Tag Archive for 'Universe'

Gonzalez et al. report an improved measurement of the free neutron lifetime. Image credit: Tomislav Jakupec.

Neutron Lifetime Anomaly Remains Unsolved, Physicists Say

Jun 29, 2022 by News Staff

To measure the lifetime of a free neutron, physicists take two approaches that should arrive at the same answer: one traps neutrons in a magnetic bottle...

This artist’s conception illustrates the previously unknown complexity of the young galaxy A1689-zD1. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / B. Saxton, NRAO, AUI & NSF.

Early Galaxies May Have Been Bigger Than Previously Thought

Jun 14, 2022 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have observed a significant amount of cold, neutral gas in the outer regions...

A patch of sky imaged by the 3D-DASH survey. Image credit: Mowla et al., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac71af.

Hubble Captures Spectacular Near-Infrared Image Showing Early Universe

Jun 7, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers from the 3D-Drift And SHift (3D-DASH) program have released the largest near-infrared image ever taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. A...

Growing, massive black holes reside in dwarf galaxies, where their radiation competes with the light of abundant young stars. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Polimera.

Growing Massive Black Holes More Common in Dwarf Galaxies than Previously Thought

May 24, 2022 by News Staff

Using data from the REsolved Spectroscopy Of a Local VolumE (RESOLVE) and the Environmental COntext Catalog (ECO) surveys, astronomers have found evidence...

Shoshany et al. define and analyze a new model of time travel paradoxes, which is fully compatible with all known physics; the model consists of a wormhole time machine in 3+1 spacetime dimensions, which can be either permanent (existing eternally) or temporary (activated only for a short time). Image credit: Genty.

Time Travel Necessarily Implies Existence of Multiple Histories, Physicists Say

Apr 27, 2022 by The Conversation

As often portrayed in science fiction, with a time machine, nothing is permanent anymore — you can always go back and change it. But is time travel...

This artist’s impression shows the evolution of the Universe beginning with the Big Bang on the left followed by the appearance of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The formation of the first stars ends the cosmic dark ages, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Time Might Not Actually Exist, Researchers Say

Apr 22, 2022 by The Conversation

In a new book published by the Oxford University Press, Australian Catholic University’s Dr. Sam Baron and his colleagues provide the first systematic...

The four galaxies shown in this graphic are among 29 galaxies in the sample that showed evidence for growing black holes near their centers. X-rays from Chandra (blue) have been overlaid on optical images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the galaxies NGC 1385, NGC 1566, NGC 3344, and NGC 6503. The boxes that appear in the roll-over outline the location of the burgeoning black holes. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Washington State University / Baldassare et al. / ESA / STScI.

Massive Black Holes Form in Dense Stellar Environments, Study Suggests

Apr 21, 2022 by News Staff

Black holes are demolishing thousands of stars in a quest to pack on weight, according to an analysis of images of 108 galaxies taken by NASA’s Chandra...

An artist’s impression of a supermassive black hole that is inside the dust-shrouded core of a starburst galaxy. Image credit: NASA / ESA / N. Bartmann.

Hubble Finds Rapidly Growing Black Hole in Early Universe

Apr 13, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have spotted GNz7q, a black hole that existed only 750 million years after the Big Bang, in one of...

Astronomers Spot Most Distant Galaxy Ever Seen

Apr 8, 2022 by News Staff

The newly-discovered galaxy, named HD1, existed when the Universe was just 330 million years old. HD1 (red object). Image credit: Harikane et al., arXiv:...

Hubble Uncovers Most Distant Star Ever Seen

Mar 31, 2022 by News Staff

Designated WHL0137-LS and nicknamed Earendel, the newly-detected star emitted its light around 900 million years after the Big Bang. Earendel (arrow) is...

Sketches illustrating core-mantle helium exchange processes: (a) 3He acquisition during Earth’s accretion by ingassing from the nebular atmosphere and transport through the magma ocean to the proto-core; and (b) 3He transport from the core to the mantle and from the mantle to the ocean after accretion. Image credit: Olson & Sharp, doi: 10.1029/2021GC009985.

Primordial Helium Isotope is Leaking Out of Earth’s Metallic Core: Study

Mar 29, 2022 by News Staff

Each year, about 2 kg of helium-3, a rare isotope of helium gas, escapes from Earth’s interior, mostly along the mid-ocean ridge system. Helium-3 is...

The mass-energy-information equivalence principle proposed in 2019 and the information content of the observable matter in the Universe estimated in 2021 represent two important conjectures, called the information conjectures. Combining information theory and physical principles of thermodynamics, these theoretical proposals made specific predictions about the mass of information as well as the most probable information content per elementary particle. Dr. Vopson proposes an experimental protocol that allows for empirical verification of the information conjectures by confirming the predicted information content of elementary particles. Image credit: Pete Linforth.

