https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from Institute for Advanced Study A small team led by Sihao Cheng, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member in the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Natural Sciences, has discovered an extraordinary trans-Neptunian object (TNO), named 2017 OF201, at the edge of our solar system. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-extreme-cousin-pluto-dwarf-planet.html Astronomy Thu, 22 May 2025 10:37:10 EDT news667129026 A team of astrophysicists, led by scholars from the Institute for Advanced Study, has developed an innovative technique to search for black hole light echoes. Their novel method, which will make it easier for the mass and the spin of black holes to be measured, represents a major step forward, since it operates independently of many of the other ways in which scientists have probed these parameters in the past. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-astrophysicists-echoes-illuminate-black-holes.html Astronomy Thu, 07 Nov 2024 12:59:04 EST news650206742 Scientists have used computational algebraic geometry to study predictions for particle physics experiments, such as those at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which first detected the Higgs particle in 2012. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-edge-mathematics-tool-particle-collision.html General Physics Fri, 07 Jun 2024 09:40:01 EDT news636971997 The iconic image of the supermassive black hole at the center of M87—sometimes referred to as the "fuzzy, orange donut"—has gotten its first official makeover with the help of machine learning. The new image further exposes a central region that is larger and darker, surrounded by the bright accreting gas shaped like a "skinny donut." The team used the data obtained by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration in 2017 and achieved, for the first time, the full resolution of the array. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-sharper-m87-black-hole.html Astronomy Thu, 13 Apr 2023 07:00:01 EDT news600525123 The universe is peppered with galaxies, which, on large scales, exhibit a filamentary pattern, referred to as the cosmic web. This heterogeneous distribution of cosmic material is in some ways like blueberries in a muffin where material clusters in certain areas but may be lacking in others. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-simulations-perspective-universe.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Mar 2023 14:49:04 EDT news598024142 Imagine taking a star twice the mass of the sun and crushing it to the size of Manhattan. The result would be a neutron star—one of the densest objects found anywhere in the universe, exceeding the density of any material found naturally on Earth by a factor of tens of trillions. Neutron stars are extraordinary astrophysical objects in their own right, but their extreme densities might also allow them to function as laboratories for studying fundamental questions of nuclear physics, under conditions that could never be reproduced on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-tool-scientists-peer-neutron-stars.html Astronomy Mon, 17 Oct 2022 16:20:01 EDT news585239105 Not everything needs to be seen to be believed; certain things are more readily heard, like a train approaching its station. In a recent paper, published in Physical Review Letters, researchers have put their ears to the rail, discovering a new property of scattering amplitudes based on their study of sound waves through solid matter. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-strange-behavior-solids.html Condensed Matter Mon, 12 Sep 2022 17:01:03 EDT news582220861 Looks can be deceiving. The light from an incandescent bulb seems steady, but it flickers 120 times per second. Because the brain only perceives an average of the information it receives, this flickering is blurred and the perception of constant illumination is a mere illusion. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-flicker-dark-lines-galaxy-central.html Astronomy Wed, 22 Jun 2022 11:40:33 EDT news575116829 The most accurate distance measurement yet of ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG) NGC1052-DF2 (DF2) confirms beyond any shadow of a doubt that it is lacking in dark matter. The newly measured distance of 22.1 +/-1.2 megaparsecs was obtained by an international team of researchers led by Zili Shen and Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University and Shany Danieli, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. https://phys.org/news/2021-06-hubble-galaxies-lacking-dark.html Astronomy Thu, 17 Jun 2021 11:00:02 EDT news543145440 It is well known that the expansion of the universe is accelerating due to a mysterious dark energy. Within galaxies, stars also experience an acceleration, though this is due to some combination of dark matter and the stellar density. In a new study to be published in Astrophysical Journal Letters researchers have now obtained the first direct measurement of the average acceleration taking place within our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Led by Sukanya Chakrabarti at the Institute for Advanced Study with collaborators from Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Rochester, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the team used pulsar data to clock the radial and vertical accelerations of stars within and outside of the galactic plane. Based on these new high-precision measurements and the known amount of visible matter in the galaxy, researchers were then able to calculate the Milky Way's dark matter density without making the usual assumption that the galaxy is in a steady-state. https://phys.org/news/2021-01-pulsar-reveal-milky-dark-side.html Astronomy Mon, 11 Jan 2021 12:49:28 EST news529591755 In a new study of axion motion, researchers propose a scenario known as "kinetic misalignment" that greatly strengthens the case for axion/dark matter equivalence. The novel concept answers key questions related to the origins of dark matter and provides new avenues for ongoing detection efforts. This work, published in Physical Review Letters, was conducted by researchers at the Institute for Advanced Study, University of Michigan, and UC Berkeley. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-case-axion-dark-gains-traction.html General Physics Fri, 26 Jun 2020 12:34:21 EDT news512393658 Researchers have long sought to understand the origins of life on Earth. A new study conducted by scientists at the Institute for Advanced Study, the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), and the University of New South Wales, among other participating institutions, marks an important step forward in the effort to understand the chemical origins of life. The findings of this study demonstrate how "continuous reaction networks" are capable of producing RNA precursors and possibly ultimately RNA itself—a critical bridge to life. The study is published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-reveals-pathway-blocks-life.html Biochemistry Wed, 03 Jun 2020 03:23:29 EDT news510373403 Last April, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) sparked international excitement when it unveiled the first image of a black hole. Today, a team of researchers have published new calculations that predict a striking and intricate substructure within black hole images from extreme gravitational light bending. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-team-path-razor-sharp-black-hole.html Astronomy Wed, 18 Mar 2020 14:51:31 EDT news503761864 A new study, conducted to better understand the origin of the universe, has provided insight into some of the most enduring questions in fundamental physics: How can the Standard Model of particle physics be extended to explain the cosmological excess of matter over antimatter? What is dark matter? And what is the theoretical origin of an unexpected but observed symmetry in the force that binds protons and neutrons together? https://phys.org/news/2020-03-paper-infant-universe.html General Physics Tue, 10 Mar 2020 10:39:11 EDT news503055545 At the center of the galaxy, millions of stars whirl in orbits around a supermassive black hole. This circuit can take anywhere from a few hours for stars close to the event horizon of the black hole to thousands of years for their distant neighbors. The nature of the dance—how the stars interact collectively through their gravitational forces—can vary from galaxy to galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2019-10-probe-features-star-clusters-supermassive.html General Physics Wed, 16 Oct 2019 10:14:29 EDT news490439635