Vanessa Janek
Cosmologist Thinks a Strange Signal May Be Evidence of a Parallel Universe
In the beginning, there was chaos. Hot, dense, and packed with energetic particles, the early Universe was a turbulent, bustling place.…
Shape-shifting neutrinos earn physicists the 2015 Nobel
What do Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, Paul Dirac, and Marie Curie have in common? They each won the Nobel prize in…
The Journey of Light, From the Stars to Your Eyes
This week, millions of people will turn their eyes to the skies in anticipation of the 2015 Perseid meteor shower. But what happens on less…
What’s the Big Deal About the Pentaquark?
"Three quarks for Muster Mark!," wrote James Joyce in his labyrinthine fable, Finnegan's Wake. By now, you may have heard this quote -…
What Shape is the Universe?
It's a reasonable question to wonder what the shape of the Universe is. Is it a sphere? A torus? Is…
How Can Space Travel Faster Than The Speed Of Light?
Cosmologists are intellectual time travelers. Looking back over billions of years, these scientists are able to trace the evolution of…
Two Stars On A Death Spiral Set To Detonate As A Supernova
Two white dwarfs circle around one other, locked in a fatal tango. With an intimate orbit and a hefty combined mass, the pair is ultimately…
Don’t Look At Black Holes Too Closely, They Might Disappear
We've come a long way in 13.8 billion years; but despite our impressively extensive understanding of the Universe, there are still…
Astronomers See a Massive Black Hole Tear a Star Apart
A telescope peers into the blackness of deep space. Suddenly - a brilliant flash of light appears that wasn't there before.…
Astronomers Catch A Quasar Shutting Off
Last week, astronomers at Yale University reported seeing something unusual: a seemingly stedfast beacon from the far reaches of the Universe went quiet.…