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 ...

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 ...

As the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury is exposed to the star's enormous gravitational field. And it's really stressful. Reading time 3 minutes Mercury has it rough. Not only is it the smallest ...