Read article '3D map reveals distribution of dark matter'
Making a map of something that cannot be seen directly seems almost impossible, but it has been achieved by a wide international collaboration analysing a huge set of observations gathered by the Hubb...
Read article 'SN1987A heralds the start of neutrino astronomy'
In 1987, detectors recorded a neutrino pulse emitted by SN1987A. Masayuki Nakahata, who found the signal in Kamiokande, looks at the ongoing legacy of this historic event.
Read article 'Finding the speed limit for galactic positrons'
A new analysis of diffuse galactic gamma-ray data sets constraints on the initial energy of positrons produced in the centre of our galaxy. This limitation to at most a few mega-electron-volts severel...
Read article 'An Invitation to Astrophysics'
This book describes several aspects of astrophysics and cosmology in a way that a physicist or beginner in astrophysics can understand. It emphasizes current research and exciting new frontiers, and i...
Read article 'Mather and Smoot share Nobel for precise observations of the CMB'
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2006 recognizes research that studies the young universe, before the first stars were born and before galaxies began to form.
Read article 'Subaru finds most distant galaxy'
Japanese astronomers using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii have detected the most distant known galaxy in the universe. Light from this source was emitted 780 million years after the Big Bang, at ...
Read article 'US team finds direct proof for dark matter'
The idea of dark matter in the universe dates back to the 1930s, with the observation that the gravitational force on the visible matter in clusters of galaxies could not fully account for their behav...
Read article 'Supernova follows X-ray flash'
Astronomers have reached another milestone in the understanding of gamma-ray bursts by observing a supernova at the location of an X-ray flash that was detected by NASA’s Swift spacecraft. The s...
Read article 'PAMELA looks for dark matter and antimatter'
PAMELA will stay in space for at least three years, on a 70° elliptic orbit at an altitude of 300–600 km.
Read article 'Satellite gives a new view of pulsars'
Observations of old pulsars by the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton satellite fail to detect the 1 million-degree hot spots seen around the pole of younger pulsars. The absence of polar X...
