Astronomers have found an extraordinary galaxy cluster, one of the largest objects in the Universe, that is breaking several important cosmic records. Observations of the Phoenix cluster (SPT-CLJ2344-4243) with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the National Science Foundation’s South Pole Telescope, and eight other world-class observatories may force astronomers to rethink how these colossal structures and [continue reading]
Experiments using heavy ions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are advancing understanding of the primordial Universe. The ALICE, ATLAS and CMS collaborations have made new measurements of the kind of matter that probably existed in the first instants of the Universe. They will present their latest results at the Quark Matter 2012 conference, [continue reading]
New 3-D Map of Massive Galaxies and Distant Black Holes Offers Clues to Dark Matter and Dark Energy The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) has released the largest-ever three-dimensional map of massive galaxies and distant black holes, which will help astronomers explain the mysterious “dark matter” and “dark energy” that scientists know [continue reading]
A global team of scientists looking for evidence of the existence of dark matter announced that they found none from the leading candidates. The analysis of 13 months of data at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LGNS), a collaborative effort led by Elena Aprile, professor of physics at Columbia University, provided no evidence for the [continue reading]
Last year, astronomers discovered a quiescent supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy that erupted after shredding and consuming a passing star. Now researchers have identified a distinctive X-ray signal observed in the days following the outburst that comes from matter on the verge of falling into the black hole. This illustration highlights the [continue reading]
A review article appearing in today’s issue of the journal Science describes groundbreaking discoveries that have emerged from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the USA, synergies with the heavy-ion program at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe, and the compelling questions that will drive this research forward [continue reading]