Posted on May 4, 2022 in Astrobiology, Astronomy, Exoplanets, Extraterrestrial Life, Milky Way Galaxy, Multiverse, quantum physics, Science, Science News, Space News, Universe
Today’s stories range from Seeing the Earth through Alien Eyes: an Extraterrestrial View of Our Planet to Bizarre ‘Black Widow’ Star System Challenges Models of Space to Is the Origin of Dark Matter Gravity? 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.
Seeing the Earth through alien eyes: an extraterrestrial view of our planet, reports Physics World –“Aliens spying on us from across interstellar space is a classic trope of science fiction. But working out what those extraterrestrials might see if they pointed their telescopes at us could help in our quest for finding life on distant Earth-like planets, as James Romero explains “No-one would have believed in the last years of the 19th century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s.”
We are the only humans in the universe –All life forms, anywhere in our Universe, are chemically connected yet completely unique, reports Big Think. “The Universe is so huge, and the worlds within it so numerous, that it seems like anything is possible. But the laws of physics and chemistry are the same everywhere. We are chemically connected to the rest of the cosmos, sharing the same basis for life as any other hypothetical living thing. Yet we are unique. There can be no other humans in the Universe.”
Bizarre ‘Black Widow’ Star System Challenges Models of Space –-It just kept getting weirder,” said the lead author of a new study on a unique “spider” star system, reports Motherboard Science. “This cosmic black widow, located about 3,000 light years from Earth, has the shortest orbital period ever recorded, a discovery that “pushes the boundaries of evolutionary models” and distinguishes the system “from any known spider binary,” according to a study published on Wednesday in Nature.
What is the multiverse—and is there any evidence it really exists? –Scientists can only see so far before they run into the edge of the universe. Will we ever know if anything lies beyond? asks National Geographic. “Our understanding of reality is not complete, by far,” says Stanford University physicist Andrei Linde. “Reality exists independently of us.”
To see the Universe more clearly, think in terms of processes, not objects, reports Aeon –“Nothing is fixed in time or space. Everything – from quantum particles to people, planets and galaxies – is in constant motion, and part of a constellation of inextricably interwoven systems. That might seem like a strictly academic observation with little bearing on your day-to-day life, but, as Thomas Nail, a professor of philosophy at the University of Denver, argues in this short video, overlooking this fact can have real-world consequences.”
Is life possible on Mars? –Was there ever life on Mars? Is there life on Mars now? Did it originate there or here, on Earth? All possibilities are fascinating, reports Big Think.
Secrets of the Moon’s Permanent Shadows Are Coming to Light –Robots are about to venture into the sunless depths of lunar craters to investigate ancient water ice trapped there, while remote studies find hints about how water arrives on rocky worlds, reports Quanta.
A Mysterious ‘X Particle’ Could Help Explain the Birth of Reality, reports Becky Ferreira for Motherboard Vice Science. “These short-lived particles, which are called “X” because their internal structure is unknown, existed in the chaotic microseconds after the Big Bang, when the universe was filled with a churning subatomic soup called quark-gluon plasma. They are, however, exceedingly rare in the modern universe, leaving many of their properties shrouded in mystery.
Is the Origin of Dark Matter Gravity? reports 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. The proposal could be a way to connect two of the biggest outstanding puzzles in modern cosmology: the nature of dark matter and the history of cosmic inflation.”
Mysterious gamma rays at center of Milky Way could be from pulsars –A glow of gamma rays from within our galaxy has long puzzled astronomers, but now it seems they could be produced by a specific type of millisecond pulsar, reports New Scientist.
Jupiter and Venus will seem to nearly collide in rare celestial spectacle –Stargazers will have to wait years for repeat performance with four planets also appearing in straight line, reports The Guardian. “This year Jupiter and Venus will look much closer together than usual and should be visible with just a pair of binoculars or even the naked eye. If you miss it, you will have to wait another 17 years for a repeat performance.”
Canadian Telescope Delivers Deepest-Ever Radio View of Cosmic Web –Data from the CHIME radio observatory are a milestone in the quest to discover the hidden origins of universal structure, reports Ben Brubaker for Scientific American.
The Universe Could Start Shrinking ‘Remarkably’ Soon, Scientists Say –After nearly 13.8 billion years of nonstop expansion, the Universe could soon grind to a standstill, then slowly start to contract, new research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests,” reports Science Alert.
Two examples of alien technology? –Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb is known for thinking out of the box. For example, in 2018, he suggested that ‘Oumuamua – the object from a distant solar system that’d passed near our sun the year before – might be alien technology. On April 20, 2022, in an article in The Debrief, Loeb suggested that a meteor known to have crashed in the Pacific Ocean in 2014, might also be technology from an alien civilization, reports Earth Sky.
Cosmic Simulation Shows How Dark-Matter-Deficient Galaxies Confront Goliath and Survive, reports Joanna Thompson for Scientific American.
Quantum complexity could solve a wormhole paradox, reports Physics World.
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