Lifeboat Foundation

Astronomers may have spotted a supermassive black hole in the early universe that formed when a gargantuan gas cloud imploded.

The black hole’s host galaxy, UHZ1, was spotted in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations of galaxies in the early universe. These distant galaxies’ light has been bent and magnified by the intervening galaxy cluster Abell 2,744, bringing them into view.

Ákos Bogdán (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian) and others used the Chandra X-ray Observatory to take a second look at 11 of the lensed galaxies. Based on which wavelengths the galaxies are detectable at, each of the 11 appeared to lie at a redshift greater than 9, which means they’re shining at us from the universe’s first 500 million years. The team picked up X-rays from just one galaxy, the most magnified of the bunch.

What happened before the Big Bang? In two of our previous films we examined cyclic cosmologies and time travel universe models. Specially, the Gott and Li Model https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79LciHWV4Qs) and Penrose’s Conformal Cyclic Cosmology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVDJJVoTx7s). Recently Beth Gould and Niayesh Afshordi of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics have fused these two models together to create a startling new vision of the universe. In this film they explain their new proposal, known as Periodic Time Cosmology.

0:00 Introduction.
0:45 NIayesh’s story.
1:15 Beth’s story.
2:25 relativity.
3:26 Gott & Li model.
6:23 origins of the PTC model.
8:17 PTC periodic time cosmology.
10:55 Penrose cyclic model.
13:01 Sir Roger Penrose.
14:19 CCC and PTC
15:45 conformal rescaling and the CMB
17:28 assumptions.
18:41 why a time loop?
20:11 empirical test.
23:96 predcitions.
26:19 inflation vs PTC
30:22 gravitational waves.
31:40 cycles and the 2nd law.
32:54 paradoxes.
34:08 causality.
35:17 immortality in a cyclic universe.
38:02 eternal return.
39:21 quantum gravity.
39:57 conclusion.

Continue reading “Before the Big Bang 11: Did the Universe Create itself? The PTC model” »

A molecule common to Earth and usually associated with life has been detected in the depths of space by scientists.

Carbonic acid (HOCOOH), which you may know as the chemical that makes your soda fizzy, was discovered lurking near the center of our galaxy in a galactic center molecular cloud named G+0.693–0.027, a study published in The Astrophysical Journal revealed.

This marks the third time that carboxylic acids—this class of chemicals, often thought to be some of the building blocks of life —have been detected in space, after acetic acid and formic, and the first time that an interstellar molecule has been found to contain three or more oxygen atoms.

Discover cosmic enigmas: Ohio State’s study on neutrinos and supernovae unveils new insights into the universe’s hidden interactions.

Part 1 of a 2-part mini-lecture series given by Prof. Leonard Susskind, director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics.

An “out there” theory inspired the development of the Dark Matter Radio, a device that could explain the mysterious matter that makes up 85 percent of the mass of our universe.

One clue comes from the observation that most galaxies contain massive black holes at their centers. That has led to the proposal that galaxies form around black holes which act as seeds for this process.

But there is a problem with this idea. If it is true, something must stop stars from falling into black holes as they form, but nobody knows what.

Now a new theory of black holes explains this process. The new theory “gives a general mechanism by which a central black hole can catalyze galaxy formation,” says Stephen Adler, at Princeton University in New Jersey.

When two black holes merge to form a single one, it can zoom off at an extraordinary pace – but scientists have found that it does have a speed limit.

By Leah Crane

The way in which supermassive black holes grew to tremendous sizes in the early universe has been a mystery for astronomers, but the puzzle could soon be solved.