Tag: physics
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LIGO starts its fourth round of searching for gravitational waves and black holes
A specialist checks the alignment of a test beam at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory. (National Science Foundation Photo) After three years of upgrading and waiting, due in part to the coronavirus pandemic, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory has officially resumed its hunt for the signatures of crashing black holes and neutron stars. “Our LIGO…
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LIGO and Virgo detectors get in sync for gravitational-wave hunt that’ll last a year
Detector engineers Hugh Radkins (foreground) and Betsy Weaver (background) take up positions inside the vacuum system of the detector at LIGO Hanford Observatory to perform the hardware upgrades required for Advanced LIGO’s third observing run. (LIGO / Caltech / MIT Photo / Jeff Kissel) Physicists won’t be fooling around on April 1 at the Laser…
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Scientists add four black hole collisions to LIGO’s list, including the biggest so far
An artist’s conception shows two black holes in the process of merging. (LIGO / Caltech / MIT Illustration) Four more mergers of black holes, including the biggest one recorded to date, have been added to a catalog generated by gravitational-wave detectors. The additions were announced today by the teams in charge of the Laser Interferometer…
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51 years after discovering pulsars, Jocelyn Bell Burnell wins $3M Breakthrough Prize
British astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell is featured in an episode of the BBC documentary series “Beautiful Minds.” (BBC Photo) British astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell missed out on a share of the Nobel Prize for her part in the discovery of the first radio pulsars in 1967, but now she has a $3 million Breakthrough Prize…
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How small satellites tackle big challenges, from orbital manufacturing to exoplanets
An artist’s conception shows the HaloSat X-ray-detecting mini-telescope against a background of stars and nebulas. (HaloSat / Univ. of Iowa Illustration) LOGAN, Utah — No one has ever built a satellite in space, but thanks in part to a team of students from Idaho, that could soon change. Other teams are building miniaturized satellites to look…
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Einstein’s right again: Star obeys relativity as it whirls around Milky Way’s black hole
News Brief: A 26-year-long observational campaign provides clear evidence of the effect that general relativity has on the motion of a star known as S2 as it boomerangs around the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The redshift observations, made in infrared wavelengths using instruments on the European Southern Observatory’s…
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The way we think of black holes just might be in for a radical change … again
Columbia theoretical physicist Brian Greene delves into Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity in “Light Falls,” a theater piece that made its debut at the World Science Festival. (Greg Kessler Photo / World Science Festival) After decades’ worth of mystery, it feels as if physicists are finally closing in on the nature of black holes, thanks…
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How number crunchers could help crack the cosmological mystery of dark energy
Berkeley astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter discusses the implications of the universe’s accelerating expansion at the University of Washington. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) Big data just might give astronomers a better grip on the answer to one of the biggest questions in physics: Exactly what’s behind the mysterious acceleration in the expansion rate of the universe,…