For as long as humans have contemplated the Universe, we’ve marveled at the vastness of it all. Was our Universe infinite? Was it eternal? Or did it spring into existence a finite amount of time ago? Over the 20th and 21st centuries, these existential questions for all-time have, one-by-one, fallen into the realm of science, and now have the best answers we’ve ever been able to assemble.
Thursday, June 6
A Star Older Than the Universe
For as long as humans have contemplated the Universe, we’ve marveled at the vastness of it all. Was our Universe infinite? Was it eternal? Or did it spring into existence a finite amount of time ago? Over the 20th and 21st centuries, these existential questions for all-time have, one-by-one, fallen into the realm of science, and now have the best answers we’ve ever been able to assemble.
Thursday, January 18
A Dark Primordial Galaxy
Hydrogen gas in the primordial galaxy J0613+52 with red indicating regions turning away from Earth and blue showing regions turning toward us (Image credit: STScI POSS-II with additional illustration by NSF/GBO/P.Vosteen.)
Astronomers have accidentally discovered a dark galaxy filled with primordial gas untouched that appears to have no visible stars.
The researchers behind the discovery say this galaxy, designated J0613+52, could be "the faintest galaxy found to date." Interestingly, scientists using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) discovered the "dark" galaxy through a complete error.
"The GBT was accidentally pointed to the wrong coordinates and found this object. It's a galaxy made only out of gas — it has no visible stars," Green Bank Observatory senior scientist Karen O'Neil said in a statement. "Stars could be there. We just can't see them." READ MORE..
Friday, August 11
Star Older Then Universe
The star HD 140283 has been called the "Methuselah star" for its extreme age. At an estimated over 14 billion years old, it’s the oldest star we know, at least within our galaxy. A star that old is certainly interesting, particularly when it is so close to us it can be seen with binoculars, however, that appears to put it older than the universe. How that can be? A closer examination reveals the star is special, but not that special.
The standard estimate of the time since the Big Bang is 13.79 billion years. The figure is derived from the rate of expansion of the universe using Einstein's relativity but has been validated through a variety of methods. However, that number is now facing at least three distinct challenges. As evidence, proponents point to the existence of stars estimated to be either older than 13.8 billion years, or so close to that age that there shouldn’t have been time for them to form.
Not surprisingly HD 140283 gets prime billing (helped by its catchy nickname derived from a Biblical ancestor of Noah said to have lived to 969) due to a 2013 study using Hubble data that estimated it is 14.46 billion years old, plus or minus 800 million years. That would make it potentially older than the universe.
The biggest claim regarding HD 140283 is that it disproves the Big Bang. After all, if there is even one star 14.5 billion years old then the explosion that started the universe couldn’t have happened less than 14 billion years ago. The Big Bang is now so central to our cosmology that were it to be disproved it would create a scientific revolution the like of which we have not seen for a long time.
A smaller, but still dramatic, change would be required to adapt to the recent claim that the Big Bang happened, but almost twice as long ago as most estimates put it, at 26.7 billion years ago.
Neither of these views has much support among astrophysicists, but some do suspect we’ve got our estimates of the timing of the Big Bang more modestly wrong, and the universe is really around 15 billion years old. Although such an estimate would raise a few questions about why our estimates for the universe’s expansion rate are out, if proven, accompanying changes to our thinking would be evolutionary not revolutionary.
In that context, it’s worth asking: if the universe was 26 billion years old, wouldn’t we expect to find 20 billion-year-old stars? It’s true we’ve only really looked across a small portion of the galaxy, but if the universe is that old, Methuselah looks suspiciously young. Then take that question a step further and ask what we might expect to see if the universe had no beginning and has always been here. READ MORE...
Saturday, September 3
Talking to Voyager Again
NASA’S VOYAGER 1 is on a fraught and unknowable journey into deep space. Some 14.6 billion miles from Earth, it and its sister craft, Voyager 2, are the furthest human-made objects from our planet, having made it beyond the edges of the Solar System and out into the interstellar medium.
But that’s not how NASA works. Instead, they started working on a remote diagnosis and fix for the record-breaking spacecraft. Now, some four months later, they are triumphant.
