[ad_1] The present-day observable universe is probably bigger than you think. The “observable” part refers to the region within our particle horizon. We define this as being the farthest we could possibly see, given the limitations of the speed of light and the age of the universe. Since light takes time to travel, and more […]
Category: astrophysics
Astronomers may have spotted light from colliding black holes
[ad_1] Black hole collisions tend not to produce light by their very nature — you may catch gravitational waves, but that’s about it. However, scientists might have just found one of those rare instances where a collision was visible. A team using May 2019 data from both the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and Europe’s […]
How to guesstimate the number of alien civilizations in a galaxy
[ad_1] “It is true that the greatest challenge in any Astrobiological study is the fact that we are restricted to a single known example of life and indeed intelligent life in the Universe, and inevitably, we do have to appeal to knowledge about the way that we ourselves have formed in order to make assumptions […]
Astronomers find the first known regular pattern of fast radio bursts
[ad_1] Just what’s causing the bursts isn’t certain. The scientsists know that it’s coming from a “star-churning” area on the outskirts of a giant spiral galaxy, but not what it is. Neutron stars are believed to be a frequent source, but there are a number of possible explanations. They may be coming from a single […]
Scientists confirm the basis of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
[ad_1] If you simultaneously drop a feather and a bowling ball in a vacuum, they’ll hit the ground at the same time. In other words, despite their mass, they’re affected by a gravitational field in exactly the same way. The same goes for massive objects like stars, according to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, and astrophysicists […]
Scientists find the universe’s ‘missing matter’ using mysterious cosmic bursts
[ad_1] As such, it’s been a challenge to detect this matter using traditional techniques and telescopes. However, the research team was finally able to locate the missing matter by leveraging the phenomenon of FRBs — brief flashes of energy that come from random directions in the sky and last for milliseconds. Scientists don’t yet know […]
NASA’s closest-ever Sun flybys reveal how solar wind works
[ad_1] There were more mysteries. The probe spotted tiny energetic particle events that never reach Earth, as well as bursts with oddly high levels of heavy elements. Both may be more common than scientists first thought, NASA said. At the same time, the craft also answered questions — humanity now has the first direct evidence […]
Astronomers find stellar black hole so large it shouldn’t exist
[ad_1] The team used China’s Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) to find stars orbiting objects that are seemingly invisible — a technique that had been proposed back in 1783, but hadn’t really been possible until recently. They then used both the US’ Keck I telescope and Spain’s Gran Telescopio Canarias to determine […]
Supercomputer creates millions of virtual universes
[ad_1] The production of roughly 8 million simulated universes took ‘just’ three weeks. The approach is not only helping to understand how galaxies evolve, but is challenging existing theories. To begin with, galaxies may produce stars for considerably longer than previously thought. Star formation should have ended ages ago under existing models, and dark matter […]
Scientists find the largest observed black hole to date
[ad_1] The team spotted the black hole using data from the Very Large Telescope array. The wealth of extra data from the Chile observatory helped them map the structure of Holm 15A in unprecedented detail, helping them run simulations to explain the galaxy’s formation and its unusually faint center. Simply speaking, the black hole is […]