Early findings from HERA telescope promise deeper understanding of the cosmic dawn
Scientists including MIT’s Jacqueline Hewitt and Nicholas Kern share long-awaited results, getting closer to the universe’s first stars.
Why are comet heads green — but not their tails?
An accidental discovery and a love of spectroscopic perturbations leads to the solution of a 90-year-old puzzle.
Kerstin Perez is searching the cosmos for signs of dark matter
“There need to be more building blocks than the ones we know about,” says the particle physicist.
Could acid-neutralizing life-forms make habitable pockets in Venus’ clouds?
A new study shows it’s theoretically possible. The hypothesis could be tested soon with proposed Venus-bound missions.
Super-bright stellar explosion is likely a dying star giving birth to a black hole or neutron star
The discovery, based on an unusual event dubbed “the Cow,” may offer astronomers a new way to spot infant compact objects.
“Newer, nimbler, faster:” Venus probe will search for signs of life in clouds of sulfuric acid
Report led by MIT scientists details a suite of privately-funded missions to hunt for life on Earth's sibling planet.
NASA selects three MIT alumni for astronaut training
Marcos Berríos ’06, Christina Birch PhD ’15, and Christopher Williams PhD ’12 make up a third of the 2021 NASA astronaut candidate class.
TESS discovers a planet the size of Mars but with the makeup of Mercury
The boiling new world, which zips around its star at ultraclose range, is among the lightest exoplanets found to date.
One year on this giant, blistering hot planet is just 16 hours long
A newly discovered “ultrahot Jupiter” has the shortest orbit of any known gas giant.
Mark Vogelsberger: Simulating galaxy formation for clues to the universe
“In astrophysics, we have only this one universe which we can observe,” the physics professor says. “With a computer, we can create different universes, which we can check.”
Taming the data deluge
A National Science Foundation-funded team will use artificial intelligence to speed up discoveries in physics, astronomy, and neuroscience.
Neutron star collisions are a “goldmine” of heavy elements, study finds
Mergers between two neutron stars have produced more heavy elements in last 2.5 billion years than mergers between neutron stars and black holes.
Astronomers detect signs of an atmosphere stripped from a planet during giant impact
Such planetary smashups are likely common in young solar systems, but they haven’t been directly observed.
Scientists find evidence the early solar system harbored a gap between its inner and outer regions
The cosmic boundary, perhaps caused by a young Jupiter or an emerging wind, likely shaped the composition of infant planets.
Professor Emeritus Ronald Probstein, world-renowned expert in fluid mechanics, dies at 93
Probstein’s research had diverse applications in fields including aeronautics, energy, desalination, and soil decontamination.