Sunday, August 28
Tracing Earth's Path Through the Galaxy
"To see a world in a grain of sand," the opening sentence of the poem by William Blake, is an oft-used phrase that also captures some of what geologists do.
We observe the composition of mineral grains, smaller than the width of a human hair. Then, we extrapolate the chemical processes they suggest to ponder the construction of our planet itself.
Now, we've taken that minute attention to new heights, connecting tiny grains to Earth's place in the galactic environment.
Looking out to the universe
At an even larger scale, astrophysicists seek to understand the universe and our place in it. They use laws of physics to develop models that describe the orbits of astronomical objects.
Although we may think of the planet's surface as something shaped by processes entirely within Earth itself, our planet has undoubtedly felt the effects of its cosmic environment. This includes periodic changes in Earth's orbit, variations in the sun's output, gamma ray bursts, and of course meteorite impacts.
Just looking at the Moon and its pockmarked surface should remind us of that, given Earth is more than 80 times more massive than its gray satellite. In fact, recent work has pointed to the importance of meteorite impacts in the production of continental crust on Earth, helping to form buoyant "seeds" that floated on the outermost layer of our planet in its youth.
We and our international team of colleagues have now identified a rhythm in the production of this early continental crust, and the tempo points to a truly grand driving mechanism. This work has just been published in the journal Geology. READ MORE...
Thursday, June 23
Snake Like Galaxy
The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have imaged a snake-like galaxy. Scientists named the galaxy NGC 1087, and it is swirling through space almost 80,000 light-years from our planet.
ALMA’s image of this snake-like galaxy is breathtaking
The snake-like galaxy spans over 86,800 light-years across. It can be found within the constellation Cetus. This particular part of the sky is home to several other water-themed constellations, too, such as Pisces and Aquarius. It isn’t the largest galaxy we have discovered but, it’s still impressive.
They created the main image by combining multiple images from ALMA and the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer on the ESO’s VLT. This allowed the ESO to create an image that showcases the full galaxy, along with the cold clouds of star-spawning gas that surrounds it. Additionally, the areas tinted with blue represent older stars that are more mature.
Scientists captured the shots as part of a conjunctive project called the Physics at High Angular Resolutions in Nearby Galaxies Survey, or PHANGS. The team assigned scientists to help deliver a catalog of high-resolution observations of nearby galaxies while using telescopes that target a wide range of different wavelengths. This snake-like galaxy is just one that the team has seen.
And ALMA is perfect for capturing images of galaxies like this because of how high up it is. The observatory is located at an altitude of 5,000 meters (16,500 feet) in Chile. As such, it has an excellent vantage point for the 66 radio telescopes the observatory is equipped with. READ MORE...
A spiral galaxy is curled up like a sleeping serpent in a striking new image from the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).ALMA's high altitude of 16,500 feet (5,000 meters) and extremely dry climate in Chile's Atacama Desert provide an excellent vantage point for the observatory's 66 radio telescopes to penetrateSwirling silently 80 million light-years from Earth like a sleeping, coiled snake, NGC 1087 is an intermediate spiral galaxy that spans 86,800 light-years in the constellation Cetus. This area of the sky is named after a sea monster from Greek mythology and is home to other water-themed constellations, like AquariuSeen as a composite image composed of shots taken at different wavelengths, ALMA's observations capture the galaxy's lava-like reddish hue, which represents cold clouds of star-spawning molecularThe blue-tinted regions indicate areas of older, more mature stars, all imaged by the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer on ESO's Very Large Telescope, located at the expansive ALMA observatory site, ESO representatives said in a statement(op
Tuesday, June 7
Unknown Structure in Galaxy
3C273, which lies at a distance of 2.4 billion light-years from Earth, is a quasar. A quasar is the nucleus of a galaxy believed to house a massive black hole at its center, which swallows its surrounding material, giving off enormous radiation.
When you see a car's headlight, the dazzling brightness makes it challenging to see the darker surroundings. The same thing happens to telescopes when you observe bright objects. Dynamic range is the contrast between the most brilliant and darkest tones in an image.
Tuesday, March 8
A Spectacular Universe
Just 12 million light-years away, the galaxies Messier 81 and 82 offer a nearby preview of the Milky Way-Andromeda merger.
