NASA and other space agencies worldwide periodically send robots and automated vehicles into space to explore planets and other celestial objects in our solar system. These missions can greatly improve our understanding of the environment and resources in other parts...
As dark matter is comprised of particles that do not absorb, emit or reflect light, it cannot be observed directly with the methods used to observe conventional matter. In recent years, astrophysicists worldwide have thus been devising methods that could help to...
Charged cosmic rays, high-energy clusters of particles moving through space, were first described in 1912 by physicist Victor Hess. Since their discovery, they have been the topic of numerous astrophysics studies aimed at better understanding their origin,...
Dark matter, matter in the universe that does not emit, absorb or reflect light, cannot be directly detected using conventional telescopes or other imaging technologies. Astrophysicists have thus been trying to identify alternative methods to detect dark matter for...
Astrophysicists have been trying to understand the formation of cosmological objects and phenomena in the universe for decades. Past theoretical studies suggest that quantum fluctuations in the early universe, known as primordial quantum diffusion, could have given...
Primordial black holes (PBHs) are fascinating cosmic bodies that have been widely investigated by astrophysicists worldwide. As suggested by their name, these are black holes believed to have appeared in the universe's early days, less than a second after the Big Bang.
Black holes are astronomical objects with extremely strong gravitational pulls from which not even light can escape. While the idea of bodies that would trap light has been around since the 18th century, the first direct observation of black holes took place in 2015.
Past physics theories introduced several fundamental constants, including Newton's constant G, which quantifies the strength of the gravitational interaction between two massive objects. Combined, these fundamental constants allow physicists to describe the universe...
An open question among the physics community is whether black holes can be tidally deformed by an external gravitational field. If this were confirmed to be true, it could have important implications for many areas of physics, including fundamental physics,...
Planet Earth is surrounded by a system of magnetic fields known as the magnetosphere. This vast, comet-shaped system deflects charged particles coming from the sun, shielding our planet from harmful particle radiation and preventing solar wind (i.e., a stream of...