Posted on Aug 3, 2022 in Astrobiology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Consciousness, Cosmology, Exoplanets, Extraterrestrial Life, James Webb Space Telescope, Milky Way Galaxy, Science, Science News, Space News, Supernova, Technology, Universe
Today’s stories range from Could We Use the Sun’s Gravity to Find Alien Life to The Source of Mysterious Infrared Light to When Will the Milky Way’s Next Supernova Occur?
When Will the Next Supernova in Our Galaxy Occur? –Scientists have new tools at their disposal to detect and study the dramatic explosion of a star, reports Dan Falk for The Smithsonian. “It’s been a long wait—418 years since we’ve seen a star explode in our galaxy. So are we overdue for a bright, nearby supernova?”
The Elusive Origin of Zero--Who decided that nothing should be something? reports Scientific American. “Historians, journalists and others have variously identified the symbol’s birthplace as the Andes mountains of South America, the flood plains of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the surface of a calculating board in the Tang dynasty of China, a cast iron column and temple inscriptions in India, and most recently, a stone epigraphic inscription found in Cambodia.The tracing of zero’s heritage has been elusive.
Could we use the Sun’s gravity to find alien life?–With a telescope at just the right distance from the Sun, we could use its gravity to enhance and magnify a potentially inhabited planet, reports Big Think. “Our strongest nearby source of gravity, the Sun, is itself capable of producing a gravitational lens, but only if the geometry is right: conditions that don’t begin until we’re 547 times the Earth-Sun distance away.”
What if the reality we perceive is just an evolutionary trick? Do we see the world as it really is? Perhaps not. Maybe even likely not, says Robert Prentner in this YouTube video
With New Study, NASA Seeks the Science behind UFOs--Although modest in scope, a NASA research project reflects shifting attitudes toward the formerly taboo subject of UFOs, reports Adam Mann for Scientific American. NASA’s announcement fits in with the suddenly more open-minded zeitgeist regarding UAPs.
Life Helps Make Almost Half of All Minerals on Earth–A new origins-based system for classifying minerals reveals the huge geochemical imprint that life has left on Earth. It could help us identify other worlds with life too, reports Quanta.
Where Do Space, Time and Gravity Come From? –Einstein’s description of curved space-time doesn’t easily mesh with a universe made up of quantum wavefunctions. Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll discusses the quest for quantum gravity with host Steven Strogatz at Quanta.com
AI Is Discovering Its Own ‘Fundamental’ Physics And Scientists Are Baffled–AI observed videos of lava lamps and inflatable air dancers and identified dozens of physics variables that scientists don’t yet understand, reports Vice Science.
Schrodinger Believed the Universe is One Universal Mind. The quantum physicist and author of the famous Cat Paradox believed that our individual minds are not unique but rather like the reflected light from prisms, reports Mind Matters.
Discovery of new exoplanet raises questions about planet formation, reports University of Florida. “The Jupiter-sized world offers two key opportunities to scientists studying how all planets, including those in our own solar system, develop. A mere 1.5-million-year-old infant compared to its probable lifespan of billions of years, the planet is so young it can still provide clues about its birth.”
Webb captures stellar gymnastics in the Cartwheel Galaxy, reports the ESA. “Webb’s high-precision instruments resolved individual stars and star-forming regions within the Cartwheel, and revealed the behavior of the black hole within its galactic center. These new details provide a renewed understanding of a galaxy in the midst of a slow transformation.”
Dark Matter Mapped Around Distant Galaxies, reports Physics,com. Gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background has been used to probe the distribution of dark matter around some of the earliest galaxies in the Universe.
Is the James Webb Space Telescope finding the furthest, oldest, youngest or first galaxies? An astronomer explains Michael J. I. Brown explains for Space.com
Cosmic Buckyballs Could Be The Source of Mysterious Infrared Light, reports Science Alert. “Unidentified Infrared Emission (UIE) bands have baffled scientists for decades; according to a theoretical new work, at least some of these bands can be produced by highly ionized buckminsterfullerene, more commonly known as buckyballs.”
Astronomers discover 21 new extremely low-mass white dwarf candidates, reports Phys,org. “Extremely low-mass (ELM) white dwarfs (WDs) are rare objects, found with only few exceptions in short-period binaries.”
Particle Physicists Puzzle Over a New Duality –“A hidden link has been found between two seemingly unrelated particle collision outcomes. It’s the latest example of a mysterious web of mathematical connections between disparate theories of physics,” reports Katie McCormick for Quanta.com
A New Private Moon Race Kicks Off Soon –Commercial spacecraft are vying to land on the lunar surface, but can they jump-start a new space economy? reports Scientific American.
Image credit top of page: ESO Observatories, Chile
Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you twice-weekly news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.
Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.
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
Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here