Cosmology
Physicists’ devotion to symmetry has led them astray before
If dark matter WIMPs are mythical, they join the ancient idea that the planets moved in circles.
Cosmology
More Stories in Cosmology
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SpaceDark matter clumps in galaxy clusters bend light surprisingly well
Cosmologists have found one more way to be confused by dark matter.
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CosmologyScientists can’t agree on how clumpy the universe is
A measurement of 21 million galaxies finds a level of clumpiness that disagrees with estimates based on the oldest light in the universe.
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Cosmology‘The End of Everything’ explores the ways the universe could perish
As Katie Mack explains in The End of Everything, the universe’s demise could be disastrously violent or deadly calm.
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CosmologyDespite a new measurement, the debate over the universe’s expansion rages on
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope finds the universe is expanding more slowly than supernova observations suggest.
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SpaceThis is the most comprehensive X-ray map of the sky ever made
A new X-ray map of the entire sky, using data from the eROSITA telescope’s first full scan, looks deeper into space than any other of its kind.
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SpaceHalf the universe’s ordinary matter was missing — and may have been found
Astronomers have used fast radio bursts as cosmic weigh stations to tease out where the universe’s “missing matter” resides.
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SpaceRed giant stars that eat planets might shine less brightly
Some stars may shine less brightly after ingesting a planet. That finding, if confirmed, could have implications for calculating cosmic distances.
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PhysicsHow slime mold helped scientists map out the cosmic web
Tapping a similarity between a slime mold’s lacy web and the vast threads of matter that connect galaxies, astronomers visualized the cosmic web.
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PhysicsPhysics Nobel awarded for discoveries about the universe’s evolution and exoplanets
Three scientists share the 2019 Nobel Prize in physics for revealing what makes up our cosmos and for finding the first planet orbiting a sunlike star.