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The discovery is the best candidate for a class of black holes astronomers have long believed to exist but have never found—intermediate-mass black holes formed in early stages of galaxy evolution.

Visible to the naked eye as a smudge in the night sky from Southern latitudes, Omega Centauri is a magnificent collection of 10 million stars. Viewed through a small telescope, it resembles other globular clusters —a densely packed spherical assembly of stars where the core is so congested that individual stars blur into one another.

However, recent research conducted by teams from the University of Utah and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy has resolved a long-standing debate among astronomers by confirming that Omega Centauri harbors a central black hole. The black hole appears to be the missing link between its stellar and supermassive kin—stuck in an intermediate stage of evolution, it is considerably less massive than the colossal black holes that are typically found in the centers of galaxies. Omega Centauri seems to be the core of a small, separate galaxy whose evolution was cut short when it was swallowed by the Milky Way.

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Dark matter could bring black holes together.

Dark matter that interacts with itself could extract significant momentum from a binary supermassive black hole system, causing the black holes to merge.

A gravitational-wave “hum” pervades the Universe.

Researchers have found a link between some of the largest and smallest objects in the cosmos: supermassive black holes and dark matter particles.

Continue reading “Astrophysicists uncover supermassive black hole/dark matter connection in solving the ‘final parsec problem’” | >

2001: CREATING KUBRICK’S SPACE ODYSSEY chronicles the creation of one of the most influential films in the history of cinema. This new documentary examines the work of legendary director Stanley Kubrick and iconic novelist Arthur C. Clarke in creating what they called “the proverbial good science fiction movie.” Filmmaker Roger Lay, Jr. tackles the enigmatic film through interviews with 2001 star Keir Dullea (who played astronaut Dave Bowman) and choreographer Dan Richter (who played Moonwatcher, the proto-human ape who learned to use the first tool). Both provide personal insights into their work on the groundbreaking film.

Other interviews include 2001 visual effects technician Brian Johnson (Academy Award winner for Alien and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back), film historian Michael Benson (author of Space Odyssey: Kubrick, Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece), and technologist Jules Urbach (CEO of OTOY). They discuss not only the revolutionary visual effects of the Kubrick film, but also the movie’s enduring influence.

2001: CREATING KUBRICK’S SPACE ODYSSEY features museum-quality digital re-creations of the original 2001 sets including interiors of the spaceship Discovery and the mysterious alien hotel room by Daren Dochterman, Mark Spatny, Carlos Baena, and a talented team of CG artists and animators at OTOY, including James Hibbert, Geoff Holman, J.J. Palomo, Neil Smith, and Aaron Westwood.

The documentary was produced by Roger Lay, Jr, along with Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda. Executive producer, Jules Urbach.

Continue reading “2001: Creating Kubrick’s Space Odyssey” | >

Spanish energy giant Iberdrola has revealed two new battery storage projects in Australia – its biggest yet in the country – that will take its total capacity to more than 1,500 gigawatt hours.

The new batteries are a 250 megawatt (MW)/ 500 megawatt hour (MWh) Gin Gin project near Bundaberg in Queensland – although its EPBC application describes it only as a 500 MW project – and the 270 MW, 1,080 MWh Kingswood project in New South Wales (NSW).

To date, Iberdrola’s non-gas firming portfolio has been on the smaller side, making up just a fraction of the company’s 2.4 GW of installed renewables in Australia.

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Although many are being cancelled outright, some flights are being diverted to other airports in Sicily.

This is especially the case for flights that were already in the air when Catania airport was closed.

Don’t forget that Sicily is the biggest island in the Mediterranean. It is twice the size of Cyprus, a country in its own right, and it takes at least eight hours to drive all the way from east to west.

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Made famous in 1995 by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the Pillars of Creation in the heart of the Eagle Nebula have captured imaginations worldwide with their arresting, ethereal beauty.

Now, NASA has released a new 3D visualization of these towering celestial structures using data from NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. This is the most comprehensive and detailed multiwavelength movie yet of these star-birthing clouds.

“By flying past and amongst the pillars, viewers experience their three-dimensional structure and see how they look different in the Hubble visible-light view versus the Webb infrared-light view,” explained principal visualization scientist Frank Summers of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, who led the movie development team for NASA’s Universe of Learning.

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What would it take to set Uranus ablaze? Is it even possible to burn it in the typical sense? If anyone can figure it out, it’s the Dead Planets Society.

Join Dead Planeteers Leah and Chelsea as they invite planetary scientist Paul Byrne back to the podcast, to join in more of their chaotic antics.

This mission is less about destruction (though it’s definitely also about destruction) and more about advancing science. Uranus is an ice giant, one of the most common types of planets in the universe, so burning it could teach us a lot about the cosmos. The planet may also be full of diamonds — and the potential for treasure derails the team’s destructive intentions.

Dead Planets Society is a podcast that takes outlandish ideas about how to tinker with the cosmos – from punching a hole in a planet to unifying the asteroid belt – and subjects them to the laws of physics to see how they fare.

Continue reading “Can We Burn Uranus? | Dead Planets Society Podcast” | >