Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Mar 4, 2021

'Gravity portals' could morph dark matter into ordinary matter, astrophysicists propose

Astrophysicists have an idea that could help to solve two mysteries: the reason for the bizarre abundance of super-high-energy radiation shooting from the center of our galaxy and the identity of invisible stuff called dark matter that has perplexed the world since its discovery some 50 years ago. And the...

Mar 11, 2021

Physicists measure the tiniest gravitational force ever

Physicists have measured the smallest gravitational field ever recorded, in an experiment that could help in the search for a unified theory of physics. Of the four fundamental forces known to physics — the weak and strong interactions, the electromagnetic force and the gravitational force — only gravity remains unintegrated...

May 21, 2021

How a weird theory of gravity could break cause-and-effect

Astronomers have known that galaxies across the universe are behaving badly. Some are spinning too fast, while others are just way too hot and still others glommed into super structures too quickly. But they don't know why. Perhaps some new hidden particle, like dark matter, could explain the weirdness. Or...

Jul 21, 2021

Neutron star 'mountains' may be blocking our view of mysterious gravitational waves

Neutron stars are covered with mountains only fractions of a millimeter tall, new research shows, meaning these bumps are hundreds of times smaller than previous estimates had suggested. Neutron stars are compact stellar objects, similar in size to a large city with a diameter of around 6.2 miles (10 kilometers),...

Jul 27, 2021

Why does gravity pull us down and not up?

Gravity is the reason things with mass or energy are attracted to each other. It is why apples fall toward the ground and planets orbit stars. Magnets attract some types of metals, but they can also push other magnets away. So how come you feel only the pull of gravity?...

Aug 23, 2021

Traversable wormholes are possible under certain gravity conditions

Interested in scooting through a wormhole, the ultimate cheat-code through space and time? Perhaps you'd like to hop from star system to star system across the universe without breaking a sweat? But first, you'd better make sure your wormhole is traversable. Any traveler trying to cross a wormhole that does...

Sep 17, 2021

New gravitational wave detector picks up possible signal from the beginning of time

Two intriguing signals spotted in a small gravitational-wave detector could represent all kinds of exotic phenomena — from new physics to dark matter interacting with black holes to vibrations from near the beginning of the universe. But, because of the experiment's novelty, researchers are being cautious about claiming a discovery...

Nov 9, 2021

'Tsunami' of gravitational waves sets record for most ever space-time ripples detected

A record tsunami of gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of space-time — could help to unlock the mysteries of how the universe and its stars evolved and put Einstein's theory of general relativity to the test. Scientists working at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the U.S....

Jan 14, 2022

China builds 'artificial moon' for gravity experiment

Chinese scientists have built an artificial moon research facility that will enable them to simulate low-gravity environments using magnetism. The facility, slated for official launch this year, will use powerful magnetic fields inside a 2-foot-diameter (60 centimeters) vacuum chamber to make gravity disappear. The scientists were inspired by an earlier...

Nov 15, 2022

Something is wrong with Einstein's theory of gravity

Everything in the universe has gravity – and feels it too. Yet this most common of all fundamental forces is also the one that presents the biggest challenges to physicists. Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity has been remarkably successful in describing the gravity of stars and planets, but it...

Feb 8, 2023

Physicists want to use gravitational waves to 'see' the beginning of time

Ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves could help reveal the secrets at the dawn of time, just moments after the Big Bang, new research suggests. And physicists say they can learn more about these primeval gravitational waves using nuclear fusion reactors here on Earth. In a new study, physicists...

Feb 9, 2023

Scientists reveal 'invisible' galaxy from the early universe, using space-time trick predicted by Einstein

Researchers have finally revealed the details of an extremely distant and dark galaxy that's been nearly impossible to see — until now. The young, star-forming galaxy is filled with dust and gas, and formed 2 billion years after the Big Bang, the researchers report — an era more than 11...

Feb 15, 2023

Da Vinci understood key aspect of gravity centuries before Einstein, lost sketches reveal

Leonardo da Vinci may have had an understanding of gravity that was centuries ahead of his time, his sketchbooks reveal. Da Vinci's sketches, which were forgotten for decades, show triangles formed by sand-like particles pouring from a jar. These falling grains depicted experiments to show that gravity was a form...

Aug 1, 2023

Rare 'Einstein cross' warps light from one of the universe's brightest objects in this stunning image

Astronomers have discovered a stunning, rare example of an Einstein cross splitting and magnifying light from the far depths of the universe. In the image, one foreground elliptical galaxy, around 6 billion light-years from Earth, has warped and quadrisected a bright beam of light from a background galaxy about 11...

Sep 27, 2023

Major CERN experiment proves antigravity doesn't exist — at least when it comes to antimatter

On Sept. 27, an international team of physicists reported a major finding about an elusive form of matter known as antimatter. It appears that antimatter responds to gravity the same way regular matter does, validating theories proposed by Albert Einstein more than a century ago. This result marks the first-ever...