https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. In dark skies at night, distant starlight twinkles and speaks to vast cosmic histories almost as old as time itself. New data from instruments such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope are helping astrophysicists probe deep cosmic mysteries, including the evolution of black holes and galaxies. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-astrid-billion-years-black-hole.html Astronomy Thu, 27 Aug 2026 17:10:01 EDT news707067781 Physics is most readily applied to relatively simple systems: a pendulum, two electrons colliding or the structure of the solar system. But when systems become complicated—when many particles interact with one another, in condensed matter systems such as gases and fluids or in the cosmology of the early universe—simplifications can be made using a technique called classical or extended mean-field theory. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-simple-neural-networks-field-theory.html General Physics Thu, 27 Aug 2026 07:20:06 EDT news706956708 Doubts about the standard model of cosmology are deepening after a new study identified fundamental problems in a recent analysis that defended the conventional view that the universe is currently undergoing accelerated expansion driven by dark energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-crisis-cosmology-critical-problems-defense.html Astronomy Wed, 26 Aug 2026 20:00:01 EDT news706975983 Astronomers can't see dark matter directly, but they know it's there: Its gravity shapes galaxies and the large-scale structure of the cosmos. In an effort to uncover the composition of this hidden mass, a team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is pursuing evidence of particles that exist beyond the standard model of physics. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-plutonium-probe-universe-magneto-advances.html General Physics Tue, 25 Aug 2026 15:13:14 EDT news706889564 The universe is known to be expanding at an accelerating rate. Physicists typically attribute this acceleration to dark energy, a mysterious component of the universe that exerts negative pressure, causing space to expand faster. Dark energy is thought to have become the predominant influence on the universe's evolution around 3–4 billion years ago, at the beginning of what is known as the dark energy era. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-limits-phase-transitions-dark-energy.html Astronomy Tue, 25 Aug 2026 07:00:04 EDT news706783751 At the center of most galaxies lies a supermassive black hole, with a mass millions to billions of times that of our sun and some of the most extreme gravity in the universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-stellar-black-hole-flares-dimmer.html Astronomy Fri, 21 Aug 2026 12:00:01 EDT news706527070 Welcome back to our series on interstellar travel! In our first installment, we examined attempts to realize nuclear propulsion and how the technology could be used to reach the nearest star. In our second, we examined how fusion power has also been considered a means of propelling spacecraft to relativistic speeds (a fraction of the speed of light). In both cases, these proposals paralleled Cold War developments in rocketry and nuclear armaments, as they did for most space age advancements. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-interstellar-iv-solar-magnetic-energy.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Aug 2026 10:20:09 EDT news706437782 For close to a century, physicists have pursued a way to unite gravity with quantum mechanics. Known as quantum gravity, this goal has remained frustratingly out of reach so far. Similarly elusive is the force of dark energy, which is believed to be driving the universe's accelerating expansion. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-dark-energy-quantum-gravity-deeply.html General Physics Thu, 20 Aug 2026 07:40:06 EDT news706364525 A mysterious background of extremely low-frequency gravitational waves detected by networks of pulsars may carry information about events that began more than 13 billion years ago—including the formation of some of the first supermassive black holes in the universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-dark-stars-left-gravitational-echoes.html Astronomy Wed, 19 Aug 2026 17:50:01 EDT news706379341 Theoretical physicists have long predicted the existence of millicharged particles (mCPs), hypothetical particles that carry a very small electric charge. These particles are expected to interact very weakly with ordinary matter and electromagnetic fields; hence, they would be difficult to detect in conventional particle physics experiments. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-centuries-physics-millicharged-particles.html General Physics Sun, 16 Aug 2026 08:00:01 EDT news705918245 A new paper published in Physical Review Letters reveals that a leading dark matter candidate—the hypothetical "dark photon"—would not have heated the early universe as previously thought. The finding opens a vast region for experimental searches and could change the hunt for dark matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-early-universe-plasma-dark-photons.html Astronomy Sat, 15 Aug 2026 12:40:01 EDT news705910291 A tiny UK-developed satellite, roughly the size of a small carry-on suitcase, could help answer one of the biggest questions in cosmology: What happened during the roughly 150 million years of the cosmic dark ages, before the universe's first stars appeared? https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tiny-satellite-dark-side-moon.html Astronomy Fri, 14 Aug 2026 11:00:01 EDT news705749643 The building blocks of rocky planets may have begun forming just 100 million years after the Big Bang—long before the first galaxies even existed—according to new research from the University of Portsmouth. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-supernovae-seeded-rocky-planet-blocks.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 17:20:03 EDT news705757021 Malta might be the last place one would expect a convergence of archeoastronomy and early cosmology. Today, it's better known as a billionaire tax haven and a favorite production location for big-budget Hollywood movies. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ancient-maltese-seafarers-stars.html Archaeology Mon, 10 Aug 2026 20:20:01 EDT news705601021 Super-thin superconducting materials, which are only one or a few atoms thick, have unique properties scientists can leverage to produce more compact, scalable, and efficient quantum devices. But these fragile materials degrade so rapidly in air that they are difficult to study or manufacture. