Astrophysics

The Milky Way is thought to host a supermassive black hole in its center – but perhaps its dark heart is made of different stuff. A new study proposes that it could instead be a core of dark matter made up of hypothetical particles called “darkinos.”

Why is the expansion of the universe accelerating? The leading hypothesis is a repellent force that astrophysicists refer to as “dark energy." But how does it work? What does it mean for our future? And how sure are we that it even exists?

Antimatter is thought to have been mostly banished from our universe. But could it still be lurking out there? Astronomers have now identified signals from possible antimatter stars, and calculated how many of them might be hiding in our own galaxy.

There’s invisible, undetectable stuff all around us, and we call it dark matter. There’s plenty of evidence that this stuff is very real, but what exactly is dark matter? How do we know it’s there? And how are scientists looking for it?

Supermassive black holes are usually stationary objects, thanks to their huge masses anchoring them in place. But now, astronomers have found evidence of a supermassive monster on the move within its home galaxy.

Faster-than-light “warp drives” may be theoretically possible, but they usually involve exotic physics well out of our reach. Now an astrophysicist has outlined a hypothetical design that could allow FTL travel using conventional physics.

Last year gravitational waves were detected from a massive black hole collision. But now astrophysicists propose a new explanation: a collision of two boson stars – hypothetical, invisible objects that could help untangle the mystery of dark matter.

Astronomers have discovered a nearby system of exoplanets with unusually orderly orbits but disordered densities. Five of the six planets circle the star in a rare rhythmic dance called a resonance chain, while their densities are weirdly shuffled.

Curing cancer is a noble goal, but sometimes scientists just want to give octopuses ecstasy. From medical marvels to wild speculations about time travel, aliens and the end of the universe, New Atlas revisits some of 2020’s strangest science stories.

Dark matter should outnumber regular matter five to one, yet it remains frustratingly elusive. But there might be ways to spot it, and now astronomers have scanned neutron stars for telltale signals of a proposed dark matter particle called an axion.

Dark matter is currently the most widely accepted hypothesis for explaining some of the weirdness we see in the cosmos. But now astronomers have discovered evidence in over 150 galaxies for a long-standing alternative model of “modified gravity.”

Astronomers are a step closer to solving a cosmic mystery, thanks to new Hubble data. Observations show a dwarf galaxy previously found to be missing most of its dark matter is being stripped and slowly torn apart by a larger nearby galaxy.