Today’s stories include Astronomers discover traces of ‘super-supernovas’ that destroyed earliest stars to Where is the center of the Universe? and much more.
Where is the center of the Universe? Here, there, and everywhere –The Big Bang is commonly misunderstood, warping our understanding about the Universe’s size and shape, reports Big Think. “The Universe may be infinite, but even if it is not, the observable part of it is just an incomprehensibly tiny part of the whole. Any spot in the Universe can be considered the center, with equal validity. Indeed, you may be the center of the Universe.”
Physics World reports Earth is ‘well-hidden’ from extraterrestrial civilizations hunting for habitable planets.
Hubble Detects Protective Shield Defending a Pair of Dwarf Galaxies, reports NASA. For billions of years, the Milky Way’s largest satellite galaxies – the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds – have followed a perilous journey. “A lot of people were struggling to explain how these streams of material could be there,” said Dhanesh Krishnarao, assistant professor at Colorado College. “If this gas was removed from these galaxies, how are they still forming stars?”
Astronomers discover traces of ‘super-supernovas’ that destroyed earliest stars, reports Robert Lea for Space.com. The team examined chemical traces of Population III stars using a 13.1-billion-year-old quasar.
This Astrophysicist Holds Star Data In The Palm Of Her Hand: “What if you could hold part of the galaxy in your hands? Or peer into an orb and see the birthplace of stars? By combining astrophysics and art, that’s exactly what Dr. Nia Imara does reports NPR Science Friday. She’s a visual artist and assistant professor of astronomy at UC Santa Cruz, based in Santa Cruz, California.”
Contact with ET: How would humanity react? reports Leonard David for Space.com –“That knowledge would likely have far-reaching effects on our view of ourselves and our place in the universe. Researchers are looking into the potential psychological impacts of such an announcement, which some people might have a hard time accepting.”
Physicists Rewrite a Quantum Rule That Clashes With Our Universe, reports Charlie Wood Quanta.com. “The past and the future are tightly linked in conventional quantum mechanics. Perhaps too tightly. A tweak to the theory could let quantum possibilities increase as space expands. For 90 years, physicists have sought a reconciliation, a more fundamental description of reality that encompasses both quantum mechanics and gravity. But the quest has run up against thorny paradoxes.”
The Milky Way is ‘rippling’ like a pond, and scientists may finally know why, reports Brandon Specktor for Live Science. “Picture someone dropping a stone the size of 400 million suns into that water. The tranquility is shattered. Wave after wave of energy ripples across the galaxy’s surface, jostling and bouncing its stars in a chaotic dance that takes eons to calm. Astronomers suspect that something like this may have really happened — not just once, but several times over the past several billion years.”
China’s Mars rover finds hints of catastrophic floods–Radar images reveal clues to the history of a largely unexplored region, reports Nature. “China’s Zhurong rover has peered deep under the surface of Mars, finding evidence of two major floods that probably shaped the region the robot has been exploring since it landed in May 2021.”
Ground Telescopes Capture Jaw-Dropping Views of DART Asteroid Impact--Telescopes around the world honed in on the historic collision, revealing a surprisingly large and bright impact plume, reports George Dvorsky for Gizmodo. “NASA’s DART mission to ram a kinetic impactor into a harmless asteroid went perfectly yesterday, resulting in the desired destruction of the spacecraft. And as views from Earth showed, the effects of the impact weren’t subtle.”
Contact with ET: How would humanity react? reports Leonard David for Space.com –“That knowledge would likely have far-reaching effects on our view of ourselves and our place in the universe. Researchers are looking into the potential psychological impacts of such an announcement, which some people might have a hard time accepting.”
Is Our Universe a Fake? Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the creator, writer and host of “Closer to Truth,” a public television and multimedia program that features the world’s leading thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions, reports Space.com
Black Hole Discovery Helps to Explain Quantum Nature of the Cosmos–New insights from black hole research may elucidate the cosmological event horizon, reports Edgar Shaghoulian for Scientific American.
Image credit top of page: ESO Observatories, Chile
Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
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