School of Science

This artist's impression shows hot gas orbiting in a disk around a rapidly-spinning black hole. The elongated spot depicts an X-ray-bright region in the disk, which allows the spin of the black hole to be estimated.

X-ray pulse detected near event horizon as black hole devours star

Pulse pattern suggests distant black hole must be spinning at least at 50 percent the speed of light.

January 9, 2019

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is a radio telescope designed to answer major questions in astrophysics and cosmology, including the phenomena of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), fleeting and intense radio bursts with an unknown origin. The telescope is located in the mountains of British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley at the NRC’s Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory.

Revolutionary radio telescope detects bevy of fast radio bursts

Researchers use CHIME telescope to detect fast radio bursts at low frequencies and a second repeating burst.

January 9, 2019

ACCESS aims to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in graduate programs at MIT and other research institutions.

ACCESS shows grad school's rigors and rewards

Undergraduates from across the country learn the benefits of continuing their education in chemistry, chemical engineering, and materials science.

January 9, 2019

X-ray echoes, mapped by NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), revealed changes to the accretion disk and corona of black hole MAXI J1820+070.

Astronomers observe evolution of a black hole as it wolfs down stellar material

Halo of highly energized electrons around the black hole contracts dramatically during feeding frenzy.

January 9, 2019

A new doctoral field offering a computational specialty within MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences resonates with the Institute’s growing awareness of the advantages provided by education based in computer science and engineering.

MIT adds computational Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences to its PhD offerings

New EAPS thesis field is the most recent to join the computational science and engineering doctoral program within the Center for Computational Engineering.

January 9, 2019

Achieving goals in the lab and on the pitch

Senior Anthony Badea, a physics major and varsity soccer player, investigates the beginnings of the universe.

January 9, 2019

NASA’s TESS mission, which will survey the entire sky over the next two years, has already discovered three new exoplanets around nearby stars.

TESS discovers its third new planet, with longest orbit yet

Measurements indicate a dense, gaseous, “sub-Neptune” world, three times the size of Earth.

January 7, 2019

A new analysis of African dust reveals the Sahara swung between green and desert conditions every 20,000 years, in sync with changes in the Earth’s tilt.

A “pacemaker” for North African climate

Study shows the Sahara swung between lush and desert conditions every 20,000 years, in sync with monsoon activity.

January 2, 2019

Anna Frebel is searching the stars for clues to the universe’s origins

MIT astronomer and writer investigates ancient starlight and shares her excitement about the cosmos.

January 1, 2019

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have recorded the “temporal coherence” of a graphene qubit — how long it maintains a special state that lets it represent two logical states simultaneously — marking a critical step forward for practical quantum computing.

Physicists record “lifetime” of graphene qubits

First measurement of its kind could provide stepping stone to practical quantum computing.

December 31, 2018

On Dec. 18, Deutsche Post issued a stamp to honor the research of the Illustris collaboration, a supercomputer simulation of galaxy formation, led at MIT by Mark Vogelsberger, an associate professor of physics in the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.

Stamp of approval

MIT’s Mark Vogelsberger and the Illustris project are honored by Germany's postal service with an official stamp.

December 27, 2018

Pablo Jarillo-Herrero (right), an associate professor of physics at MIT, was honored with Physics World's Breakthrough of the Year for his group's discovery of “magic-angle” graphene, a “promising technique for adjusting the electronic properties of graphene.” Graduate student Yuan Cao (left) was a lead researcher in the work.

MIT research honored with Physics World “Breakthrough of the Year” awards

"Magic-angle" graphene named 2018 Breakthrough of the Year; first ionic plane and earliest evidence of hydrogen gas named to top 10 breakthroughs.

December 27, 2018

Maryam Rashed Alshehhi is a visiting assistant professor from the United Arab Emirates.

Oil and water: Studying pressing environmental dilemmas in the Middle East

Visiting Assistant Professor Maryam Rashed Alshehhi models a region with freshwater shortages, oil spills, and frequent dust storms.

December 26, 2018

Three co-creators of the MIT-incubated Julia programming language, (l-r) Stefan Karpinski, Viral Shah, and Jeff Bezanson, will receive the 2019 James H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software. MIT Julia Lab Leader and Professor Alan Edelman is pictured at right.

Julia language co-creators win James H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software

Awarded every four years, the Wilkinson Prize last came to MIT in 1999.

December 26, 2018