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Category: cosmology

Unusual signal may prove existence of primordial black holes

It may well take years to prove, but a pair of University of Miami astrophysicists could be on the verge of a cosmic breakthrough that will confirm the existence of primordial black holes and the role they play in one of cosmology’s greatest mysteries.

Believed to have formed within the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang, primordial black holes are purely theoretical. But if confirmed, these hypothetical cosmic phenomena, which could range from asteroid-sized to massive, could explain a lot, including the nature of dark matter—the invisible substance that constitutes about 85% of all matter in the universe, acting as “gravitational glue” that holds galaxies together.

“We believe our study will aid in confirming that they actually do exist,” Nico Cappelluti, an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Physics, said of the research he and Ph.D. student Alberto Magaraggia have conducted.

XRISM clocks hot wind of galaxy M82 at 2 million mph

For the first time, astronomers have directly measured the speed of superheated gas billowing from a cauldron of stellar activity at the heart of M82, a nearby galaxy undergoing an extraordinary burst of star formation. The material is moving more than 2 million miles (over 3 million kilometers) per hour and appears to be the primary force driving a cooler, well-studied, galaxy-scale wind.

Researchers made the calculations using data from the Resolve instrument aboard the XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) spacecraft.

“The classic model of starburst galaxies like M82 suggests that shock waves from star formation and supernovae near the center heat gas, kick-starting a powerful wind,” said Erin Boettcher, an astrophysicist at the University of Maryland, College Park and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Astronomers Detect Strange “Chirp” From a Supernova, Revealing Hidden Physics

Astronomers studying a distant superluminous supernova uncovered a strange pattern hidden in its light: a rapidly accelerating “chirp.” For decades, astronomers have used distant supernova explosions as cosmic beacons to study fundamental physics and measure properties of the universe. While exam

New ultra-fast particle detector could help unmask dark matter

The CMS experiment at CERN is building a new detector that will unravel the chaotic particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, helping scientists identify particles based on their speeds.

What if Olympic officials could record sprinters’ times only to the nearest minute? “We would know who started the race, and who finished the race, but that’s it,” said Bryan Cardwell, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Virginia. “There’s no way to know who arrived first and who arrived last.”

Cardwell and his colleagues on the CMS experiment are currently tackling a similar problem. The CMS experiment records the tracks and properties of subatomic particles created by the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. As it stands, physicists get a picture of all the particles produced in a collision, but they have insufficiently detailed information about when the particles were produced or how fast they were traveling, making it difficult to tell them apart.

Distant galaxy fades 20-fold in just two decades, challenging how supermassive black holes evolve

An international team led by a researcher at the Chiba Institute of Technology has discovered an extremely rare phenomenon: a galaxy about 10 billion light-years away whose brightness dropped to one-twentieth of its original level in just 20 years. By combining multiwavelength observations with archival data spanning several decades, the researchers concluded that the fading was caused by a rapid decrease in the gas flowing into the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center. The discovery shows that the activity of supermassive black holes can change dramatically on timescales short enough to be observed within a human lifetime.

Most galaxies host at their centers a supermassive black hole, with a mass hundreds of millions of times that of the sun. In some cases, surrounding gas is pulled inward by the black hole’s strong gravity. As the gas spirals toward the black hole, it forms a structure known as an accretion disk. Friction in the disk heats the gas to extremely high temperatures, producing enormous amounts of energy. As a result, the center of the galaxy shines very brightly (see left image below). Such luminous regions are known as active galactic nuclei (AGN).

However, if the flow of gas into the accretion disk weakens for some reason, the emitted radiation decreases and the galactic center becomes dimmer (see right image below). The new observations suggest that this galaxy has entered exactly such a phase—one in which the activity of its central black hole has rapidly declined.

Chandra resolves why black holes hit the brakes on growth

Astronomers have an answer for a long-running mystery in astrophysics: why is the growth of supermassive black holes so much lower today than in the past? A study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other X-ray telescopes found that supermassive black holes are unable to consume material as rapidly as they did in the distant past. The results appeared in the December 2025 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

Ten billion years ago, there was a period that astronomers call “cosmic noon,” when the growth of supermassive black holes (those with millions to billions of times the mass of the sun) was at its peak across the entire history of the universe. Between cosmic noon and now, however, astronomers have seen a major slowdown in how rapidly black holes are growing.

“A longstanding mystery has been the cause of this big slowdown,” said Zhibo Yu of Penn State University, lead author of the new study. “With these X-ray data and supporting observations at other wavelengths, we can test different ideas and narrow down the answer.”

Is Spacetime Fundamental, or is it Emergent? With Brian Cox

In this conversation, Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Chuck Nice are joined by physicist Brian Cox to explore one of the deepest open questions in modern physics: whether space and time are fundamental—or emergent.

The discussion spans emergent spacetime, quantum entanglement, black holes, wormholes, and the black hole information paradox, including ideas like ER = EPR, causality protection, and whether information is ever truly destroyed. The core idea centers on the possibility that spacetime itself emerges from deeper quantum information structures, challenging our intuitive understanding of reality.

