Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
A bounty of potential gravitational wave events hints at exciting possibilities
Of about 1,200 possible events, most are probably false alarms, but some could be ripples in spacetime that are especially hard to spot.
- Physics
Black holes born with magnetic fields quickly shed them
New computer simulations show one way that black holes might discard their magnetic fields.
- Physics
With Steven Weinberg’s death, physics loses a titan
The Nobel laureate advanced the theory of particles and forces, and wrote insightfully for a wider public.
- Materials Science
These weird, thin ice crystals are springy and bendy
Specially grown fibers of frozen water bend into curves and spring back when released.
- Astronomy
Scientists spotted an electron-capture supernova for the first time
A flare that appeared in the sky in 2018 was an electron-capture supernova, a blast that can occur in stars too small to go off the usual way.
- Physics
An atomic clock that could revolutionize space travel just passed its first test
The most precise clock ever sent to space successfully operated in Earth’s orbit for over a year.
- Astronomy
This moon-sized white dwarf is the smallest ever found
A newfound white dwarf is the smallest and perhaps the most massive known, and spins around once every seven minutes.
- Physics
Gravitational waves reveal the first known mergers of a black hole and neutron star
For the first time, LIGO and Virgo have detected long-anticipated gravitational waves from a black hole merging with a neutron star.
- Animals
A proposed ‘quantum compass’ for songbirds just got more plausible
Quantum physics could be behind birds’ magnetic sense of direction, new measurements indicate.
- Physics
Dark matter may slow the rotation of the Milky Way’s central bar of stars
A method akin to studying a tree’s rings revealed the history of a slowdown of the rotating bar of stars at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy.
- Physics
Mathematician J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. was a Manhattan Project standout despite racism
Black scientist J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. made nuclear physics calculations that helped build an atomic bomb.
- Quantum Physics
Physicists used LIGO’s mirrors to approach a quantum limit
Using LIGO’s laser beams to reduce jiggling rather than detect gravitational waves, scientists have gotten closer to the realm of quantum mechanics.
