2025
The Webb telescope’s look at an Earth-size alien planet was bleak
August 25, 2025
The James Webb Space Telescope found no atmosphere around the Earth-sized exoplanet TRAPPIST-1d, casting doubt on its habitability and further dimming hopes for the TRAPPIST-1 system's potential to support life.
Harvard team builds sunlight-powered flyers to explore Earth’s upper atmosphere
August 25, 2025
David Keith and a Harvard team creates sunlight-powered flyers to study the mesosphere, offering new insights for climate science and future planetary exploration.
Magnetic field mapping in Sagittarius C reveals new clues to Milky Way core dynamics
August 25, 2025
SOFIA data maps Sagittarius C’s magnetic fields, revealing how star winds shape gas, filaments, and dynamics at the Milky Way’s turbulent core.
The third rock from another sun shows no signs of life so far
August 25, 2025
James Webb finds no Earth-like atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1 d, dimming hopes for life in the nearby seven-planet system 40 light-years away.
How AI poisoning is fighting bots that hoover data without permission
August 25, 2025
AI bots now dominate web traffic, prompting creators to “poison” data to block scrapers, though the same tactic could fuel misinformation.
NASA records 13-billion-year signal — Dawn’s whisper captured on Earth
August 25, 2025
NASA detects a faint 13-billion-year-old polarized light signal from the universe’s first stars, revealing clues about the cosmic dawn.
New Simons collaboration explores black holes and strong gravity
August 25, 2025
Daniel Holz, professor in the Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Physics, serves as a PI on a research project that explores the physics of strong gravity.
Levitating disks could open a new window into the Earth’s upper atmosphere
August 25, 2025
Devices can levitate powered only by sunlight, could explore little-known areas.
Scientists rule out an Earth-like atmosphere for nearby exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 D
August 25, 2025
Webb telescope helps scientists narrow down the search for “Earth twin” planets.
Quantum-enabling startup founded at UChicago joins the Chicago Quantum Exchange
August 25, 2025
K1 Semiconductor, which recently took second place in the Polsky New Venture Challenge and Grainger Engineering Tech Startup Challenge, is developing a technique that could drastically improve chip manufacturing.
Institute for Climate and sustainable growth announces 2025 venture and seed fund awardees
August 25, 2025
Ten of the 18 projects awarded grants involve faculty from the Physical Sciences Division. These projects are crucial in tackling climate change.
PhD alumni Ahmed Bou-Rabee featured in Quanta Magazine
August 25, 2025
Ahmed Bou-Rabee's superdiffusion research, featured in Quanta Magazine, proves a 1980s prediction using new methods in stochastic homogenization, with co-authors Scott Armstrong and Tuomo Kuusi.
Under a mountain in Savoie, the hunt for “dark matter” particles
August 14, 2025
Near Modane, a laboratory buried beneath the Alps is attempting to capture elements of a world parallel to our own. Paolo Privitera uses this laboratory to study dark matter.
[Article published in French. View in Chrome browser for translation option.]
The origin of the oldest solid objects in the solar system
August 14, 2025
Fred Ciesla reveals how observations of a young star offer a glimpse of the high-temperature conditions that shaped rock formation in the early Solar System.
Unlocking the secrets of our Galaxy’s heart using magnetic fields
August 14, 2025
PhD student Roy Zhao's research on a region called Sagittarius C discovers that magnetic field in the area wraps around an expanding bubble of hot, electrified gas blown outward by the winds from a cluster of massive young stars.