Are there Hidden Dimensions to the Universe? Part 2: The Hierarchy Problem The problem that large extra dimensions just might solve is called the hierarchy problem, and it’s one of the nastiest outstanding problems in modern physics. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
An International Team Uncovers What Powers Auroras A new study co-led by the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) reveals that plasma waves traveling along Earth’s magnetic field lines act like an invisible power source, fueling the stunning auroral displays we see in the sky. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
SpaceX Crew-12 will Study How Microgravity Affects the Human Body NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission is preparing to launch for a long-duration science mission aboard the International Space Station. During the mission, select crew members will participate in human health studies focused on understanding how astronauts’ bodies adapt to the low-gravity environment of space, including a new study examining subtle changes in blood flow. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Are there Hidden Dimensions to the Universe? Part 1: Kaluza and Klein I always say that one of the things that separates real science from pseudoscience is that while in both you’re allowed to say whatever crazy idea pops into your mind, in real science you’re obligated to take that idea seriously. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
A giant star is changing before our eyes and astronomers are watching in real time For decades, astronomers have been watching WOH G64, an enormous heavyweight star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy visible with the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere. This star is more than 1,500 times larger than the sun and emitting over 100,000 times more energy. For a long time, red supergiant WOH G64 looked like a star steadily reaching the end of its life, shedding material and swelling in size as it began to run out of fuel. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Webb unveils nature of distant ultraviolet-luminous galaxy CEERS2-588 Astronomers from the University of Tokyo in Japan and elsewhere have employed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe a distant ultraviolet-luminous galaxy known as CEERS2-588. Results of the observational campaign, published January 29 on the arXiv preprint server, shed more light on the nature and properties of this galaxy. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Pulsar timing hints at a nearby dark matter ‘sub-halo’ A group of US astronomers may have uncovered the first evidence for a dark matter sub-halo lurking just beyond our stellar neighborhood. Reporting their findings in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Sukanya Chakrabarti at the University of Alabama in Huntsville suggests that an unseen clump of dark matter could be subtly tugging on nearby pulsars. If confirmed, the result could shed new light on the elusive nature of dark matter and how it is distributed throughout our galaxy. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Looking For Advanced Aliens? Search For Exoplanets With Large Coal Deposits The combustible sedimentary rock, better known as coal, was not only crucial to the onset of advanced technology here on earth, but it should also be key to the development of advanced E.T.s residing on any given exoearth. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Canadian Researchers Map the Milky Way’s Magnetic Field An international team of researchers have published two papers that reveal a new model for how the magnetic field of the Milky Way evolved. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
The Collaboration that Brought you the First Image of a Black Hole Just Released Photos of its Massive Jet Recently published data from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) of the galaxy Messier 87 facilitate new insights into the direct environment of the central supermassive black hole. Measured differences in the radio light on different spatial scales can be explained by the presence of an as of yet undetected jet at frequencies of 230 Gigahertz at spatial scales comparable to the size of the black hole. The most likely location of the jet base is determined through detailed modeling. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Is the Universe Older Than We Think? Part 4: The Changing Lambda-scape Isn’t the FLRW metric way generic? It lays out the basic assumptions and tells us how the universe should behave, but it doesn’t say WHAT the universe is made of. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
JWST uncovers rich organic chemistry in a nearby ultra-luminous infrared galaxy A study led by the Center for Astrobiology (CAB), CSIC-INTA, using modeling techniques developed at the University of Oxford, has uncovered an unprecedented richness of small organic molecules in the deeply obscured nucleus of a nearby galaxy, thanks to observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
The Dirty Afterlife of a Dead Satellite Sometimes humans get ahead of ourselves. We embark on grand engineering experiments without really understanding what the long-term implications of such projects are. Climate change itself it a perfect example of that – no one in the early industrial revolution realized that, more than 100 years later, the emissions from their combustion engines would increase the overall global temperature and risk millions of people’s lives and livelihoods, let alone the impact it would have on the species we share the world with. According to a new release from the Salata Institute at Harvard, we seem to be goingRead More →
The “Little Red Dots” Observed by Webb Were Direct-Collapse Black Holes The discovery by JWST of a substantial population of compact “Little Red Dots” (LRDs) presented astronomers with a major mystery. By reproducing their spectra with simulations, a team argued that they were Direct Collapse Black Holes (DCBHs). Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Is the Universe Older Than We Think? Part 3: Timescape The FLRW metric is a model. And you know the saying, all models are wrong, but some are useful. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Detection system uses gravitational waves to map merging black holes An international collaboration of astrophysicists that includes researchers from Yale has created and tested a detection system that uses gravitational waves to map out the locations of merging black holes—known as supermassive black hole binaries—around the universe. Such a map would provide a vital new way to explore and understand astronomy and physics, just as X-rays and radio waves did in earlier eras, the researchers say. The new protocol demonstrated by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) offers a detection protocol to populate the map. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Is There A Link Between Primordial Black Holes, Neutrinos, and Dark Matter? In 2023, a subatomic particle called a neutrino crashed into Earth with such a high amount of energy that it should have been impossible. In fact, there are no known sources anywhere in the universe capable of producing such energy—100,000 times more than the highest-energy particle ever produced by the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. However, a team of physicists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently hypothesized that something like this could happen when a special kind of black hole, called a “quasi-extremal primordial black hole,” explodes. UniverseRead More →
A new comet was just discovered. Will it be visible in broad daylight? A newly discovered comet has astronomers excited, with the potential to be a spectacular sight in early April. C/2026 A1 (MAPS) was spotted by a team of four amateur astronomers with a remotely operated telescope in the Atacama desert on January 13. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
The Amaterasu particle: Cosmic investigation traces its origin Cosmic rays are extremely fast, charged particles that travel through space at nearly the speed of light. The Amaterasu particle was detected in 2021 by the Telescope Array experiment in the U.S. It is the second-highest-energy cosmic ray ever observed, carrying around 40 million times more energy than particles accelerated at the Large Hadron Collider. Such particles are exceedingly rare and thought to originate in some of the most extreme environments in the universe. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Keeping the Extremely Large Telescope’s mirrors shiny ESO Video Casts Go to SourceRead More →
