Read article 'ESA launches Lobster'
As ESA headquarters in Paris celebrated the first birthday of its XMM-Newton X-ray space observatory, astronomers were already planning the next generation of X-ray telescopes. Lobster is on the cards...
Read article 'Background hots up'
The spectrum of a distant quasar reveals the presence of cosmic microwave background radiation when the universe was just 2.5 billion years old. The observations allow astronomers to place limits on t...
Read article 'Listening for the music of gravity'
The latest generation of high-precision experiments is bringing observers one step closer to detecting the elusive song of gravity waves.
Read article 'High energies and high altitudes'
A recent meeting in Bolivia looked at the possibilities of mounting new physics instrumentation at the highest-altitude laboratory in the world. Larry Jones reports.
Read article 'VLT investigates cosmic shear'
Astronomers have mapped the universe’s dark matter in 50 independent directions using the European Southern Observatories’ Very Large Telescope (VLT). Their results, announced in December,...
Read article 'ESA supports physics missions'
Last autumn the European Space Agency’s Science Programme Committee met to define the priorities for 2008-2013. Its announced package included funding for two missions to study fundamental physi...
Read article 'Mapping chaos in particle revolutions'
Over the past decade the technique of frequency map analysis, developed to study astronomical systems, has shown its value in an increasing number of areas, including the analysis of particle orbits ...
Read article 'CAPP off at music and physics festival'
Music and physics combined during the CAPP 2000.
Read article 'Remotest gamma burst seen'
A violent burst of gamma rays detected on 31 January has been pinpointed to a galaxy at a redshift of 4.5, making it the most remote such burst ever observed. Its brightness was enormous – 10 00...
Read article 'Final VLT telescope observes first light'
This autumn saw a double milestone for the European Southern Observatories’ Very Large Telescope (VLT) interferometer at the Paranal observatory, Chile. The fourth and final 8.2 m telescope of t...
