Gravity waves

4 articles
  • Article Recirculation Lead Image

    Are Gravitational Wave Detections Becoming Normal?

      Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . When I heard the news, I emailed my editor with my immediate reaction: “Bummer.” For the fourth time now, humans have directly detected the collision of two black holes. The violent merger occurred over 2 billion years ago, between black holes with […]
  • Scholes-HERO-5

    The Hidden Science of the Missing Gravitational Waves

    A relatively unknown experiment is already drawing conclusions from the sound of silence.
  • Article Recirculation Lead Image

    Over the Universe—The Best Reactions to the Big Physics News

    These swirls in the cosmic microwave background show the effect of primordial gravitational waves.BICEP2 Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . Scientists, on the whole, are a circumspect lot. When faced with a microphone or reporter’s notepad, most of them (excepting a vocal minority) hedge and temper their language, adding […]
  • Article Recirculation Lead Image

    The Most Massive Object in the Universe—How Was It Created?

      Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . The galaxy known prosaically as M87 doesn’t look like much. Unlike beautiful spiral galaxies (including the Milky Way), M87 appears as an orangish blob of stars through telescopes. Its only noticeable feature is the long streamer of gas emanating from the galactic […]