While we’ve known about neutron stars for the better part of a century, astrophysicists still aren’t entirely sure how large they are. That uncertainty is related to two other unanswered questions: What’s in the middle of neutron stars, and how massive can they grow? Astrophysicists are combining multiple methods to reveal the secrets of some of the weirdest objects in the universe.
Can a theory that isn’t completely testable still be useful to physics? What determines if an idea is legitimately scientific or not? This question has been debated by philosophers and historians of science, working scientists, and lawyers in courts of law. That’s because it’s not merely an abstract notion: What makes something scientific or not determines if it should be taught in classrooms or supported by government grant money.
We already know neutrinos break the mold of the Standard Model. The question is: By how much?
When they look for violations of Einstein’s general relativity, physicists deliberately plan experiments to find nothing at all.
Theorists think dark matter was forged in the hot aftermath of the Big Bang.
Many theories predict the existence of magnetic monopoles, but experiments have yet to see them.
It’s the cornerstone of cosmology, but what is it all about?
The first website to be hosted in the U.S. has grown to be an invaluable hub for open science.
From lightning to the death of electrons, the highest-energy form of light is everywhere.
A theory of everything would unite the four forces of nature, but is such a thing possible?