Posted on Apr 12, 2022 in Astrobiology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Black Holes, Cosmology, Dark Matter, Extraterrestrial Life, Science, Science News, Space News, Universe
Today’s stories range from the Strange Case of the Missing Black Hole to Group that Wants to Contact Aliens will Transmit to TRAPPIST-1 System to Dead Sunspot’ Launches Ball of Plasma Toward Earth to A Universe without Mathematics is Beyond the Scope of Our Imagination, 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.
Group that wants to contact aliens will transmit to TRAPPIST-1 system –METI, an organization aiming to make contact with other civilizations, will send out its second message from Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station in Cornwall, UK, reports New Scientist.
The Forgotten Planets –Why should Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn get all the attention? asks Kevin Berger for Nautilus.com –“hey are planets that rain diamonds the size of people inside of them. One of them was smacked so hard by another planet that it now orbits its sun out of kilter with its famous neighbors. The planets represent both the chaotic formation of their solar system and the shepherds of its stability. “
Is the origin of dark matter gravity itself? asks Paul Sutter for Space.com –“A new model of the very early universe proposes that the graviton, the quantum mechanical force carrier of gravity, flooded the cosmos with dark matter before normal matter even had a chance to get started.”
A universe without mathematics is beyond the scope of our imagination, reports Peter Watson for The Conversation. “It is not surprising that many people claim that mathematics is much more: that the universe is created by a mathematician. So could we imagine a universe in which mathematics does not work?”
Finding Strange Stars with Primordial Black Holes –“It sounds like something out of science fiction: a miniature black hole barrels through the densely packed remnant of a dead star, consuming it from the inside. Strange though it may seem, this scenario might hold the key to discerning between stars composed of different kinds of exotic matter,” reports AAS Nova.
The Universe’s Expansion Era Could Be Nearing Its End, reports IFL Science–The universe is not only expanding, but accelerating that expansion, leading most scientists to anticipate it will keep on growing for a very long time, if not forever. However, a trio of Princeton physicists have challenged this view, presenting a model of the universe in which this expansion is nearly at its end.”
Astronomers Spot Most Distant Galaxy Yet, 13.5 Billion Light-Years from Earth –The surprisingly bright galaxy, called HD1, may contain some of the universe’s first stars as well as a supermassive black hole, reports Scientific American. Researchers have spotted what might be the farthest astronomical object ever found —an astonishing 100 million light-years more distant than the current farthest galaxy, GN-z11.
Little planet? Extremely large telescope! “Is that Tatooine with the Millenium Falcon I see? No, in fact this Picture of the Week shows the foundations of the world’s biggest eye on the sky: ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT)! Currently under construction at the top of Cerro Armazones in the Chilean Atacama Desert, the ELT will begin scientific operations in 2027, and is set to become one of the world’s leading astronomical facilities.
ESO telescope captures surprising changes in Neptune’s temperatures. “An international team of astronomers have used ground-based telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), to track Neptune’s atmospheric temperatures over a 17-year period. They found a surprising drop in Neptune’s global temperatures followed by a dramatic warming at its south pole, reports The Planetary Science Journal.
The case of the missing black hole, reports ESO –“Our story began almost 20 years ago at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, where Thomas Rivinius, ESO staff astronomer, and his collaborators used the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope to observe HR 6819, a blue star visible to the naked eye.“We asked for follow-up observations and then we realized it was so interesting that we didn’t understand it at that point. So we put it for a while on the back burner until we could understand it better, either with a better theory, more observations, or different stars.”
‘Dead sunspot’ launches ball of plasma toward Earth, reports Stephanie Pappas for Live Science –“It’s expected to hit April 14, when you can expect more intense aurora.”
Some of the fastest stars in the Milky Way come from other galaxies –Extreme-velocity stars, which travel through the Milky Way with speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second, may come from dwarf galaxies that our own galaxy gobbled up, reports New Scientist.
Project Galileo: The search for alien tech hiding in our Solar System, reports Marcus Chown for BBC Science Focus Magazine –“The search for alien life is ramping up. But what if, instead of searching for signs of biology, we looked for something more familiar: an extraterrestrial civilization.”
SpaceX’s Starship and NASA’s SLS Could Supercharge Space Science –Scientists are beginning to dream of how a new generation of super heavy-lift rockets might enable revolutionary space telescopes and bigger, bolder interplanetary missions, reports Jonathan O’Callaghan for Scientific America,
US Space Force Releases Decades of Data to NASA for Planetary Defense Studies –Hosted by JPL’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, the data can be used by the science community to better understand how asteroids break up when entering the atmosphere.
NASA Shows Off Psyche Spacecraft–“Engineers are putting the final touches on NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, which is set to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in August on its journey to a metal-rich asteroid of the same name. Members of the media got a chance to see the spacecraft up close in a clean room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Monday, April 11.”
Life With Longer Genetic Codes Seems Possible — but Less Likely –Life could use a more expansive genetic code in theory, but new work shows that improving on three-letter codons would be a challenge, reports Quanta.
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Recent Galaxy Reports:
Unmistakable Signal of Alien Life to What Happens if China Makes First Contact?
Clues to Alien Life to A Galaxy 100 x Size of Milky Way
Cracks in Einstein’s Theory of Gravity to Colossal Shock Wave Bigger than the Milky Way
Monster Comet Arriving from the Oort Cloud to Black Hole Apocalypse
Enigmas of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist
Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact
Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids of the Milky Way
Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter to Are Black Holes Holograms?
Mystery of Stephen Hawking’s “Exxon Gravity” to Alien Life in Stellar Graveyards
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