New Telescopes to Study the Aftermath of the Big Bang
The NSF just awarded researchers at UChicago to start developing the CMB-S4 experiment, which will map the earliest moments of the Universe!
Gluttonous Black Holes Eat Faster Than Thought. Does That Explain Quasars?
At the heart of large galaxies like our Milky Way, there resides a supermassive black hole (SMBH.) These behemoths draw stars, gas, and dust toward them with their irresistible gravitational pull. When they consume this material, there’s a bright flare of energy, the brightest of which are quasars. While astrophysicists think that SMBHs eat too …
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Evidence for Modified Gravity Found in the Motions of Binary Stars
There are two leading explanations for dark matter, massive particles that don’t interact with regular matter apart from gravity and a subtle difference in how gravity behaves at large distances. Astronomers have studied the interactions of over 20,000 binary stars with wide orbits cataloged in Gaia data. They found that orbital accelerations of the stars match the predictions made by modified Newtonian gravity and provide compelling evidence for the MOND hypothesis over the dark matter being a particle.
The Early Universe Ran in Slow Motion
One of Einstein’s predictions is that we should see time moving at different rates at different ages of the Universe. Researchers have confirmed this prediction out to half the age of the Universe using Type 1a supernovae as standard candles. Astronomers have gone much further back in time, observing quasars that sent out their light 12 billion years ago. Over this vast distance, time has slowed to a crawl, with every second experienced by those quasars taking five seconds from our perspective.
When Black Holes Merge, They'll Ring Like a Bell
How a merged black hole rings as it settles into a stable form holds clues to a better understanding of gravity.
Black Holes Might be Defects in Spacetime
A team of theoretical physicists have discovered a strange structure in space-time that to an outside observer would look exactly like a black hole, but upon closer inspection would be anything but: they would be defects in the very fabric of the universe.
This Star Might be Orbiting a Strange “Boson Star”
A team of astronomers has claimed that observations of a sun-like star orbiting a small black hole might actually be the indication of something far more exotic – the existence of a boson star, a star composed entirely of dark matter.
We Might be able to Find Evidence for Modified Gravity…in the Earth
Testing the possibility of models of gravity different from general relativity may be closer to home than we think. A team of researchers has proposed that we might be able to use seismic motions in the Earth itself to test for modified gravity.
A Tadpole-Shaped Cloud of Gas is Whirling Around a Black Hole
A team of astronomers from Japan have found a strange “Tadpole” shaped dust cloud near the center of our galaxy, and concluded that it orbits a intermediate-mass black hole.
The Mass of a Single Star (other than the Sun) has Been Directly Measured for the First Time
How do you measure an object’s weight from a distance? You could guess at its distance and therefore derive its size. Maybe you could further speculate about its density, which would eventually lead to an estimated weight. But these are far from the exact empirical studies that astrophysicists would like to have when trying to …