Posted on Nov 17, 2022 in Astrobiology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Extraterrestrial Life, quantum physics, Science, Science News, Space News, Universe
Today’s stories include the Great Filter means we could die out before we discover alien life to White dwarf study suggests planets are as old as their stars to Early meteorites brought enough water to Mars to create a global ocean, and much more.
Why This Universe? A New Calculation Suggests Our Cosmos Is Typical, reports Charlie Wood for Quanta.com–Two physicists have calculated that the universe has a higher entropy — and is therefore more likely — than alternative possible universes.
Roger Penrose: “Consciousness must be beyond computable physics”–The mathematician shares his latest theories on quantum consciousness, the structure of the universe and how to communicate with civilizations from other cosmological aeons, reports New Scientist.
Will Galaxies and Intelligences They Host Beyond the Observable Universe Evolve Like Our Own? asks The Daily Galaxy. “The volume of space-time within range of our telescopes—what astronomers have traditionally called ‘the universe’—is only a tiny fraction of the aftermath of the big bang,” says astrophysicist Martin Rees. “We’d expect far more galaxies located beyond the horizon, unobservable, each of which –along with any intelligences it hosts– will evolve rather like our own.”
NASA’s Webb Draws Back Curtain on Universe’s Early Galaxies, reports NASA. “Everything we see is new. Webb is showing us that there’s a very rich universe beyond what we imagined,” said Tommaso Treu of the University of California at Los Angeles, principal investigator on one of the Webb programs. “Once again the universe has surprised us. These early galaxies are very unusual in many ways.”
No, there isn’t a hole in the Universe–The image you’re seeing isn’t a hole in the Universe, and the cosmic voids that do exist aren’t hole-like at all, reports Big Think. “The picture that normally accompanies it is wildly misleading, showing a dark cloud of gas and dust just a few hundred light-years away, not a large-scale cosmic structure. But the claim itself isn’t true; even in the deepest depths of the largest cosmic voids, lots of matter still remains, and so do stars, galaxies, and numerous electromagnetic signatures.”
Dark matter may be information itself, reports Melvin Vopson is Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Portsmouth for iAiTV. “Some have proposed that “information” is the 5th state of matter along solid, liquid, gas and plasma and possibly the dominant form of matter in the universe.”
Giant satellite outshines stars, sparking fresh concerns for astronomers–Transmissions from BlueWalker 3 also pose threat to radio observatories, reports Science.com. “It’s like exactly what astronomers don’t want,” says astronomer Meredith Rawls of the University of Washington, Seattle, who helps run the International Astronomical Union’s Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference. “It’ll show up as a superbright streak in images and potentially saturate camera detectors at observatories.”
The hunt for habitable ocean worlds beyond our solar system–Astronomers think that planets covered in water, with oceans hundreds of meters deep, could be relatively common in our galaxy. Now the race is on to find one, reports New Scientist.
Early meteorites brought enough water to Mars to create a global ocean–“Meteorites bombarding the Red Planet may have carried so much water that it could have covered the planet in a layer 300 metros deep if spread out, while also depositing molecules essential for life, reports New Scientist.
How to tell the difference between a regular black hole and a wormhole–Physicists have worked out how to see whether a black hole is actually a wormhole that could theoretically be travelled through – but we can’t tell yet with the black holes we have observed, reports New Scientist.
Sun-like star found orbiting closest black hole to Earth, reports Astronomy.com–“Located just under 1,600 light-years away, the discovery suggests there might be a sizable population of dormant black holes in binary systems.”
White dwarf study suggests planets are as old as their stars.–“Astronomers have long known how planets form, but the when of it has always been unclear. If a Cambridge University team’s conclusion from a study of white dwarf stars proves correct, that question has been answered,” reports The Register.
A Better Way To Search for Extraterrestrial Life–An airborne chemical sends a distinctive biological signal, reports SciTechDaily, “Broccoli, along with many other plants and microorganisms, release gases to aid in the removal of toxins. These gases, according to scientists, might provide strong evidence that there is life on other planets.”
What’s the real reason you can’t go faster than the speed of light? asks Big Think. “Space and time are unified into a single entity known as spacetime. And every object travels through spacetime at the speed of light. Even a stationary object is moving at the speed of light, but it is moving only through time and not space.”
Invisible Numbers Are the Most Beautiful Part of Every ‘Space’ Image–We are drawn to breathtaking images of the heavens, but there is beauty in the numbers those images hold, reports Fabio Pacucci for Scientific American.
Highlights From NASA’s Artemis Moon Rocket Launch--The uncrewed mission overcame scrubbed launches, hurricanes and late launchpad drama to kick off a key test of America’s ability to send astronauts back to the moon, reports The New York Times.
Great Filter means we could die out before we discover alien life, reports The Times of London. “Threats such as nuclear war, climate change and pandemics could finish off humanity before we have a chance to discover other intelligent life, continuing a cycle that scientists say may account for why extraterrestrials have not been found despite decades spent looking.”
Would Global Conflict Follow Alien Contact? asks Supercluster.com –“Anthropologist John Traphagan and geothermal physicist and former United States Air Force Major General, Ken Wisian, published a paper in the journal Space Policy, suggesting that SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, could be dangerous. However, the threat wouldn’t come from invading aliens, but from ourselves and our messy geopolitics.”
Meteorite that landed in Cotswolds may solve mystery of Earth’s water–“a 4.6bn-year-old rock that crashed on to a driveway in Gloucestershire last year has provided some of the most compelling evidence to date that water arrived on Earth from asteroids in the outer solar system,” reports The Guardian.
Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
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