Rare and mysterious cosmic explosion: Gamma-ray burst or jetted tidal disruption event?
Researchers characterize the peculiar Einstein Probe transient EP240408a.
X-ray flashes from a nearby supermassive black hole accelerate mysteriously
Their source could be the core of a dead star that’s teetering at the black hole’s edge, MIT astronomers report.
Yari Golden-Castaño is over the moon about outreach
The engineer and aspiring astronaut developed an outreach program at Lincoln Laboratory to help bring hands-on STEM activities to all.
MIT scientists pin down the origins of a fast radio burst
The fleeting cosmic firework likely emerged from the turbulent magnetosphere around a far-off neutron star.
MIT astronomers find the smallest asteroids ever detected in the main belt
The team’s detection method, which identified 138 space rocks ranging from bus- to stadium-sized, could aid in tracking potential asteroid impactors.
TBIRD technology could help image black holes’ photon rings
The Lincoln Laboratory-developed laser communications payload operates at the data rates required to image these never-before-seen thin halos of light.
Asteroid grains shed light on the outer solar system’s origins
A weak magnetic field likely pulled matter inward to form the outer planetary bodies, from Jupiter to Neptune.
AXIS mission selected as NASA Astrophysics Probe competition finalist
MIT Kavli Institute scientists and collaborators will produce a concept study to launch a $1B experiment to investigate the X-ray universe.
Physicists discover first “black hole triple”
System observed 8,000 light-years away may be the first direct evidence of “gentle” black hole formation.
Astronomers detect ancient lonely quasars with murky origins
The quasars appear to have few cosmic neighbors, raising questions about how they first emerged more than 13 billion years ago.
An interstellar instrument takes a final bow
The Plasma Science Experiment aboard NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft turns off after 47 years and 15 billion miles.
A wobble from Mars could be sign of dark matter, MIT study finds
Watching for changes in the Red Planet’s orbit over time could be new way to detect passing dark matter.
Study: Early dark energy could resolve cosmology’s two biggest puzzles
In the universe’s first billion years, this brief and mysterious force could have produced more bright galaxies than theory predicts.
When the lights turned on in the universe
By studying ancient, supermassive black holes called quasars, Dominika Ďurovčíková is illuminating an early moment when galaxies could first be observed.
Scientists pin down the origins of the moon’s tenuous atmosphere
The barely-there lunar atmosphere is likely the product of meteorite impacts over billions of years, a new study finds.