Space and astronomy news
A growing list of scientists believe life on Earth only came about because of a lucky series of evolutionary accidents, a long list of improbable events that just happened to come together at the right time and will never be repeated. Is it possible they are right and we are all there is?
Highly unlikely.
It’s tempting to think that life is plentiful in the Universe, if only we could locate it. But a pair of researchers using Bayesian analysis have poured cold water on that idea.
With all the attention Breakthrough Starshot has been getting some are wondering if Alpha Cantauri is the best place to mount an interstellar mission
Astronomers at the SETI institute (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) have reported their findings after monitoring the reputed megastructure-encompassed star KIC 8462852. No significant radio signals were detected in observations carried out from the Allen Telescope Array between October 15-30th (nearly 12 hours each day). However, there are caveats, namely that the sensitivity and frequency range were limited, and …
Continue reading “Radio waves absent from the reputed megastructure-encompassed Kepler star?”
Is our 13.8 billion year old universe actually in its death throes? Poor Universe, its demise announced right in it’s prime. At only 13.8 billion years old, when you peer across the multiverse it’s barely middle age. And yet, it sadly dwindles here in hospice. Is it a Galactus infestation? The Unicronabetes? Time to let …
Beam us up, Scotty. There’s no signs of intelligent life out there. At least, no obvious signs, according to a recent survey performed by researchers at Penn State University. After reviewing data taken by the NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope of over 100,000 galaxies, there appears to be little evidence that advanced, …
Continue reading “100,000 Galaxies, and No Obvious Signs of Life”
In a series of new studies, Harvard astronomers show that hypervelocity stars are common in our Universe and could be the means through which life is spread from galaxy to galaxy.
It’s a big galaxy out there. Even the most skeptical scientist has to accept that if a civilisation like our own exists, then there’s a good chance we’re not the only one to have ever done so. When most people think about SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intellgence), they imagine someone like Ellie Arroway searching …
[/caption] For many of us who grew up listening to Carl Sagan, watching robotic spacecraft travel to other worlds, and indulging in science fiction books and movies, it’s a given: one day we’ll find life somewhere else in the solar system or Universe. But are we being too optimistic? Two researchers say that our hopes …
[/caption] The antineutrino (or anti-neutrino) is a lepton, an antimatter particle, the counterpart to the neutrino. Actually, there are three distinct antineutrinos, called types, or flavors: electron antineutrino (symbol ̅νe), muon antineutrino (symbol ̅νμ), and tau antineutrino (symbol ̅ντ). Beta Decay which produces electrons also produces (electron) antineutrinos. Wolfgang Pauli proposed the existence of these …