SLAC topics

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.

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Black widow spiders and their Australian cousins, known as redbacks, are notorious for their tainted love, expressed as an unsettling tendency to kill and...

Image - Illustration of black widow pulsar blasting material off companion star
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In a SLAC test facility, scientists have set the stage for an experiment that mimics what happens when incredibly energetic cosmic ray particles hit...

Photo - Researchers look over the magnetic coils that will impersonate the Earth's magnetic field.
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Teachers are using Google+ to bring their classes behind the scenes at national laboratories and to teach students about careers in STEM.

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

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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...

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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
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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
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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
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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...

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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