Paul Sutter
Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute in New York City. Paul received his PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011, and spent three years at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, followed by a research fellowship in Trieste, Italy, His research focuses on many diverse topics, from the emptiest regions of the universe to the earliest moments of the Big Bang to the hunt for the first stars. As an "Agent to the Stars," Paul has passionately engaged the public in science outreach for several years. He is the host of the popular "Ask a Spaceman!" podcast, author of "Your Place in the Universe" and "How to Die in Space" and he frequently appears on TV — including on The Weather Channel, for which he serves as Official Space Specialist.
Latest articles by Paul Sutter
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Can stringy physics rescue the universe from a catastrophic transformation?
By Paul Sutter published
A new understanding inspired by string theory shows that our universe may be more stable than we previously thought.
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Help find weird comet-like asteroids that could reveal solar system secrets
By Paul Sutter published
Astronomers know of only a few dozen examples of these active asteroids, but they suspect more are out there — and you can join the hunt.
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Supernova alert! Astronomers just found a way to predict explosive star deaths
By Paul Sutter published
If you see a giant red star surrounded by a thick shroud of material, watch out — the star will likely explode within a few years.
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What makes Newton's laws work? Here's the simple trick.
By Paul Sutter published
Lagrange found that the difference between an object's kinetic energy and potential energy unlocked something deeply profound about the universe.
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Dark matter could finally reveal itself through self-interactions
By Paul Sutter published
One hypothesis for the nature of dark matter is that some of it could be self-interacting, meaning the individual particles interact slightly with one another.
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Black hole 'superradiance' phenomenon may aid quest for dark matter
By Paul Sutter published
Scientists think that when dark photons collect around black holes, they can get trapped and boosted to high energies, where they might transform into other particles (or even just normal photons).
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Unusual 'revived' pulsars could be the ultimate gravitational wave detector
By Paul Sutter published
Astronomers hope to use pulsars scattered around the galaxy as a giant gravitational wave detector. But why do we need them, and how do they work?
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Giant voids of nothingness may be flinging the universe apart
By Paul Sutter published
Dark energy could be caused by pressure from giant voids of nothingness that may be flinging the universe apart.
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How dancing black holes get close enough to merge
By Paul Sutter published
New research suggests a way for black holes to merge quickly: They must be caught in the accretion disk of a supermassive companion.
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The dark matter hypothesis isn't perfect, but the alternatives are worse
By Paul Sutter published
It's true that the dark matter hypothesis has its shortcomings — and, of course, we haven't found any dark matter particles yet. But the truth is that the alternatives are much worse.
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Just how big can a super-Earth get while staying 'habitable'?
By Paul Sutter published
But could these giant, rocky planets actually sustain the conditions for life? Or is life limited to smaller planets like our own?
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Planets made of dark matter may have blown up, and we could see them
By Paul Sutter published
A new hypothesis proposes that a large fraction of dark matter may be bound up inside tight balls the size of Neptune — so-called dark matter planets.
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Why is gravity so weak? The answer may lie in the very nature of space-time
By Paul Sutter published
Reference The solution as to why gravity is so weak may come from taking a closer look at the Higgs boson.
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Radioactive decay: Discovery, process and causes
By Paul Sutter published
Reference Radioactive decay is the strange and almost mystical ability for one element to naturally and spontaneously transmute into another one.
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Black holes may die differently than we thought
By Paul Sutter published
New research motivated by string theory suggests possible, and equally strange, fates for evaporating black holes.
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What the Higgs Is Going on with Mass?
By Paul Sutter last updated
By now, most people have heard the refrain: "The Higgs boson creates mass." But the reality is a bit more complicated than that.
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A Strange New Higgs Particle May Have Stolen the Antimatter from Our Universe
By Paul Sutter last updated
Physicists have proposed that a trio of particles called Higgs bosons could be responsible for the mysterious vanishing act of antimatter in the universe.
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Physicists Search for Monstrous Higgs Particle. It Could Seal the Fate of the Universe.
By Paul Sutter last updated
Without the Higgs, the Standard Model of particle physics comes crashing down.
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The Higgs Boson: A Not-So-Godlike Particle
By Paul Sutter last updated
Let's be perfectly honest: The Higgs boson and its role in the universe are not the easiest things to explain.
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The Higgs boson could have kept our universe from collapsing
By Paul Sutter last updated
The Higgs boson particle could have kept our universe from collapsing within a larger multiverse, physicists say.
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How black holes and galaxies play tug-of-war across the cosmos
By Paul Sutter published
How monster black holes overpower their much larger host galaxies.
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Flashes from neutron star tidal waves may signal impending mergers
By Paul Sutter published
Researchers have found a new way to detect some of the most cataclysmic mergers in the universe before they happen.
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