Beyond “Fermi’s Paradox” XV: What is the Percolation Hypothesis?
Could it be that the reason we haven’t met any aliens is because interstellar colonization simply isn’t practical? Not exactly good news for us!
Merging Black Holes and Neutron Stars. All the Gravitational Wave Events Seen So Far in One Picture
The Theory of Relativity predicted the existence of black holes and neutron stars. Einstein gets the credit for the theory because of his paper published in 1915, even though other scientists’ work helped it along. But regardless of the minds behind it, the theory predicted black holes, neutron stars, and the gravitational waves from their …
Einstein. Right again
Astronomers can now test the limit of relativity and whether new physics lies beyond Einstein’s model.
Behold! The Black Hole Collision Calculator!
A new tool called the Black Hole Collision Calculator let’s users see just how powerful a collision between a black hole and any other celestial object would be.
Fastest Star Ever Seen is Moving at 8% the Speed of Light
A star orbiting the black hole in the center of our galaxy is moving so fast it can only be described relativistically.
Hundreds of New Gravitational Lenses Discovered to Help Study the Distant Universe
General relativity tells us that everything, even light, is affected by the mass of an object. When a beam of light passes near a large mass, its path is deflected. This shift in the direction of light is known as gravitational lensing, and it was one of the first confirmed effects of Einstein’s theory.
Astronomers Detected a Black Hole Merger With Very Different Mass Objects
In another first, the latest gravitational wave event to be detected came from the merger of two black holes of vastly different mass.
Gravity is tested down to a scale smaller than the thickness of a human hair
Gravity was the first force of nature to be realized, and in the centuries since we first cracked the code of that all-pervasive pulling power, scientists have continually come up with clever ways to test our understanding. And it’s no surprise why: the discovery of a new wrinkle in the gravitational force could open up …
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Light Behaves Really Strangely Around a Black Hole
A new study led by Caltech researchers show that light can be reflected off of a black hole’s disk by its powerful gravity.
What is the Steady State Hypothesis?
When it comes to cosmological theories, the Big Bang theory has historically had only one big contender – the Steady State Hypothesis