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Category: space – Page 1,058

Astronomers Examine the Circumstellar Dust Around KIC 8462852

A new measurement of the dust around KIC 8462852 reveals that it seems to be consistent with the breakup of a cluster of Halley-like comets.

The Kepler satellite was designed to search for Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of stars by measuring dips in a star’s brightness as orbiting planets move across the stellar disc (transits). Its sensitive camera stares at more than 150,000 stars towards the constellations of Cygnus and Lyrae, and so far has found over 5000 exoplanet candidates. But Kepler also monitors the light fluctuations in all the other stars, even dips not caused by transits, and has found some bizarre situations. Perhaps the strangest is the case of KIC 846852, an otherwise normal star slightly larger than the Sun that has exhibited significant, irregular dips in the flux that last as short as a few days or as long as eighty days, and are as deep as 20%. The source is so far unique in the Kepler database.

Japanese team confirms that Einstein’s theory works throughout the universe

Nice

A new three-dimensional map of part of the universe, created by a massive international team of researchers, is refuting the idea that Einstein’s theory of general relativity could be breaking down in the faraway universe, according to a new report in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan.

“We tested the theory of general relativity further than anyone else ever has. It’s a privilege to be able to publish our results 100 years after Einstein proposed his theory,” study author Teppei Okumura, an astrophysicist from The University of Tokyo, said in a news release.

Faint blue galaxy could possess Big Bang clues

BLOOMINGTON, Ind., May 12 (UPI) — Researchers say a faint blue galaxy 30 million light-years away may offer insights into the birth of the universe.

The galaxy, discovered by astronomers at Indiana University, is small, faint and relatively unassuming. Its chemical contents, however, make it quite unusual. Researchers found surprisingly few heavy chemical elements inside the galaxy, which they dubbed Leoncino, or “little lion.”

In fact, Leoncino boasts the fewest metals of any observed gravitationally bound star system.

D-Wave launches Quantum for Quants at Budapest derivatives conference

Nice list of experts on Quantum; however, I would love to see someone from the Lab from Los Alamos to discuss Quantum Internet and University of Sydney from their Innovation Lab or the lady herself “Michelle Simmons” on the panel. Hope to see registration soon.

The announcement was made at the Global Derivatives Trading & Risk Management conference in Budapest, Hungary.

“Quantum computers enable us to use the laws of physics to solve intractable mathematical problems,” said Marcos de López de Prado, Senior Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners and a Research Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Computational Research Division. “This is the beginning of a new era, and it will change the job of the mathematician and computer scientist in the years to come.”

As de Prado points out on the Quantum for Quants website, “Our smartphones are more powerful than the systems used by NASA to put a man on the moon.”

Kepler Findings: NASA Announces Discovery of More Than 1,200 New Alien Planets

NASA just made a new announcement regarding the findings made by the Kepler Space Telescope.

NASA just announced that they have found 1,284 new planets. This is the most exoplanets that have ever been announced at one time, and it doubles the number of known Kepler exoplanets (informally known as ‘alien planets’).

“This announcement more than doubles the number of known exoplanets,” says Timothy Morton, associate research scholar at Princeton University, and a member of the study.