Posted on Apr 14, 2022 in Astrobiology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Black Holes, Cosmology, Dark Energy, Dark Matter, Early Universe, Exoplanets, Extraterrestrial Life, Hubble Space Telescope, Milky Way Galaxy, NASA, Science News, Space News, Universe
Today’s stories range from Isaac Asimov: The biochemist who created new worlds to Scientists Investigate Supermassive Black Hole Ancestor from Universe’s ‘Cosmic Dawn’ to Astronomers and an Astronaut to Reveal their Favorite Worlds Orbiting Distant Stars, and much more. “The Galaxy Report” brings you news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.
Einstein wasn’t a “lone genius” after all –Even the most brilliant mind in history couldn’t have achieved all he did without significant help from the minds of others, reports Big Think.
Letter to an Extraterrestrial – Paul B. Preciado –It begins: “Forgive my lack of subtlety: I am just a small, warm-blooded multicellular being whose life expectancy is between 75 and 95 revolutions of the planet earth around the Sun, and I have a cognitive capacity that although it is the result of millions of years of evolution on this planet, is also the consequence (curious fate) of the violence wrought by my species on itself.”
Hubble Sheds Light on Origins of Supermassive Black Holes –Astronomers have identified a rapidly growing black hole in the early universe that is considered a crucial “missing link” between young star-forming galaxies and the first supermassive black holes. They used data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to make this discovery, reports NASA.
Scientists investigate supermassive black hole ancestor from universe’s ‘Cosmic Dawn’, reports Elizabeth Howell for Space.com –“Researchers investigating the object in a new study have termed the object, dubbed GNz7q, the “ancestor of a supermassive black hole,” as it was created just 750 million years after the Big Bang took place, sparking our universe 13.8 billion years ago.”
Infinity has long baffled mathematicians – have we now figured it out? –Mathematicians have long known infinity comes in many sizes, but how do they relate to one another? The key lies in a 150-year-old mystery known as the continuum hypothesis, reports New Scientist.
Imagine Another World. Now Imagine 5,000 More. –NASA recently announced that it had detected more than 5,000 exoplanets, so we asked astronomers, actors and an astronaut to share their favorite worlds orbiting distant stars, reports Becky Ferreira for The New York Times.
Isaac Asimov: The biochemist who created new worlds –Marking 30 years since the death of Isaac Asimov, one of the most prolific and popular science fiction writers in history, reports The Jerusalem Post. “When he was 21, his story “Nightfall” became a huge success. The story, which deals with a surprising solar eclipse on a planet that had never experienced darkness, was, in the late ‘60s, chosen as the best science fiction story of all times, voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America.”
How Saturn’s Enceladus Got its Stripes –“Computer models find that Enceladus got its tiger stripe cracks when the moon cooled and ice grew downward, causing pressure and stress to form the cracks. A new study was released in Geophysical Research Letters detailing a possible answer for how Saturn’s ocean moon, Enceladus, may have gotten its tiger stripes and how the geysers erupting from those stripes work. The team used a physics-based model to map out the various conditions responsible for the eruptions, and what they found were cycles of warming and cooling that thin and thicken the moon’s ice shell.”
Hubble Spies a Serpentine Spiral, reports NASA –“The lazily winding spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 5921 snake across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy lies approximately 80 million light-years from Earth, and much like our own galaxy, the Milky Way, contains a prominent bar – a central linear band of stars. Roughly half of all spiral galaxies may contain bars. These bars affect their parent galaxies by fueling star formation and influencing the motion of stars and interstellar gas.”
Tiny Galaxies Reveal Secrets of Supermassive Black Holes –Dwarf galaxies weren’t supposed to have big black holes. Their surprise discovery has revealed clues about how the universe’s biggest black holes could have formed, reports Charlie Wood for Quanta.
Why I’m choosing dark matter over dark energy – for now at least –Dark matter is my focus these days, but the intractable problems of dark energy and cosmic acceleration are still on my mind, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, for New Scientist.
NASA’s New SPHEREx Could Unlock The Mysteries Of The Universe –-NASA’s new telescope is out to answer the big questions and has the technology to do it. SPHEREx will focus on the Big Bang, galaxies and water, reports Screen Rant.
The Real Impact of Meteorites on Earth--Life as we know it was seeded by rocks from outer space, reports Brian Gallagher for Nautilus.
China gears up for new space station missions, record-breaking crew set to return home, reports SpaceNews.
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