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.
Monitoring space traffic
AeroAstro PhD student Sydney Dolan uses an interdisciplinary approach to develop collision-avoidance algorithms for satellites.
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.
Professor Emeritus Hale Van Dorn Bradt, an X-ray astronomy pioneer, dies at 93
Longtime MIT faculty member used X-ray astronomy to study neutron stars and black holes and led the All-Sky Monitor instrument on NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer.
Liquid on Mars was not necessarily all water
New study proposes that some of the minerals seen on Mars today may have formed in liquid CO2 instead of water.
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.
Curiosity, images, and scientific exploration
Professor of the practice Alan Lightman’s new book digs into the wonder of striking visual phenomena in nature.
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.
Communications user terminal developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory prepares for historic moon flyby
Aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, the terminal will beam data over laser links during the first crewed lunar mission since 1972.
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.
Scientists discover molecules that store much of the carbon in space
The discovery of pyrene derivatives in a distant interstellar cloud may help to reveal how our own solar system formed.
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.