Albert Einstein

Boeing Starliner astronauts still stranded on ISS, what now?

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Listen here on your chosen podcast player. The Boeing Starliner spacecraft is experiencing mounting problems, meaning the astronauts it was carrying to the International Space Station are currently stuck there. The problems have prompted Boeing to scramble to remotely examine the capsule to determine the cause and ensure a safe return. NASA has said that … Read more

Again, Einstein! Scientists discover where matter ‘falls’ into black holes

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Scientists have confirmed for the first time that the fabric of spacetime takes a “final plunge” at the edge of a black hole. The observation of this crashing region around black holes was made by astrophysicists at Oxford University Physics, and helps validate a key prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1915 theory of gravity: general relativity. … Read more

A ‘cosmic disturbance’ in the universe is forcing astronomers to reconsider Einstein’s theory of relativity

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For more than a century, Einstein’s theory of general relativity has been the key to understanding gravity. But new research suggests this theory is “gliding” into the furthest reaches of space. That doesn’t mean we throw Einstein’s theory out the window. But it might need a little adjustment. Over the past hundred years, countless studies … Read more

‘Alerts’ for black hole collisions can notify astronomers within 30 seconds of detection

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In 2015, the iconic Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) made the first-ever tangible detection of gravitational waves. The waves were the result of two black holes colliding far out in the universe; Since then, a wealth of such signals have been observed from merging black holes, neutron stars, and even a few mixed mergers between … Read more

Does a cosmic ‘glitch’ in gravity pose a challenge to Albert Einstein’s greatest theory?

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There is no denying the amazing predictive power of Albert EinsteinThe 1915 theory of gravity and general relativity – yet the theory still shows inconsistencies when it comes to calculating its effect at large distances. And new research suggests that these inconsistencies could be the result of a “cosmic glitch” in gravity itself. In the … Read more

NASA’s exoplanet hunter TESS may have spotted its first rogue planet

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NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) may have discovered its first free-floating or “orphaned” planet. That’s a planet wandering through the cosmos, without a star, all alone. The potential discovery shows that TESS can use a phenomenon first suggested by Albert Einstein more than 100 years ago to detect these so-called rogue planets. Despite the … Read more

What the world has learned from previous eclipses

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Photograph (bromide print) showing the instruments used by the British expedition sent from Sobral, Brazil, to the total solar eclipse on May 29, 1919. Sir Arthur Eddington of the University of Cambridge organized the eclipse trip to test Einstein’s theory of relativity. During the event, two heliostats with movable mirrors were used to send images … Read more

Emmy Noether faced sexism and Nazism – more than 100 years later, her contributions to ring theory still influence modern mathematics

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When Albert Einstein wrote an obituary for Emmy Noether in 1935, he described her as a “creative mathematical genius” who – despite “selfless, important work over a period of many years” – did not receive the recognition she deserved. Noether made groundbreaking contributions to mathematics at a time when women were excluded from academia and … Read more

James Webb Space Telescope finds dwarf galaxies with enough power to reshape the entire early universe

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Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and predicted an effect by Albert Einstein more than 100 years ago to discover that small galaxies packed a huge punch in the early cosmos, forming the entire universe when it was less than 1 billion years old. The international team found that the galaxies, which … Read more