Gizmodo reporter Ryan Mandelbaum highlights how MIT researchers used data from the CLAS particle accelerator and detector to determine that neutron stars are heavily influenced by protons. Prof. Or Hen explains that the findings show that, “protons are much more important in determining the properties of neutron stars than we thought.”
Physics Today reporter David Kramer highlights how Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), an MIT startup, is on a mission to prove that fusion power is a viable energy source. “CFS benefits from decades of experience by MIT researchers working on high-field, high-plasma-density tokamaks,” notes Kramer.
NASA’s TESS satellite, which is searching for planets outside our solar system, is expected to send back its first series of data in August, reports the Xinhua News Agency. The mission is being led by MIT researchers and will, “monitor the brightness of more than 200,000 stars over a period of two years, eyeing temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits,” according to Xinhua.
Writing for Space.com, Chelsea Gohd reports that a team of researchers led by Hans Moritz Guenther at MIT’s Kavli Institute has observed a young star devouring a planet. “The researchers hope to get a better idea of what really goes on in the life of a young star and how infant planets manage to survive,” explains Gohd.
Using data on subatomic particles called neutrinos from Antarctica’s IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a team including MIT researchers has determined that Einstein’s theory of special relativity is correct. “Neutrinos had not yet been discovered when Einstein died, but his theory still predicts their behavior,” explains Kimberly Hickok for LiveScience.
Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press reports that astronomers, led by MIT research scientist Hans Mortiz Guenther, believe they may have witnessed a star devouring a young planet. According to computer simulations, the observed “30-fold increase in iron on the edge of the star” and “pronounced dimming” could be the result of planet devouring.
Prof. John Bush speaks with Popular Science reporter Dyani Sabin about the physics behind bending a soccer ball like a World Cup player. “The physics is rather complicated honestly, but there are simple ways to explain it,” says Bush. “The reason it looks mysterious is because you can’t see what the surrounding fluid, in this case air, is doing.”
A team of researchers, including MIT physicists, has detected evidence of a new elementary particle called a “sterile” neutrino, writes Natalie Wolchover for The Washington Post. “The existence of a sterile neutrino would revolutionize physics from the smallest to the largest scales.” Wolchover explains.
Prof. Janet Conrad speaks with NPR's Joe Palca about her work detecting a new particle called the sterile neutrino. To find the particle, Conrad and her colleagues shot a beam of neutrinos into a container of mineral oil and identified an extra signal. Conrad explains, “to have an extra signal you need to somehow introduce an extra neutrino.”
Writing for The New Yorker, Prof. David Kaiser contrasts a new study in Nature, which concludes that “if human will is free, there are physical events… that are intrinsically random, that is, impossible to predict,” with the 19th century writings of Stephen Freeman, who argued that, “human consciousness and our perception of free will must be subject to chains of causation.” The researchers, says Kaiser, “turned Freeman’s formulation on its head.”
Prof. Sara Seager speaks with Nova Wonders about the hope of finding “some sign of life” with the TESS mission. "We'd like to see methane and other gases,” says Seager. “And some of these, on their own or together, would help make the case for life on another planet.”
NASA’s recently launched Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) “will spend the next two years scanning 200,000 stars looking for any exoplanets orbiting them,” explains New Scientist. In about two months, once the satellite is in orbit and its cameras are tested, “there’ll just be a flood of information,” says MIT’s George Ricker, the principal investigator on TESS.
Davide Castelvecchi of Nature explores the “ambitious scientific quarry” that gravitational-wave scientists are after, including what happened in the first few moments after the Big Bang. Castelvecchi, who speaks with MIT physicist Rainer Weiss for this piece, notes that the field has already “delivered discoveries at a staggering rate, outpacing even the rosiest expectations.”
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will enter an unusual, highly elliptical orbit around the Earth to capture images of about 20,000 new exoplanet candidates, writes Robbie Gonzalez of Wired. "We are setting the stage for the future of exoplanet research—not just for the 21st century, but the 22nd century and beyond," says MIT Kavli Institute senior research scientist George Ricker, leader of the TESS mission.
With the launch of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite near, Elise Takahama of The Boston Globe spoke with Roland Vanderspek, a principal research scientist at MIT’s Kavli Institute, about the mission. “I’m hoping we get some really beautiful images,” said Vanderspek, “and enable good science all around the world.”