Astronomy

An artist’s illustration of two colliding neutron stars.

LIGO and Virgo detect neutron star smash-ups

Findings reported just weeks into the network’s latest operating run. (Press release)

May 2, 2019

Salvatore Vitale, assistant professor of physics at MIT and member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration

3 Questions: Salvatore Vitale on LIGO’s latest detections

“We will keep listening for these faint and remote cosmic whispers,” says the physics professor.

May 2, 2019

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), shown here in a conceptual illustration, will identify exoplanets orbiting the brightest stars just outside our solar system.

TESS discovers its first Earth-sized planet

Orbiting a nearby star, the new planet is the smallest identified so far by the TESS mission.

April 16, 2019

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a global network of radio telescopes that work together as one virtual, Earth-sized telescope, with a resolution sharp enough to “see” a black hole’s shadow.

Astronomers capture first image of a black hole

ESO, ALMA, and APEX contribute to paradigm-shifting observations of the gargantuan black hole at the heart of the galaxy Messier 87. (Press release)

April 10, 2019

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration — was designed to capture images of a black hole. In coordinated press conferences across the globe, EHT researchers revealed that they succeeded, unveiling the first direct visual evidence of the supermassive black hole in the center of Messier 87 and its ...

Working together as a “virtual telescope,” observatories around the world produce first direct images of a black hole

Images reveal supermassive black hole at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy.

April 10, 2019

LIGO laboratory detection site near Hanford in eastern Washington.

3 Questions: Lisa Barsotti on the new and improved LIGO

“If we are very lucky, we might observe something new … or maybe even something totally unexpected.”

April 1, 2019

Clara Sousa-Silva and Benjamin Rackham will be 51 Pegasi b Fellows at MIT within the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.

Lighting up exoplanets

The Heising-Simons Foundation selects Clara Sousa-Silva and Benjamin Rackham for 51 Pegasi b Fellowships at MIT.

March 27, 2019

The Apollo astronauts and engineers were joined onstage by some of MIT’s astronaut alumni, including two active astronauts, Mike Fincke and Warren Hoburg (in blue jackets).

MIT celebrates 50th anniversary of historic moon landing

Symposium featuring former astronauts and other Apollo mission luminaries examines the program’s legacy.

March 15, 2019

This mosaic image of asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 PolyCam images collected on Dec. 2 by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a range of 15 miles (24 km). The image was obtained at a 50 degree phase angle between the spacecraft, asteroid, and the sun.

MIT’s REXIS and Bennu’s watery surface

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample-return spacecraft, carrying MIT instrument, arrived at asteroid in December; now begins the science to select a sampling location.

January 29, 2019

The first color image of Ultima Thule, taken at a distance of 85,000 miles (137,000 kilometers) at 4:08 Universal Time on Jan. 1, 2019, highlights its reddish surface. The left image was taken by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager. At right, color has been overlaid onto the LORRI image.

3Q: On the significance of Ultima Thule

New Horizons Mission Team members Alissa Earle and Richard Binzel discuss the revelations the icy world provides about the formation of our solar system.

January 23, 2019