Physics

From the forces that keep athletes twirling and sliding, to the weird laws governing the world of the very small, to the far-out concepts of time travel and alternate universes, physics covers a lot of interesting territory. Here, Live Science keeps you abreast of all the fascinating physics discoveries.Physics

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An illustration shows a meteor passing through the atmosphere.

Meteor explodes over Vermont with the force of 440 pounds of TNT

By Rafi Letzter published

If you live in Vermont and heard an explosion just before dinnertime Sunday (March 7), there's a good chance that was a shockwave from an incoming meteor exploding over the state.

'Black holes' with Planck hearts would lack a true event horizon (like the one illustrated in this image).

Black holes could be dark stars with 'Planck hearts'

By Paul Sutter published

Black holes may not be black or holes, a new theory proposes.

MacKenzie Warren adjusting magnetic trap

Physicists trap ultracold plasma in a magnetic bottle for the 1st time

By Ben Turner published

Scientists want to use it to learn more about the sun and nuclear fusion.

This artist's concept shows what a gravity portal might look like.

'Gravity portals' could morph dark matter into ordinary matter, astrophysicists propose

By Paul Sutter published

Astrophysicists have a wild idea to explain the bizarre abundance of super-high-energy radiation shooting from the center of our galaxy: gravity portals.

Amelia Earhart poses next to an airplane, not the one in which she disappeared, in 1928.

Could a nuclear reactor help solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart's disappearance?

By Rafi Letzter published

Could this finally confirm whether a piece of her plane has been found?

Artist's concept of a black hole in space.

Lab-grown black hole analog behaves just like Stephen Hawking said it would

By Tim Childers published

Like mad scientists, researchers are creating miniature black holes in their laboratories. Their mission? To see if a mysterious form of radiation predicted by Stephen Hawking exists.

an image of a tidal disruption event occurring when a black hole feasts on a star

Ghost particle travels 750 million light-years, ends up buried under the Antarctic ice

By Adam Mann published

Astronomers spot two highly delayed signals from two different black holes tearing apart stars in their vicinity.

Diagram of the evolution of the universe from the inflation (left) to the present (right). The reconstruction method winds back the evolution from right to left on this illustration to reproduce the primordial density fluctuations from the current galaxy distribution.

Cosmologists create 4,000 virtual universes to solve Big Bang mystery

By Stephanie Pappas published

Cosmologists simulated 4,000 versions of the universe in order to understand what its structure today tells us about its origins.

Scientists have found the first evidence for a rare type of Higgs boson decay.

Scientists find first evidence of rare Higgs boson decay

By Chelsea Gohd published

Scientists have spotted the first evidence of a rare Higgs boson decay, expanding our understanding of the strange quantum universe.

An image shows Farfarout, the most distant object ever spotted in the solar system, highlighted with red lines.

'Farfarout' is most distant object in our solar system. But it's not Planet Nine.

By Rafi Letzter published

There's a dwarf planet in our solar system, far beyond the orbit of Pluto, that swings so far away from the sun that from its perspective Earth and Saturn look like neighbors.

An illustration of Earth's Van Allen belts, with the trajectories of ultra-relativistic electrons in gray. The colorful loops in the foreground are the orbits of satellites that must pass through this electromagnetically dangerous area of space.

Particles zipping around Earth at near light-speed finally explained

By Stephanie Pappas published

When the plasma of the Van Allen belts drops in density during a solar storm, it can set up the perfect conditions for electrons to travel nearly as fast as light.

An illustration shows the orbits of PSR J2039-5617 and its companion.

Mystery of gamma radiation solved: Hidden cannibal star is just having dinner

By Rafi Letzter published

The mystery at the heart of an unexplained, bright point of gamma-ray light in the sky has been solved: a violent, whirling redback.

Abstract illustration of the early universe and quantum physics.

Superpowerful 'oscillon' particles could have dominated the infant universe, then vanished

By Paul Sutter published

A weird, super-powerful particle that's not truly a particle could have dominated the universe when it was just a second old, releasing a flood of ripples that permeated all of space-time.

The spiral galaxy NGC 5585, which is nestled on the tail of the Great Bear in the constellation of Ursa Major, is one of many that have revealed the presence of an invisible substance called dark matter.

Scientists narrow down the 'weight' of dark matter trillions of trillions of times

By Tom Metcalfe published

Scientists are finally figuring out how much dark matter — the almost imperceptible material said to tug on everything, yet emit no light — really weighs.

A black hole sucks material from a nearby star a.

A giant black hole suddenly went dark, and no one knows why

By Rafi Letzter published

In 2018, one of the brightest X-ray lights in the sky went dark, and scientists still aren't sure why.

Caught on high-speed video, lightning streamers of opposite polarity approach and connect in this sequence of video frames, slowed by more than 10,000-fold. The common streamer zone appears in the last two frames before the whiteout of the lightning flash. This lasted about 0.00003 seconds at full speed

Video catches split second before intense lightning strike

By Nicoletta Lanese published

Scientists captured high-speed footage of the moment before lightning strikes.

An illustration shows the Micius satellite and the three ground stations with which it communicates.

Chinese researchers to send an 'uncrackable' quantum message to space

By Rafi Letzter published

It's now possible to send uncrackable quantum messages through thin air, and the people who figured out how to do it are getting ready to send the messages into space.

An artist's concept of the Big Bang.

Mysterious 'kick' just after the Big Bang may have created dark matter

By Paul Sutter published

A mysterious "kick" in the early universe may have produced more matter than antimatter. And that imbalance may have also led to the creation of dark matter, researchers now say.

An abstract model of an atom with electrons swirling around in their shells.

Oddball 'neutral electron' possibly discovered in new state of matter

By Tom Metcalfe published

A black hole as seen from the surface of a planet.

Aliens could be sucking energy from black holes. That may be how we'll find them.

By Tom Metcalfe published