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This artist’s concept shows a “feeding,” or active, supermassive black hole with a jet streaming outward at nearly the speed of light. Such active black holes are often found at the hearts of elliptical galaxies. Not all black holes have jets, but when they do... More »
Infrared view of the Fomalhaut dust disk taken by the Herschel Space Observatory. New data reveal that comets are constantly banging into each other around the star, creating its dust disk. Image credit: ESA The Herschel Space Observatory has studied the dusty... More »
What happens to a stem cell at the molecular level that causes it to become one type of cell rather than another? At what point is it committed to that cell fate, and how does it become committed? The answers to these questions have been largely unknown. But n... More »
This artist’s concept features NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover next to its landing site at Gale Crater. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Where is NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory going to land and why? Join us either in person or virtually for a liv... More »
The device ‘swooshing’ into a satellite is the vacuum tube, one of the main components of an atomic clock that will undergo a technology flight demonstration. When people think of space technologies, many think of high-tech solar panels, complex and powerful p... More »
From left to right, artist’s concepts of the Spitzer, Planck and Kepler space telescopes. NASA extended Spitzer and Kepler for two additional years; and the U.S. portion of Planck, a European Space Agency mission, for one year. The relative sizes of the artist... More »
The second-largest mass extinction in Earth’s history coincided with a short but intense ice age during which enormous glaciers grew and sea levels dropped. Although it has long been agreed that the so-called Late Ordovician mass extinction—which occurred ab... More »
This is an animation of ocean surface currents from June 2005 to December 2007 from NASA satellites. Watch how bigger currents like the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean and the Kuroshio in the Pacific carry warm waters across thousands of miles at speeds grea... More »
If on a summer’s night you look low in the southern sky, you will see the constellation Sagittarius, a centaur pulling back a bow and arrow. But to many, it looks more like a teapot, and if you look toward its spout, you will be staring straight into the cente... More »
Caltech senior Emmet Cleary has been chosen to receive a Fulbright scholarship to conduct research at the University of Adelaide in Australia during the next academic year. The Australian-American Fulbright Commission selected Cleary—based on academic merit an... More »
The moon’s near side (left) is covered with dark splotches of lunar maria that look like a man’s face when seen from Earth. The moon’s far side (right), with its many craters and elevated topography, looks quite different. Many of us see a man in the moon—... More »
Visit Caltech on iTunes U to download free audio and video content—lectures, informational postings, cultural performances, and campus programs—right to your computer, tablet, or mobile phone. New and Notable Nobel Laureate David Politzer and professor emeritu... More »
