Northwestern University astrophysicists are part of an international team of scientists using advanced simulation tools that has predicted the existence of merging massive, 30 solar mass black hole binaries in Milky Way-like galaxies, challenging previous theories.
The team, which includes …
While searching for the origins of a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB), an international team of astrophysicists may have stumbled upon a new way to destroy a star.
Although most GRBs originate from exploding massive stars or neutron-star mergers, the researchers …
In a new Northwestern University-led study, astrophysicists crunched 12.5 years of data from 45 dead stars (called pulsars) to set the best limits yet on the gravitational wave signatures emitted from pairs of monster black holes. Knowing these limits will …
For the first time ever, the researchers have used state-of-the-art simulations to show that these cocoons can emit gravitational waves. And, unlike gamma-ray burst jets, cocoons’ gravitational waves should be within the frequency band that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory …
An international team of astrophysicists has discovered something wholly new, hidden in the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
In the early 1980s, Northwestern University’s Farhad Yusef-Zadeh discovered gigantic, one-dimensional filaments dangling vertically near Sagittarius A*, our galaxy’s central supermassive …
New 3D computer simulations have found that, if they do exist, intermediate-mass black holes likely devour wayward stars and then fling the remains across the galaxy.
Northwestern astrophysicists led by Fulya Kıroğlu modeled black holes of varying masses and then …
For something so precise, so miniscule, this was big. Really big.
A new measurement of the electron magnetic moment from Board of Trustees Professor in Physics Gerald Gabrielse and his research group at Northwestern University’s Center for Fundamental Physics has …
When physicists steered a tiny microparticle toward a cylindrical obstacle, they expected one of two outcomes to occur. The particle would either collide into the obstacle or sail around it. The particle, however, did neither.
The researcher team — led …
Northwestern played a crucial role in the historic detection of gravitational waves, which were first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916. On September 14, 2015, a team of more than 1,000 scientists and engineers from around the world detected these …
Astrophysicist Wen-fai Fong, was recognized by Astronomy Magazine in their list, “Rising Stars in Astronomy.” Fong is assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern.
Fong is one of 25 early-career researchers recognized by Astronomy Magazine for …