Astronomy and astrophysics

Astronauts and organizers of Beyond the Cradle gathered at the Media Lab on March 12. Back row, left to right: HI-SEAS IV Mars simulation participant Sheyna Gifford, NASA astronauts Jeff Hoffman and Leland Melvin, and PhD student Dan “Novysan” Novy. Front row, left to right: NASA astronaut Cady Coleman '83, PhD student Ariel Ekblaw, Media Lab Director Joi Ito.

Media Lab sets sights on space

MIT Media Lab event, Beyond the Cradle, launches a new initiative to explore the final frontier.

March 14, 2017

MIT rates No. 1 in 12 subjects in 2017 QS World University Rankings

MIT ranked within the top 5 for 19 of 46 subject areas.

March 8, 2017

The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) radio telescope is dedicated to observing large scale structure during and prior to the epoch of reionization.

MIT's Jacqueline Hewitt and HERA team given $5.8M boost to detect cosmic dawn

Funding will complete array and measure signals from universe’s first stars.

March 2, 2017

The TRAPPIST-1 star, an ultra-cool dwarf, has seven Earth-size planets orbiting it.

3Q: Julien de Wit on the discovery of seven temperate, nearby worlds

Planets may harbor conditions suitable for sustaining liquid water — and thus life.

February 22, 2017

For the first time, astronomers have observed a star pulsing in response to its orbiting planet. The star, HAT-P-2, pictured, is one of the most massive exoplanets known today. The planet, named HAT-P-2b, tracks its star in a highly eccentric orbit, flying extremely close to and around the star, then hurtling far out before eventually circling back around.

The heart of a far-off star beats for its planet

Scientists observe first planet-induced stellar pulsations.

February 14, 2017

This composite image shows powerful radio jets from the supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy in the Phoenix Cluster inflating huge "bubbles" in the hot, ionized gas surrounding the galaxy. The cavities inside the blue region were imaged by NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory. Hugging the outside of these bubbles, ALMA discovered an unexpected trove of cold gas, the fuel for star formatio...

Self-made stars

Astronomers observe black hole producing cold, star-making fuel from hot plasma jets and bubbles.

February 14, 2017

“There seems to be no shortage of exoplanets,” says Jennifer Burt, a Torres postdoctoral fellow in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “There are a ton of them out there, and a ton of science to be done.”

Scientists make huge dataset of nearby stars available to public

Users can search database of 1,600 stars to find signs of new exoplanets.

February 13, 2017

By studying the remanent magnetizations in ancient meteorites, an MIT team has determined that the solar nebula — the vast of disc of gas and dust that ultimately gave rise to the solar system — lasted around 3 to 4 million years.

Scientists estimate solar nebula’s lifetime

Study finds the swirling gas disk disappeared within the solar system’s first 4 million years.

February 9, 2017

Left to right: Gabriela Schlau-Cohen, Rafael Jaramillo, David Hsu, Nuno Loureiro

New faculty strengthen, broaden MIT’s energy expertise

MIT's newest faculty bring a wide array of energy interests and developments to the Institute.

February 7, 2017

Physicists from MIT, the University of Vienna, and elsewhere have presented a strong demonstration of quantum entanglement even when vulnerability to the freedom-of-choice loophole is significantly restricted.

Stars align in test supporting “spooky action at a distance”

Physicists address loophole in tests of Bell’s inequality, using 600-year-old starlight.

February 6, 2017

After making several upgrades, scientists have restarted the twin detectors of LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory. The Livingston detector site, located near Livingston, Louisiana, is pictured here.

LIGO back online, ready for more discoveries

Upgrades make detectors more sensitive to gravitational waves.

November 30, 2016

NASA’s New Horizons team has found evidence of any icy, slushy ocean beneath Pluto’s “heart."

Pluto’s icy, slushy heart

Data from New Horizons mission suggest a water-ice ocean lies beneath Pluto’s heart-shaped basin.

November 16, 2016

ABRACADABRA (A Broadband/Resonant Approach to Cosmic Axion Detection with an Amplifying B-field Ring Apparatus), consists of a series of magnetic coils, wound in the shape of a toroid, or donut, which is then encased in a layer of superconducting metal and kept at temperatures just above absolute zero. The scientists plan to use a highly sensitive magnetometer, placed inside the donut hole, to det...

Team simulates a magnetar to seek dark matter particle

Detecting “axion” particles may solve longstanding problem in particle physics.

October 7, 2016

This artist's depiction shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft contacting the asteroid Bennu with its Touch-And-Go Sample Arm. The mission aims to return a sample of Bennu's surface coating to Earth and to return detailed information about the asteroid and its trajectory.

MIT’s REXIS is bound for asteroid Bennu

Instrument will help OSIRIS-REx mission identify locations for collecting an asteroid sample.

September 8, 2016

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a huge, cubic-kilometer particle detector buried deep under the ice at the South Pole. After analyzing 20,000 neutrinos detected over the span of a year at the observatory, scientists were unable to observe any sign of sterile, or “hidden,” neutrinos.

Neutrino search finds no evidence of “hidden” particle

If discovered, sterile neutrinos may explain dark matter.

August 8, 2016

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