Superstrings Could Be Detectable As They Decay
One of Einstein’s predictions for relativity is the concept of gravity waves; these are emitted whenever massive objects move. The more massive the object the stronger the gravity wave.
New Technique Could Reveal Dark Matter
Dark matter is invisible to all our instruments, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. It does reach out to regular matter with its gravity. A new technique being developed at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics might be able to make dark matter reveal itself. A large enough radio telescope should be able to …
Astrophoto: M83 by R. Jay GaBany
Our understanding of the Universe is written in pencil on the pages of a loose-leaf notebook because, like many of the sciences, our knowledge of nature is constantly undergoing revision. For example, during the past few years a quiet revolution has been taking place regarding galaxies, black holes and their increasingly understood symbiotic relationship. Black …
Giant Radio Telescope May Go to Australia or Africa
Australia and South Africa have been shortlisted to host the Square Kilometer Array, a massive radio telescope that will be built in 2018. The array will have thousands of antennas, spread out over an area of 3,000 km (1,800 miles), and should be 50 times more powerful than the most powerful array of radio telescopes …
Continue reading “Giant Radio Telescope May Go to Australia or Africa”
Early Universe’s Rapid Expansion Confirmed
A new detailed picture of the infant universe, where red indicates warm spots and blue for the cooler areas. Image credit: NASA/WMAP Click to enlarge Scientists have gathered new evidence that supports the inflationary theory of expansion thanks new data from NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). The spacecraft has been making continuous observations of …
Continue reading “Early Universe’s Rapid Expansion Confirmed”
World’s Largest Telescope
Europeans have begun funding what will eventually become the world’s largest telescope: the Square Kilometre Array. The first step is a four-year study that will consult astronomers and engineers from around the world to decide what will make the best design. It will then be developed in stages, with parts coming operational over the next decade, and completion by 2020. Once complete, this extremely sensitive radio telescope will help probe the nature of dark matter, confirm Einstein’s predictions about relativity… and let us watch television shows broadcast from nearby stars.
A Simulation of the Whole Universe
An international team of researchers have developed a computer program that simulates the growth and expansion of the Universe after the Big Bang, including the formation of galaxies, clusters and quasars. The “Millennium Simulation” used 10 billion virtual particles of matter, and traced their movements in a 2 billion light-year cube of space as the Universe evolved. This simulated area contained 20 million virtual galaxies, and accounted for dark energy expanding the Universe, cold dark matter, and regular matter.
Where Does Visible Light Come From?
It’s amazing thing but many amateur astronomers (and possibly the occasional professional as well!) don’t have the big picture on where the bulk of the visible light in the universe comes from. “Sure” you say, “from the stars!” Ah but that’s the easy answer. In fact the more you learn about light, the less straightforward such an answer becomes. In this article, Jeff Barbour probes a little deeper and the implications could light the way to an extraordinarily new appreciation for the “star stuff” seen all around us.
Motion of Material in the Early Universe
Researchers from Caltech have looked deep into space to a time when early material in the Universe was swirling towards the creation of galaxy clusters and superclusters. They did their measurements using an instrument in the Chilean Andes called the Cosmic Background Imager (CBI), which looks at the Universe when it was only 400,000 years old – a time before galaxies, stars, and planets had formed. By watching the motion of this material as it began forming larger structures, the researchers were able to confirm that dark matter and dark energy were having an effect even then.
Further Evidence Found for Dark Energy
Image credit: SDSS Since the discovery several years ago of a mysterious force, called dark energy, which seems to be accelerating the Universe, astronomers have been searching for additional evidence to either support or discount this theory. Astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have found fluctuations in cosmic background radiation that match the repulsive …