Astrophysics

Cambridge, MA — An international team of astronomers, including researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, has spotted the most distant astronomical object ever: a galaxy. Named HD1, the galaxy candidate is some 13.5 billion light-years away and is described Thursday in the Astrophysical Journal. In an accompanying paper published in the Monthly Notices of […]

Leiden, The Netherlands — Using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) in Chile, researchers at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands have for the first time detected dimethyl ether in a planet-forming disc. With nine atoms, this is the largest molecule identified in such a disc to date. It is also a precursor of larger organic […]

Chicago, IL — Astronomers are one step closer to revealing the properties of dark matter enveloping our Milky Way galaxy, thanks to a new map of twelve streams of stars orbiting within our galactic halo. Understanding these star streams is very important for astronomers. As well as revealing the dark matter that holds the stars […]

Charlottesville, VA — Water has been detected in the most massive galaxy in the early Universe, according to new observations from the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA). Scientists studying SPT0311-58 found H20, along with carbon monoxide in the galaxy, which is located nearly 12.88 billion light years from Earth. Detection of these two molecules in […]

Pittsburgh, PA — A universe evolves over billions upon billions of years, but researchers have developed a way to create a complex simulated universe in less than a day. The technique, published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, brings together machine learning, high-performance computing and astrophysics and will help to usher in […]

Göteborg, Sweden — A microcomb is a photonic device capable of generating a myriad of optical frequencies – colours – on a tiny cavity known as microresonator. These colours are uniformly distributed so the microcomb behaves like a ‘ruler made of light’. The device can be used to measure or generate frequencies with extreme precision. […]

Princeton, NJ — A new method for verifying a widely held but unproven theoretical explanation of the formation of stars and planets has been proposed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The method grows from simulation of the Princeton Magnetorotational Instability (MRI) Experiment, a unique laboratory device that […]

Dresden, Germany — Recreating extreme conditions in the lab, like those in the interior of planets and stars, is very complex and can only be achieved for fractions of a second. An international research team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has now presented a new, very precise method of evaluating the behaviour of mixtures […]

Santa Cruz, CA — A computational approach inspired by the growth patterns of a bright yellow slime mold has enabled a team of astronomers and computer scientists at UC Santa Cruz to trace the filaments of the cosmic web that connects galaxies throughout the universe.  Their results, published March 10 in Astrophysical Journal Letters, provide the first […]

Bentley, Western Australia — Scientists studying a distant galaxy cluster have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the Universe since the Big Bang. The blast came from a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy hundreds of millions of light-years away. It released five times more energy than the previous record holder. Professor […]

Brisbane, Australia — More accurate clocks and sensors may result from a recently proposed experiment, linking an Einstein-devised paradox to quantum mechanics. University of Queensland physicist Dr. Magdalena Zych said the international collaboration aimed to test Einstein’s twin paradox using quantum particles in a ‘superposition’ state. “The twin paradox is one of the most counterintuitive […]

Brighton, UK — New research conducted at the University of Sussex has simulated dark matter in a new way, disrupting conventional thinking about the make-up of the universe. The research, published in Physical Review Letters, was done alongside Princeton, Harvard, Cambridge and MIT universities and others. Scientists have long suspected that a large proportion of […]