Tag: general relativity
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The three little words every pulsar wants to hear
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! UPDATE: you can now download this article in PDF format! See the follow-up post or the update below.] I can’t help falling in Love with Q From Physics World: The…
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Why do some want to modify general relativity?
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] And yes, I did refer to MOND as “a fungus in the basement of astronomy”. Do We Need to Rewrite General Relativity? For NOVA “The Nature of Reality”: General…
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My dysfunctional relationship with dark energy
“Dark energy” is one of the more unfortunate names in science. You’d think it has something to do with dark matter (itself a misnomer), but it has the opposite effect: while dark matter drives the clumping-up of material that makes galaxies, dark energy pushes the expansion of the Universe to greater and greater rates. Though…
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The week in review (October 20-26)
I had a wonderful time at GeekGirlCon; thanks again to Dr. Rubidium, AKA Nick Fury, for putting together the DIY Science Zone, and to everyone who made it a great event. I have a more formal wrap-up post in the works, but in the meantime, have some science writing. The river of spacetime (Galileo’s Pendulum):…
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The week in review (October 13 – 19)
I’m at GeekGirlCon this weekend, so I’m busy with non-writing activities as part of the DIY Science Zone. Thanks to our Fearless Leader Dr. “Nick Fury” Rubidium for putting our part of the event together! Where Nature Hides the Darkest Mystery of All (Nautilus): Even though there’s no solid barrier, the event horizon of a…
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Two weeks in review (September 29 – October 12, 2013)
My black holes class and other responsibilities ate my brain the last two weeks, so I forgot to post a “week in review” last week. So, here’s the highlights from the last two weeks. If it’s more heavily weighted toward black holes even than usual, that’s hardly surprising. Of fire and ice and Harlow Shapley…
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General relativity holds up under extreme gravity test
The general theory of relativity is the reigning champion of gravitational theories: it’s withstood tests in the Solar System, near black holes, and in binary systems. Most recently, astronomers performed detailed observations of a pulsar-white dwarf binary system, which provided an exquisite example of general relativity in action. Pulsars and white dwarfs are both the…
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Measuring the spin of a black hole using X-rays
The region near a black hole is one of the most extreme environments in the Universe, but historically it’s been hard to study directly. Using the XMM-Newton and NuSTAR telescopes, astronomers have measured the rotation of gas near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Great Barred Spiral Galaxy. They found that this…
Bowler Hat Science 