Astrophysics

Equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have been created in the Big Bang, but this would just have annihilated itself. Now, physicists have proposed a new theory that explains the mystery – and outlined how we can find direct evidence of it.

Even 100 years after the theory of general relativity, new observations keep confirming its predictions. Now, Australian astronomers have found that high-density stars in close orbit appear to be dragging and twisting the fabric of spacetime itself.

Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and at the University Observatory Munich have found the largest black hole using direct mass measurements so far. It has a mass 40 billion times that of the Sun.

For the first time, atmospheric chemistry and 3D climate modeling have been combined in a way that could help identify planets beyond our solar system which could host life.

Scientists generally agree that the universe is expanding, but how fast is up for debate. Now, astrophysicists have come up with a new figure for the Hubble Constant by studying how gamma rays interact with the background radiation of the universe.

The Kamioka Gravitational-wave Detector (KAGRA) in Japan will join LIGO in the US and Virgo in Italy to triangulate where any waves are coming from.

Astronomers have studied the ringing tones of a newly-created black hole for the first time, proving Einstein right once again.

In NGC 6946, better known as the Fireworks galaxy, an extremely bright flare of X-rays was seen to appear and disappear within a matter of weeks.

The first polarized light from a gamma ray burst billions of light years away is helping astronomers gain a better understanding of collapsing stars and other high-energy phenomena. Originating in the constellation of Fornax, the light brighter than a billion suns came from massive jets of plasma.

An international team of physicists has finally found proof of circumplanetary disks, adding substantial weight to current theoretical models of planet formation. These disks of gas surrounded by dust have eluded detection, until now.

In a pair of studies published this week, astronomers have shed new light on dark matter through close observation of a galaxy previously found to have very little of the stuff, while the same team found a new example of a similar oddball galaxy.

Images taken by NASA's Spitzer Space telescope are providing insight into the phenomenon of "killer" galaxies that, when they merge, shut down star formation within the new united galaxies.