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Archive for the ‘cosmology’ category: Page 386

Feb 12, 2016

We’ve finally found gravitational waves, so can we time travel?

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics, time travel

Physicists working with a powerful observatory on Earth announced Thursday that they have finally detected ripples in space and time created by two colliding black holes, confirming a prediction made by Albert Einstein 100 years ago.

These ripples in the fabric of space-time, called gravitational waves, were created by the merger of two massive black holes 1.3 billion years ago. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) on Earth detected them on Sept. 14, 2015, and scientists evaluated their findings and put them through the peer review process before publicly disclosing the landmark discovery today.

SEE ALSO: Einstein was right: Scientists detect gravitational waves for the first time.

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Feb 11, 2016

Holy Shit! Scientists Have Confirmed the Existence of Gravitational Waves

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Since Albert Einstein first predicted their existence a century ago, physicists have been on the hunt for gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime. That hunt is now over. Gravitational waves exist, and we’ve found them.

That’s according to researchers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), who have been holed up for weeks, working round-the-clock to confirm that the very first direct detection of gravitational waves is the real deal. False signals have been detected before, and even though the rumors first reported by Gizmodo have been flying for a month, the LIGO team wanted to be absolutely certain before making an official announcement.

That announcement has just come. Gravitational waves were observed on September 14th, 2015, at 5:51 am ET by both of the LIGO detectors, located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington. The source? A supermassive black hole collision that took place 1.3 billion years ago. When it occurred, about three times the mass of the sun was converted to energy in a fraction of a second.

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Feb 10, 2016

Black Holes Could Be Gateways After All

Posted by in categories: computing, cosmology, physics

Physicists can now simulate the interiors of black holes using high-powered computers–and it looks like science fiction authors were right: black holes could be portals for space travel.

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Feb 7, 2016

“Quantum Hell” –The Universe Before the Big Bang (Week’s Most Popular)

Posted by in categories: cosmology, quantum physics

Welcome to Quantum Hell.


Martin Bojowald, a professor of phycics at Penn State University, presents his fascinating ideas about “Loop Quantum Cosmology” in Once Before Time: A Whole Story of the Universe. “Will we ever,” Bojowald asks, “with a precision that meets scientific standards, see the shape of the universe before the big bang? The answer to such questions remains open. We have a multitude of indications and mathematical models for what might have happened. A diverse set of results within quantum gravity has revealed different phenomena important for revealing what happened at the big bang. But for a reliable extrapolation, parameters would be required with a precision far out of reach of current measurement accuracy.

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Feb 1, 2016

Is dark matter subatomic particles, a superfluid, or both?

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics, quantum physics

The superfluid Universe.

Quantum effects are not just subatomic: they can be expressed across galaxies, and solve the puzzle of dark matter.

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Jan 31, 2016

New Kind of Dark Matter Could Form ‘Dark Atoms’

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

Physicists have proposed a new kind of dark matter that might consist of dark protons and dark electrons that could form dark atoms, and build up dark matter disks around galaxies.

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Jan 28, 2016

Astronomers generate image equivalent to telescope 63,000 miles wide

Posted by in category: cosmology

The cosmos came into sharper focus this week with astronomers releasing the highest resolution astronomical image yet. The product of 15 earthbound radio telescopes and a Russian satellite, the image of a black hole in a galaxy 900 millions light years away is detailed enough to show the equivalent of a US 50-cent piece on the Moon.

According to Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC), which is leading the project, the image is the product of six European radio telescopes, the nine dishes of the US National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), and the Spektr-R satellite of the RadioAstron mission.

Continue reading “Astronomers generate image equivalent to telescope 63,000 miles wide” »

Jan 27, 2016

The Death of General Relativity Lurks in a Black Hole’s Shadow

Posted by in category: cosmology

Scientists are compiling a picture of the shadow of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and it could reveal general relatively breaking down.

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Jan 24, 2016

How Time Could Move Backwards In Parallel Universes

Posted by in categories: cosmology, information science, physics

Understanding time is one of the big open questions of physics, and it has puzzled philosophers throughout history. What is time? Why does it appear to have a direction? The concept is defined as the “arrow of time,” which is used to indicate that time is asymmetric – even though most laws of the universe are perfectly symmetric.

A potential explanation for this has now been put forward. Physicist Sean Carroll from CalTech and cosmologist Alan Guth from MIT created a simulation that shows that arrows of time can arise naturally from a perfectly symmetric system of equations.

The arrow of time comes from observing that time does indeed seem to pass for us and that the direction of time is consistent with the increase in entropy in the universe. Entropy is the measure of the disorder of the world; an intact egg has less entropy than a broken one, and if we see a broken egg, we know that it used to be unbroken. Our experience tells us that broken eggs don’t jump back together, that ice cubes melt, and that tidying up a room requires a lot more energy than making it messy.

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Jan 21, 2016

Messengers from the Dark Age

Posted by in category: cosmology

The universe might have started with a bang, but once the echoes faded it took quite some while until the symphony began. Between the creation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the formation of the first stars, 100 million years passed in darkness. This “dark age” has so far been entirely hidden from observation, but this situation is soon to change.

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