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astrophysics

Artist's impression of a binary black hole system

Space

Black holes may be hurtling around at 10 per cent the speed of light

When two black holes merge to form a single one, it can zoom off at an extraordinary pace – but scientists have found that it does have a speed limit

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Space

Could a gravitational wave rip apart an entire planet?

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A new image of a supermassive black hole has revealed more of the disc of matter falling into it and the powerful winds created by that process. The black hole in question is called M87*, and it was the subject of the first direct image of a black hole ? this new data will help researchers complete the picture.

Space

Detailed image of supermassive black hole shows its powerful jet

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Space

How to understand wormholes and their weird quantum effects

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The giant El Gordo galaxy cluster

Space

JWST spots smallest galaxy outside our local universe

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Artwork of the young Earth-Moon system. The Earth had recently formed when it was struck by a protoplanet called Theia roughly three times the size of Mars. Debris from the impact went into orbit, while the cores of the two planets merged. Within weeks of the event, the debris formed a Saturn-like ring around the Earth. Later collisions in this ring led to the formation of the Moon, probably within just a few thousand years. Initially the Earth and Moon were much closer together than they are now, and spinning more quickly.

Space

Moon mystery could be solved by simulation of planetary smash-up

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Figure 4. Pseudo-color images of all Cepheid-bearing galaxies analyzed in this work.

Space

It’s official – we don’t know how fast the universe is expanding

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Newborn stars, hidden behind thick dust, are revealed in this image of a section of the so-called Christmas Tree Cluster from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The newly revealed infant stars appear as pink and red specks toward the center and appear to have formed in regularly spaced intervals along linear structures in a configuration that resembles the spokes of a wheel or the pattern of a snowflake. Hence, astronomers have nicknamed this the

Space

Sun-like stars may go through brighter phases as they grow up

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WHY is there something rather than nothing?

Physics

Why is there something not nothing? The big bang isn’t the only answer

The idea that the universe started in the big bang revolutionised 20th-century cosmology. But it seems increasingly unlikely it was a case of something from nothing

Features

Space

Lunar craters could reveal past collisions with ancient black holes

Features

Physics

The black hole paradox that thwarts our understanding of reality

Features

Space

Why there are still huge mysteries in supernova physics

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Space

Why the universe can be described by the equations of fluids

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