Physicists observationally confirm Hawking’s black hole theorem for the first time

Study offers evidence, based on gravitational waves, to show that the total area of a black hole’s event horizon can never decrease.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
July 1, 2021 ~7 min

LIGO and Virgo detect rare mergers of black holes with neutron stars for the first time

Gravitatational-wave signals suggest black holes completely devoured their companion neutron stars.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
June 29, 2021 ~7 min


CHIME telescope detects more than 500 mysterious fast radio bursts in its first year of operation

Observations quadruple the number of known radio bursts and reveal two types: one-offs and repeaters.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
June 9, 2021 ~7 min

Supermassive black holes devour gas just like their petite counterparts

Regardless of size, all black holes experience similar accretion cycles, a new study finds.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
May 17, 2021 ~7 min

Fast-spinning black holes narrow the search for dark matter particles

Certain ultralight bosons would be expected to put the brakes on black holes, but new results show no such slowdown.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
April 14, 2021 ~7 min

Astronomers image magnetic fields at the edge of M87’s black hole

New image of M87 reveals how it looks in polarized light.

MIT Haystack Observatory • mit
March 24, 2021 ~10 min

Astronomers detect extended dark matter halo around ancient dwarf galaxy

Findings suggest the first galaxies in the universe were more massive than previously thought.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
Feb. 1, 2021 ~6 min

Search for axions from nearby star Betelgeuse comes up empty

Results significantly narrow the range of possible places to find the hypothetical dark matter particles.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
Jan. 21, 2021 ~7 min


Mark Vogelsberger wins 2020 Buchalter Cosmology Prize for simulating a “fuzzy” universe

Associate professor of physics shares the honor with colleague Phillip Mocz for their novel dark matter research.

Kelso Harper | MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research • mit
Jan. 14, 2021 ~3 min

Storm in a cosmic teacup: A new paradigm for understanding plasma turbulence

PhD candidate Lucio Milanese uncovers new fundamental mechanism in turbulence.

Paul Rivenberg | Plasma Science and Fusion Center • mit
Jan. 12, 2021 ~9 min

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