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Astrophysics and cosmology RSS feed

SLAC’s astrophysicists and cosmologists pursue top-priority research on topics including dark matter and dark energy, the formation of galaxies and cosmic evolution. 

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Astrophysics and cosmology

Dwarf Galaxy 3.

News Feature

Scientists studying five years of data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have found the first gamma-ray variable pulsar.

News Feature

The distant universe looks a little clearer, thanks to tens of thousands of citizen scientists who classified more than 6 million images over the...

Using an entire galaxy as a lens to look at an object in the far distance, researchers are learning more about powerful jets emitted...

News Feature

Editors of the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, have selected their annual Top 10 Science Breakthroughs of...

Image - Artist's illustration of a supernova, with a shockwave spreading out from it.
VIA Symmetry Magazine

The Universe's Earliest Moments

How is it possible to look at the earliest moments of the universe?

The Early Universe
News Feature

SLAC's Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) recently hosted many of the top scientists in the field to discuss the most important...

KIPAC mosaic
News Feature
via Albert Einstein Institute Hannover

Home Computers Discover Gamma-ray Pulsars

As volunteers for a project called Einstein@Home, citizen scientists unleashed the unused cycles of their home computers on data from the Large Area Telescope...

Image - The four newly discovered pulsars located on a map of the gamma-ray sky
News Feature
VIA Symmetry Magazine

Mock Data, Real Science

In scientific circles, “mock” is not always a four-letter word. To test that they’re interpreting their massive amounts of data correctly, astrophysicists create even...

News Feature

SLAC and Stanford physicists played a key role in monitoring and analyzing the brightest gamma ray burst ever measured, and suggest that its never-before-seen...

Image - Collapsing star shooting out jet of gas
News Feature

Scientists in SLAC's Integrated Circuits Department reach a new frontier in ultrafast X-ray science with intricately designed signal-processing chips that translate particles of light...

Four ePix100 prototype chips bonded in a test setup. (Brad Plummer/SLAC)
News Feature

Particle astrophysicists are helping illuminate the dark side of the universe for a new show at the American Museum of Natural History in New...

News Feature

Traces of iron spread smoothly throughout a massive galaxy cluster tell the 10 billion-year-old story of exploding supernovae and fierce outbursts from supermassive black...

Image: Illustration of some markers of the universe's turbulent youth, such as supernova explosions and active galactic nuclei (Akihiro Ikeshita).