Postdoctoral associate Josh Borrow spoke with students from Watertown High School about his research and what inspired him to pursue a career in astrophysics. “One of the things that comes with this job is this odd sense of scale,” said Borrow. “I think astronomers really understand scale better than many people do. And I think the most inspiring thing about that is just how small we are relative to the rest of the universe.”
Profs. David Kaiser and Peter Fisher discuss the 95 percent of the universe that is made up of “two mysterious ingredients,” dark matter and dark energy, on NOVA Wonder. “[W]e know that dark matter and dark energy are in the grips of this cosmic competition,” said Kasier, “and which side, so to speak, has been winning has itself changed over time.”
In an article for a Wall Street Journal section on predictions for 2016, Prof. Frank Wilczek writes that physicists will soon be able to detect gravitational waves. Gravitational waves will, Wilczek explains, allow scientists to “monitor some of the most violent, dramatic events the universe has to offer.”
Marcelo Gleiser writes for NPR about different theories on furthering our understanding of the universe, including Professor Max Tegmark’s book “Our Mathematical Universe.” “According to Tegmark, math is not just the tool we invent to describe both physical reality and pure rational constructions, but the very essence of nature,” writes Gleiser.
“The goal of the simulation is to compare the actual cosmos — viewable via telescope — to the computer-created universe. The comparison will allow scientists to test if their theories on the creation of the universe work,” Salon reporter Sarah Gray writes of Illustris.
In an article posted on the Scientific American website, Elizabeth Gibney details the new computer model developed to simulate the Universe.
“The invisible web of dark matter and energy tying the universe together is recreated to the best of our knowledge, and the elements that make up stars and planets can be observed forming and coalescing,” Coldewey writes in an MSNBC article about Illustris.
Los Angeles Times reporter Deborah Netburn writes about the computer model developed to model the universe. The model is so accurate that, “a mock observation of galaxies from the Illustris model could pass for an image taken by the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Space Telescope,” Netburn reports.
Wired reporter Adam Mann writes about Illustris, the new computer model developed to model the history of the universe. Illustris can handle all elements of the universe’s 330 million light-year span, Mann reports.
Pallab Ghosh reports for BBC News on the new computer model of the universe developed by researchers from MIT and other institutions around the world.
The Associated Press reports on the new computer model of the universe developed by a team of researchers led by MIT Professor Mark Vogelsberger.
Reporter Lisa Grossman interviews MIT Professor Anna Frebel about her work searching for the oldest, living stars in the universe, and her recent discovery of a star almost as old as the universe.
“Four years ago, Anna Frebel, a young astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found an ancient star in a neighboring galaxy whose chemical composition proved nearly identical to some unusual stars on the outskirts of our own galaxy,” wrote New York Times reporter Curtis Brainard in a feature on Prof. Frebel’s work.