News

Race to detect gravitational waves intensifies

One of the great challenges in astrophysics is the detection of low-frequency gravitational waves — elusive ripples in the fabric of space-time caused by extremely energetic and large-scale cosmic events. To this end, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves $14.5 million over 5 years.

Equipment

iStar WXT 204-6LT refractor review

For truly immersive deep-sky views, it’s hard to better the high contrast, wide-angle images delivered by a large aperture refractor of short focal ratio. Refractor expert Neil English takes the 8-inch f/6 iStar WXT 204-6LT through its paces and likes what he sees.

News

Dark matter even darker than once thought

Astronomers using observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have studied how dark matter in clusters of galaxies behaves when the clusters collide. The results show that dark matter interacts with itself even less than previously thought, and narrows down the options for what this mysterious substance might be.