Newly Proposed Experiment Could Confirm that Information is Fifth State of Matter

Mar 21, 2022 by News Staff

Dr. Melvin Vopson, a physicist with the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Portsmouth, has already published research suggesting that...

Early Universe Experienced Phase Transition that Created Supermassive Black Holes, Study Suggests

Mar 15, 2022 by News Staff

The formation of ultrarare supermassive black holes, with masses over one billion solar masses, in the first billion years of the Universe is an open question...

PSR J2030+4415 generated an extremely long beam of matter and antimatter. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Stanford University / M. de Vries / NSF / AURA / Gemini Consortium.

Chandra Spots Huge Filament of Matter and Antimatter from Gamma-Ray Pulsar

Mar 15, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have observed a remarkable X-ray filament generated by the gamma-ray pulsar PSR J2030+4415. PSR J2030+4415...

Noise variations in the two regions covered by the second data release from the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR) Two-metre Sky Survey with the coverage of the 841 individual pointing outlined. The RA-13 (top) and RA-1 (bottom) regions span 4,178 and 1,457 square degrees and have median rms values of 74 μJy beam−1 and 106 μJy beam−1 respectively. Failed facets (white regions) are generally caused by either poor ionospheric conditions or dynamic range issues around bright sources such as 3C 48 and 3C 196. Image credit: Shimwell et al., doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202142484.

LOFAR Radio Telescope Maps More Than Quarter of Northern Sky

Feb 28, 2022 by News Staff

In the second data release from the ongoing LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR) Two-metre Sky Survey, astronomers present radio images covering 27% of the northern...

Four possible domains of planetary intelligence: (a) on a planet with an immature biosphere (such as the Earth during the Archean Eon) there are insufficient feedback loops between life and geophysical coupled systems to exert strong co-evolution; (b) on a planet with a mature biosphere (such as Earth after the Proterozoic) the biosphere exerts strong forcing on the geophysical state establishing full co-evolution of the entire system; this feedback may provide some degree of long-term stabilizing (i.e. Gaian) modulations for the full system; (c) on a planet with an immature technosphere (represented by the current Anthropocene Earth) feedbacks from technological activity produce strong enough forcing on the coupled planetary system to drive it into new dynamical states; these forcings however are unconstrained by intention relative to the health of the civilization producing the technology; (d) on a planet with a mature technosphere, feedback loops between technological activity and biogeochemical and biogeophysical states have been intentionally modified to ensure maximum stability and productivity of the full system; alongside each planetary image, we show a schematic atmospheric spectrum; an immature biosphere would show an atmosphere mostly in equilibrium dominated perhaps by carbon dioxide (CO2); in a mature biosphere life would have changed atmospheric chemistry leading to a highly non-equilibrium state such as perhaps high concentrations of oxygen (O2); in an immature technosphere new ‘pollutant’ species appear, such as CFCs, while industrial activities such as combustion may alter the abundance of other pre-existing gases like CO2 and methane; in a mature technosphere all atmospheric constituents may have their concentrations modified to produce long-term stable and productive states for the full (civilization + biosphere) system; this is represented via a range of possible peaks for different constituents. Image credit: Frank et al., doi: 10.1017/S147355042100029X.

Can Planets Be Intelligent?

Feb 22, 2022 by News Staff

Conventionally, intelligence is seen as a property of individuals. However, it is also known to be a property of collectives. Examples include collective-decision-making...

This radio-infrared image shows the radio galaxy Alcyoneus. Image credit: Oei et al., arXiv: 2202.05427.

LOFAR Telescope Spots Biggest Radio Galaxy Ever

Feb 16, 2022 by Natali Anderson

The newly-discovered radio galaxy, dubbed Alcyoneus, has a projected length of 16.3 million light-years (4.99 Mpc). This radio-infrared image shows the...

Density distribution of the 550 galaxies in the COSMOS UltraVISTA DR3 catalog (cyan circles). The two ultramassive galaxies, COS-DR3-179370 (in MAGAZ3NE J0959) and COS-DR3-160748 (in MAGAZ3NE J1000), are shown by blue and green stars, respectively. Image credit: McConachie et al., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac2b9f.

Two Protoclusters of Galaxies Spotted in Early Universe

Feb 10, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Each of the two newly-discovered protoclusters, MAGAZ3NE J095924+022537 and MAGAZ3NE J100028+023349 (MAGAZ3NE J0959 and MAGAZ3NE J1000 for short), hosts...

Physicists Detect Exotic Particles in Quark-Gluon Plasma

Jan 25, 2022 by News Staff

Physicists from the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider have detected about 100 particles of a type known as X(3872)...

An artist’s impression of a group of stellar-mass black holes in the center of NGC 6397. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / N. Bartmann.

Universe is Teeming with Quintillions of Stellar-Mass Black Holes

Jan 19, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of astrophysicists from Italy and the United Kingdom has calculated that in the observable Universe, a sphere of diameter around 90 billion light-years,...

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