Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Materials Science
These weird, thin ice crystals are springy and bendy
Specially grown fibers of frozen water bend into curves and spring back when released.
- Astronomy
Scientists spotted an electron-capture supernova for the first time
A flare that appeared in the sky in 2018 was an electron-capture supernova, a blast that can occur in stars too small to go off the usual way.
- Physics
An atomic clock that could revolutionize space travel just passed its first test
The most precise clock ever sent to space successfully operated in Earth’s orbit for over a year.
- Astronomy
This moon-sized white dwarf is the smallest ever found
A newfound white dwarf is the smallest and perhaps the most massive known, and spins around once every seven minutes.
- Physics
Gravitational waves reveal the first known mergers of a black hole and neutron star
For the first time, LIGO and Virgo have detected long-anticipated gravitational waves from a black hole merging with a neutron star.
- Animals
A proposed ‘quantum compass’ for songbirds just got more plausible
Quantum physics could be behind birds’ magnetic sense of direction, new measurements indicate.
- Physics
Dark matter may slow the rotation of the Milky Way’s central bar of stars
A method akin to studying a tree’s rings revealed the history of a slowdown of the rotating bar of stars at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy.
- Physics
Mathematician J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. was a Manhattan Project standout despite racism
Black scientist J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. made nuclear physics calculations that helped build an atomic bomb.
- Quantum Physics
Physicists used LIGO’s mirrors to approach a quantum limit
Using LIGO’s laser beams to reduce jiggling rather than detect gravitational waves, scientists have gotten closer to the realm of quantum mechanics.
- Physics
Gravitational waves confirm a black hole law predicted by Stephen Hawking
The first black hole merger detected by LIGO affirms that the surface area of a black hole can increase over time, but not decrease.
- Particle Physics
Physicists dream big with an idea for a particle collider on the moon
A lunar particle collider that dwarfs any such facility on Earth might not be impossible, according to new calculations.
- Physics
Auroras form when electrons from space ride waves in Earth’s magnetic field
New lab results confirm that auroras are triggered by disturbances in Earth’s magnetic field called Alfvén waves.
