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Astrophysics

Latest Articles

Brighter Than a Billion Billion Suns: Gamma-Ray Bursts Continue to Surprise

June 30, 2021

These ultrabright flashes have recently been tracked for days, upending ideas about the cataclysms that create them.

Astronomers Find Secret Planet-Making Ingredient: Magnetic Fields

June 7, 2021

Scientists have long struggled to understand how common planets form. A new supercomputer simulation shows that the missing ingredient may be magnetism.

Squishy Neutron Star Setback Dampens Hopes of Exotic Matter

May 26, 2021

Groundbreaking results show that neutron stars of different masses may have the same size — upending astrophysical models.

Physicists Identify the Engine Powering Black Hole Energy Beams

May 20, 2021

Supermassive black holes emit jets of white-hot plasma that stretch thousands of light-years across the cosmos. For the first time, researchers have identified what’s creating these jets.

Cosmic Map of Ultrahigh-Energy Particles Points to Long-Hidden Treasures

April 27, 2021

Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays twist and turn on their way to Earth, which has made it nearly impossible to identify the colossal monsters that create them.

How Radio Astronomy Reveals the Universe

April 13, 2021

Radio waves, longer and less energetic than visible light, give astronomers access to some of the most obscure physics in the cosmos.

Long-Missing Midsize Black Hole Flashes Into View

March 29, 2021

Black holes seemed to come only in sizes small and XXL. A new search strategy has uncovered a black hole of “intermediate” mass, raising hopes of more to come.

New Kind of Space Explosion Reveals the Birth of a Black Hole

March 10, 2021

A supernova-like explosion dubbed the Camel appears to be the result of a newborn black hole eating a star from the inside out.

Growing Inventory of Black Holes Offers a Radical Probe of the Cosmos

February 17, 2021

One black hole is nice, but astrophysicists can do a lot more science with 50 of them.

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