New research published in Science shows spaceborne satellite altimetry can detect two-dimensional tsunami wave patterns near the earthquake’s source, offering critical insight for coastal risk evaluation and preparedness planning. The study highlights three key implications for hazard science: dispersive modeling is remarkably useful for characterizing tsunamis near their source; satellite altimetry can add unique constraints when it observes tsunamis close to where they begin; and wide-swath altimetry provides a transformative tool for understanding earthquake rupture and improving tsunami hazard assessments.

Waterloo scientists have developed a new way to understand how the universe began, and it could change what we know about the Big Bang and the earliest moments of cosmic history. Their work suggests that the universe’s rapid early expansion could have arisen naturally from a deeper, more complete theory of quantum gravity.

Our Milky Way's halo of hot gas is warmer to the 'south' than the 'north' because of an internal combustion engine-like effect that is compressing the gas like a piston, a new study has found. Computer simulations reveal that the Large Magellanic Cloud – a satellite galaxy below, or on the south side, of our own – attracts the Milky Way, causing gas in the southern half of the halo to compress and heat up. This, a team of scientists led by the University of Groningen say, explains why the southern half of the halo is up to 12 per cent warmer than the northern part above the Milky Way's disc, a discrepancy which was measured in 2024 by the X-ray observatory eROSITA mounted on a German-Russian space telescope. Their findings are published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.