Right in our cosmic backyard, a preview of the Milky Way’s future unfolds.
The galaxy Messier 81, also known as Bode’s Galaxy, is one of the brightest and closest galaxies to Earth not found in our Local Group. By connectng the lower-left corner of the Big Dipper’s cup to the upper-right corner and then traveling that same distance in the same direction, you can find M81 and the other major galaxies of its group all clustered together. (Credit: E. Siegel/Stellarium)
Just outside the Big Dipper’s “cup,” Bode’s Galaxy, Messier 81, lingers.
This optical image of Bode’s Galaxy, M81, comes courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope. The spiral arms are littered with hot, young, blue stars, while large extent of the arms indicates a gravitational interaction with one or more nearby neighbors. A wider-field and multiwavelength view supports that. (Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))
12 million light-years away, it’s a naked eye object for those with acute vision and exceptionally dark skies.
The two largest, brightest galaxies in the M81 Group, M81 (right) and M82 (left), are shown in the same frame in these 2013 and 2014 photos. In 2014, M82 experienced a supernova, visible in the 2014 (blue) image just above the galactic center. (Credit: Simon in the Lakes)
The largest galaxy in the M81 group moves ever-so-slightly towards us. READ MORE...
Wednesday, January 26
Radio Signals From Milky Way
Mysterious radio waves emanating from the center of the galaxy have astronomers stumped.
Four objects have briefly emitted radio signals that don't resemble any known type of star.
Scientists think each of the four signals could come from a new type of object unknown to astronomy.
Ziteng Wang found a needle in an astronomical haystack.
Wang, a physics PhD student at the University of Sydney, was combing through data from Australia's ASKAP radio telescope in late 2020. His research team had detected 2 million objects with the telescope and was classifying each one.
The computer identified most of the stars, and the stage of life or death they were in. It picked out telltale signs of a pulsar (a rapidly rotating dead star), for example, or a supernova explosion. But one object in the center of our galaxy stumped the computer and the researchers.
The object emitted powerful radio waves throughout 2020 — six signals over nine months. Its irregular pattern and polarized radio emissions didn't look like anything the researchers had seen before.
Even stranger, they couldn't find the object in X-ray, visible, or infrared light. They lost the radio signal, too, despite listening for months with two different radio telescopes.
It reappeared suddenly, about a year after they first detected it, but within a day, it was gone again. READ MORE...
Saturday, January 8
Stellar Cocoon With Organic Molecules
Artist’s conceptual image of the protostar discovered in the extreme outer Galaxy. Credit: Niigata University
For the first time, astronomers have detected a newborn star and the surrounding cocoon of complex organic molecules at the edge of our Galaxy, which is known as the extreme outer Galaxy. The discovery, which revealed the hidden chemical complexity of our Universe, appears in a paper in The Astrophysical Journal.
The scientists from Niigata University (Japan), Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Taiwan), and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to observe a newborn star (protostar) in the WB89-789 region, located in the extreme outer Galaxy.
The ALMA observations reveal that various kinds of complex organic molecules, such as methanol (CH3OH), ethanol (C2H5OH), methyl formate (HCOOCH3), dimethyl ether (CH3OCH3), formamide (NH2CHO), propanenitrile (C2H5CN), etc., are present even in the primordial environment of the extreme outer Galaxy. Such complex organic molecules potentially act as the feedstock for larger prebiotic molecules.
Top: Radio spectrum of a protostar in the extreme outer Galaxy discovered with ALMA. Bottom: Distributions of radio emissions from the protostar. Emissions from dust, formaldehyde (H2CO), ethynylradical (CCH), carbon monosulfide (CS), sulfur monoxide (SO), silicon monoxide (SiO), acetonitrile (CH3CN), formamide (NH2CHO), propanenitrile (C2H5CN), methyl formate (HCOOCH3), ethanol (C2H5OH), acetaldehyde (CH3CHO), deuterated water (HDO), and methanol (CH3OH) are shown as examples. In the bottom right panel, an infrared 2-color composite image of the surrounding region is shown (red: 2.16 μm and blue: 1.25 μm, based on 2MASS data). Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), T. Shimonishi (Niigata University)
Sunday, October 10
Well...
