Tim Childers

Articles by: Tim Childers

A light-year is a measure of astronomical distance: Light travels through a vacuum at precisely 983,571,056 feet (299,792,458 meters) per second, making a light-year approximately 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

What is a light-year?

By Tim Childers, Jonathan Gordon published

reference A light-year is a measurement of the distance light travels in a single Earth year, which is important for measuring the vast distances of space

Artist's concept of a black hole in space.

Lab-grown black hole analog behaves just like Stephen Hawking said it would

By Tim Childers published

Like mad scientists, researchers are creating miniature black holes in their laboratories. Their mission? To see if a mysterious form of radiation predicted by Stephen Hawking exists.

Cosmic bubbles may have created dark matter.

Cosmic bubbles may have forged dark matter, new theory suggests

By Tim Childers published

New theory suggests cosmic bubbles during the birth of our universe are responsible for creating dark matter.

Abstract illustration of quantum entanglement.

Physicists entangle 15 trillion hot atoms

By Tim Childers published

Physicists set a new record by linking together a hot soup of 15 trillion atoms in a bizarre phenomenon called quantum entanglement.

Stars and space, astronomy concept

Is life a gamble? Scientist models universe to find out

By Tim Childers published

Galaxy NGC 5529 (FGC 1735) is located in the northern sky constellation Boötes (the Herdsman), approximately 140 million light-years from Earth. Bob Franke captured this image from the Focal Pointe Observatory in Chino Valley, Ariz., from April 3 to May 17, 2013.

Boötes constellation: The herdsman of the sky

By Tim Childers published

This springtime constellation can be seen chasing the Big Dipper around the northern sky.

High-energy particle collisions, neutrinos.

Identity-Switching Neutrinos Could Reveal Why We Exist At All. But Can We Find Them?

By Tim Childers published

Scientists are searching for a ghostly neutrino particle that acts as its own antiparticle. If they find it, the discovery could resolve a cosmic conundrum: Why does matter exist at all?

The centers of massive galaxy clusters are super hot (red), while bright structures show diffuse gas from the intergalactic medium shock heating at the boundary between cosmic voids and filaments. 

Physicists Just Created the Most Detailed Simulation of the Universe in History

By Tim Childers published

An international team of scientists has created the most detailed large-scale model of the universe to date, a simulation they call TNG50.

an artist's illustration of the big bang

We May Finally Understand the Moments Before the Big Bang

By Tim Childers published

The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope.

Green Bank Observatory: Pioneering Radio Astronomy

By Tim Childers published

Home to the largest fully steerable telescope in the world, Green Bank Observatory has a long history of leading the world in radio astronomy.

Particle collisions at the LHC.

Einstein's Theory Predicts a Weird State of Matter. Could It Be Lurking in the World's Largest Atom Smasher?

By Tim Childers published

This mysterious matter was predicted from Einstein's theory of special relativity, but physicists can't seem to find it!

an image of the crab nebula, which green yellow and pink light

Right Again, Einstein! Wobbling Pulsar Confirms General Relativity

By Tim Childers last updated

A pulsar 25,000 light-years away is wobbling in a weird way. But Einstein's theory of general relativity predicted it more than a century ago.

Artist depiction of a supernova explosion in space.

'Einstein's Biggest Blunder' May Have Finally Been Fixed

By Tim Childers last updated

The cosmological constant has plagued physicists for more than a century.

Scientists are on the hunt for signals from intelligent aliens.

If Aliens Are Flashing Laser Beams at Us, We Now Have a Way to Detect Them

By Tim Childers published

Are aliens using super powerful flashlights to get our attention? Astronomers think there's a chance they are.

Outside the Gemini IV spacecraft, astronaut Ed White floats in the microgravity of space.

Ed White: The First American to Walk in Space

By Tim Childers published

Ed White, the first American to walk in space, was a pioneer of human spaceflight.

Vera Rubin at work at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ in 1965.

Vera Rubin: The Astronomer Who Brought Dark Matter to Light

By Tim Childers published

Vera Rubin's discoveries showed that our universe is much more mysterious than anyone imagined.

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