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A Black Hole So Big It ‘Should Not Exist’
Researchers have confirmed rumors of a black hole collision that challenges our ideas about how black holes form.
To Make Two Black Holes Collide, Try Three
How do black holes merge and make gravitational waves? Maybe with a little help from their friends.
New Studies Rescue Gravitational-Wave Signal From the Noise
Two independent papers vanquish lingering doubts about LIGO’s historic discovery of gravitational waves.
A New Test for the Leading Big Bang Theory
Cosmologists have predicted the existence of an oscillating signal that could distinguish between cosmic inflation and alternative theories of the universe’s birth.
Mathematicians Disprove Conjecture Made to Save Black Holes
Mathematicians have disproved the strong cosmic censorship conjecture. Their work answers one of the most important questions in the study of general relativity and changes the way we think about space-time.
Troubled Times for Alternatives to Einstein’s Theory of Gravity
New observations of extreme astrophysical systems have “brutally and pitilessly murdered” attempts to replace Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
Black Hole Echoes Would Reveal Break With Einstein’s Theory
Gravitational waves have opened up new ways to test the properties of black holes — and Einstein’s theory of gravity along with them.
Squishy or Solid? A Neutron Star’s Insides Open to Debate
The core of a neutron star is such an extreme environment that physicists can’t agree on what happens inside. But a new space-based experiment — and a few more colliding neutron stars — should reveal whether neutrons themselves break down.
Colliding Neutron Stars Could Settle the Biggest Debate in Cosmology
Newly discovered “standard sirens” provide an independent, clean way to measure how fast the universe is expanding.