Every so often, protons and even entire atomic nuclei strike the Earth with extremely high energies—much higher than what scientists can produce in their most powerful physics experiments. Since the discovery of “cosmic rays” a hundred years ago, no one knew for sure where the most energetic of these particles came from—until now. Read More >>
Physicists would love to find hints of dark matter to explain the parts of the universe we just haven’t been able to figure out. Dark matter would neatly explain the strange behaviours of galaxies and oddly bent light in our universe. But a new paper may have snuffed out dark matter as a candidate for a mystery at the centre of our galaxy. Read More >>
Astronomy has entered a new era, one where light and gravity both play a role in understanding the Universe’s craziest phenomena. On August 17, 2017, over 70 observatories around (and above) the world, including ones like LIGO and the Hubble Space Telescope, all spotted a flash of energy. This light came in many different flavors, and was consistent with a pair of dense neutron stars colliding in a cataclysmic “kilonova” explosion. Read More >>
Count up all the stuff in a galaxy and you should have a pretty good understanding of how much light is being emitted. But that doesn’t seem to be the case for our own Milky Way. Our galaxy’s got a source of extra gamma rays, the highest-energy light, right in its center. And scientists don’t know where all that energy’s coming from. Read More >>
Gamma ray bursts—powerful burst of electromagnetic radiation – are more common on Earth than previously realised. Scientists have discovered that they're generated as many as 1,100 times a day in the storms that occur on the surface of our planet. Read More >>
Fermi's Large Area Telescope has detected 1873 gamma rays out in space. Most come from objects such as pulsars or blazars. But for 600 of those rays, scientists have no idea where they're coming from. Read More >>
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