BLACK holes are the most mysterious objects in the universe, but scientists have come one small step closer to understanding the impossibly powerful phenomena.
Category: cosmology – Page 484
Newest Atomic Clocks Can Detect The Gravitational Distortions Of Time Itself
Scientists have now constructed atomic clocks so precise and sensitive that they can measure the gravitational distortion of spacetime and may even help solve the mystery of dark matter.
The latest experimental atomic clocks at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are doing their bit to improve timekeeping and navigation, but they’ve also gone much further. They can detect faint signals from gravity and the early Universe and perhaps even dark matter.
The two clocks have smashed records for systematic uncertainty, stability and reproducibility, making them top-performing timepieces.
New Research Could Rewrite Physics From the Ground Up
Four researchers came together to propose the addition of six novel particles to tackle five enduring issues within the current Standard Model Theory. This new proposed model, detailed in APS Physics, is named SMASH for “Standard Model Axion See-saw Higgs portal inflation.” The team proposed that particles rho and axion could explain inflation and dark matter respectively, along with three heavy right-handed neutrinos.
With these findings, the researchers hope to answer the following questions about the Standard Model:
Astronomers measure total starlight emitted over 13.7bn years
The first stars flickered into being a few hundred million years after the big bang. Since then, galaxies have churned out stars at a stupendous rate, and scientists estimate there were now about a trillion trillion.
In total, the astronomers estimate, stars have radiated 4×1084 photons (a photon being the smallest unit of light). Or put another way: 4,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 photons.
The astronomers based their calculation on measurements of the extragalactic background light (EBL), a cosmic fog of radiation that has been accumulating since stars first illuminated the dark, vast expanse of space.
In a galaxy far away, an old star exploded and became a supernova
About 170 million years later, the light emanating from the explosion was received by an arsenal of high-powered telescopes here at Earth. While the telescopes observed, a few of those stars ended their long lives in dramatic explosions. See what we learned: https://go.nasa.gov/2rcIaOr&h=AT2ywbQrtay_XNW6uqmtoFtsirkvbj…cfHXkJ10lQ
This dark
This dark, tangled web spotted by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is a supernova remnant, created after a massive star ended its life in an explosion and threw its constituent material out into surrounding space. Discover more: https://go.nasa.gov/2G0nVgS&h=AT0m92-1V7h2Z6pdebGy-JSLFW…CsgI5QIBpg
You’ve got to move fast on #BlackFriday2018 when there are limited quantities
Here’s a look at fast-moving jet material from the powerful gravity of a supermassive black hole when a star wandered just a little too close: https://go.nasa.gov/2FAO1XB #BlackHoleFriday