Astrophysics1380 articles archived since 1845

Odd Gamma-Ray Burst Points to New Form of Stellar Suicide

One of the brightest stellar explosions ever observed blows apart current theories on how stars die a spectacular death. By David Biello

"Tabletop" Particle Accelerator Boosts Electrons to Stable Energies

French researchers finally develop a stable, two-laser-pulse particle accelerator that can be used for applications from materials science to medicine

Simple Estimate Suggests Our Sun Had a Crowded Nursery

Wronger Than Wrong

Not all wrong theories are equal

Two Applications of Superconducting Detectors

Astronomers Spy First Planetary Disk around Large Star

Massive Star Forms by Absorption, Not Collision

Is String Theory Unraveling?

How to Blow Up a Star

It is not as easy as you would think. Models of supernovae have failed to reproduce these explosions--until recently

What are dark matter and dark energy, and how are they affecting the universe?

Colliding Clusters Shed Light on Dark Matter

The Inelegant Universe

Two new books argue that it is time for string theory to give way

A Hint of Axions

An experiment may have seen an elusive new particle

Hard Landscape

Finding our universe in string theory appears impossible

Largest Map of Universe Yet Bolsters Theories about Dark Energy

Older Black Holes Still Full of Energy

The First Few Microseconds

In recent experiments, physicists have replicated conditions of the infant universe--with startling results

Beyond the Standard Model

Theoretical physicists are not yet at the end of their string

In the Groove

Measuring a black hole's spin by a crease in spacetime

Teach the Science

Wherever evolution education is under attack by creationist thinking, Eugenie Scott will be there to defend science--with rationality and resolve