A study of 72 colliding galaxy clusters has found that dark matter is not only real, it interacts with itself even less than we thought.
The Raggedy Edge
A new analysis of astronomical data has found the Milky Way may be larger than we’ve thought.
Beasts of the Southern Wild
A team analyzing data from a deep sky survey have found 3 – 9 new dwarf galaxies. Their findings may help answer a nagging mystery of dark matter.
Galaxy X
New research finds evidence of a dark matter dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way.
Moving in the Dark
The effect of dark matter has been observed in the center of our galaxy, further confirming its existence.
Strange Days
Another day, another new idea for what dark matter might be. This time, it is a paper that proposes dark matter is made of regular matter. For those who are familiar with dark matter, this might raise an eyebrow because dark matter can’t be regular matter. In fact, what this paper shows is that while observational data excludes the usual suspects for dark matter such as cold gas and dust, small black holes and the like, there might be a way to shoehorn regular matter into the picture. The solution they propose is, quite literally, a bit strange.
It’s What’s For Dinner
A new paper in Physical Review Letters has led to popular science headlines wondering “Is dark energy eating dark matter?” but that’s not what the paper claims at all.
We’ll Fix It In Post
I’ve been thinking of ideas for a podcast, and one idea I have is a give and take between myself and other experts outside my field. So here is a first try at that format. It is an exchange with Grant Gutheil, who is a developmental psychology professor. This is just a raw recording to try the format, so it is …
A Matter of Time
The global positioning system (GPS) is an array of satellites orbiting the Earth, which can be used to pinpoint your location. Each of the satellites transmits a signal with its current position and time. A GPS receiver can then use signals from multiple satellites to determine where it is on the planet. GPS is perhaps most widely used in mobile phones. If you’ve ever had your phone give you directions, you’ve used GPS. In order to work properly, the clocks on a GPS satellite need to be extraordinarily precise. So precise that the effects of special and general relativity must be taken into account.