Posted on May 8, 2022 in Alien Life, Astrobiology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Big Bang, Black Holes, Cosmology, Dark Energy, Exoplanets, Extraterrestrial Life, Galaxies, Gravitational Waves, Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, Milky Way Galaxy, NASA, quantum physics, Quasars, Science News, Space News, Technology, Universe
Today’s stories range from Strange new Higgs particles beyond the Standard Model could explain shocking W boson result to New theory explains why aliens are avoiding Earth to Neighboring alien planets may Be in ‘Early-Earth’ stage of Life to NASA’s “Point of No Return,” 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.
Strange new Higgs particles could explain shocking W boson result –-Ideas from beyond the standard model of particle physics, including technicolor and glueball Higgs particles, could explain the recent shock finding that the W boson is heavier than we thought, reports New Scientist.
The Milky Way is almost as old as the Universe itself –Galactic archaeology has uncovered a spectacular find: the Milky Way already existed more than 13 billion years ago. “A new study, taking advantage of the best measurements of stars within our galaxy, has pushed the Milky Way’s early history back more than 2 billion years: to less than 800 million years after the Big Bang.”
Dark Energy May Not Be the Cosmological Constant as Theorized by Einstein, reports The Daily Galaxy. “Most scientists have assumed that dark energy is in fact Einstein’s cosmological constant, but recent theories on a special form of dark energy, called quintessence, have suggested that the strength of dark energy itself may change with time.”
A ‘gravity telescope’ concept could help us explore life on exoplanets –The new tool may just revolutionize how we explore space beyond our solar system, reports Interesting Engineering. “On Tuesday, a team of Stanford researchers revealed a futuristic telescope concept in The Astrophysical Journal that may just revolutionize how we explore space beyond our solar system. It’s called the “gravity telescope,” and it would use the Sun to examine faraway worlds previously unreachable to Earth’s astronomers.
New ‘burnout’ theory explains why aliens are avoiding Earth –-Blame the singularities, reports The Next Web. ““Civilizations either collapse from burnout or redirect themselves to prioritizing homeostasis, a state where cosmic expansion is no longer a goal, making them difficult to detect remotely,” the scientists hypothesize in Royal Society Open Science.”
Younger exoplanets are better candidates when looking for other Earths, reports Southwest Research Institute–“We know radioactive elements are necessary to regulate climate, but we don’t know how long these elements can do this, because they decay over time,” said Dr. Cayman Unterborn. “Also, radioactive elements aren’t distributed evenly throughout the Galaxy, and as planets age, they can run out of heat and degassing will cease.”
Neighboring Alien Planets May Be in ‘Early-Earth’ Stage of Life -Carl Sagan Institute, reports The Daily Galaxy. “The history of life on Earth provides us with a wealth of information about how biology can overcome the challenges of environments we would think of as hostile,” said astronomer Jack O’Malley-James with the Carl Sagan Institute “
How a new kind of gravitational wave will reveal the early universe–With 90 detections now under our belt, gravitational waves are solving riddles about the evolution of galaxies and missing black holes – and they could soon give us a glimpse of dark matter, reports New Scientist.
NASA’s “Point of No Return”
Astronomers Find What Might Be the Most Distant Galaxy Yet –Is the object a galaxy of primordial stars or a black hole knocking on the door of time? The Webb space telescope may help answer that question, reports The New York Times.
China’s New Space Telescope Will Have 350 Times Wide Views Than Hubble, reports Rally News. “Researcher Li Ran noted that the Hubble telescope’s field of view is about 1/100th the size of a fingernail when our hand is flat, and that all data from Hubble, which has been observing the universe for 30 years, covers only a small part of the night sky. Li Ran said that the main focal plane of the Chinese space station telescope sky scanning module will consist of 30 detectors and each one will have larger and more pixels than Hubble’s detector.
Martin Rees interview: Elon Musk could spawn the first post-humans –Astronomer Royal Martin Rees discusses the most extraordinary aspects of his distinguished career, from black holes to billionaires in space and the prospects of life beyond Earth, reports New Scientist.
New NASA Black Hole Sonifications with a Remix
Trappist 1 Star System Sound
A Galaxy Is Unmasked as a Pulsar — the Brightest outside the Milky Way. Using a technique to block certain wavelengths of light, researchers hope to discover many more hidden pulsars, reports Scientific American.
Chinese rover finds lunar soil could make oxygen and fuel on the moon –-Lunar soil collected by the Chang’e 5 rover has been analyzed, revealing it could be used to help generate oxygen and fuel on the moon, reports New Scientist.
Instability at the Beginning of the Solar System – Implications for Mysterious “Planet 9” reports SciTechDaily. “a new theorycould help solve a galactic mystery of how our solar system evolved. Specifically, how did the gas giants — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — end up where they are, orbiting the sun like they do?”
Could scientists accidentally destroy the Earth with a lab-grown black hole? asks The Next Web –“These black holes, if they exist, would have been bombarding Earth (and all the planets) for the entire history of our Solar System, as well as the Sun, and there is absolutely no evidence that any body in our Solar System ever became a black hole or got eaten by one.”
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