Physics in Pictures by Topic
Thermodynamics & Heat
Black Hole Sun: Quasi-Stars
Stars are powered by nuclear fusion, but the early universe may have played host to quasi-stars, astronomical behemoths with black holes at the center.
Nuclear Mysteries: the Rope Trick Effect
Developing and testing the most destructive weapons in history was a process fraught with danger—and discovery.
Coronal Loops
Plasma arcs from the surface of the sun, guided back down by powerful magnetic field lines.
Mysteries of the Glass Transition
Why do certain liquids transition into glass? There's no easy answer.
Rover Debris
Before landing on Mars' surface, the Curiosity Rover images its parachute's crash site.
Snowflake Science
The sky is falling! No, those are just snowflakes falling from the clouds. In this Physics in Pictures explore what conditions make snowflakes and what all snowflakes have in common.
Exploding White Dwarf Star
Astrophysicists are able to "explode a star" in a virtual computational laboratory by applying physics to calculate the mechanism and progression of the explosion.
In Synch
Electrons don't normally know one direction from another, so researchers were perplexed a few years ago when they found a cold plane of electrons suddenly choosing to conduct many times better in one direction than in the perpendicular one.
Cold Molecules
Physicists have cooled single atoms and molecules with two or three atoms to just a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero, but it has proved hard to push larger molecules below about 10 degrees Kelvin.
