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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the first ever direct image of a black hole, with yellow ring surrounding black circle

Physicists keep trying to break the rules of gravity but this supermassive black hole just said 'no'

By Rafi Letzter published

A new test of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity has proved the 20th Century physicist right again, this time using a supermassive black hole.

Stacking monolayer and bilayer graphene sheets with a twist leads to new collective electronic states, including a rare form of magnetism.

Rare magnetism found in the world's strongest material

By Stephanie Pappas published

Strange things happen when you stack and twist graphene.

An image shows part of the Very Large Telescope, operated by the European Southern Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert. The telescope was instrumental in watching the spaghettification event.

Black hole caught turning a poor star into spaghetti

By Rafi Letzter published

This supermassive black hole gobbled up a star in full view of Earth's telescopes, and could unlock secrets of how these monsters feed.

Space background showing a black hole and galaxy.

A mini fractal universe may lie inside charged black holes (if they exist)

By Paul Sutter published

In one upside-down, hypothetical version of the universe, a bizarre type of black hole could exist that is stranger than an M.C. Escher sketch: charged black holes.

an abstract representation of a magnetic field in blue lines

Black hole-sized magnetic fields could be created on Earth, study says

By Stephanie Pappas published

The magnetic fields are more than a thousand times stronger than the magnetic field used in MRI machines..

Cassiopeia A, the remnant of a "stripped-envelope supernova," may have actually taken its form from two supernovas in quick succession.

Something huge ripped the skin off this star before it died

By Rafi Letzter published

Something pulled the outer layer of Cassiopeia A off before it detonated to form this gorgeous supernova. But what?

A simulated image of a black hole.

Nobel Prize in physics awarded to 3 scientists for their black hole discoveries

By Jeanna Bryner published

The Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to three scientists for their work involving one of the cosmos's most mysterious, darkest, secrets — black holes.

image of nuclear fusion reactor SPARC

Nuclear fusion reactor could be here as soon as 2025

By Charles Q. Choi published

A viable nuclear fusion reactor — one that spits out more energy than it consumes — could be here as soon as 2025.

An illustration shows the collision of two neutron stars. Scientists had proposed that such collisions might have filled our solar system with gold, but new research casts doubt on that claim.

There’s too much gold in the universe. No one knows where it came from.

By Rafi Letzter published

Something is showering gold across the universe. But no one knows what it is, and key theoretical explanations are falling apart

A NASA illustration shows the Pioneer 13 probes descending toward the clouds of Venus.

Did NASA detect a hint of life on Venus in 1978 and not realize it?

By Rafi Letzter published

What if scientists had started hunting for life on Venus in 1978?

This series of images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was captured by the Rosetta spacecraft's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on Aug. 12, 2015, a few hours before the comet reached perihelion, or the closest point to the sun along its 6.5-year orbit.

The 'rubber ducky' comet is glowing

By Rafi Letzter published

The rubber ducky comet is glowing, but you can't see it. New analysis of data from the Rosetta probe shows an ultraviolet aurora all around the speeding object.

Exotic particles stick to all surfaces in the superfluid, shielding it from interacting with the bulk superfluid.

There's no speed limit in a superfluid universe. Now we know why.

By Michelle Starr published

Physicists have figured out how objects traveling through a superfluid can exceed a critical speed limit.

The Catalina Sky Survey spotted this object moving against the starry background before realizing it is an incoming minimoon.

Earth's new minimoon might be a rocket humans launched into space in the 1960s

By Rafi Letzter published

Earth has a small new moon coming, but it might have been made by people in the 1960s. It will take closer observations to know for sure.

Image of the Soul Nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia.

What is dark matter?

By Adam Mann published

Basic facts about the unknown material called dark matter.

A subatomic particle illustration.

First experimental evidence of a new type of dark boson possibly found

By Mike McRae published

Two experiments hunting for a whisper of a particle called a dark boson that prevents whole galaxies from flying apart recently published some contradictory results.

Spotted kitten playing.

Fate of Schrödinger's cat probably isn't in the hands of gravity, experiment finds

By Mike McRae published

Can we blame gravity for one of quantum physics' most brain-numbing paradoxes — Schrödinger's cat?

NASA snapped this image of Venus using its Mariner 10 probe during a flyby in 1974.

Possible hint of life discovered on Venus

By Rafi Letzter published

Phosphine, a chemical long thought to be a signature of life, is floating around in the clouds of Venus. How did it get there?

Left: A close-up image shows a torsion balance used to precisely measure the pull of gravity. Right: The Eöt-Wash Group poses with a torsion balance. From right to left they are Jens Gundlach, Eric Adelberger and Blayne Heckel.

Physicists who disproved '5th force' win $3 million 'Breakthrough' prize

By Rafi Letzter published

Three physicists won a $3 million Breakthrough prize for a series of experiments that began using cheap equipment on a tabletop in Seattle and ended up hunting dark matter.

Cosmic illustration of the Big Bang and antimatter.

Pioneering gravity research snags $3 million physics Breakthrough Prize

By Mike Wall published

A team of physicists just snagged $3 million for testing the law of gravity like never before.

Tracy Slatyer was searching for dark matter when she helped discover the Fermi bubbles, pictured here in an image combining visible light, X-rays and gamma rays.

Dark matter hunter who found unexpected, giant 'Fermi bubbles' wins $100,000 physics prize

By Rafi Letzter published

Tracy Slatyer, known for hunting dark matter in our galaxy and discovering evidence of an ancient Milky Way explosion, has won a $100,000 prize funded by tech billionaires.