astrophysics

A supernova is one of the most energetic events in the universe since the Big Bang. Entire stars blow up, announcing their death to the cosmos. In this video, Don Lincoln talks about how Fermilab researchers are building a detector that can peer into the core of the supernova as it is exploding. Neutrinos provide a microscope that cannot be duplicated by any other means.

Perhaps the grandest questions of all are those of how the universe came to be, how it has evolved, and how it will end. While modern science does not have all the answers, the scientific community has discovered many facts that allow us to understand much of this story. In this public lecture, presented on Dec. 9, 2022, Don Lincoln explains what we know — and what we don’t know — about these ageless questions.

Photo of a dome-shaped building, likely an observatory, atop a mountain, which gold mist surrounds. Blue sky and silhouette of birds above.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, travel bans and stay-at-home orders meant astrophysicists collaborating on the Dark Energy Survey needed to find a new way to conduct their observations using the Dark Energy Camera.

A man with short gray hair and glasses smiles. He is wearing a black blazer and a black T-shirt that reads "Physics is everything." He is in front of a starry sky. To his right, text that says "Can we find dark matter?" In the lower right-hand corner, an illustration of an atom.

Dark matter remains one of the unsolved mysteries of modern physics. In this video, Fermilab’s Don Lincoln explains two innovative methods whereby Fermilab scientists look for types of dark matter the broader community largely overlooks.