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.
Earth's smaller sister planet, Mars, may have seen the emergence of life in its early history. To be certain, NASA's rovers Curiosity, launched ten years ago, and Perseverance, which landed...
Launched in 2016, the MICROSCOPE satellite has confirmed with unprecedented precision the equivalence principle, which lies at the heart of Einstein's general theory of relativity. Two...
For the first time, a physical model consistent with observations successfully describes how the tidal force caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon is slowing down the rotation of our planet...