Image: dima_zel via Getty Images ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs. Scientists have detected key ingredients for life in the fallout of one of the biggest and most inexplicable space explosions ever seen, reports a new study. The discovery offers a rare glimpse of cosmic processes that may forge […]
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An extraordinary burst of high-energy light in the sky has pointed astronomers to a pair of metal-forging neutron stars 900 million light years from Earth. In a study appearing today in Nature, an international team of astronomers, including scientists at MIT, reports the detection of an extremely bright gamma-ray burst (GRB), which is the most […]
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The following article is adapted from a press release issued by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Laboratory. LIGO is funded by the National Science Foundation and operated by Caltech and MIT, which conceived and built the project. In 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, made history when it made the first direct […]
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Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs. Scientists have discovered by far the most ancient and distant “fast radio burst,” a type of enigmatic bright radio pulse from deep space, using a sophisticated radio telescope in Australia, reports a new study. The burst, known as FRB […]
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If all goes well, on Thursday morning a NASA mission with extensive connections to MIT will be headed to a metal world. Psyche, a van-sized spacecraft with winglike solar panels, is scheduled to blast off aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket tomorrow at 10:16 a.m. Eastern Time. Psyche’s destination is a potato-shaped asteroid by the […]
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On Sunday morning, a capsule the size of a mini-fridge dropped from the skies over western Utah, carrying a first-of-its-kind package: about 250 grams of dirt and dust plucked from the surface of an asteroid. As a candy-striped parachute billowed open to slow its freefall, the capsule plummeted down to the sand, slightly ahead of […]
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ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs. Scientists have outlined a new approach to the search for alien life that emphasizes the role of “astrophotonics,” an emerging field that applies photonic technologies to astronomical instruments with the aim of developing unprecedented observational capabilities, reports a new study. Photonics is […]
Read MoreAssistant professor of physics Mikhail Ivanov will receive the 2024 New Horizons in Physics Prize, which he will share with Marko Simonović from the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) at the University of Florence, and Oliver Philcox from Columbia University and the Simons Foundation. The New Horizons Prize, which is given to promising early-career physicists […]
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Artist’s depiction of the cosmic web. Image: Andriy Onufriyenko via Getty Images ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs. Something unknown appears to be suppressing the growth of the gargantuan structures that connect the universe in a cosmic web, a finding that challenges our current understanding of physics, according to […]
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ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs. Scientists have spotted black holes belching out the remains of stars that they ate years earlier, a discovery that upends our understanding of how these cosmic behemoths interact with the matter around them, reports a new preprint study. After witnessing black holes […]
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The search for space-shaking ripples in the universe just got a big boost. An MIT-led effort to build a bigger, better gravitational-wave detector will receive $9 million dollars over the next three years from the National Science Foundation. The funding infusion will support the design phase for Cosmic Explorer — a next-generation gravitational-wave observatory that […]
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Of the more than 5,000 planets known to exist beyond our solar system, most orbit their stars at surprisingly close range. More than 80 percent of confirmed exoplanets have orbits shorter than 50 days, placing these toasty worlds at least twice as close to their star as Mercury is to our sun — and some, […]
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