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-air-stable-ultrathin-superconductors-scalable.html Superconductivity Wed, 05 Aug 2026 19:00:01 EDT news705161101 "An island of biodiversity in a sea of monoculture": This is how a recent study characterized the Pimentel Barbosa Indigenous Territory (TIPB), located in the northeastern part of Mato Grosso state in Brazil's Central-West region. The study showed that the area's human occupation patterns and vegetation cover have remained largely unchanged for four decades. Meanwhile, the surrounding area has been altered by the expansion of livestock ranching, soybean farming and the construction of major highways (BR-158 and BR-163), which are part of Brazil's efforts to extend its agricultural frontier. The TIPB covers 329,000 hectares (1,270 square miles) and was home to 2,369 people in 2022, according to a census by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). https://phys.org/news/2026-08-indigenous-territory-ecological-stability-agricultural.html Environment Sun, 02 Aug 2026 07:40:01 EDT news704769487 The German eROSITA consortium (eROSITA-DE), which includes the University of Bonn and is led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), has released its second major public data set, the "eROSITA Data Release 2" (DR2). https://phys.org/news/2026-07-homing-ray-sky-erosita.html Astronomy Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:20:01 EDT news704722981 Sexual and reproductive health has largely been shaped by perspectives from wealthier developed nations in the Global North. To correct this imbalance, public health experts call for centering Global South knowledge, lived experience and culturally grounded understandings of sexuality—including sexual pleasure. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-reenvisioning-sexual-health-perspectives-global.html Social Sciences Fri, 31 Jul 2026 07:00:04 EDT news704697302 Since their discovery by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope in 2022, little red dots (LRDs) have been the subject of great interest to astronomers. Understanding the nature of these extremely distant, compact red sources has been a puzzling scientific endeavor. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-red-dots-temporary-black-hole.html Astronomy Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:10:01 EDT news704551076 Gravitational waves are tiny ripples in the fabric of spacetime that are produced when massive objects in the cosmos accelerate or collide. By detecting these waves, astrophysicists can study various cosmic events, including black hole mergers, neutron star collisions and the early evolution of the universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-moon-thick-crust-amplify-elusive.html Astronomy Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:00:03 EDT news704365472 Imagine holding one of our most precise quantum devices at a fixed position outside a black hole. A Josephson junction—two superconductors separated by an ultrathin barrier—can turn a voltage into a quantum oscillation with extraordinary precision. Would intense gravity change that quantum rule, or only change how a faraway observer reads the device? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-black-hole-gravity-quantum-circuit.html General Physics Sun, 26 Jul 2026 19:00:01 EDT news704113655 Astronomers have discovered a remarkably tiny group of six young galaxies just 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang. This may be a rare glimpse of how some of the universe's largest galaxies formed. The paper outlining the findings was submitted to the arXiv preprint server on July 13. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-astronomers-massive-galaxy-piece-billion.html Astronomy Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:40:02 EDT news703844724 The worlds of the solar system are exciting and, so far, mostly pristine places for planetary scientists to study. As space missions continue to travel to Mars, Europa, asteroids and other worlds, questions arise about keeping them safe for continued exploration and observation. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-reserves-moon.html Astronomy Fri, 24 Jul 2026 07:40:03 EDT news704094121 NASA is about to launch a space observatory that could help settle some of the biggest mysteries in modern astronomy. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will study how the universe began, what it is made of and how it has evolved over time. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-nasa-space-telescope-tackle-universe.html Astronomy Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:20:06 EDT news704028181 According to current understanding, the universe is expanding—and is doing so at an accelerating rate. This is believed to be caused by something called the cosmological constant, which was first proposed by Albert Einstein in his theory of general relativity. In recent decades, it has become better known as dark energy, which is believed to make up about 70% of the universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-dark-energy-foundations-today-cosmological.html Astronomy Tue, 21 Jul 2026 21:40:01 EDT news703863860 For decades, astronomers have cast galaxy mergers as the universe's ultimate relationship drama: two galaxies collide, chaos erupts, black holes awaken and star formation comes to a screeching halt. Upending this long-held belief, new research from Florida International University suggests most galaxies don't "die" in spectacular cosmic pileups after all. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-simulation-explanation-galaxies-stars.html Astronomy Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:50:02 EDT news703867262 One of the deepest ambitions in modern physics is understanding how the fabric of space and time could emerge from fundamental quantum degrees of freedom to establish a quantum theory of gravity. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quantum-error-emergent-gravity-probing.html General Physics Tue, 21 Jul 2026 11:10:02 EDT news703850636 The Milky Way may have undergone a dramatic change in orientation during its history, according to new research that helps explain a long-standing mystery about our galaxy. Using supercomputer simulations of galaxies like the Milky Way, a team of astronomers from Durham University found that galaxies with slowly rotating stellar halos are more likely to have experienced a major "disk flip," in which the galaxy's disk changed its orientation by more than 90 degrees. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-cosmic-gymnastics-milky-underwent-flip.html Astronomy Tue, 21 Jul 2026 11:00:03 EDT news703848661 A new study by Queen Mary University of London mathematician Professor Ginestra Bianconi proposes a new perspective on one of the deepest questions in modern physics: How can the universe become increasingly structured and complex while still obeying the second law of thermodynamics? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-gravity-entropy-theory-law-thermodynamics.html General Physics Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:00:01 EDT news703512912 Astronomers have used the ages of more than 155,000 stars in the Milky Way to independently estimate the age of the universe, and their findings may be good news for the standard cosmological model. The new research was reported in a paper submitted to the arXiv preprint server on July 1. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-stellar-census-case-billion-year.html Astronomy Wed, 15 Jul 2026 07:30:03 EDT news703167158