50 years, the astrophysicist Martin Rees has contributed to our understanding of cosmology. Now he is speaking up about the promise and potential dangers of the science and technology that will arrive over the next 50 years and beyond.

Quasars powered by supermassive black holes have been unexpectedly vanishing. Scientists have started to figure out why.

A scientist and programmer with a literary bent, Valeria Pettorino thinks multiple angles and diverse points of view are needed to unriddle the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

Hot spots have been discovered orbiting just outside the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center. Their motions have given us the closest look at that violent environment.

Mario Jurić is leading the push to get astronomy ready for the torrents of data that are about to flow.

The new finding is challenging established theories of how planets come to be.

Astronomers have known where the universe’s missing matter has been hiding for the past 20 years. So why did it take so long to find it?

For decades, astronomers weren’t able to find all of the atomic matter in the universe. A series of recent papers has revealed where it’s been hiding.

Black holes occasionally reveal themselves when passing stars get ripped apart by their gravity. These tidal disruption events have created a new way for astronomers to map the hidden cosmos.