Read article 'Theorists calculate the route to carbon-12'
The triple-alpha reaction rate that produces carbon-12 in stars and other energetic astronomical phenomena has been a tricky subject for nuclear theorists for some time.
Read article 'Closer to the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole'
Astronomers have been tracking the motion of stars at the very centre of the Galaxy for the past 20 years. One star in particular has attracted a great deal of attention by completing a full orbi...
Read article 'Deflector shields protect the lunar surface'
The origin of the enigmatic "lunar swirls" – patches of relatively pale lunar soil, some measuring several tens of kilometres across – has been an unresolved mystery since the mid-1960s, when NASA...
Read article 'Baryon oscillation spectra for all'
By professional astronomy standards, the 2.5 m telescope at Apache Point Observatory is quite small. More than 50 research telescopes are larger and many are located at much better sites.
Read article 'ALMA tastes sugar around a Sun-like star'
A team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) has identified sugar molecules in the gas surrounding a young Sun-like star. This is the first time that sugar has b...
Read article 'ESO and CERN: a tale of two organizations'
A look back at the birth of ESO 50 years ago.
Read article 'Auger determines pp inelastic cross-section at √s = 57 TeV'
The Pierre Auger Observatory was constructed with the aim of understanding the nature and characteristics of these particles using precise measurements of cosmic-ray-induced extensive air showers up t...
Read article 'Dark-matter filament binds galaxy clusters'
Numerical simulations of structure formation in the universe reveal how clusters of galaxies form at the intersection of dark-matter filaments. The presence of such a filament connecting the galaxy cl...
Read article 'The Milky Way’s dark-matter halo reappears'
Back in April, a study of the motion of hundreds of stars in the Milky Way found no evidence of a massive dark-matter halo (CERN Courier June 2012 p11). The finding came as a surprise and did not long...
Read article 'A discovery of cosmic proportions'
What Victor Hess found out when he took to the skies in 1912.
