Astronomy and astrophysics

MIT researchers have devised a framework for deciding which type of mission would be most successful in deflecting an incoming asteroid, taking into account an asteroid’s mass and momentum, its proximity to a gravitational keyhole, and the amount of warning time that scientists have of an impending collision.

How to deflect an asteroid

MIT engineers devise a decision map to identify the best mission type to deflect an incoming asteroid.

February 18, 2020

Two views of the asteroid Pallas, which researchers have determined to be the most heavily cratered object in the asteroid belt.

Study reveals details of “golf ball asteroid”

A tilted orbit may explain the asteroid Pallas’ highly cratered surface.

February 10, 2020

K. Renee Horton, NASA scientist and past president of the National Society of Black Physicists, speaks with students at a recent physics conference. Due to a climate that has consistently excluded African-Americans from succeeding in physics and astronomy, a new task force report urges significant cultural changes in these fields.

Making physics and astronomy more welcoming to African-American students

Report co-chaired by MIT professor cites need for “sweeping changes” in academic culture.

January 13, 2020

Giant cavities in the X-ray emitting intracluster medium (shown in blue, as observed by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory) have been carved out by the black hole outburst. The X-ray data are overlaid on top of optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (in red/orange), where the central galaxy that is likely hosting the culprit supermassive black hole is also visible.

The billion-year belch

Michael Calzadilla and colleagues describe a violent black hole outburst that provides new insight into galaxy cluster evolution.

December 23, 2019

Phosphine, a molecule known on Earth for its smelly and toxic nature, may be a sure sign of alien life if detected in nearby exoplanets.

A sign that aliens could stink

A molecule that’s known for its smelly and poisonous nature on Earth may be a sure-fire sign of extraterrestrial life.

December 18, 2019

A map of gamma ray emissions throughout the Milky Way galaxy, based on observations from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The inset depicts the Galactic Center Excess – an unexpected, spherical region of gamma ray emissions at the center of our galaxy, of unknown origin.

Is there dark matter at the center of the Milky Way?

A new analysis puts dark matter back in the game as a possible source of energy excess at the galactic center.

December 10, 2019

Researchers install a new quantum squeezing device into one of LIGO’s gravitational wave detectors.

New instrument extends LIGO’s reach

Technology “squeezes” out quantum noise so more gravitational wave signals can be detected.

December 5, 2019

With increasing data quality (shown progressively, left to right, in images from 2012, 2015, and 2019) Assistant Professor Michael McDonald and colleagues can conclusively show that the black hole in the Phoenix galaxy cluster is not preventing star formation.

Phoenix cluster is cooling faster than expected

With increasingly advanced data, Michael McDonald and colleagues study a galaxy cluster bursting with new stars.

November 20, 2019

Putting the “bang” in the Big Bang

Physicists simulate critical “reheating” period that kickstarted the Big Bang in the universe’s first fractions of a second.

October 24, 2019

Researchers have for the first time used a massive cluster of galaxies as a huge magnifying lens to detect a small, star-forming dwarf galaxy.

Astronomers use giant galaxy cluster as X-ray magnifying lens

New lens technique spots tiny dwarf galaxy in the first, super-energetic stages of star formation.

October 14, 2019

A simulation of early galaxy formation under three dark matter scenarios. In a universe filled with cold dark matter, early galaxies would first form in bright halos (far left). If dark matter is instead warm, galaxies would form first in long, tail-like filaments (center). Fuzzy dark matter would produce similar filaments, though striated (far right), like the strings of a harp.

This is how a “fuzzy” universe may have looked

Scientists simulate early galaxy formation in a universe of dark matter that is ultralight, or “fuzzy,” rather than cold or warm.

October 3, 2019

Worlds orbiting stars other than our sun are “exoplanets,” and they come in many sizes, from gas giants larger than Jupiter to small, rocky planets. This illustration of a "super-Earth" represents the type of planet that the TESS mission aims to find outside our solar system.

Computing and the search for new planets

MIT planetary scientists partner with computer scientists to find exoplanets.

September 23, 2019

KATRIN’s spectrometer, shown here, precisely measures the energy of electrons emitted in the decay of tritium, which has helped scientists come closer to pinning down the mass of the ghost-like neutrino.

3Q: Scientists shave estimate of neutrino’s mass in half

Joseph Formaggio explains the discovery that the ghostly particle must be no more than 1 electronvolt, half as massive as previously thought.

September 16, 2019

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is inspected before its launch in April 2018. Approximately 250 MIT scientists and engineers are included as recipients of the NASA Silver Achievement Medal for their role in the TESS mission.

TESS team is awarded NASA's Silver Achievement Medal

The honor recognizes the "stellar achievement" of the people behind the exoplanet-seeking satellite.

September 12, 2019

MIT scientists have captured the “ringing” of a newly-formed black hole, in the form of gravitational waves, depicted in this artist’s illustration.

Scientists detect tones in the ringing of a newborn black hole for the first time

Results support Einstein’s theory and the idea that black holes have no “hair.”