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Quasars may prove quantum entanglement – or a 12 billion-year-old conspiracy

Michael Irving August 21, 2018

Quantum entanglement is an eerie concept that Einstein himself had trouble accepting, and yet it’s been experimentally demonstrated. To find out whether there are other variables, a new experiment provides the strongest evidence so far of quantum entanglement or a 12-billion year “conspiracy."

Light from distant quasars has been used as a cosmic "coin flip" to help provide the ...

Physics

Einstein proven right again as black hole gravity warps starlight

Michael Irving July 26, 2018

Discoveries that back up Einstein’s theory of general relativity are still being made. The latest comes from the Max Planck Institute, where astronomers have watched how the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way pulls and stretches the light from a star as it makes its closest pass.

An artist's imagining of gravitational redshift at work – as the star swings past close to ...

Physics

Triple star system puts Einstein's theory of relativity to the test

Michael Irving July 5, 2018

The theory of relativity predicts that any two objects in a vacuum will fall at the same rate. Whether or not this applied to massive objects like planets and stars has long been debated, but now astronomers have shown that the phenomenon does hold true, meaning Einstein was right yet again.

Astronomers have used a triple star system, made up of a neutron star and two white ...

Collectibles

Einstein's violin fetches $516,500 at New York auction

Mike Hanlon March 11, 2018

A violin crafted for, and belonging to, Albert Einstein has achieved $516,500 at a Bonhams auction in New York. The first Einstein violin to ever be offered at auction set a new record for Einstein memorabilia.

Everything Albert Einstein touched is seemingly turning to gold. He's the only top earning dead celebrity ...

Collectibles

Einstein's telescope, personal computer memorabilia and an exploding rat

Mike Hanlon December 12, 2017

The final round of scientific auctions for 2017 occurred last week and there were the usual puzzling results in a market slightly off the boil. There were some rare scientific documents and instruments to be had at reasonable prices that will return a handsome profit in the short to medium term.

One man's trash is another man's treasure

Physics

Neutron star smashup produces gravitational waves and light in unprecedented stellar show

Michael Irving October 16, 2017

A team of scientists has announced the fifth detection of gravitational waves, but there’s a groundbreaking difference this time: the ripples were caused by the collision of two neutron stars, meaning the event was accompanied by light, radio, and other electromagnetic signals for the first time.

For the first time, astronomers from around the world have detected gravitational waves caused by two ...

Physics

Gravitational waves detection picks up Nobel Prize in Physics

Michael Irving October 3, 2017

The 2015 detection of gravitational waves is one of the most important scientific discoveries in a century. It’s no surprise then that the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics to scientists at the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration, for that groundbreaking discovery.

Physics

Gravitational waves roll in again, detected from both sides of Earth

Michael Irving September 27, 2017

Another day, another detection of gravitational waves. LIGO has just detected gravitational waves for the fourth time, but it wasn’t alone this time: the signals were also measured by the Virgo detector in Italy, marking a new milestone in the observation of the Universe.

Gravitational waves have been detected for the fourth time, now as a collaboration between the twin ...

Space

New telescope is the GOTO for seeing gravitational waves

Michael Irving July 4, 2017

In 2015, LIGO detected gravitational waves for the first time, by observing tiny wobbles in laser beams, but a newly launched telescope in Spain is aiming to see them more directly, scouring the skies for the optical signals associated with gravitational waves.

An artist's rendition of the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient (GOTO) telescope, which has just come online in ...

Science

Gravity's light-bending effect seen in the dance of distant stars

Michael Irving June 7, 2017

Gravity from huge objects like stars can curve spacetime, bending light from its straight path. This can alter how we see distant stars through what's called gravitational lensing, and now astronomers have seen it in action, directly observing a star bend the light of another, more distant star.