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Category: cosmology – Page 130

Most detailed X-ray sky map bolsters standard model of cosmology

The picture was the result of the first six months of operation of eROSITA (Extended Roentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array), one of two X-ray telescopes that were launched into space in July 2019 aboard the Russian spacecraft SRG (Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma). eROSITA scans the sky as the spacecraft spins, and collects data over wider angles than are possible for most other X-ray observatories. This enables it to slowly sweep the entire sky every six months.

By an unusual arrangement, the eROSITA team is split into two — with a group based in Germany and one based in Russia — and each has exclusive access to eROSITA data from only half of the sky. The mission was originally intended to cover the sky eight times. But Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 led the German government to freeze its collaborations, and eROSITA was put on stand-by. By then, it had completed four full sky scans.

The data that Bulbul and her collaborators have used so far were from their half of the sky, collected during the first scan. Even so, the results are already among the most precise cosmological measurements ever made. It is unclear when the Russia-based group will publish its data and analysis.

Stranger Stars

Some of the most bizarre and interesting objects in the Universe are stars. Let’s go on a journey and discover what happens when physics is taken to the most extreme.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro.
03:33 Red dwarfs.
04:53 White dwarfs.
06:39 Black Dwarfs.
08:15 Neutron stars.
13:36 Quark stars.
15:58 Strange stars.
16:35 Electroweak stars.
17:38 Planck stars.

Sources:
All about star birth, life, and death:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar…

About neutron stars:
https://www.space.com/22180-neutron-s…

What happens inside a black hole? Nobody knows!
https://www.space.com/what-happens-bl…

What is a Planck star? — Ask a Spaceman! Dr. Paul M. Sutter.

Continue reading “Stranger Stars” | >

Staggering Structure in 19 Nearby Spiral Galaxies

The James Webb Space Telescope observed 19 nearby face-on spiral galaxies in near-and mid-infrared light as part of its contributions to the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program.

It’s oh-so-easy to be absolutely mesmerized by these spiral galaxies. Follow their clearly defined arms, which are brimming with stars, to their centers, where there may be old star clusters and – sometimes – active supermassive black holes. Only NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope can deliver highly detailed scenes of nearby galaxies in a combination of near-and mid-infrared light — and a set of these images was publicly released today.

These Webb images are part of a large, long-standing project, the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program, which is supported by more than 150 astronomers worldwide. Before Webb took these images, PHANGS was already brimming with data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Telescope’s Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, including observations in ultraviolet, visible, and radio light. Webb’s near-and mid-infrared contributions have provided several new puzzle pieces.

Can Technological Civilizations Move Stars?

Sergey Brin, the brilliant Tech billionaire who co-founded Google, is building an airship at a cost of 250 million dollars, that would allow him to carry his home to wherever he goes. Could this concept be extended to the solar system as a whole? Might we want to take the Sun with us for a ride through the Milky Way galaxy?

Ecclesiastes 1:9 argued: “there is nothing new under the sun.” This gloomy perspective need not be true forever. With a few more centuries of science and technology, our civilization might develop a stellar engine that propels the Sun and allows us to travel with it through the Milky Way galaxy and beyond.

Fritz Zwicky, the astronomer who discovered dark matter in 1933, wrote in his 1957 book Morphological Astronomy: “Considering the Sun itself, many changes are imaginable. Most fascinating is perhaps the possibility of accelerating it to higher speeds, for instance 1,000 kilometers per second directed toward Alpha-Centauri in whose neighborhood our descendants then might arrive a thousand years hence. All of these projects could be realized through the action of nuclear fusion jets, using the matter constituting the Sun and the planets as nuclear propellants.”

Black Hole at the Center of a Galaxy in the Early Universe received Less Mass Influx than expected, astronomers find

With the upgraded GRAVITY-instrument at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer of the European Southern Observatory, a team of astronomers led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics has determined the mass of a black hole in a galaxy only 2 billion years after the Big Bang. With 300 million solar masses, the black hole is actually under-massive compared to the mass of its host galaxy. Researchers suspect what is happening here.

A paper on this work is published in the journal Nature.

In the more local universe, astronomers have observed tight relationships between the properties of galaxies and the mass of the supermassive black holes residing at their centers, suggesting that galaxies and black holes co-evolve. A crucial test would be to probe this relationship at early cosmic times, but for these far-away galaxies, traditional direct methods of measuring the black hole mass are either impossible or extremely difficult.

Lopsided Galaxies Shed Light on the Speed of Dark Matter

In new research published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, researchers have figured out how to precisely calculate the forces that affect galaxies in tidal cycles. The next stage is to find galaxies sufficiently lopsided in the universe to study the velocity of dark matter relative to the galaxies.

So, how can the speed of dark matter be measured? The prerequisite is to find a galaxy in the universe that moves relative to dark matter. Since everything in the universe is in motion and there is a great deal of dark matter, it is not difficult to find such galaxies.

Heavy objects, like galaxies, attract all types of matter, whether it is dark matter or visible matter that we encounter on a daily basis. As dark matter moves past a galaxy, the galaxy begins to pull the dark matter particles towards it. However, the change of speed direction of the particles takes time. Before their trajectory curves towards the galaxy, they already manage to pass the galaxy.

Telescopes Reveal Rapid Spin of Milky Way’s Black Hole Warping Spacetime

Black holes have two fundamental properties: their mass (how much they weigh) and their spin (how quickly they rotate). Determining either of these two values tells scientists a great deal about any black hole and how it behaves. In the past, astronomers made several other estimates of Sgr A*’s rotation speed using different techniques, with results ranging from Sgr A* not spinning at all to it spinning at almost the maximum rate.

The new study suggests that Sgr A* is, in fact, spinning very rapidly, which causes the spacetime around it to be squashed down. The illustration shows a cross-section of Sgr A* and material swirling around it in a disk. The black sphere in the center represents the so-called event horizon of the black hole, the point of no return from which nothing, not even light, can escape.

Looking at the spinning black hole from the side, as depicted in this illustration, the surrounding spacetime is shaped like a football. The faster the spin the flatter the football.

Explosion Light-Years Away Could Obliterate Life on Earth, Scientists Find

Even if they were dozens of light-years away, two colliding neutron stars could create a powerful enough explosion to wipe out life on Earth.

At least, that’s according to a recent paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, in which a team of researchers concluded that a kilonova could pose a major threat to Earth-like planets, even at formidable interstellar distances.

A kilonova is usually the result of a collision involving two neutron stars within a binary system, or when a neutron star and a black hole merge. These collisions release brain-melting amounts of electromagnetic radiation in the form of gamma-ray bursts.