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Archive for the ‘cosmology’ category: Page 159

Nov 16, 2022

Scientists created a glowing black hole in the lab to test a Stephen Hawking theory

Posted by in categories: cosmology, quantum physics

Their experiment could help to create a unified theory of quantum gravity.

A team of physicists from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands simulated the event horizon of a black hole in a lab and observed the equivalent of an elusive form of radiation first theorized by Stephen Hawking, a report from Science Alert.

The new discovery could help the scientific community develop a whole new theory that marries the general theory of relativity with the principles of quantum mechanics. John/iStock.

Nov 16, 2022

Sci-fi or reality? Scientists may know how to pinpoint wormholes in space

Posted by in categories: cosmology, mathematics, space travel

Are we soon going to be traveling enormous distances via wormholes?

A team of scientists from the University of Sofia in Bulgaria believes they have discovered a new method for detecting wormholes — though they still only exist in theory.

Wormholes are theorized shortcuts through space and time. Sci-fi depictions traditionally show a spacecraft traveling through a wormhole, or creating one, to traverse immense distances to far-off regions of the universe in a short amount of time.

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Nov 16, 2022

Postponing the Heat Death of the Universe

Posted by in categories: cosmology, futurism

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According to modern cosmology, one day all the stars will burn out and the Universe will be full of dead planets, black holes, and other stellar remnants, slowing decaying till entropy brings the Heat Death of the Universe. But could this fate be postponed or even reversed?

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Nov 16, 2022

Time-lapse view of ancient supernova was hiding in old Hubble data

Posted by in categories: cosmology, evolution

The cosmic explosion happened 11.5 billion years ago, when the universe was fairly young, and could shed light on the evolution of stars and galaxies.

Nov 15, 2022

Scientists Created a Black Hole in The Lab, And Then It Started to Glow

Posted by in categories: cosmology, mathematics, particle physics, quantum physics

A new kind of black hole analog could tell us a thing or two about an elusive radiation theoretically emitted by the real thing.

Using a chain of atoms in single-file to simulate the event horizon of a black hole, a team of physicists has observed the equivalent of what we call Hawking radiation – particles born from disturbances in the quantum fluctuations caused by the black hole’s break in spacetime.

This, they say, could help resolve the tension between two currently irreconcilable frameworks for describing the Universe: the general theory of relativity, which describes the behavior of gravity as a continuous field known as spacetime; and quantum mechanics, which describes the behavior of discrete particles using the mathematics of probability.

Nov 15, 2022

Wormholes May Already Have Been Detected, Physicists Say

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Hypothetical bridges connecting distant regions of space (and time) could more or less look like garden variety black holes, meaning it’s possible these mythical beasts of physics have already been seen.

Thankfully however, if a new model proposed by a small team of physicists from Sofia University in Bulgaria is accurate, there could still be a way to tell them apart.

Play around with Einstein’s general theory of relativity long enough, it’s possible to show how the spacetime background of the Universe can form not only deep gravitational pits where nothing escapes – it can form impossible mountain peaks which can’t be climbed.

Nov 15, 2022

Unexpectedly, the cosmos didn’t start with the Big Bang anymore

Posted by in categories: cosmology, quantum physics

In the beginning, there was … well, maybe there was no beginning. Perhaps our universe has always existed — and a new theory of quantum gravity reveals how that could work.

“Reality has so many things that most people would associate with sci-fi or even fantasy,” said Bruno Bento, a physicist who studies the nature of time at the University of Liverpool in the U.K.

In his work, he employed a new theory of quantum gravity, called causal set theory, in which space and time are broken down into discrete chunks of space-time. At some level, there’s a fundamental unit of space-time, according to this theory.

Nov 14, 2022

Recent searches for light fermionic dark matter by the PandaX-4T collaboration

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

Teams of astrophysicists worldwide are trying to observe different possible types of dark matter (DM), hypothetical matter in the universe that does not emit, absorb or reflect light and would thus be very difficult to detect. Fermionic DM, however, which would be made of fermions, has so far been primarily explored theoretically.

The PandaX Collaboration, a large consortium of researchers in China involved in the PandaX-4T experiment, has recently carried out a study aimed at extending the sensitive window for experiments aimed at directly detecting fermionic DM from above GeV to MeV or even keV ranges.

The team recently published two papers in Physical Review Letters outlining the results of the two searches for the absorption of fermionic DM using data gathered as part of the Panda X-4T experiment, a large-scale research effort aimed at detecting DM using a dual-phase time projection chamber (TPC) in China.

Nov 14, 2022

What is the shape of the universe?

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

The universe may seem shapeless because it is so vast, but it does have a form that astronomers can observe. So, what is it shaped like?

Physicists think the universe is flat. Several lines of evidence point to this flat universe: light left over from the Big Bang, the rate of expansion of the universe at different locations, and the way the universe “looks” from different angles, experts told Live Science.

Nov 14, 2022

Wormholes Could Be Hiding in Plain Sight

Posted by in category: cosmology

Predictions indicate that wormholes and black holes may have nearly identical polarized light spectra, making these astrophysical objects difficult to distinguish.