On 14 September, 2015, the international LIGO/Virgo collaboration detected the very first gravitational wave signal, a tiny distortion of spacetime predicted by Einstein, in this case produced by the merger of two black holes. The CNRS astrophysicist Marie-...
Why is the outermost part of the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, so much hotter than its surface? Ten years after formulating a hypothesis based on a numerical model, CNRS researchers have now used direct observations of the star's surface to confirm...
With large-scale observation campaigns, innovative data analysis methods and theoretical advances on all fronts, astrophysics and cosmology are entering a high-precision era with the potential to unravel many of the unsolved mysteries of the Universe....
During his “miraculous year” 120 years ago, Albert Einstein explained the photoelectric effect, laying the foundations of quantum mechanics. The historian of science Christian Bracco provides an insight.
With their small size of several tens of centimeters and relatively low cost, nanosatellites—known as “CubeSats”—open up new scientific vistas. PicSat, launched on January 12, will be the first such...
On December 14, 2017, Alain Brillet and Thibault Damour received the CNRS Gold Medal, France's highest scientific distinction, during a ceremony at the Collège de France in Paris. Together, the...
The first results of the Microscope experiment have just been unveiled. Its objective is to test the equivalence principle, which states that in a vacuum, all bodies fall with the same speed....