Relativity Archives - Astronomy Cast

It’s been over 20 years since astronomers first discovered that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating thanks to dark energy. And in these decades, astronomers still don’t have much evidence for what could be causing the increased expansion rate. Maybe there’s something else going on to explain it. The post Ep. 669: Challenges to Dark Energy appeared first on Astronomy Cast.

Astronomers have made extremely accurate measurements of the expansion rate of the Universe and come up with different results. And the error bars for the observations don’t overlap, so there’s something strange going on. What’s the answer and how can the Crisis in Cosmology be resolved? The post Ep. 668: The Crisis in Cosmology appeared first on Astronomy Cast.

As astronomers look out across the Universe, they see various objects spewing jets of material light years into space. What causes these jets, and what impact do they have on the Universe. The post Ep. 635: Jets: When Magnetic Fields Fling Things appeared first on Astronomy Cast.

Have you ever wanted to be a time traveler? Good news! You're time traveling right now. Into the future at one second per second. Too long? Don't want to wait? Good news, Einstein's got you covered. Today, let's talk about the weird world of time dilation. The post Ep. 606: Time Dilation – Skipping Through Time appeared first on Astronomy Cast.

This year's Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three brilliant researchers who worked out some of the secrets of black holes. Today we're going to talk about the chain of discoveries that led to this award. The post Ep. 583: The Nobel Prize appeared first on Astronomy Cast.

Relativity is used in more day to day situations than you may realize. In this episode, we will count (some of) the ways. This episode is brought to you live from the All-Stars Star Party in Indian Wells, California. The post Ep. 536: Everyday Relativity appeared first on Astronomy Cast.

Today, of course, we're going to talk about the announcement from the Event Horizon Telescope and the first photograph of a black hole's event horizon. The post Ep. 526: Event Horizon Telescope and the Black Hole at M87 appeared first on Astronomy Cast.

Last week, we gave you an update in particle physics. This week it's time to see what's new in the world of dark matter. Spoiler alert, we still have no idea what it is, but maybe a few more ideas for what it isn't. The post Ep 487: Dark Matter: 2018 Edition appeared first on Astronomy Cast.

At the turn of the 20th Century, Einstein's theory of relativity stunned the physics world, but the experimental evidence needed to be found. And so, in 1919, another respected astronomer, Arthur Eddington, observed the deflection of stars by the gravity of the Sun during a solar eclipse. Here's the story of that famous experiment. The post Ep. 371: Eddington Eclipse Experiment appeared first on Astronomy Cast.

Today, time rules our lives. We live each day with the moments broken up into hours, minutes and seconds. We never seem to have enough time. But can you imagine not being able to tell time at all, where the movements of the Sun and the stars was the only way to know what time it was? Let's learn about the history of time, methods of telling time, and Einstein's historic discovery that time isn't as fixed as we thought it was. The post Ep. 117: Time appeared first on Astronomy Cast.