Tag Archives: Physicist

The universe is approaching the midpoint of its 33-billion-year lifespan, a Cornell physicist calculates with new data from dark-energy observatories. After expanding to its peak size about 11 billion years from now, it will begin to contract – snapping back like a rubber band to a single point at the end.  Henry Tye, the Horace White Professor of Physics Emeritus …

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The moon is getting 1½ inches (3.8 centimeters) farther away from the Earth every year. Scientists measure the distance to the moon by bouncing lasers off mirrors placed there by space probes and astronauts. You may like By measuring the …

Rainer Weiss obituary: Nobel prizewinning physicist  The Times Source link

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. “Is the Moon getting farther away from Earth?” – Judah, 9, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma The Moon is getting 1½ inches (3.8 centimeters) farther away from the Earth every year. Scientists measure the distance to the …

Nobel physicist key to world’s 1st gravitational wave discovery in Eastern WA dies  Tri-City Herald Professor Emeritus Rainer Weiss, influential physicist who forged new paths to understanding the universe, dies at 92  MIT News Nobel prize winner and gravitational wave pioneer Rainer Weiss dies at 92  Space Rainer Weiss, Who Gave a Nod to Einstein and the Big Bang, Dies at 92  The New …

In 1978, while inspecting a faulty detector inside the Soviet Union’s most powerful particle accelerator, physicist Anatoli Bugorski was struck in the head by a proton beam traveling close to the speed of light. Amazingly, Bugorski remains alive to this day, and while government secrecy prevented details of his medical assessment from being leaked, researchers have now reconstructed the path …

MIT Professor Emeritus Rainer Weiss ’55, PhD ’62, a renowned experimental physicist and Nobel laureate whose groundbreaking work confirmed a longstanding prediction about the nature of the universe, passed away on Aug. 25. He was 92. Weiss conceived of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) for detecting ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves, and was later a leader of …

When searching for the unknown, classic physics wisdom holds that a bigger detector boosts the chances of discovery. A physicist is taking that advice to heart, advancing a bold plan to use none other than Ganymede—Jupiter’s largest moon—as a dark matter detector on an astronomical scale. Dark matter refers to the “invisible” mass that supposedly constitutes 85% of the universe. …

Despite the fact that much of the current research in paleontology focuses on trying to find traces of organic remains in fossils, dinosaur DNA has unfortunately never been recovered. A lot of what we know about dinosaurs comes from preserved bones and teeth that are dug out of the ground. These hard tissues alone, however, are limited in the information …

A comet visiting our solar system from another star is only the third known interstellar object to pass our way. The approach of 3I/Atlas has sparked interest and curiosity in the astro community, but one prominent Harvard physicist has raised the possibility that it is more than a typical comet. This image provided by NASA/European Space Agency shows an image …