While studying layered two-dimensional materials, ICFO researchers observed an anomaly—an unexpected transition in the system’s state triggered by light. That anomaly turned out to be single-photon sensitivity with extraordinary properties which were previously inaccessible: the ability to detect long-wavelength photons (up to the mid-infrared) at relatively high temperatures.

The results of this study, published in Science, open the door to a wide range of applications, from bioimaging to observational astronomy and quantum technologies. 

It sounds like science fiction: a spacecraft, no heavier than a paperclip, propelled by a laser beam and hurtling through space at the speed of light toward a black hole, on a mission to probe the very fabric of space and time and test the laws of physics. But to astrophysicist and black hole expert Cosimo Bambi, the idea is not so far-fetched.   

Reporting in the Cell Press journal iScience, Bambi outlines the blueprint for turning this interstellar voyage to a black hole into a reality. If successful, this century-long mission could return data from nearby black holes that completely alter our understanding of general relativity and the rules of physics. 

A team of astronomers has taken the sharpest-ever picture of the unexpected interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS using the crisp vision of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble is one of many missions across NASA’s fleet of space telescopes slated to observe this comet, together providing more information about its size and physical properties. While the comet poses no threat to Earth, NASA’s space telescopes help support the agency's ongoing mission to find, track, and better understand near-Earth objects.

Astronomers have discovered potentially the most massive black hole ever detected. The cosmic behemoth is close to the theoretical upper limit of what is possible in the universe and is 10,000 times heavier than the black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy. It exists in one of the most massive galaxies ever observed – the Cosmic Horseshoe – which is so big it distorts spacetime and warps the passing light of a background galaxy into a giant horseshoe-shaped Einstein ring. Such is the enormousness of the ultramassive black hole’s size, it equates to 36 billion solar masses, according to a new paper published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

 

A piece of GSI/FAIR’s cutting-edge research is scheduled to be launched into space next year: the Biophysics department will be involved in one of the next scientific missions on the International Space Station (ISS) with a highly innovative research project. The “HippoBox” project was successfully reviewed by the German Space Agency at DLR and recently selected for participation in the CELLBOX-4 mission on the ISS. The aim of the project is to use brain organoids (“mini-brains”) to investigate neuroplastic changes in a specific area of the brain, the hippocampus – a question that is highly relevant for the medical preparation of future long-term missions in space.