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Archive for the ‘cosmology’ category: Page 210

Apr 3, 2019

‘Something no human has seen before’: The first-ever photograph of a black hole will likely be unveiled next week

Posted by in category: cosmology

They’ve captured our imaginations for decades, but we’ve never actually photographed a black hole before – until now.

Next Wednesday, at several press briefings around the world, scientists will apparently unveil humanity’s first-ever photo of a black hole, the European Space Agency said in a statement. Specifically, the photo will be of “Sagittarius A,” the supermassive black hole that’s at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

But aren’t black holes, well, black, and thus invisible, so none of our telescopes can “see” them? Yes – therefore the image we’re likely to see will be of the “event horizon,” the edge of the black hole where light can’t escape.

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Apr 1, 2019

Astronomers Worldwide Are About to Make a Groundbreaking Black Hole Announcement

Posted by in category: cosmology

The European Southern Observatory has just revealed there will be a huge announcement next week. Yes, we know how that sounds — but as far as we can tell, it appears the world is about to finally see the first ever photo of a black hole’s event horizon.

Of course, we won’t know for sure until the press event itself, which we will cover live on our site. But here’s a massive clue: according to the advance statement, the researchers will be discussing the “first result from the Event Horizon Telescope.”

For years, the Event Horizon Telescope has been staring into the heart of the Milky Way, trying to obtain a photo of the location of Sagittarius A*, our galaxy’s central supermassive black hole.

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Apr 1, 2019

Astronomers Are Teasing the First-Ever Photo of a Black Hole

Posted by in category: cosmology

The international team behind the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project is gearing up for a huge announcement next week — and according to ScienceAlert’s analysis, it’s likely to be the first-ever photo of a black hole’s event horizon.

If that prediction is correct, the April 10 event will be a monumental moment for science — providing a glimpse of one of the most epic objects in the known universe.

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Mar 30, 2019

LIGO to Resume Its Nobel-winning Hunt for Gravitational Waves

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

The hunt for gravitational waves is back on. After a series of upgrades, the National Science Foundation’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) will resume its search for ripples in space and time on Monday, April 1.

LIGO is famous for making the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015, for which the observatory’s founders were awarded the Nobel Prize. The observatory was able to detect gravity waves generated by two colliding black holes which were located 1.3 billion light-years away from Earth, and since then has observed nine more black hole mergers and one collision of two neutron stars.

Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime, caused by massive bodies which bend it like a bowling ball placed on a rubber sheet. They were predicted by Einstein as part of his general theory of relativity in 1916, but it took nearly a century for physicists to observe them because the effects are so small. Since these waves have been detected, they can be used to investigate cosmic objects as an alternative to light-based telescopes.

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Mar 30, 2019

Physicists Just Measured Quantum ‘Nothingness’ at Room Temperature

Posted by in categories: cosmology, quantum physics

Physicists have measured the sound of ‘nothingness’ at room temperature — an important step in our future ability to listen in to the Universe.

You can think of it a little like this — we’ve now been able to measure the way some of the ubiquitous ‘background noise’ of space interacts with our equipment, which will hopefully help us tune it out going forward.

After all, the entire Universe is crackling with the static of quantum physics, and in order to be able to pick up the faint echoes of distant astronomical giants — such as the gravitational waves rippling off a black hole merger, for example — we need to be able to tune out the quantum static.

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Mar 28, 2019

Physicists build donut-shaped magnet to find ‘ghost-like’ dark matter particle

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

The ABRACADABRA experiment sounds like magic but it may help uncover an elusive, invisible particle.

    by

  • Jackson Ryan

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Mar 28, 2019

Unusual galaxies defy dark matter theory

Posted by in category: cosmology

After drawing both praise and skepticism, the team of astronomers who discovered NGC 1052-DF2 – the very first known galaxy to contain little to no dark matter – are back with stronger evidence about its bizarre nature.

Dark matter is a mysterious, invisible substance that typically dominates the makeup of ; finding an object that’s missing is unprecedented, and came as a complete surprise.

“If there’s one object, you always have a little voice in the back of your mind saying, ‘but what if you’re wrong?’ Even though we did all the checks we could think of, we were worried that nature had thrown us for a loop and had conspired to make something look really special whereas it was really something more mundane,” said team leader Pieter van Dokkum, Sol Goldman Family Professor of Astronomy at Yale University.

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Mar 28, 2019

An experiment that solved a 100-year-old mystery posed by Einstein is about to turn back on — and it’s more powerful than ever

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

  • Colliding black holes and neutron stars create ripples in spacetime, called gravitational waves. These were “heard” for the first time in September 2015.
  • On Monday, a pair of gravitational-wave detectors called LIGO will turn back on after 6 months of downtime and upgrades.
  • To boost its power, the experiment will now work with a sister machine in Italy called Virgo.
  • Physicists expect the next period of searching for colliding black holes to last a year and be 40% more sensitive than before.

One of the most remarkable experiments in history — a pair of giant machines that listen for ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves — will wake up from a half-year nap on Monday. And it will be about 40% stronger than before.

That experiment is called the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO); it consists of two giant, L-shaped detectors that together solved a 100-year-old mystery posed by Albert Einstein.

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Mar 27, 2019

This 3D Quantum Gas Clock Could Redefine Time

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

Time may be a human construct but that hasn’t stopped physicists from perfecting it.

JILA’s 3D Quantum Gas Atomic Clock Offers New Dimensions in Measurement
https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2017/10/jilas-3-D-quan…easurement
“JILA physicists have created an entirely new design for an atomic clock, in which strontium atoms are packed into a tiny three-dimensional (3D) cube at 1,000 times the density of previous one-dimensional (1-D) clocks. In doing so, they are the first to harness the ultra-controlled behavior of a so-called “quantum gas” to make a practical measurement device.”

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Mar 27, 2019

Could Black Holes Made Of Light Power Our Spaceships?

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics, quantum physics, space travel

What exactly would it take to create our very own Swartzchild Kugelblitz?

Could a Dyson Sphere Harness the Full Power of the Sun? — https://youtu.be/jOHMQbffrt4

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