Yeah, it sounds goth, but it could explain the enormous size of certain black holes.
In the distant future, our own galaxy could join hearts with its galactic neighbor Andromeda.
Read more
Category: cosmology – Page 374
Lattice QCD is not only teaching us how the strong interactions lead to the overwhelming majority of the mass of normal matter in our Universe, but holds the potential to teach us about all sorts of other phenomena, from nuclear reactions to dark matter.
Later today, November 7th, physics professor Phiala Shanahan will be delivering a public lecture from Perimeter Institute, and we&s;ll be live-blogging it right here at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT. You can watch the talk right here, and follow along with my commentary below. Shanahan is an expert in theoretical nuclear and particle physics and specializes in supercomputer work involving QCD, and I&s;m so curious what else she has to say.
Read more
An international team of astronomers has detected a new luminous quasar at a redshift of 7.02. The newly found quasi-stellar object (QSO), designated DELS J003836.10–152723.6, is the most luminous quasar known at a redshift of over 7.0. The discovery is reported in a paper published October 29 on the arXiv pre-print repository.
Powered by the most massive black holes, bright quasars at high redshift are important for astronomers as they are perceived as the brightest beacons highlighting the chemical evolution of the universe most effectively. They are the most luminous and most distant, compact objects in the observable universe and their spectrum can be used, for instance, to estimate the mass of supermassive black holes (SMBHs).
However, high-redshift QSOs are extremely rare and difficult to find. So far, only two quasars with redshifts over 7.0 have been identified. This limits our understanding of SMBH growth mechanism and reionization history.
Read more
History is full of forgotten heroes. Sometimes that’s because somebody else got credit for their work. Sometimes it’s because they were women in a male-dominated world. And sometimes it’s because a couple of continents *cough* Western society *cough* decided they didn’t want to include them in the history books. Meet Ibn al-Haytham — the guy who basically invented Science with a capital S.
Read more
Scientists just further confirmed what has long been believed: that there’s a supermassive black hole scientists named Sagittarius A* at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. This mind-blowing 1.5-minute video zooms in from a wide view of the night sky into the tiny little area where the latest telescopic observations were just made.
In a paper published on October 31st, 2018, scientists at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) detailed how they used the GRAVITY interferometer and the four telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to create a virtual telescope that effectively has a diameter of 427 feet (130m).
Pointing this ultra-telescope straight at Sagittarius A*, scientists detected bright spots of gas traveling in orbits around Sagittarius A* at 30% the speed of light.
Read more
Based on observations by the European Souther Observatory’s GRAVITY instrument, this simulation shows gases swirling around the black hole at the center of the Milky Way — at just 30% the speed of light — “the first time material has been observed orbiting close to the point of no return.”
ESO/Gravity Consortium/L. Calçada
Read more
Perhaps the most important supernova of the modern era is SN 1987A, the closest supernova to Earth since the invention of the telescope. Scientists have been observing the explosion’s remnants since the 1987 event.
Scientists led by University of Toronto graduate student Yvette Cendes have presented a new report showing the 25 years of radio wave observations of the stellar corpse’s evolution from 1992 to 2017. You can watch those observations in the timelapse below.
Read more