The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will be named for an influential astronomer who left the field better than she found it. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, a flagship astronomy and astrophysics ...

A possible explanation for the lightness of neutrinos could help answer some big questions about the universe. Mass is a fundamental property of matter, but there’s still a lot about it we don’t ...

For decades scientists have tried to find a way to measure the mass of the lightest matter particle known to exist. Three new approaches now have a chance to succeed. In 1980, Hamish Robertson was a ...

Every six months on the spring and autumn equinoxes, a serpent slithers down the side of the El Castillo pyramid in Chichén Itzá, Mexico. Well, it’s not a real serpent—it’s an optical illusion caused ...

Neutrinos don’t seem to get their mass in the same way as other particles in the Standard Model. In 1998, researchers made a discovery that challenged their understanding of particle physics and ...

Rubin Observatory will bring new capabilities to the studies of dark matter and dark energy. In just a few years, scientists at Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will launch the Legacy Survey of ...

Electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force are two distinct fundamental forces. That wasn’t always the case. How many fundamental forces are there in our universe? For particle physicists, answering ...

Our universe should be a formless fog of energy. Why isn’t it? According to the known laws of physics, the universe we see today should be dark, empty and quiet. There should be no stars, no planets, ...

From lightning to the death of electrons, the highest-energy form of light is everywhere. Gamma rays are the most energetic type of light, packing a punch strong enough to pierce through metal or ...

Perplexed by gravity? Don’t let it get you down. Gravity: we barely ever think about it, at least until we slip on ice or stumble on the stairs. To many ancient thinkers, gravity wasn’t even a ...

To understand why scientists are excited about detecting a new background, just look to the history of studies of the CMB. There’s a new cosmological background in town. In June, researchers from the ...

The stuff of daily existence is made of atoms, and all those atoms are made of the same three things: electrons, protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are very similar particles in most respects.