X-ray

Scientists have turned plastic into diamonds. Using high-powered lasers, the team zapped samples of common PET plastic, which produces intense heat and pressure to form tiny diamonds that may naturally rain down on planets like Uranus and Neptune.

Astronomers have measured the strongest magnetic field ever found in the universe. The honor goes to a powerful type of neutron star, with a surface magnetic field of over 1.6 billion Tesla.

The world’s most powerful X-ray laser is ready for operation after a massive overhaul. The upgraded LCLS-II uses temperatures colder than deep space to accelerate electrons to near light-speed and fire off a million X-ray bursts per second.

NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) X-ray space telescope has roared into orbit to start its mission studying polarized X-rays from a variety of cosmic sources, including black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, quasars, and galactic nuclei.

Researchers in Australia have tapped into cutting-edge materials science to produce the world's thinnest X-ray detector, which is highly suited to the imaging of wet proteins and living cells, and has the potential to do so on in real time.

A groundbreaking new imaging technique, utilizing X-rays 100 billion times brighter than a hospital X-ray machine, is offering 3D images in unprecedented detail, allowing whole organs to be imaged down to a resolution of 1 micron.

Water can take on far more forms than many people give it credit for, and now scientists have recreated a particularly bizarre one in the lab – a “hot black ice” that may exist deep inside planets like Uranus and Neptune.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory may have spotted the first exoplanet outside our Milky Way. Located in M51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, the giant exoplanet candidate circles a black hole or neutron star 28 million light years from Earth.

Astronomers have detected a strange radio source from near the center of the Milky Way. The signal repeats seemingly at random and can’t be attributed to any known astronomical object, leading the team to consider that it may be something brand new.

Astronomers have spotted a new type of supernova for the first time. An unlucky star seems to have prematurely exploded after colliding with an extremely dense object, perhaps a black hole or a neutron star, creating a unique signature in the sky.

Black holes are notoriously dark objects, but now astronomers have spotted strange light coming from behind one. The X-ray echoes seem to be the result of the intense gravity of the object warping space and bending the light back around into view.

Japanese astronomers have discovered the echoes of a “dying” supermassive black hole. While the object is quiet now, the team spotted the signatures of two huge radio jets that indicate it only recently fell silent after a bright, active phase.