Paul M. Sutter
Is Anything Absolute with Relativity?
The theory of relativity is at once simple and elegant but also maddeningly nonintuitive. There’s no need to get into…
How Einstein’s Daydream of Light Created Relativity
Einstein’s fascination with light, considered quirky at the time, would lead him down the path to a brand new theory…
Magnetar Glitches, Fast Radio Bursts, And…Asteroids???
Recently astronomers have been able to associate two seemingly unrelated phenomena: an explosive event known as a fast radio burst…
Dynamical Dark Energy Might Explain Strange 21-cm Signal
Dark energy may evolve in time, and it may even connect through a new force of nature with dark matter.…
The Best Particle Collider in the World? The Sun
Recently astronomers caught a strange mystery: extremely high-energy particles spitting out of the surface of the Sun when it was…
The Hidden Benefits of Large Science Projects
Large astronomical projects like the Dark Energy Survey and the James Webb Space Telescope provide innumerable benefits to society, like…
Without Ozone, the Earth Might Get a Lot Colder
The evolution of Earth's climate contains many components. And new research has shown just how critical the ozone layer is…
Meet Annie Jump Cannon, the “Harvard Computer” that Brought Order Out of Chaos
In the early 20th century our understanding of stars was a complete and total disaster. It took the genius of…
We Might Soon Detect the Gravitational Waves from Dying Stars
Researchers have discovered an exciting new source of gravitational waves. They are the remnants left over from a supernova explosion,…
Why Didn’t the Big Bang Collapse in a Giant Black Hole?
Despite the enormous densities, the early universe didn't collapse into a black hole because, simply put, there was nothing to…