Astronomers discover a brand-new type of astrophysical object: A black hole star
The mashup of a black hole and an enormous star has never been seen before and could explain the mysterious little red dots often found in deep-space images.
Diffuse puffs of “missing” matter surround most galaxies
An MIT-led team used bright radio bursts to illuminate a vast source of matter that was previously unaccounted for.
Many black holes had past lives, new research shows
Physicists have found signs of colliding black holes that are themselves products of previous black hole smash-ups.
Listening for the echoes of black holes
By analyzing X-ray reverberations and other astrophysical data, Erin Kara seeks to understand the most extreme objects in the universe.
MIT astronomers discover the earliest known flickering quasar
When the universe was just 850 million years old, this voracious black hole was already surprisingly mature, a new study finds.
The Haystack 37m Telescope: A new era of astrophysical research
The legendary radio astronomy telescope returns to its science and educational mission at MIT Haystack Observatory.
A new way to spot signs of dark matter
Gravitational waves emitted by colliding black holes may bear imprints of dark matter, which physicists could detect with a new model.
Two physicists and a curious host walk into a studio…
On GBH’s new show The Curiosity Desk, MIT LIGO researchers revel in the beauties of fundamental discovery science and MIT astronomers talk planetary defense.
New catalog more than doubles the number of gravitational-wave detections made by LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA observatories
The latest crop of space-time wobbles includes a variety of heavy, fast-spinning, and lopsided colliding black holes.
Could a primordial black hole’s last burst explain a mysteriously energetic neutrino?
If a new proposal by MIT physicists bears out, the recent detection of a record-setting neutrino could be the first evidence of elusive Hawking radiation.
Ten years later, LIGO is a black-hole hunting machine
LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA celebrate the anniversary of the first detection of gravitational waves and announce verification of Stephen Hawking’s black hole area theorem.
Professor Emeritus Rainer Weiss, influential physicist who forged new paths to understanding the universe, dies at 92
The longtime MIT professor shared a Nobel Prize for his role in developing the LIGO observatory and detecting gravitational waves.
Astronomers discover star-shredding black holes hiding in dusty galaxies
Unlike active galaxies that constantly pull in surrounding material, these black holes lie dormant, waking briefly to feast on a passing star.
Viewing the universe through ripples in space
Physicist Salvatore Vitale is looking for new sources of gravitational waves, to reach beyond what we can learn about the universe through light alone.
Study reveals the Phoenix galaxy cluster in the act of extreme cooling
Observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope help to explain the cluster’s mysterious starburst, usually only seen in younger galaxies.