The discovery of tiny ripples in space from the violent collision of dense stars could help solve many mysteries – including where the gold in our jewellery comes from.
This year’s winners.
Illustration by N. Elmehed. NobelPrize.org
A new detector could work out what’s causing a heat flow from the Earth’s interior. It may even solve the mystery of what powers the Earth’s magnetic field.
There are two broad ways to measure the expansion of the universe. One is based on the cosmic microwave background, shown here, along with our own galaxy viewed in microwave wavelengths.
ESA, HFI & LFI consortia (2010)
The universe is expanding faster than expected, but we don’t know what’s driving it. Here are a few of the possible explanations, from dark energy to a modification of general relativity.
A burst of ghostly neutrinos may have been generated by a quasar like this.
ESO/M. Kornmesser
A cubic kilometer of clear, stable ice could help physicists answer big questions about cosmic rays and neutrinos. Hardy scientists collect data via a unique telescope at the frozen bottom of the world.
Neutrinos, we’re looking for you! Japan’s Super-Kamiokande detector.
Kamioka Observatory, ICRR (Institute for Cosmic Ray Research), The University of Tokyo
The tiniest of particles could have huge potential to solve the greatest mysteries of the universe - including why there is more matter than antimatter.
Japanese physicist Takaaki Kajita after he won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Arthur B McDonald of Canada.
EPA Franck Robichon
On the journey to discovery with the ‘gifted mentor’ Takaaki Kajita, one of this year’s Nobel Prize winners, from some one who studied with him.
Neutrinos, we’re looking for you! Japan’s Super-Kamiokande detector.
Kamioka Observatory, ICRR (Institute for Cosmic Ray Research), The University of Tokyo
They’re beyond tiny and super mysterious. Neutrinos are an elemental particle that might just help us understand the structure and evolution of the universe.
McDonald and Kajita sharing the happy news shortly after the announcement.
Reuters
What makes our sun shine has been a mystery for most of human history. Given our sun is a star and stars are suns, explaining the source of the sun’s energy would help us understand why stars shine. An…
Muons, a type of lepton, are studied at the Large Hadron Collider – but what are they?
CERN
The giant Large Hadron Collider at CERN’s lab in Europe may be closed until 2015 but experiments will still be run there in the second half of this year on much smaller synchrotrons that examined the decay…
Only physics can burn a hole through the sky.
European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Would physics be “far more interesting” if the Higgs boson had not been found? Stephen Hawking thinks so. He made this bold claim, possibly with his tongue slightly in his cheek, at the opening of a new…
Annihilation of the universe is guaranteed to burst your bubble.
Lu Lacerda
Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. Some say with a Higgs that light, One bubble might suffice. You may have heard in the recent media that the world was going to end. Uh, again. Worse…
The Large Hadron Collider has been used to find out what matter is fundamentally made of, and how the universe was created.
EPA/Martial Triezzini
One of humanity’s eternal questions surrounds what we are fundamentally made of. Many ancient philosophies believed in a set of classical elements: from water, air, fire and earth of ancient Greeks; to…