Artist’s depiction of Schrödinger’s cat. The thought experiment known as Schrödinger’s cat is one of the most famous, and misunderstood, concepts in quantum mechanics. By thinking deeply about it, researchers have come to spectacular insights about physical reality. Who came…
Scientists have spotted an extremely powerful explosion in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, which is located about 390 million light years from Earth. Here, a composite showing the area in X-ray, infrared and radio wavelengths. Astronomers have spotted a cosmic blast…
Could the universe have more dimensions than we realize? String theory is a purported theory of everything that physicists hope will one day explain … everything. All the forces, all the particles, all the constants, all the things under a…
An internal photo shows the lasers of the Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus (ALPHA) antimatter experiment at work. A bubbling, raucous vacuum fills quantum space, distorting the shape of every hydrogen atom in the universe. And now we know that it…
Daredevil Mike Hughes tragically passed away during a launch accident this past Saturday (Feb. 22). This image is from August 25, 2019, Amboy, California, USA: After a long month of launch attempts in August in 100 degree heat ”Mad” MIKE…
The Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center is being converted into a hospital for patients infected with the new coronavirus, seen here on Feb. 4, 2020. A newly identified coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (formerly 2019-nCoV) has been spreading in China, and has…
The Helix Nebula, deep in the Aquarius constellation. Your daily horoscope: If it’s your birthday today (or any other day), congratulations! You are very lucky. You were born into a universe of endless mystery and wonder — a vast and…
An illustration shows a rocket approaching an asteroid that’s drifted too close to Earth. A scout probe orbits nearby. If a giant object looks like it’s going to slam into Earth, humanity has a few options: Hammer it with a…
Inflation stretched the tiny universe into a macroscopic size and turned cosmic energy into matter. But it likely created an equal amount of matter and antimatter. It’s not clear why but the authors probe one theory that a phase transition…
A visualization of the filaments in the cosmic web. Simulation produced by the EAGLE project. The universe is permeated by a vast, invisible web, its tendrils weaving through space. But despite organizing the matter we see in space, this dark…
White dwarfs are tightly compressed balls of glowing gas left after some stars die. Humans have been searching for signs of extraterrestrial (ET) life for decades. We’ve been listening carefully for strange radio signals, looking for signatures of the artificial…
A pair of images show two views of Pallas with its pock-marked surface. New images reveal that one of the strangest asteroids in the solar system is also the most covered in craters. Pallas, at 318 miles (512 kilometers) in…