Space and astronomy news
Black holes are a spot in the universe where you won’t see the sun shine in, to paraphrase that 1960s rock-musical Hair. But speaking of “hair”, a group of scientists says these singularities may have matter (sometimes referred to as “hair”) that could affect how they appear. This is a tangled concept to figure out …
Continue reading “Are Black Holes Hairy, Or Better Described By Clean Physics?”
What happens if you fall into a black hole? According to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the fall would be uneventful, until at some point the force of gravity would rip you apart. But a new theory suggests a different fate — and if correct, could challenge our understanding of gravity and how the universe …
Continue reading “Webcast: What Happens When You Fall Into a Black Hole?”
I remember seeing the Hubble 3-D IMAX movie in 2010 and literally gasping when the view pulled back from zooming into distant stars and galaxies to show clusters and superclusters of galaxies interwoven like a web, creating the large scale structure of the Universe. In 3-D, the structure looks much like the DNA double helix …
Continue reading “New 3-D Map Shows Large Scale Structures in the Universe 9 Billion Years Ago”
Time Reborn: From the Crisis of Physics to the Future of the Universe is one of those books intended to provoke discussion. Right from the first pages, author Lee Smolin — a Canadian theoretical physicist who also teaches philosophy — puts forward a position: time is real, and not an illusion of the human experience …
Caption: An artist’s view of a Pioneer spacecraft heading into interstellar space. Both Pioneer 10 and 11 are on trajectories that will eventually take them out of our solar system. Image credit: NASA The case of the Pioneer Anomaly has intrigued and perplexed scientists, engineers and the space-savvy public since 1980, when analysis of tracking …
[/caption] According to Wikipedia, a journal club is a group of individuals who meet regularly to critically evaluate recent articles in the scientific literature. And of course, the first rule of Journal Club is… don’t talk about Journal Club. So, without further ado – today’s article is about how turning complex theory into plain English …
Continue reading “Journal Club – Black Holes Made All The Difference”
[/caption] Planning a little space travel to see some friends on Kepler 22b? Thinking of trying out your newly-installed FTL3000 Alcubierre Warp Drive to get you there in no time? Better not make it a surprise visit — your arrival may end up disintegrating anyone there when you show up. “Warp” technology and faster-than-light (FTL) …
Continue reading “Warp Drives May Come With a Killer Downside”
On September 22, an international team of researchers working on the OPERA project at the Gran Sasso research facility released a paper on some potentially physics-shattering findings: beams of neutrinos that had traveled from the CERN facility near Geneva to their detector array outside of Rome at a speed faster than light. (Read more about …
Continue reading “Particle Physics and Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos…Discuss.”
[/caption] Hey. We’re all aware of Einstein’s theories and how gravity affects light. We know it was proved during a total solar eclipse, but what we’ve never realized in observational astronomy is that light just might get bent by other gravitational influences. If it can happen from something as small as a star, then what …
Continue reading “Bending The Rules – Exploring Gravitational Redshift”
[/caption]Ever since Einstein unveiled his theory of relativity, the speed of light has been considered to be the physical constant of the universe, interrelating space and time. In short, it was the speed at which light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation were believed to travel at all times in empty space, regardless of …