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A new paper takes a deep dive into primordial black holes that were formed as a part of the early universe when there were still no stars or galaxies. Such black holes could account for strange cosmic possibilities, including baby universes and major features of the current state of the cosmos like dark matter.

To study the exotic primordial black holes (PBHs), physicists employed the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) of the huge 8.2m Subaru Telescope operating near the 4,200 meter summit of Mt. Mauna Kea in Hawaii. This enormous digital camera can produce images of the entire Andromeda galaxy every few minutes, helping scientists observe one hundred million stars in one go.

This void spans across nearly 500 light years.


Although space is vast, it mostly teems with gas, dust, rocky objects, or stars. But this region wedged between the star-forming clouds was bare, puzzling the astronomers.

“What we see is the cavity, which means that there was some powerful mechanism to excavate this region,” Bialy says.

The data revealed that the Perseus and Taurus molecular clouds are not two independent structures but that they actually formed from the same event. And the scientists behind the new study believe that event may have been a supernova.

Thu, Sep 23 at 8 AM PDT.


Join us on-line from 4pm to 7pm on Thursday 23 September for a livestream event to learn about particle physics research at Oxford. Hear from researchers studying High Energy collisions, and phenomena like dark matter, antimatter, and neutrinos; follow a guided tour of our Minecraft model of the CERN laboratory; and watch exciting demonstrations from the Accelerate! show. Oxford particle physicists will be available through the evening to answer your questions.

Live, via the Oxford Physics YouTube channel. Everyone is welcome, regardless their knowledge of physics.

Full Schedule

NASA Turned a Star’s Corpse into Sound — and It’s Magical.


We all know that there’s no sound in space. However, one project from NASA is turning that fact on its head by transforming images of space objects into beautiful music.

It’s all a part of a “sonification” project by the agency’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Universe of Learning program, according to a NASA blog about the topic. The project takes normal charts and images of space and transforms them into sound.

One of the most recent examples of this showcases what the remnants of the Tycho supernova sounds like — and it’s absolutely magical.

This magnifying glass was used to sharpen X-ray images for the first time using NASA

Established in 1,958 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. It’s vision is “To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.”

Of all the different dark matter detectors in the world, only one has consistently come up with a positive signal. The results of DAMA experiment in Italy are hotly debated — and now two experiments seeking to verify it using the same materials have returned conflicting results.

ANAIS, a dark matter detector run by the University of Zaragoza at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Spain, has delivered results that seem to contradict DAMA’s.

But COSINE-100, run by a collaboration between the Korea Invisible Mass Search and Yale University at the Yangyang Underground Laboratory in South Korea, has now produced new output. These results are similar to what ANAIS’ threw up — but also a little closer to the results DAMA has produced over the last 20 years.

Of all the different dark matter detectors in the world, only one has consistently come up with a positive signal. The results of DAMA experiment in Italy are hotly debated — and now two experiments seeking to verify it using the same materials have returned conflicting results.

ANAIS, a dark matter detector run by the University of Zaragoza at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Spain, has delivered results that seem to contradict DAMA’s.

But COSINE-100, run by a collaboration between the Korea Invisible Mass Search and Yale University at the Yangyang Underground Laboratory in South Korea, has now produced new output. These results are similar to what ANAIS’ threw up — but also a little closer to the results DAMA has produced over the last 20 years.