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Archive for the ‘cosmology’ category: Page 15

Dec 17, 2023

James Webb telescope discovers oldest black hole in the universe

Posted by in category: cosmology

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has spotted the oldest black hole ever seen, an ancient monster with the mass of 1.6 million suns lurking 13 billion years in the universe’s past.

The James Webb Space Telescope, whose cameras enable it to look back in time to our universe’s beginnings, spotted the supermassive black hole at the center of the infant galaxy GN-z11 just 440 million years after the universe began.

And the space-time rupture isn’t alone, it’s one of countless black holes that gorged themselves to terrifying scales during the cosmic dawn — the period about 100 million years after the Big Bang when the young universe began glowing for a billion years.

Dec 16, 2023

Riding the Cosmic Wave: How Plasma Instability Is Changing Our View of the Universe

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) have discovered a new plasma instability that promises to revolutionize our understanding of the origin of cosmic rays and their dynamic impact on galaxies.

At the beginning of the last century, Victor Hess discovered a new phenomenon called cosmic rays that later on earned him the Nobel prize. He conducted high-altitude balloon flights to find that the Earth’s atmosphere is not ionized by the radioactivity of the ground. Instead, he confirmed that the origin of ionization was extra-terrestrial. Subsequently, it was determined that cosmic “rays” consist of charged particles from outer space flying close to the speed of light rather than radiation. However, the name “cosmic rays” outlasted these findings.

Recent advances in cosmic ray research.

Dec 16, 2023

There May Be Small Black Holes Inside Some Stars, Scientists Say

Posted by in category: cosmology

In a new paper, astrophysicist Earl Bellinger wondered if black holes could be trapped inside stars, a theory inspired by “Black Hole Sun.”

Dec 14, 2023

Revolutionizing the Cosmos: Deep Learning Supercharges Galactic Calculations

Posted by in categories: chemistry, cosmology, robotics/AI

Supernovae, which are exploding stars, play a pivotal role in galaxy formation and evolution. However, simulating these phenomena accurately and efficiently has been a significant challenge. For the first time, a team including researchers from the University of Tokyo has utilized deep learning to enhance supernova simulations. This advancement accelerates simulations, crucial for understanding galaxy formation and evolution, as well as the evolution of chemistry that led to life.

When you hear about deep learning, you might think of the latest app that sprung up this week to do something clever with images or generate humanlike text. Deep learning might be responsible for some behind-the-scenes aspects of such things, but it’s also used extensively in different fields of research. Recently, a team at a tech event called a hackathon applied deep learning to weather forecasting. It proved quite effective, and this got doctoral student Keiya Hirashima from the University of Tokyo’s Department of Astronomy thinking.

Dec 14, 2023

Life might have been possible just seconds after the Big Bang

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Life may be much, much older than Earth.

Dec 12, 2023

Webb’s Wonders: A New Holiday Image of Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A

Posted by in category: cosmology

Just in time for the holidays, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recently used its Near-Infrared (NIRCam) instrument to capture stunning images of the massive supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A (Cas A), comes after JWST used its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to capture its own images of Cas A earlier this year. Along with being comprised of different colors, each image provides different details of Cas A, with some features being visible in one image that aren’t visible in the other image. In either case, this most recent NIRCam image continues to offer stunning insights into one of the most well-known supernova remnants that spans 10 light-years in diameter and located approximately 11,000 light-years from Earth.

Recent image of the supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A (Cas A), taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, revealing details like never before. (Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University), T. Temim (Princeton University), I. De Looze (University of Gent))

“With NIRCam’s resolution, we can now see how the dying star absolutely shattered when it exploded, leaving filaments akin to tiny shards of glass behind,” said Dr. Danny Milisavljevic, who is an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy ay Purdue University and is the research team lead. “It’s really unbelievable after all these years studying Cas A to now resolve those details, which are providing us with transformational insight into how this star exploded.”

Dec 12, 2023

Webb stuns with new high-definition look at exploded star

Posted by in category: cosmology

Objects in space reveal different aspects of their composition and behavior at different wavelengths of light. Supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is one of the most well-studied objects in the Milky Way across the wavelength spectrum. However, there are still secrets hidden within the star’s tattered remains.

The latest are being unlocked by one of the newest tools in the researchers’ toolbox, the James Webb Space Telescope—and Webb’s recent look in the near-infrared has blown researchers away.

Continue reading “Webb stuns with new high-definition look at exploded star” »

Dec 11, 2023

Inconsistency Turns Up Again for Cosmological Observations

Posted by in category: cosmology

A new analysis of the distribution of matter in the Universe continues to find a discrepancy in the clumpiness of dark matter in the late and early Universe, suggesting a fundamental error in the standard cosmological model.

Cosmologists study the Universe by making a vast range of observations using a variety of modern techniques. Each observation can reveal different details about the Universe’s composition over a certain period of its history. An astronomical survey—a map of a region of the sky—is a powerful way to scan a large swath of the Universe and the objects it contains. For example, a weak-lensing survey does that by obtaining sharp images of galaxies, which can then be used to map the distribution of the Universe’s matter throughout history. The Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) is one such weak-lensing survey, and it has the highest resolution and the deepest depth of all current weak-lensing surveys. Over the past six years, the HSC-SSP survey team has spent 330 nights scanning 3% of the entire spherical sky, capturing the light emitted by galaxies up to 10 billion years ago.

Dec 10, 2023

The Strange Case of the Double Big Bang

Posted by in category: cosmology

An exploration of a recent paper that suggests that there may not have been a single big bang, but two at the beginning of the universe.

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Dec 8, 2023

Crisis in Cosmology: New Study Exacerbates Expansion Rate Disagreement

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

The current measurements of the expansion rate of the universe are in disagreement, leading to a crisis in cosmology and the need for renewed research efforts into new physics and a new model of the universe.

Questions to inspire discussion.

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