Scientists detect radio echoes of a black hole feeding on a star
Signals suggest black hole emits a jet of energy proportional to the stellar material it gobbles up.
Modeling the universe
MIT's Mark Vogelsberger and an international astrophysics team have created a new model pointing to black holes’ role in galaxy formation.
Citizen scientists discover five tightly packed exoplanets
The planetary system’s dense configuration gives clues to its formation
Scientists observe supermassive black hole in infant universe
Findings present a puzzle as to how such a huge object could have grown so quickly.
Scientists detect comets outside our solar system
Team of professional and citizen scientists identifies tails of comets streaking past a distant star.
MIT researchers discuss the new "multi-messenger" era of astrophysics research
Mavalvala, Evans, Frebel, Katsavounidis, and Vitale discuss the science behind LIGO's observations of a neutron star collision.
3Q: Scott Hughes on cosmic distances and the future of gravitational wave astronomy
Professor of physics describes our understanding of the expansion of the universe through “standard sirens.”
LIGO and Virgo make first detection of gravitational waves produced by colliding neutron stars
Discovery marks first cosmic event observed in both gravitational waves and light.
MIT physicist Rainer Weiss shares Nobel Prize in physics
LIGO inventor and professor emeritus of physics recognized “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.”
Gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger observed by LIGO and Virgo
Finding represents first joint detection of gravitational waves with both detectors.
TESS mission to discover new planets moves toward launch
Satellite’s cameras have been delivered by MIT researchers and passed NASA inspection.
New insights into the early universe’s galaxy clusters
MIT Kavli Institute scientists help conduct one of the largest-ever studies of molecular gas in distant galaxy clusters.
Rainer Weiss wins Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research
Prestigious Spanish award shared with Caltech's Kip Thorne and Barry Barish and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration for work in detecting gravitational waves.
LIGO detects merging black holes for third time
Nearly 3 billion light years from Earth, the black holes are the farthest ever detected.
Another potentially habitable extrasolar planet discovered
Some 40 light-years away, "super-Earth" identified as new target for atmospheric study.