Robert Lea
Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University. Follow him on Twitter @sciencef1rst.
Latest articles by Robert Lea
What happens when your warp drive fails? Scientists have the answer
By Robert Lea published
Scientists have "boldly gone" where no one has gone before, discovering what would happen if a faster-than-light warp drive like the one used in Star Trek were to fail.
Gravitational waves hint at a 'supercool' secret about the Big Bang
By Robert Lea published
If the gravitational wave background detected last year came from a "supercool" phase transition around the time of the Big Bang, they hint at new physics.
What happens if you throw a star at a black hole? Things get messy (video)
By Robert Lea published
Supermassive black holes that shred and devour stars throw them up like a "bad curry" and cover themselves in the wreckage, sick new simulations reveal.
Jupiter-bound JUICE probe slingshots by Earth on way to Venus (photos)
By Robert Lea published
JUICE flew by Earth on Tuesday (Aug. 20), just a day after it zoomed past the moon. The spacecraft took also snapped some images of home before heading off to Venus.
Giant exoplanet the size of 2 Jupiters has a hidden companion disturbing its orbit
By Robert Lea published
Using the NASA exoplanet-hunting spacecraft TESS, astronomers have discovered a hot Jupiter dancing with a hidden super-Earth companion.
How do supermassive black holes 'starve' their galaxies to halt star formation?
By Robert Lea published
The "deaths" of galaxies are caused by their central supermassive black holes, and the "smoking gun" evidence of this connection takes an unexpected form.
Have astronomers found the 'secret recipe' for rapid planet growth?
By Robert Lea published
Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus may dominate the solar system, but their formation remains mysterious. A new model could account for these planets' rapid and efficient births.
What happens to the wreckage created when extreme dead stars clash?
By Robert Lea published
Neutron stars are the universe's most extreme stars, composed of matter so dense a teaspoon of it would weigh as much as Mt. Everest. So, when they collide, it's quite the event.
Highly magnetic dead star launches mysterious blast of energy
By Robert Lea published
Though magnetars and pulsars are two distinct types of neutron stars, astronomers have spotted a magnetar mimicking a pulsar after launching a mysterious blast of intense radiation.
Newly found star 30 times the size of the sun has an unexpected chemical composition
By Robert Lea published
A newly discovered star 30 times as large as the sun has a baffling chemical composition that could provoke a revision to stellar evolution models.
Recent star death leaves behind highly magnetic stellar corpse
By Robert Lea published
Astronomers are investigating a cosmic crime scene to determine why the death of a massive star left behind a highly magnetic "corpse."
Massive star's gory 'death by black hole' is the biggest and brightest event of its kind
By Robert Lea published
Astronomers have discovered a supermassive black hole violently shredding and devouring a star nine times as massive as the sun.
Small black holes could play 'hide-and-seek' with elusive supermassive black hole pairs
By Robert Lea published
Small pairs of binary black holes could be used to play hide-and-seek' with elusive supermassive black hole binaries via gravitational waves carry the "baritone singing" of these cosmic titans.
These nearby star systems could be good targets in the search for alien life (video)
By Robert Lea published
Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray space telescope, scientists have investigated if nearby exoplanets could support life, or if their stars are blasting them with too much deadly high-energy radiation.
Over 350 asteroids have hidden moons, Gaia space telescope finds
By Robert Lea published
By precisely tracking the orbit of over 156,000 asteroids, the ESA star-surveying satellite Gaia has potentially found over 350 previously undiscovered asteroid-moon binaries.
James Webb Space Telescope finds a shock near supermassive black hole (image)
By Robert Lea published
By examining a distant supermassive black hole, astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have found a shocking link between jets and dust around these cosmic titans.
Bubble-blowing dead stars could create 'most violent phenomena in the universe'
By Robert Lea published
Scientists have tracked mysterious, violent blasts of radiation called fast radio bursts to plasma-blowing, highly magnetic dead stars or magnetars.
Stellar oddball: Nearby star rotates unlike any other
By Robert Lea published
V889 Herculis is an oddball unlike any other star we've ever seen. The nearby sun-like star rotates in a strange way that defies prediction.
Planets of Milky Way's most common stars are less habitable than thought, dead NASA telescope reveals
By Robert Lea published
Planets orbiting red dwarf stars may have a harder time hanging on to the conditions needed for life to arise and survive than previously thought, data from NASA's dead space telescope GALEX reveals.
10 new dead star 'monsters' discovered at the heart of the Milky Way
By Robert Lea published
Ten neutron stars found lurking in the Milky Way include cosmic black widows killing stars with "webs" of viscous plasma and a speed demon that spins over 700 times per second.
The sun is a 'runaway world collector' that can trap passing rogue planets
By Robert Lea published
The sun could collect rogue planets and hold them at the outskirts of the solar system for millions of years, occasionally trading them with neighboring star Alpha Centauri.
The moon's thin atmosphere is made by constant meteorite bombardment
By Robert Lea published
New research using Apollo mission samples has determined that the impact of meteorites on the lunar surface is primarily responsible for generating the moon's thin and nebulous atmosphere.
Could galaxy cluster collisions be used as dark matter detectors?
By Robert Lea published
Particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider have failed to turn up potential dark matter candidates, but could galaxy cluster smashes be used as cosmic dark matter colliders?
'Cosmic dawn:' NASA's Roman Space Telescope will get baby pictures of our universe
By Robert Lea published
NASA's Roman Space Telescope will look all the way back to cosmic dawn 400 million years after the Big Bang to discover how the universe fundamentally changed at this crucial point in its history.
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