All Stories by Mara Johnson-Groh
- Quantum Physics
A quantum computing milestone is immediately challenged by a supercomputer
A quantum processor solved a problem in 20 minutes that would take a supercomputer millions of years. A supercomputer then did a part of it in about 2 hours.
- Astronomy
The universe’s first supernovas probably produced water
Water may have formed less than 200 million years after the Big Bang, suggesting some conditions for life existed far earlier than previously thought.
- Astronomy
We may finally know the source of mysterious high-energy neutrinos
Regions around supermassive black holes in active galaxies could produce a lot of these mysterious particles.
- Astronomy
A fast radio burst’s unlikely source may be a cluster of old stars
The burst’s origin in a globular cluster suggests that not all these enigmatic blasts come from young stellar populations.
- Space
Souped-up supernovas may produce much of the universe’s heavy elements
An old star that formed from an explosive event called a magnetorotational hypernova is revealing where elements like uranium and silver might be forged.
- Space
Fast radio bursts could help solve the mystery of the universe’s expansion
Astronomers used fast radio bursts for the first time to measure the Hubble constant in hopes of ending the debate on the universe’s expansion rate.
