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Astrophysics

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Is Dark Energy Getting Weaker? New Evidence Strengthens the Case.

March 19, 2025

Last year, an enormous map of the cosmos hinted that the engine driving cosmic expansion might be sputtering. Now physicists are back with an even bigger map, and a stronger conclusion.

The Road Map to Alien Life Passes Through the ‘Cosmic Shoreline’

March 12, 2025

Astronomers are ready to search for the fingerprints of life in faraway planetary atmospheres. But first, they need to know where to look — and that means figuring out which planets are likely to have atmospheres in the first place.

Cosmologists Try a New Way to Measure the Shape of the Universe

January 27, 2025

Is the universe flat and infinite, or something more complex? We can’t say for sure, but a new search strategy is mapping out the subtle signals that could reveal if the universe has a shape.

The Year in Physics

December 17, 2024

Physicists discovered strange supersolids, constructed new kinds of superconductors, and continued to make the case that the cosmos is far weirder than anyone suspected.

The Cosmos Teems with Complex Organic Molecules

November 13, 2024

Wherever astronomers look, they see life’s raw materials.

How Do Merging Supermassive Black Holes Pass the Final Parsec?

October 23, 2024

The giant holes in galaxies’ centers shouldn’t be able to merge, yet merge they do. Scientists suggest that an unusual form of dark matter may be the solution.

The ‘Beautiful Confusion’ of the First Billion Years Comes Into View

October 9, 2024

Astronomers are reveling in the James Webb Space Telescope’s discoveries about the formative epoch of cosmic history.

Diminishing Dark Energy May Evade the ‘Swampland’ of Impossible Universes

August 19, 2024

The largest-ever 3D map of the cosmos hints that the dark energy that’s fueling the universe’s expansion may be weakening. One community of theoretical physicists expected as much.

The Webb Telescope Further Deepens the Biggest Controversy in Cosmology

August 13, 2024

A long-awaited study of the cosmic expansion rate suggests that when it comes to the Hubble tension, cosmologists are still missing something.

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