Gravitational Waves

Dark Matter Could Be Made of Black Holes From the Beginning of Time

An analysis of ripples in space-time suggests the mysterious substance consists of primordial black holes.

Live Science

Could Something Missing in the Universe Be Revealed by Ripples in Spacetime?

New research suggests that gravitational waves could help figure out more about the mysterious dark energy thought to be lurking in the void.

SYFY Wire

Cosmic Bubbles May Have Forged Dark Matter, New Theory Suggests

New theory suggests cosmic bubbles during the birth of our universe are responsible for creating dark matter.

Live Science

What 50 Gravitational-Wave Events Reveal About the Universe

Astrophysicists now have enough black-hole mergers to map their frequency over the cosmos’s history.

Nature

Physicists Argue That Black Holes From the Big Bang Could Be the Dark Matter

It was an old idea of Stephen Hawking’s: Unseen “primordial” black holes might be the hidden dark matter. It fell out of favor for decades, but a new series of studies has shown how the theory can work.

Quanta Magazine

These Black Holes Shouldn’t Exist, but There They Are

On the far side of the universe, a collision of dark giants sheds light on an invisible process of cosmic growth.

The New York Times

In Search of Naked Singularities

The “cosmic censorship” hypothesis says they shouldn’t exist — but is it possible that we’ve already detected them and misinterpreted their nature?

Scientific American

‘Radical Change’ Needed After Latest Neutron Star Collision

A recent neutron star merger has defied astronomers’ expectations, leading them to question longstanding ideas about neutron stars and the supernovas that create them.

Quanta Magazine

Harvard, Vanderbilt Scientists Find “Stellar Budget” for Colliding Stars

The study found that roughly 14 percent of stars collide after becoming black holes.

The Harvard Crimson

LIGO and Virgo Probably Spotted the First Black Hole Swallowing Up a Neutron Star

Astronomers may have detected gravitational waves from a new type of event.

Science News

Gravitational Waves Hint at Detection of Black Hole Eating Star

LIGO and Virgo observatories have spotted ripples from what could be the first-ever detection of this long-sought event.

Nature

Brian Greene on the First-Ever Image of a Black Hole From the Event Horizon Telescope

Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope announced a result that will change our understanding of the universe: the first-ever image of a black hole’s event horizon, the point at which light can no longer escape the black hole’s gravitational pull.

World Science Festival

Black Holes and Neutron Stars: A Merger in Space

With Duncan Brown, Vicky Kalogera, Frans Pretorius, Jocelyn Read, and moderator Mario Livio.

World Science Festival

Get Ready For Gravitational Waves All Day, Every Day

An infusion of cash is kicking off the next set of gravitational wave detectors, which will help physicists map the universe in richer detail.

WIRED

Gravitational Waves Could Solve a Cosmological Crisis Within Five Years — or Shake Physics to Its Core

We’re closing in on one of the most important numbers in the universe.

Popular Science

Is Gravity Quantum?

The ongoing search for the graviton — the proposed fundamental particle carrying gravitational force — is a crucial step in physicists’ long journey toward a theory of everything.

Scientific American

Harvard, MIT Scientists Propose New Method to Measure Universe’s Expansion

Scientists from Harvard and MIT could have the key to discovering how the universe began and whether it will continue expanding or eventually collapse.

The Boston Globe

Gravitational Waves Hold Key to Knowing How Fast the Universe Is Expanding

Two physicists propose using rare pairs of black holes and neutron stars to nail down a more precise Hubble constant.

Inverse

Maybe We Could “See” a Singularity After All

When black holes collide, interactions between their cores might leave an imprint on the resulting gravitational waves.

Scientific American

Gravitational Waves Could Help Scientists Solve A Major Black Hole Mystery

Astrophysicists at Brown University and Harvard University who study gravitational waves say these ripples in the fabric of space and time could help them investigate the possible existence of a very specific kind of black hole, one that hypothetically formed right after the big bang.

Inverse

What the Neutron Star Collision Means for Dark Matter

The latest LIGO observations rekindle a fiery debate over how gravity works: Does the universe include dark matter, or doesn’t it?

Smithsonian