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Archive for the ‘cosmology’ category: Page 356

Sep 3, 2015

The Search For Elusive Gravitational Waves Is Headed to Space

Posted by in categories: cosmology, space

Great news. It’ll be fascinating to see what they discover.


In the distant reaches of the Universe, exploding stars and supermassive black holes are bending the very fabric of spacetime. It’s hard to wrap our brains around such tremendous forces, but we may be able to quantify them, in the form of gravitational waves. A new European Space Agency mission marks humanity’s first bold attempt to do so in outer space.

This fall, the ESA’s LISA Pathfinder will be blasted into space on a course for the L1 Lagrange point. Situated nearly a million miles from Earth, it’ll begin pilot-testing fundamental technologies for the detection of elusive gravitational waves. The miniature science observatory bid farewell to the public this week, on display at a test centre in Ottobrunn, Germany for the last time before its long journey.

A New Mission Will Search for Ripples in Spacetime

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Aug 31, 2015

Double black hole is powering quasar, astronomers find

Posted by in categories: cosmology, space

Astronomers have discovered a galaxy is being powered by a quasar that contains two black holes whirling about each other.

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Aug 25, 2015

Sci-Tech Universe: Black Holes are Escapable, Hawking Says

Posted by in category: cosmology

Matter that drops into a black hole is gone forever, right? Not so, declares Stephen Hawking.

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Aug 25, 2015

Stephen Hawking believes he knows how information escapes black holes

Posted by in category: cosmology

Black holes may not be as inescapable as we once thought.

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Aug 11, 2015

The Universe is Slowly Dying

Posted by in categories: cosmology, energy

Brace yourselves: winter is coming. And by winter I mean the slow heat-death of the Universe, and by brace yourselves I mean don’t get terribly concerned because the process will take a very, very, very long time. (But still, it’s coming.)

Based on findings from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) project, which used seven of the world’s most powerful telescopes to observe the sky in a wide array of electromagnetic wavelengths, the energy output of the nearby Universe (currently estimated to be ~13.82 billion years old) is currently half of what it was “only” 2 billion years ago — and it’s still decreasing.

“The Universe has basically plonked itself down on the sofa, pulled up a blanket and is about to nod off for an eternal doze,” said Professor Simon Driver from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Western Australia, head of the nearly 100-member international research team.

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Aug 11, 2015

Slow death of Universe confirmed with precision

Posted by in categories: astronomy, cosmology, gravity, physics, space
  • The universe radiates only half as much energy as 2 billion years ago
  • New findings establish cosmos’ decline with unprecedented precision


From CNN
—The universe came in with the biggest bang ever. But now, with a drooping fizzle, it is in its swan song. The conclusion of a new astronomical study pulls no punches on this: “The Universe is slowly dying,” it reads.

Astronomers have believed as much for years, but the new findings establish the cosmos’ decline with unprecedented precision. An international team of 100 scientists used data from the world’s most powerful telescopes — based on land and in space — to study energy coming from more than 200,000 galaxies in a large sliver of the observable universe. [Full story below or at CNN.com]…

Based on those observations, they have confirmed the cosmos is radiating only half as much energy as it was 2 billion years ago. The astronomers published their study on Monday on the website of the European Southern Observatory.

Analysis across many wavelengths shows the universe's electromagnetic energy output is dropping.The team checked the energy across a broad spectrum of lightwaves and other electromagnetic radiation and says it is fading through all wavelengths, from ultraviolet to far infrared.

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Jul 28, 2015

How to Use a Black Hole’s Spin to Harvest Energy

Posted by in categories: cosmology, energy

A black hole isn’t the energy sink you might think it is. By hurling matter towards a black hole, it might be possible to get energy out of it. Learn how a spinning black hole could be an energy turbine for an entire civilization.

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Jul 28, 2015

Astronomers Discover a New Class of Freakishly Dense, Compact Galaxies

Posted by in category: cosmology

Imagine what our night sky would look like if its stellar density was a million times greater than it is now. Remarkably, such places actually exist: They’re called “Ultracompact Dwarfs,” and astronomers are calling them an entirely new kind of galaxy.

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Jul 27, 2015

Here’s the only way to destroy a black hole

Posted by in category: cosmology

You can’t defy the laws of physics.

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Jul 24, 2015

China is Building an Absolutely Massive Radio Telescope

Posted by in categories: alien life, cosmology

Construction is well underway on what will become the world’s largest radio telescope. Once complete, the half-kilometer-wide dish will explore the origins of the Universe and scour the skies for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

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