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Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime. The phenomenon can be compared to ripples on a sheet when a heavy ball is placed on it and spun around. In the universe, these "balls" are massive objects such as black holes and neutron stars, which vibrate spacetime as they orbit and eventually merge. These gravitational waves are emitted through space and, although very subtle, can be detected on Earth with the correct equipment.

A team of geoscientists, including members from the Archaeology, Environmental Changes and Geo-Chemistry large research unit of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, has investigated traces of the asteroid impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The team examined samples from the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary layer, which marks the extinction of 70% of all species that existed at the time, including the dinosaurs.

A team of researchers led by Vincent Pelgrims (ULB) dust off the Galaxy to build the first 3D map of the Universe's magnetic field. A new launch for astronomy, allowing us to explore the depths of the sky like never before. A study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The space between stars is "dirty".

From April 15 to 19, Benoit Scheid and his team produced and observed, for the very first time in the world, antibubbles in zero gravity. Their work could lead to advances in water treatment and drug encapsulation . Twice a year, the European Space Agency (ESA) organizes weightlessness (or microgravity) flights.

A team of European astronomers, co-led by researchers from the Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, used recent observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope to study the atmosphere of the nearby exoplanet WASP-107b. Peering deep into the fluffy atmosphere of WASP-107b they discovered not only water vapour and sulfur dioxide, but even silicate sand clouds.

For the first time, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has produced an image of the Milky Way using neutrinos - tiny, ghostly astronomical messengers.In a paper published tomorrow in the journal Science, the IceCube project, involving ULB scientists, presents evidence of high-energy neutrino emission from the Milky Way .

Euclid is a telescope of the European Space Agency (ESA) which aims to reveal the properties and nature of dark matter and dark energy - 95% of the contents of the Universe. On the occasion of its launch from Cape Canaveral in early July, Belgian scientists involved in the Euclid mission, notably from the Université libre de Bruxelles, are highlighting their contributions and research projects .

Two University of Luxembourg researchers of the Master in Architecture programme and the Department of Geography and Spatial Planning, Francelle Cane and Marija Maric, were selected to represent Luxembourg at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale with their project titled - Down to Earth -. The Luxembourg Pavilion opened on 18 May in Sale d'Armi, Arsenale, as a part of this year's edition of La Biennale - The Laboratory of the Future - curated by Lesley Lokko.

It is fascinating to see a streak of light across the sky, and never more so than those times of the year when the meteors fall to earth in such a multitude that they look like sparkling rain. The Geminid shower is such an event. Our researchers observed such -shooting stars- falling from the sky at their peak in mid-December thanks to cameras newly installed on top of one of the university buildings.

What is behind dark energy - and what connects it to the cosmological constant introduced by Albert Einstein? Two physicists from the University of Luxembourg point the way to answering these open questions of physics. The universe has a number of bizarre properties that are difficult to understand with everyday experience.

After spending the holidays in Antarctica, an international research team led by Vinciane Debaille - G-Time Laboratory, Free University of Brussels - has returned from its mission with a lot of meteorites.

IceCube neutrinos give us the first image of the depths of an active galaxy. They allow us to get a little closer to the answer to the eternal question of the origin of cosmic rays . For the first time, an international team of scientists - including the IIIHE, Faculty of Science - has found evidence of high-energy neutrino emission in the galaxy NGC 1068.

The ESA Gaia mission has released its new treasure trove of data about our home galaxy. Astronomers - including Professor Conny Aerts from KU Leuven - describe strange 'starquakes', stellar DNA, asymmetric motions and other fascinating insights in this most detailed Milky Way survey to date. Gaia is ESA's mission to create the most accurate and complete multi-dimensional map of the Milky Way.

A system composed of four gravitationally bound stars has been followed by spectroscopy for several years by a team of researchers. This quadruple system is unstable and simulations of its future evolution show that, eventually, the stars may collide, which is likely to produce a thermonuclear supernova.

In 2020 a team led by European Southern Observatory (ESO) astronomers reported the closest black hole to Earth, located just 1000 light-years away in the HR 6819 system. But the results of their study were contested by other researchers, including by an international team based at KU Leuven. In a paper published today, these two teams have united to report that there is in fact no black hole in HR 6819, which is instead a "vampire" two-star system in a rare and short-lived stage of its evolution.

Planets are usually not much older than the stars around which they revolve. Take the Sun: it was born 4.6 billion years ago, and not long after that, Earth came into the world. But KU Leuven astronomers have discovered that a completely different scenario is also possible. Even if they are near death, some types of stars can possibly still form planets.

A Belgian-Dutch scientific team, including researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, has created the first ever "treasure map" revealing where meteorites can be found in Antarctica. Meteorites come from space and are found on the Earth's surface as stony material. They contain crucial information about the formation and evolution of our solar system.

In 1960, Nobel Prize winner Sheldon Glashow predicted a process within the Standard Model, the most important model of particle physics. The theory describes the interaction of an antineutrino with an electron producing a new particle. However, no particle accelerator on Earth, not even the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, is able to make this process happen because it requires extremely high particle energy.

Astronomers present an explanation for the mesmerising shapes of planetary nebulae. The discovery is based on an extraordinary set of observations of stellar winds around ageing stars. Contrary to common consensus, the team found that stellar winds are not spherical but have a shape similar to that of planetary nebulae.

Plasma astrophysicists at KU Leuven have created the first self-consistent simulation of the physical processes that occur during a solar flare. The researchers used Flemish supercomputers and a new combination of physical models. Solar flares are explosions on the surface of the Sun that release an enormous amount of energy, equivalent to a trillion 'Little Boy' atomic bombs exploding at the same time.