Posted on Nov 9, 2022 in Astrobiology, Astronomy, Science, Space News
Today’s stories include Particles may emerge out of empty space to Research hub wants to prepare humanity for potential proof of alien life, and much more.
We may finally know how impossible stars at our galaxy’s center formed--The center of the Milky Way is home to more than 100 young stars that shouldn’t exist. Researchers may have now finally figured out how they formed, reports New Scientist.
The deep puzzle of the infinite universe--An iAi interview with cosmologist George Ellis, a distinguished cosmologist and Stephen Hawking co-author, in a discussion about the limits of cosmology, and why we can never know whether the universe had a beginning or has existed forever.
Satellite Constellations Are an Existential Threat for Astronomy--Growing swarms of spacecraft in orbit are outshining the stars, and scientists fear no one will do anything to stop it, reports Rebecca Boyle for Scientific American.
The Enduring Mystery of the Dragonfly 44 Galaxy--A growing catalog of huge but dim galaxies such as Dragonfly 44 is forcing astronomers to invent new theories of galactic evolution, reports Quanta.com
Sounds of the stars: how scientists are listening in on space –In astronomy, the use of sound instead of light is breaking down barriers to participation and providing insight into the Universe, reports Nature. “For decades, astronomers have been making fundamental discoveries by listening to data, as well as looking at it. In the early 1930s, Karl Jansky, a physicist at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey, traced static in radio communications to the center of the Milky Way — a finding that led to the birth of radio astronomy.
Neutrinos have been spotted coming from a strange, shrouded galaxy–Cosmic neutrinos are tough to track – it has only been done once before – but researchers from the IceCube observatory in Antarctica have tracked 79 of them back to their home galaxy, reports New Scientist.
‘We cannot afford to be ill prepared’: Research hub wants to prepare humanity for potential proof of alien life, reports CTV News. “Will we ever get a message from E.T.? We don’t know,” John Elliott, the hub’s co-ordinator and a University of St Andrews computer scientist, said in a news release. “But we do know that we cannot afford to be ill prepared—scientifically, socially, and politically rudderless—for an event that could turn into reality as early as tomorrow and which we cannot afford to mismanage.”
A miniature universe shows particles may emerge out of empty space–A first-of-its-kind experiment simulating the cosmos with ultracold potassium atoms suggests that in a curved, expanding universe pairs of particles pop up out of empty space, reports New Scientist.
How JWST could find signs of alien life in exoplanet atmospheres, reports New Scientist. The James Webb Space Telescope can peer into alien skies like never before. With six potentially habitable planets within its sights, astronomers are entering a new era in the search for biology beyond our solar system.
SETI Scientists Developing New ‘Contact Protocols’ for Aliens--Humanity might not “speak extraterrestrial.” The SETI Post-Detection Hub wants to coordinate how we respond to alien life, reports CNet. “Will we ever get a message from E.T.? We don’t know,” said St. Andrews SETI specialist John Elliott, the coordinator for the project. “We also don’t know when this is going to happen. But we do know that we cannot afford to be ill prepared — scientifically, socially, and politically rudderless — for an event that could turn into reality as early as tomorrow and which we cannot afford to mismanage.”
Searching for Life on Highly Eccentric Exoplanets--When we think about finding life beyond Earth, especially on exoplanets, we immediately want to search for the next Earth, or Earth 2.0. But what if we’re looking in the wrong places? What if we find life on exoplanets that don’t possess the aforementioned characteristics, i.e., Earth 2.0? asks Universe Today.
Is Dark Matter Only the Tip of an Invisible Universe of Unknown Forces? asks The Daily Galaxy. “The discovery of the dark photon could explain many of the mysteries of the universe.”
No signs of alien life found near source of famous ‘Wow!’ signal, reports Elizabeth Howell for Space.com. The researchers say there are plenty more stars to look at.
Red-supergiant supernova images reveal secrets of an earlier universe, reports the University of Minnesota. “This is the first detailed look at a supernova at a much earlier epoch of the universe’s evolution,” said Patrick Kelly, a lead author of the paper. “It’s very exciting because we can learn in detail about an individual star when the universe was less than a fifth of its current age, and begin to understand if the stars that existed many billions of years ago are different from the ones nearby.”
Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
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