News | The Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy

05/24/2023

LIGO Ready to Explore Secrets of the Universe

Global network of gravitational-wave detectors starts next observing run

aerial photo of the LIGO facility in Livingston, Lousiana

05/22/2023

Bridging the Gap Between Students and Faculty

Whitney Clavin

Director of student programming and graduate student discuss PMA student advisory board

Back row, left to right: Andrew Graven, Sara Vanovac, and Dylan King. Front row, left to right: Mika Walton and Tara Leininger.

05/03/2023

Star Eats Planet, Brightens Dramatically

Whitney Clavin

ZTF and NEOWISE spot evidence for the first known case of a star engulfing its planet.

Artwork of a planet skimming the surface of a star.

05/01/2023

The Bizarre Behavior of Black Holes

Whitney Clavin

Researchers at Caltech study all manner of odd black hole behaviors. In honor of Black Hole Week, here are a few of them, from gobbling up stars to dancing and chirping.

Artist's concept of a supermassive black hole, with a binary pair of black holes in its disk.

04/27/2023

Caltech Remembers Stanley Deser (1931–2023)

Whitney Clavin

Stanley Deser, a theoretical physicist known for his achievements in general relativity, quantum field theory, and high-energy physics, passed away on April 21, 2023.

04/26/2023

Newly Observed Effect Makes Atoms Transparent to Certain Frequencies of Light

Robert Perkins

Researchers at Caltech have discovered an optical quantum phenomenon where atoms collectively interfere to create transparency

04/24/2023

The Young Cluster of Galaxies at the Edge of the Universe

Lori Dajose

Astronomers have looked back in time billions of years to photograph a cluster of galaxies, which today will have evolved into one of the largest known systems in the universe.