In 1931, a Belgian cosmologist named Georges Lemaître shocked the astronomy world. Perhaps, he reasoned in a provocative paper, our utterly massive cosmic expanse might have begun as a singular, teeny tiny point some 14 billion years ago. Yet, he continued, this point probably exploded, eventually stretching out into the ginormous realm we call the … Read more
Photo: DenVDen (Shutterstock) Have you found a weird looking rock when out hiking and thought, “I bet that came from outer space!” I have. Sadly, it’s almost definitely not a meteorite. As cool (and lucrative) as it would be to chance on the remnant of a meteor that survived its trip through the atmosphere to … Read more
Perseverance’s Three Forks Sample Depot Selfie: NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with several of the 10 sample tubes it deposited at a sample depot it is creating within an area of Jezero Crater nicknamed “Three Forks.” Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Ten sample tubes, capturing an amazing variety of Martian geology, have been deposited on[{” attribute=””>Mars’ … Read more
It is an exciting time for astronomers and cosmologists. Since the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have been treated to the most vivid and detailed images of the Universe ever taken. Webb‘s powerful infrared imagers, spectrometers, and coronographs will allow for even more in the near future, including everything from surveys of the early … Read more
A new video shared on YouTube is one of the most amazing things we’ve ever seen in planetary science. The video shows four dots of light moving in partial concentric circles around a black disk at their center. What you’re actually looking at is a planetary system. The four dots are exoplanets, with the black … Read more
MIT physicists have found a new way to switch superconductivity on and off in magic-angle graphene. This figure shows a device with two graphene layers in the middle (in dark gray and inset). The graphene layers are sandwiched between boron nitride layers (in blue and purple). The angle and alignment of each layer enables the … Read more
In 1931, a Belgian cosmologist named Georges Lemaître shocked the astronomy world. Perhaps, he reasoned in a provocative paper, our utterly massive cosmic expanse might have begun as a singular, teeny tiny point some 14 billion years ago. Yet, he continued, this point probably exploded, eventually stretching out into the ginormous realm we call the … Read more
On May 22, 1960, a devastating earthquake hit southern Chile. For 10 minutes, the ground shook so violently that people were unable to stay on their feet. Cracks opened in roads, and buildings collapsed. one man quoted in a US Geological Survey (USGS) report (opens in new tab) about surviving the earthquake and its subsequent … Read more
Micrograph image of the new Quantum Simulator, which features two coupled nano-sized metal-semiconductor components embedded in an electronic circuit. Credit: University College Dublin Physicists have invented a new type of analog quantum computer that can tackle hard physics problems that the most powerful digital supercomputers cannot solve. New research published in Nature Physics by collaborating … Read more
It may have an eerie, UFO-like appearance, but this mysterious blue spiral in the sky has a far more mundane explanation. The spectacular sight – which baffled skygazers over Hawaii – is actually part of the aftermath of a SpaceX rocket launch. It was caught on camera by the Subaru Telescope, located at the summit … Read more