From ‘Are We The Universe’s Way of Knowing Itself? With Brian Cox’: • Are We The Universe’s Way of Knowing Itsel…

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Why Time Flows Differently Between Galaxies

Thanks to Radiacode for sponsoring this video. Use the promo code “PBS” to get an exclusive 10% discount at: https://103.radiacode.com/PBS The universe is expanding and that expansion is accelerating under the power of dark energy and eventually all matter and energy will be dispersed over such unthinkable distances that nothing can stop space from blowing up infinitely. Unless of course cosmologists blundered and dark energy doesn’t even exist. Then it’s back to the drawing board. Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! / pbsspacetime Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements! https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/space… the Entire Space Time Library Here: https://search.pbsspacetime.com/ Hosted by Matt O’Dowd Written by Matt O’Dowd Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini & Stephanie Faria Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour Executive Producer: Andrew Kornhaber Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell Spacetime is a production of Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios. This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content. © 2024 PBS. All rights reserved. End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: / multidroideka Space Time Was Made Possible In Part By: Big Bang Wojciech Szymski Bryce Fort Peter Barrett Alexander Tamas Morgan Hough Juan Benet Vinnie Falco Mark Rosenthal Supernova Grace Biaelcki Glenn Sugden Ethan Cohen Stephen Wilcox Mark Heising Hypernova Spencer Jones Dean Galvin Michael Tidwell Robert DeChellis Stephen Spidle Massimiliano Pala Justin Lloyd Matthew Pabst David Giltinan Kenneth See Gregory Forfa Alex Kern Zubin Dowlaty Scott Gorlick Paul Stehr-Green Ben Delo Scott Gray Антон Кочков Robert Ilardi John R. Slavik Donal Botkin Chuck Zegar Daniel Muzquiz Gamma Ray Burst Bryan White Aaron Pinto Kacper Cieśla Satwik Pani Param Saxena John De Witt Nathaniel Bennett Sandhya Devi Michael Oulvey Arko Provo Mukherjee Mike Purvis Christopher Wade Anthony Crossland Grace Seraph Stephen Saslow Tomaz Lovsin Anthony Leon Lori Ferris Koen Wilde Nicolas Katsantonis Richard Steenbergen Joe Pavlovic Kyle Luzny Chuck Lukaszewski Jerry Thomas Nikhil Sharma John Anderson Bradley Ulis Craig Falls Kane Holbrook Ross Story Harsh Khandhadia Michael Lev Rad Antonov Terje Vold James Trimmier Jeremy Soller Paul Wood Kent Durham jim bartosh John H. Austin, Jr. Faraz Khan Almog Cohen Daniel Jennings Jeremy Reed David Johnston Michael Barton Isaac Suttell Bleys Goodson Mark Delagasse Mark Daniel Cohen Shane Calimlim Tybie Fitzhugh Eric Kiebler Craig Stonaha Frederic Simon Jim Hudson Michael Purcell John Funai Adrien Molyneux Bradley Jenkins Vlad Shipulin Justin Waters Thomas Dougherty Zac Sweers Dan Warren Joseph Salomone Julien Dubois.

New Discoveries on Wormholes Are Changing Everything

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How do wormholes work? Are they actually possible? How could we make one? Join us today for a deep dive into the wormhole…

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THANK-YOU to M. Howard, M. Metts, M. Provost, S. Shardool, M. Bueche, M. Williams, M. Morrow, R. Borbidge, M. Everest, M. Vystoropskyi, M. Bryant, M. Nimmerjahn, M. Schreiner, M. Canning, M. Stewart, M. Cartmell, M. Brooks, M. Smith, E. Garland, M. Borisoff, M. Danielson, M. Adler, M. Sanford, M. Smith, M. Larter, M. Devermont, M. Chaffee, M. Rockett, M. Aron, M. Daniluk, M. Corwin, M. Bylinsky, C. Fitzgerald, M. Kingston, M. Ortiz, M. Venzor, B. Gaalen, M. Muriuki, M. Schoen, M. Popovski, M. Frederick, M. Kruger, M. Bottaccini, M. Johnston, M. Huch, M. Singh, M. Sattler, M. McMillan, M. Brownlee, M. Armstrong, M. Williams, M. Souter, M. OBrien, M. Shamp, M. Kochkov, M. Schiff, M. Fitzsimmons, G. Belsak, M. Johnston, M. Gillette, M. Murphy, M. Gonzalez, M. Hedlund, M. Seay, M. Zajonc, M. Morrison, N. Offor, M. Alley, M. Hoffman, M. Ross-Lee, M. Haan, M. Elliott, M. Lovely, M. Donkin, M. Cunningham, M. Bassnett, M. Hansen, M. Vaal, M. Langley, M. Reese, W. Ruf, M. Ford, M. Herman, M. Fullwood, M. Edris, M. Czirr, M. Patterson, L. Deacon, M. Saint, M. Lee, M. Murray, M. Kennedy, M. Stevenson, M. Thomsen, M. Daughaday, M. Farabee & M. Matters.

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