MIT researchers have found that the high temperature of intracluster gas, which condenses to form stars, may be hindering the development of new stars, reports Jonathan O’Callaghan for the Daily Mail. The researchers hope to use the new findings to better understand how stars form in surrounding galaxies.
Writing for Scientific American, Jennifer Ouellette features Professor Allan Adams research on black holes on her list of the 20 best physics papers of 2014. “We showed that when you throw stuff into a black hole, the surface of the black hole responds like a fluid,” says Adams.
Researchers from MIT have detected the brightest pulsar ever recorded, reports Brook Hays of UPI. “Despite its small dimensions and modest mass, the pulsating dead star is burning with the energy of 10 million suns,” writes Hays.
In an interview with Scientific American, Dr. Michael Hecht of MIT’s Haystack Observatory discusses the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), the world’s most powerful radio telescope. Hecht oversees the ALMA Phasing Project and explained that the Haystack Observatory will play a central role in processing the data gathered by ALMA.
Reporting for Scientific American, Seth Fletcher writes about a new effort, led by MIT’s Shep Doeleman, to coordinate radio telescopes around the world to create a telescope powerful enough to get a picture of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way.