Press Releases

February 03, 2022

Origin of Supermassive Black Hole Flares Identified: Largest-Ever Simulations Suggest Flickering Powered by Magnetic ‘Reconnection’ By Thomas Sumner

A digital illustration of a supermassive black hole with bright flares coming from either side of it.

February 02, 2022

‘Quantum Friction’ Slows Water Flow Through Carbon Nanotubes, Resolving Long-Standing Fluid Dynamics Mystery By Thomas Sumner

Water molecules flow near the honeycomb-patterned walls of a carbon nanotube. Interactions between the molecules and electrons in the walls can cause ‘quantum friction,’ researchers propose in a new study.

November 10, 2021

Paradoxical Material a Mashup of Three Different Phases at Once, Quantum Physicists Find By Thomas Sumner

A digital illustration of multiple 3-D spheres connected to each other with diagonal and parallel lines. The spheres colored red have through them white arrows pointing upwards and the spheres colored blue have white arrows going through them that are pointing downwards.

October 24, 2021

Astrophysicists Reveal Largest-Ever Suite of Universe Simulations By Thomas Sumner

A snapshot of the distribution of dark matter throughout the universe in an AbacusSummit simulation.

August 17, 2021

Cracking a Mystery of Massive Black Holes and Quasars with Supercomputer Simulations

A digital photo of a misty, quasar-like formation in what appears to be outer space. A plus-shaped crosshairs is at the center of the formation and surrounded by a dotted circle. White text above this circle reads,

August 16, 2021

Nearby Star-Forming Region Yields Clues to the Formation of Our Solar System

A photograph of the Ophiuchus star-forming complex, an area in outer space with multiple stars of varying sizes and colors.

August 12, 2021

Black Holes Flicker When They Eat, Revealing Their Size

A screenshot of an animation that shows an artist’s impression of an accretion disk rotating around a central unseen supermassive black hole (SMBH). The overall image looks like a gigantic circle in space with concentric

July 27, 2021

Magnetic ‘Balding’ of Black Holes Saves General Relativity Prediction By Thomas Sumner

A simulation of the magnetic field lines, represented as lines colored in green, surrounding a black hole, represented as a large black circle to the left of the image, against a red and blue background. As the field lines break and reconnect, pockets of plasma form, as seen in the center of concentric green circles stacked within each other. The largest of these pockets is located on the right side of the image and is the furthest away from the black hole. These plasma pockets launch inward toward the black hole or outward into space, draining energy from the magnetic field.