News
Is the Universe Defective? Part 1: The Good Old Days
2+ hour, 11+ min ago (553+ words) This is Part 1 of a series on topological defects. Every time you flip a light switch, or check the time, or feel the sodium ions wiggling in your brain " don't think about that one too much"you're assuming something fundamental....
The Universe's Most Powerful Particle Accelerators Were Here All Along
3+ hour, 35+ min ago (146+ words) Picture a vast invisible doughnut wrapped around a planet, filled with electrons and protons hurtling around at extraordinary speeds. That's a radiation belt, and if your planet has a magnetic field strong enough to trap particles from the solar wind,…...
A Glorious Spiral of Star Formation
23+ hour, 55+ min ago (702+ words) PHANGS started years ago with observations from telescopes like ALMA and the Hubble. When the JWST was launched, it participated as well. The core question that PHANGS is addressing is simple: How exactly does gas become stars, and how does…...
Why Are Interstellar Comets So Weird? Part 4: We Finally Turned On the Porch Lights
1+ day, 2+ hour ago (417+ words) This is Part 4 of a series on interstellar comets. Read Parts 1, 2, and 3. So that's all nice. But why now? That's the question everyone asks. We went decades " centuries, millennia really " without seeing a single rock that didn't have a "Made…...
New Study Says There's a Way to Make Dyson Bubbles and Stellar Engines Stable
2+ day, 22+ hour ago (772+ words) While megastructures are clearly speculative, new research shows that they can (in theory) be built in a way that ensures long-term stability. These findings can provide insight into the properties of potential technosignatures in search for extraterrestrial intelligence studies. In…...
This Isn't Just Another Rocky World Orbiting a Red Dwarf. This One's Special
1+ day, 22+ hour ago (789+ words) The new research is titled "TOI-4616 b: a benchmark Earth-sized planet transiting a nearby M4 dwarf," and it's been submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The lead author is Francis Zong Lang, a doctoral researcher at the Center…...
The Early Universe was Hot, Dense, and Soupy
2+ day, 4+ hour ago (439+ words) The Early Universe was Hot, Dense, and Soupy'Universe Today In its earliest moments, the Universe was hot and dense. A plasma sea of quarks and gluons out of which hydrogen, helium, and humans eventually formed. This early cosmic state is…...
Only A Supercomputer Can Understand the Extremely Energetic Chaos of a Neutron Star Merger
2+ day, 1+ hour ago (434+ words) Neutron stars are the remnants of supernova explosions. They're known for their extreme density, and it's often said and written that a teaspoon of neutron star weighs as much as the combined weight of all of Earth's approximately 8 billion human…...
Why Are Interstellar Comets So Weird? Part 3: They SHOULD Be Weird
2+ day, 2+ hour ago (284+ words) This is Part 3 of a series on interstellar comets. Read Parts 1 and 2. So why should we expect interstellar comets like 3I/ATLAS and 'Oumuamua and even to some extent Borisov to be different-different? And for another, they got kicked out. And…...
ESA's Mars orbiters watch solar superstorm hit the Red Planet
1+ day, 21+ hour ago (482+ words) ESA's Mars orbiters watch solar superstorm hit the Red Planet'Universe Today In May 2024, people worldwide witnessed beautiful aurorae that appeared far beyond Earth's polar regions. Even the Aurora Borealis, which is usually confined to the Arctic Circle, was visible as…...