- Creation
- God/gods
- Heaven/Hell
- Life After Death
- A Great Flood
- Virgin Birth
- Death of Savior
- Teaching Mankind
- Another Planet?
- Another Solar System?
- Another Galaxy?
- Another Dimension?
- Another Universe?
Sunday, August 29
The Einstein Ring
The Hubble Space Telescope captured a stunning ‘Einstein Ring’ 3.4 billion light-years from Earth.
This cosmic display, formally known as gravitational lensing, occurs when the gravitational field from a massive object in space warps space and deflects light from a distant object behind it.
It then results in a bull’s-eye pattern, or ‘Einstein Ring.’ It was predicted by the famed physicist, Albert Einstein, in 1915.
The image shows six luminous spots of light clustered at the center, four of which are forming a circle around a central pair.
The formation, however, only consists of two galaxies and a single distant quasar that is magnified as it passes through the gravitational field of the galaxies.
The Hubble Space Telescope captured a stunning ‘Einstein Ring’ 3.4 billion light-years from Earth
The quasar, known as 2M1310-1714, sits farther away from Earth than the pair of galaxies.
A quasar is the extremely bright nucleus of an active galaxy and its powerful glow is created by the incredible amounts of energy released by gas falling toward the supermassive black hole at its center. READ MORE
Monday, August 16
Milky Way Streaking
"It is exceptionally weird in a lot of different ways," said study lead author J.J. Hermes, an astronomer at Boston University.
The star moves so quickly that it's headed out of our galaxy for good, which astronomers have taken as evidence that the metallic explorer was launched here by a cosmic catastrophe — a supernova.
"We can now connect this star to the shrapnel from an exploded white dwarf with a lot more confidence," said Hermes. READ MORE
Saturday, May 22
Searching For Alien Life
From the movements of a number of nearby stars we have now detected unseen companion bodies in orbit around them that are about as massive as large planets. From our knowledge of the processes by which life arose here on the earth we know that similar processes must be fairly common throughout the universe.
In our present ignorance of how common extraterrestrial life may actually be, any attempt to estimate the number of technical civilizations in our galaxy is necessarily unreliable. We do, however, have some relevant facts. There is reason to believe that solar systems are formed fairly easily and that they are abundant in the vicinity of the sun. In our own solar system, for example, there are three miniature "solar systems": the satellite systems of the planets Jupiter (with 13 moons), Saturn (with 10) and Uranus (with five).
The only technique we have at present for detecting the planetary systems of nearby stars is the study of the gravitational perturbations such planets induce in the motion of their parent star. Imagine a nearby star that over a period of decades moves measurably with respect to the background of more distant stars. Suppose it has a nonluminous companion that circles it in an orbit whose plane does not coincide with our line of sight to the star.
Friday, April 23
A Dying Galaxy
The process, however, is not a quick one. A haunting new Hubble photo of the galaxy NGC 1947 demonstrates this well: Even from a distance of around 45.4 million light-years away (in the southern constellation of Dorado), we can see that the galaxy is slowly on the decline.
The clue lies in the dust and gas. A galaxy in the prime of its life will be filled with the stuff, using it to make new stars. Eventually, the star-stuff will run out, and that's what astronomers believe we are seeing with NGC 1947.
It's a rare type of galaxy known as a lenticular galaxy - disk-shaped, like the Milky Way or Andromeda, but without the spiral arms. NGC 1947 used to have spiral arms, but it has used up almost all the gas and dust that gave them structure; all that remains is a few wisps, backlit by starlight. Read More
Tuesday, April 28
ANCIENT ALIENS
History Channel
15 Seasons - first episode April 20, 2010
Investigators circle the globe in search of evidence in their quest to determine whether life on Earth began in outer space and if aliens influenced mankind in ancient times. Did extraterrestrial beings visit Earth and share information about technology and influence human religions?
Two Trillion Galaxies in the Universe |
It would take TWO BILLION YEARS cross the Milky Way Galaxy at LIGHT SPEED.
NOW, scientist believe there are TWO TRILLION Galaxies in the UNIVERSE.