Galaxy cluster, left, with ring of dark matter visible, right.
NASA
An exciting new experiment is being set up at Yale university in the US.
An image of GAL-CLUS-022058s — the largest and one of the most complete Einstein rings ever discovered.
(ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. Jha)
Observations during historical solar eclipses confirmed Einstein’s theory of gravity, and led to the predictions of black holes.
Getty Images
2024 is a leap year, when the shortest month mops up a bit of leftover time. But the extra day also tells us about space – and our place in it.
A multiple-exposure photograph of insects circling a light at night.
Samuel Fabian
A new study shows how artificial light at night scrambles insects’ normal flight patterns, pulling them off course into orbit around the light.
The late and beloved Leonard Cohen acknowledges fans at a Toronto performance in 2008.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Harris
Leonard Cohen, a man about whom surely no Hallmark festive movie will ever be made, dared the Divine to answer humanity’s sorrows.
Image Point Fr/Shutterstock
SAD is a debilitating condition affecting many people, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
If traveling into the past is possible, one way to do it might be sending people through tunnels in space.
by raggio5 via Pixabay
Scientists are trying to figure out if time travel is even theoretically possible. If it is, it looks like it would take a whole lot more knowledge and resources than humans have now to do it.
This age old question has been dubbed Olbers’ paradox.
John Moore via Getty Images News
An astronomer explains why space looks so dark despite containing 200 billion trillion stars.
Work in attosecond physics has led to a better understanding of how electrons move around.
Oselote/iStock via Getty Images
Three scientists won the 2023 Nobel Prize in physics for their work developing methods to shoot laser pulses that only last an attosecond, or a mind-bogglingly tiny fraction of a second.
Shutterstock
They’re heavily promoted. Your optometrist may even prescribe them. But when we looked at the evidence, this is what we found.
Unlike human eyes, dogs’ eyes are located more to the side of the skull. That gives them a wider field of vision.
(Shutterstock)
Your faithful companion sees the world differently than you do, but it’s a mistake to assume dogs only see black, white and shades of grey.
Researchers can use mirrorlike beam splitters to put phonons, or quantum sound particles, into a state of superposition.
Peter Allen via University of Chicago
Scientists show they can create quantum superpositions of sound particles, pointing to the potential for mechanical quantum computers.
Penumbral lunar eclipses slightly darken the Moon.
H. Raab/Wikipedia Commons
Not all lunar eclipses are alike. An astronomer explains the science behind the slight dimming of the Moon on May 5, 2023.
Shutterstock
A new way to make high-frequency light could make it easier to look at things 10 times smaller than conventional microscopes can see.
The higher your vantage point, the more likely you’ll see more of the rainbow’s circle.
Chen Hui/VCG via Getty Images
Each rainbow is personal – the rainbow you see isn’t exactly the same rainbow the next person sees. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.
Watching a solar eclipse is always fascinating. During the phase when the moon completely obstructs the sun, daylight gives way to a deep twilight sky.
(Shutterstock)
Some parts of North America will witness a total solar eclipse in April 2024. This may seem far away, but you should think about preparing for this rare and fascinating phenomenon.
Tobias Carlsson / Unsplash
In an update of one of the most famous experiments in physics, scientists have used ‘slits in time’ to explore the properties of light and ultrafast optical materials.
Shutterstock / EvgeniiAnd
Evidence suggests that neither books nor electronic devices are directly to blame for the increase in myopia worldwide. Rather, they enhance this phenomenon by keeping children out of the sunlight.
SUKJAI PHOTO/Shutterstock
Rainbows are made when water droplets split light up into colours.
Brion Gysin and William Burroughs with the Dreamachine, 1972.
Charles Gatewood
Flickering light can make people see different colours and shapes or feel altered emotions or sense of time.