Bright, flickering galaxies called quasars were thought to pose a problem for our understanding of the cosmos – but new research shows Einstein was right yet again.
- Professor of Astrophysics, University of Sydney
In a new book, On The Origin of Time, Belgian physicist Thomas Hertog unravels Stephen Hawking’s last theory, which focuses upon one of the biggest questions of all.
Some physicists think we live in a multiverse, surrounded by universes not quite like our own. What does that mean for life?
Astronomers traced a single star as it passed close to the black hole at the centre of our galaxy, and detected the telltale signature of Einstein’s gravity in action.
Bigger galaxies tend to dominate the smaller, when the two collide. But the pending battle between our Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy might be a much fairer fight than we previously thought.
Astronomers have taken a forensic approach to study the stellar halo of a galaxy to reveal hidden secrets on how such galaxies were formed.
Is science really like crystal ball gazing?
The universe is expanding faster than expected, but we don’t know what’s driving it. Here are a few of the possible explanations, from dark energy to a modification of general relativity.
A new study suggests that mysterious high energy cosmic rays might originate from the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy.
It’s taken centuries for our understanding of gravity to evolve to where it is today, culminating in the discovery of gravitational waves, as predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago.
Have you ever wondered what real scientists think of science fiction? Here’s a selection of top pics from those in the know.
Many people think relativity puts a hard speed limit on the universe, but it actually opens up the possibility of faster-than-light travel - if we can overcome some significant practical hurdles.
If some of the laws of physics were only infinitesimally different, we would simply not exist. It almost looks like the universe itself was built for life. But how can that be?
The information paradox is one of the great mysteries in our understanding of black holes. But has the famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking found the solution?
Jim Carrey’s anti-vaccination tweets employ a number of techniques used by anti-science cranks. By understanding them, we can shield ourselves from well-intentioned but ill-informed voices.
Astronomers from around the world identify their favourite images sent back to Earth by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Several dwarf galaxies have been discovered close to our own Milky Way and are adding to our understanding of how galaxies form. But why haven’t astronomers seen them before?
While invisible, dark matter completely dominates our Milky Way, recent measurements of just how much dark matter there is have revealed a bit of a mystery. In a paper published today in the Astrophysical…
UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH: What do we actually mean by research and how does it help inform our understanding of things? Those people looking for proof to come from any research in science will be sadly disappointed…
Recent observations suggest that there is something not quite right with our view of our universe – that something is skewing our view of the oldest radiation arriving at our telescopes. What’s causing…
Over the last few years we’ve been studying the orbits of dwarf galaxies and we expecting to find them buzzing at random around large galaxies. But looking out into the universe, we see some dwarfs undertaking…
The recent BICEP2 observations – of swirls in the polarisation of the cosmic microwave background – have been proclaimed as many things, from evidence of the Big Bang and gravitational waves to something…
If the solution to a problem does not reveal itself straight away then why not let your initial guesswork evolve? That’s the approach we’ve taken in trying to determine the mass of our galaxy by mapping…
Close your eyes and picture a scientist. What do you see? Perhaps an Albert Einstein, staring intently at a blackboard covered in incomprehensible equations, or of Alexander Fleming, hunched over the laboratory…
There is a myth that goldfish have a three-second memory, and I sometimes wonder if the same is true about the part of the human mind that deals with science in the news. This week, the international media…
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