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Articles on Universe
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People travel hundreds or thousands of miles and spend a fortune to see the night sky in all its splendor. But we are literally blocking out the cosmic beauty above our homes.
While we can’t see inside a black hole, we can spot the intensely bright glowing disc that surrounds one. Now, we might better understand why these discs appear to ‘twinkle’.
Since ancient times, the stars have been set to music. Modern technology now enables scientists to convert images of space into real compositions.
Nothing is harder to find than you might think.
To understand this question, we need to travel back in time.
A year on since the historic launch of the most powerful infrared telescope in human history, we admire and explore some of the best images it delivered in 2022.
It has been one year since the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope and six months since the first pictures were released. Astronomers are already learning unexpected things about the early universe.
Astronomers have unpacked the mystery of how one star’s death created the nebula NGC3132 – never before seen in such detail.
Many galaxies are too faint or small for us to observe easily – but science can help us work it out.
The theory of gravity may need to be altered.
A comparison of star-forming galaxies suggests, surprisingly, that dark matter and visible matter do interact – taking us closer to understanding what keeps the galaxies together.
James Webb has spotted extremely distant galaxies formed soon after the Big Bang, but are they old or young? Or is this the wrong question to ask?
Regular matter makes up just one-sixth of all the matter in the universe. What would it mean to finally understand what makes up the rest?
A decadelong experiment produced the most accurate measurement yet of the mass of W bosons. These particles are responsible for the weak force, and the result is more evidence for undiscovered physics.
Complementary science will be at the heart of the Square Kilometre Array.
In the absence of mathematical explanations, the universe would be irrational rather than unpredictable.
Scientists have come up with a number of theories about the multiverse.
Some argue the Big Bang was a rebirth rather than a birth.
JSWT may be able to discover signs of life on planets around other stars.
Top contributors
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Professor of Astrophysics, University of Sydney
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Associate Professor in Astronomy, Monash University
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Professor, The University of Queensland
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ARC Laureate Fellow & Distinguished Professor, Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology
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Alan Duffy is a Friend of The Conversation.
Director of the Space Technology and Industry Institute, Swinburne University of Technology
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Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, University of Cambridge
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Cosmologist, University of Tasmania
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Senior Curator (Astronomy), Museums Victoria, and Honorary Fellow, The University of Melbourne
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Reader in Astrophysics, UCL
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Emeritus Professor, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, OzGrav, The University of Western Australia
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John Curtin Distinguished Professor (Radio Astronomy), Curtin University
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Associate Professor, Macquarie University
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Professor of Astrophysics and Space Science, University of Leicester
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Astronomer, CSIRO
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Reader in Theoretical Astrophysics, Liverpool John Moores University
