Cosmology

Astronomers have detected a strange signal coming from neutron stars that could be a new elementary particle. An unexplained excess of X-rays hints at axions, hypothetical “ghost” particles that could solve several long-standing physics puzzles.

The Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory in Japan has received an upgrade. A rare-earth element called gadolinium has been added to the water in the facility, which will make it more sensitive to neutrinos from more distant and ancient supernovae.

The universe will most likely end by slowly fading to black over trillions of years. Now a theoretical physicist has calculated the last interesting event that will ever happen: the explosions of stars called black dwarfs, which don’t even exist yet.

The universe likes to play coy about its age, but we have a pretty good idea of the range. Now, a series of new studies has investigated the question using different methods, and have reached different answers, separated by more than a billion years.

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?

One of the core components of cosmology is the understanding that the universe is expanding evenly in all directions. But new X-ray observations now suggest that this may not be the case after all – certain areas may be expanding faster than others.

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes three scientists for improving our understanding of the universe's history and Earth's place in the cosmos.

The universe is believed to be expanding at an accelerating rate, thanks to a mysterious force dubbed dark energy. But how exactly does this force work?

An astrophysicist from Oxford has put forward a new theory that suggests that dark matter and dark energy are actually part of the same phenomenon: a “dark fluid” with negative mass that fills the universe.

Scientists have identified a Type Ia supernova behind a galaxy two billion light years away that is acting like a gigantic magnifying glass. This is the first such supernova to be seen by gravitational lensing and could give a better understanding of how the universe is expanding.

At this moment, two Voyager probes are speeding out into the unknown each carrying a "golden record" with information about our planet, our many different languages, our sciences and arts. But if a new theory about life in the universe is correct, those records may never find an audience.

A 20-month experiment conducted a mile underground has failed to detect dark matter particles directly, but the results are still giving scientists important clues on the nature of this elusive substance.