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Weighing in on the mystery of the gravitational constant

The time had come to open the envelope, but Stephan Schlamminger, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), wasn't sure he wanted to know the secret number that lay inside. For the past 10 ...

Dark matter could explain the earliest supermassive black holes

A growing mystery in astronomy is the presence of gargantuan black holes—some weighing as much as a billion suns—existing less than a billion years after the Big Bang. According to the standard theory of black hole formation, ...

Astronomers reveal always-changing multi-planet system

Astronomers at The University of New Mexico have published new research confirming three bodies orbiting the dynamic exoplanet system TOI-201. They include a super-Earth (TOI-201 d), a warm Jupiter (TOI-201 b), and a brown ...

The universe's most powerful telescope

SN 2025mkn is a Type II supernova and it wasn't supposed to be visible at all. The violent death of a massive star that had exhausted its nuclear fuel and collapsed under its own gravity sits at a redshift of 1.371. That ...

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Astronomy
Torsion balances set strongest direct limits yet on ultralight dark matter
Astronomy
Could dark matter be made of black holes from a different universe?
Astronomy
Chandra explores interstellar medium of a bright low-mass X-ray binary
Astronomy
Webb redefines the dividing line between planets and stars
Astronomy
Shredded stars reveal how black holes ignite trillion-sun flares
Astronomy
Information from starquakes provides theoretical evidence for 'fossilized' magnetism in stars
Astronomy
The quietest place we've ever listened from
Astronomy
Self-interacting dark matter may solve three cosmic puzzles
Astronomy
See and hear galaxies evolve from the dawn of the universe
Astronomy
Why do some stars in the galactic center survive while others are destroyed?
Astronomy
First Proba-3 science: Surprisingly speedy solar wind found in inner corona
Astronomy
Astronomers find the strongest evidence yet for the universe's first stars
Astronomy
Space telescopes track nearby quasar's dramatic X-ray state transition
Astronomy
Advanced mirror technology now powers a breakthrough X-ray telescope
Astronomy
Scientists spot a solar flare with surprising spectral behavior
Astronomy
Astronomers find evidence for three subpopulations of merging black holes
Astronomy
Peculiar core-collapse supernova breaks the mold with a long, dim plateau
Astronomy
Subaru Telescope sheds light on Jupiter Trojan asteroids' color mystery
Astronomy
Major new telescope on Chilean summit opens window on universe
Astronomy
ESA's Celeste broadcasts first navigation signal from low Earth orbit

Other news

Quantum Physics
Universal quantum protocol extracts maximum work without knowing a system's state in advance
Optics & Photonics
Bright quantum light emission achieved at room temperature in 2D semiconductors
Optics & Photonics
Flat optics move toward market with 300-per-second metalens production
Other
Saturday Citations: Neuroinflammaging treatment stuns; a hidden magma lake; decoding little red dots
Ecology
PFAS detected in dolphin milk may pass from mothers to calves
Earth Sciences
Earth's tectonic elevator hauls ancient buried microbes back to the seafloor to revive and spread
Earth Sciences
Taiwan landslide's hidden motion comes into focus as fiber optics track deep slip
Environment
Wildfires used to 'go to sleep' at night. Climate change is turning them into prime burning hours
Earth Sciences
Indonesia's fire crisis comes into focus as high-resolution satellite maps expose 5.62 million hectares affected
Soft Matter
Quantum-informed AI improves long-term turbulence forecasts while using far less memory
Cell & Microbiology
Antioxidant glutathione discovered to play a key role in proper protein folding
Archaeology
First archaeological case of cleft lip identified in China reveals inclusive care in Qing dynasty community
Plants & Animals
Parrots are not just mimicking words—they use proper names like humans to identify individuals
Analytical Chemistry
Platinum-free catalyst splits hydrogen from water for energy, running 1,000 hours at industry standards
Earth Sciences
Machine learning detects more than 60,000 earthquakes during 2025 Santorini sequence
Ecology
Warmer streams may be draining river food webs by sending more carbon into the air
Bio & Medicine
Nanobody repairs misfolded CFTR inside cells, boosting function in cystic fibrosis
Plants & Animals
Want to restore oyster reefs? Find a site where they don't wash away or become buried under the sand
Bio & Medicine
Medicine's next leap: Delivering gene therapies exactly where they're needed
Biotechnology
Two bacteria join forces to turn chemical signals into electricity, opening up low-cost sensing options

Large craters offer clues to the origin of asteroid 16 Psyche

Even 200 years after asteroid 16 Psyche was discovered, astronomers continue to puzzle over its formation. Psyche is the 10th-most massive asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, and the largest known metallic ...

Q&A: Reevaluating reaction rates to better understand the stars

Thermonuclear reaction rates power the models that explain how stars live, explode and create the elements. A new study co-authored by NC State faculty member Richard Longland provides a comprehensive, statistically grounded ...

How big data is transforming what we know about the universe

Science in the modern era is increasingly reliant on enormous datasets and automated analysis. In astronomy, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)—a ten-year survey covering the entire southern ...

The seven hour explosion nobody could explain

Gamma-ray bursts are the most violent explosions in the universe. In a fraction of a second, they can release more energy than the sun will emit across its entire 10-billion-year lifetime. Most are over before you've had ...