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Archive for the ‘cosmology’ category: Page 217

Aug 19, 2020

The World’s Most Powerful X-Ray Laser Just Gave Rise to a ‘Molecular Black Hole’

Posted by in category: cosmology

Circa 2017


Imagine you took all sunlight that hits our planet at any given moment, and focussed it on one (unfortunate) piece of Earth the size of a thumbnail. Now times that blistering intensity by 100, and you’re beginning to understand the insanity of the world’s most powerful X-ray laser.

In a surprise result, scientists have focussed the full intensity of this laser onto a single molecule, and the aftermath has given rise to a phenomenon no one’s ever seen before — a molecular ‘black hole’, which consumes anything in its path.

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Aug 19, 2020

Black hole collision may have exploded with light

Posted by in categories: cosmology, education, physics

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Astronomers have seen what appears to the first light ever detected from a black hole merger.


When two black holes spiral around each other and ultimately collide, they send out ripples in space and time called gravitational waves. Because black holes do not give off light, these events are not expected to shine with any light waves, or electromagnetic radiation. Graduate Center, CUNY astrophysicists K. E. Saavik Ford and Barry McKernan have posited ways in which a black hole merger might explode with light. Now, for the first time, astronomers have seen evidence of one of these light-producing scenarios. Their findings are available in the current issues of Physical Review Letters.

A team consisting of scientists from The Graduate Center, CUNY; Caltech’s Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF); Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC); and The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) spotted what appears to be a flare of light from a pair of coalescing black holes. The event (called S190521g) was first identified by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and the European Virgo detector on May 21, 2019. As the black holes merged, jiggling space and time, they sent out gravitational waves. Shortly thereafter, scientists at ZTF — which is located at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego — reviewed their recordings of the same the event and spotted what may be a flare of light coming from the coalescing black holes.

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Aug 19, 2020

This Star Appears to Have Survived a Supernova

Posted by in category: cosmology

It seems a fusion shield could survive a supernova explosion.


“That’s what makes this white dwarf unique — it did undergo nuclear burning, but stopped before it got to iron,” Gänsicke told Space.com.

“This star is unique because it has all the key features of a white dwarf but it has this very high velocity and unusual abundances that make no sense when combined with its low mass,” Boris Gänsicke, physics professor at the University of Warwick, UK, and lead author of a paper about the research published the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, said in a statement.

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Aug 18, 2020

Physicist predicts the ‘mindboggling’ number of years before the universe ends

Posted by in category: cosmology

The universe may never end if we refuel it.


Tick-Tock. The universe’s perpetual clock keeps on clicking off the seconds, even in peculiar times such as these, when work weeks seem to fly past like hours and months are a silent blur.

But just to put things into proper perspective for how insignificant our strictly-defined daily blocks of time truly are, one inquisitive scientist has devised a formula to predict just when cosmic existence will finally come to a screeching halt and the final supernova erupts.

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Aug 18, 2020

Microwave anomalies strengthen the case for loop quantum cosmology, say physicists

Posted by in categories: cosmology, quantum physics

A theory of quantum gravity that describes the universe as beginning in a “Big Bounce” r

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Aug 17, 2020

Holes in the fabric of space and time may be responsible for dark matter

Posted by in category: cosmology

Your typical, run-of-the-mill black holes have long ago been eliminated from the running as candidates for dark matter, that mysterious substance that appears to make up a large proportion of the mass in our universe, including our own galaxy.

The reason is simple: ordinary black holes come from the collapse of stars, which means that they were originally formed from what is called baryonic matter, ordinary matter. You are made of baryons and so are black holes.

Aug 17, 2020

Black dwarf supernovae might be the last event in the universe

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

The universe may have started with a Big Bang, but it will most likely end in an utterly anticlimactic way, slowly fading to black over trillions and trillions of years. Now, a theoretical physicist at Illinois State University has calculated what might just be the last interesting event that will ever happen – the explosions of stars called black dwarfs, which don’t even exist yet.

The ultimate fate of the universe is still up for debate, but one of the leading hypotheses is that it will undergo a “heat death.” Basically, all the stars will cool down and fizzle out, black holes will evaporate, and the never-ending expansion of the universe will stretch the fabric of reality so far that the remaining subatomic particles will rarely have the chance to whiz within a parsec of each other.

And now, thanks to theoretical physicist Matt Caplan, we have an idea of what might be one of the last things that will ever happen – black dwarf supernovae.

Aug 17, 2020

Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory (NEMO) – Building a $100M Black Hole Detector

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

A new study makes a compelling case for the development of “NEMO”—a new observatory in Australia that could deliver on some of the most exciting gravitational-wave science next-generation detectors have to offer, but at a fraction of the cost.

The study, co-authored by the ARC Center of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), coincides with an Astronomy Decadal Plan mid-term review by Australian Academy of Sciences where “NEMO” is identified as a priority goal.

“Gravitational-wave astronomy is reshaping our understanding of the Universe,” said one of the study’s lead authors OzGrav Chief Investigator Paul Lasky, from Monash University.

Aug 17, 2020

Nearing the Cybernetic Singularity: What is the Syntellect Emergence?

Posted by in categories: cosmology, neuroscience, singularity

#CyberneticSingularity


About 542 million years ago, something weird and profoundly remarkable happened on Earth. Quite suddenly, life went insanely inventive, proliferating from simple, rudimentary single-celled organisms into myriad multi-cellular forms. Evolution discovered the idea of more sophisticated and specialized cells, and most of the basic body plans we know today. Biologists call it the Cambrian explosion.

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Aug 17, 2020

Gearing for the 20/20 Vision of Our Cybernetic Future — The Syntellect Hypothesis, Expanded Edition | Press Release

Posted by in categories: computing, cosmology, engineering, information science, mathematics, nanotechnology, neuroscience, quantum physics, singularity

“A neuron in the human brain can never equate the human mind, but this analogy doesn’t hold true for a digital mind, by virtue of its mathematical structure, it may – through evolutionary progression and provided there are no insurmountable evolvability constraints – transcend to the higher-order Syntellect. A mind is a web of patterns fully integrated as a coherent intelligent system; it is a self-generating, self-reflective, self-governing network of sentient components… that evolves, as a rule, by propagating through dimensionality and ascension to ever-higher hierarchical levels of emergent complexity. In this book, the Syntellect emergence is hypothesized to be the next meta-system transition, developmental stage for the human mind – becoming one global mind – that would constitute the quintessence of the looming Cybernetic Singularity.” –Alex M. Vikoulov, The Syntellect Hypothesis https://www.ecstadelic.net/e_news/gearing-for-the-2020-visio…ss-release

#SyntellectHypothesis

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