One of the big questions in solar physics is why the Sun's activity follows a regular cycle of 11 years. Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), an independent German ...

Physicists have used interferometry to detect the minute tidal forces acting on individual atoms exposed to a local gravitational field. This allowed them to measure the curvature of space–time on a ...

Bulging waves: artist’s impression of the gravitational waves given off by the merger of two supermassive black holes. ESA’s LISA space mission may be able to detect evidence of tidal distortions in ...

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) occur when a star ventures too close to a supermassive black hole and is gravitationally torn apart by tidal forces. The resulting stellar debris forms an accretion disc ...

Figure 1. (A) The distributions of tectonic units and earthquakes. (B) The triangles indicate positions of the seismometers. Orange triangles represent Group 1 stations situated in proximity to the ...

Falling into a black hole means facing extreme stretching, known as spaghettification, due to immense tidal forces. While supermassive black holes might allow crossing the event horizon intact, ...

In February 2016, an international team of physicists announced the first direct observation of gravitational waves. The waves had been produced by the gigantic collision of a pair of black holes, ...

Forty light-years away, seven Earth-sized planets orbit around a dim red dwarf star in one of the most tightly packed planetary systems ever discovered. The TRAPPIST-1 system has captivated ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

Python physics explained: tides and their mathematical model. Learn how tidal forces work and how to model them step-by-step in Python using clean math, simple assumptions, and clear visual intuition.