Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: cosmology

JWST spots two early black holes growing far faster than their galaxies

Astronomers have discovered two early-universe galaxies where the central black holes appear to have grown far faster than their host galaxies. Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal that the black holes in these galaxies, seen just 800 million years after the Big Bang, are significantly more massive relative to their host galaxies, as opposed to what astronomers see in the nearby universe. The study is published on the arXiv preprint server.

Astronomers have long discovered quasars—extraordinarily luminous galaxies powered by accreting black holes weighing billions of solar masses—in the first billion years of the universe. For these to exist so early, the black holes must have started as large as heavy seeds and grown at their maximum rate possible for most of their lives. These early black holes appear oversized compared to the galaxies they live in.

On the other hand, when JWST began its operation in 2022, it made a huge splash in astronomy with the discovery of an astonishingly large number of mature galaxies and black holes in the first billion years of the universe. Among them were some “overmassive” black holes weighing billions of times the mass of our sun, but rarely as massive as those found in luminous quasars.

How a single star can reshape an entire galaxy

Astronomers who simulate galaxies do not always get the same result, even when they start from identical conditions. New research from Leiden University shows that this is not a flaw, but a consequence of how galaxies behave—and how they are modeled.

The findings offer, for the first time, a way to address a long-standing question: how chaotic is a galaxy like the Milky Way really? The computer simulations by Tetsuro Asano and Simon Portegies Zwart (Leiden Observatory) will soon be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics and are available now on the arXiv preprint server.

The researchers created hundreds of models of Milky Way-like galaxies: flat disks of stars, embedded in a large, invisible cloud of dark matter that holds the system together. In each experiment, they ran two almost identical simulations, differing by just one tiny detail—for instance, a small shift in the position of a single star. Over time, that slight difference grows into visible structural changes: the spiral arms develop differently and the central bar rotates in another way.

Unexplored interactions between electrons and atomic nuclei shed light on dark matter

Dark matter particles could be mediators of the interaction between electrons and atomic nuclei, as shown by a study conducted by junior group leader, Dr. Konstantin Gaul, Dr. Lei Cong, and Professor Dr. Dmitry Budker, of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) and the PRISMA++ Cluster of Excellence. Their work, published last week in Physical Review Letters, presents new constraints on previously unexplored candidates for dark matter and, more generally, some hypothetical particles that are not included in the Standard Model of particle physics ℠.

Using results from precision measurements on barium monofluoride (BaF) molecules, the team constrained these interactions mediated by Z’ bosons for the first time. Z’ bosons are hypothetical mediators of the weak interaction and possible dark matter particles in several SM extensions. “These results address a significant blind spot in physics: a regime of forces between electrons and nuclei that had remained unexplored by both laboratory experiments and cosmological data,” explained Gaul.

Our universe is made up of about 4% of visible, or ordinary, matter. This includes planets, stars, and life on Earth. The remaining 96% of the universe is invisible and consists of dark matter and dark energy, with dark matter making up about 23%. Astrophysical observations confirm its presence throughout the cosmos, where it, for example, plays an important part in the structure of galaxies. However, we don’t know what particles make up dark matter. Many theories and ongoing experiments are looking for an answer to this open question.

Radio telescopes confirm 3.3-million-light-year halo in unusually quiet galaxy cluster

Astronomers have employed the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) and the MeerKAT radio telescope to observe a galaxy cluster known as RXCJ0232–4420. Results of the new observations, published April 29 on the arXiv pre-print server, deliver important insights into the nature of this cluster.

Galaxy clusters contain up to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. They generally form as a result of mergers and grow by accreting sub-clusters. Therefore, they could serve as excellent laboratories for studying galaxy evolution and cosmology.

The 20 Different Types of Faster-Than-Light (FTL) Travel In Fiction

What if humanity could travel faster than light?

In this cinematic deep dive, we explore the different types of FTL (Faster-Than-Light) travel, including warp drives, wormholes, the Alcubierre drive, hyperdrive concepts, and other theoretical methods that could one day change space exploration forever.

From bending spacetime to creating warp bubbles and bridging distant galaxies, this video breaks down the science, theory, and science-fiction inspirations behind each method — in a realistic and visually immersive way.

Whether you’re a fan of space science, futuristic technology, or sci-fi universes, this is your ultimate guide to FTL travel.

🚀 Which method do you think is the most realistic?
Comment below!

If you enjoy cinematic science content, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications for more deep space explorations.

Continue reading “The 20 Different Types of Faster-Than-Light (FTL) Travel In Fiction” | >

Versions of You in Other Universes May Be Subtly Affecting Your Destiny, Oxford Physicist Says

You may think you’re the protagonist of your own story. According to Oxford physicist Vlatko Vedral, however, you’re more like a puppet — whose strings are being pulled into a million parallel universes at any given time.

As Vedral argues in a recent issue of Popular Mechanics, the pop-sci version of the “observer effect” — where the act of observation or measurement affects a system — gets the cause-and-effect backward. The typical story goes something like this: quantum objects hang out in multiple states at once, until some observer glances over. At this point, the multiple states collapse and only one is left, an assumption that can lead various woo-woo interpretations, like that we create reality simply by observing it.

Physics, Verdal says, does not support that idea. That collapse effect isn’t a special power of human consciousness, but rather a fact of physics that says interactions — any interaction — forces a quantum system to commit to a definite state.

The Multiverse is real. Just not in the way you think it is. | Sean Carroll

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_… What do physicists actually mean when they talk about the Multiverse? Sean Carroll explains.

Up next, Michio Kaku: The Multiverse Has 11 Dimensions ► • Michio Kaku: The Multiverse Has 11 Dimensi…

The Multiverse is having a moment. From “Rick and Morty” to Marvel movies, the idea that our Universe is just one of many has inspired countless storylines in recent popular culture.

Why is the Multiverse so compelling? To theoretical physicist and philosopher Sean Carroll, one reason is that we’re drawn to wondering how things might have turned out differently. What if you had chosen a different career path? Married someone else? Moved to a different city?

Of course, there’s obviously no guarantee that you’re living out those alternate timelines in a different universe. But there are real scientific reasons to think that the Multiverse exists. And as Carroll explains, that possibility comes with some fascinating philosophical implications.

Spiral galaxy’s brilliant heart shines bright in a new picture from NASA’s Webb telescope

A spiral galaxy’s brilliant heart outshines everything within sight in a new picture from NASA’s Webb Space Telescope.

The image released this week depicts the Messier 77 galaxy 45 million light-years away in the Cetus, or whale, constellation. A light year is about 6 trillion miles.

The galaxy’s active nucleus is powered by a supermassive black hole that’s 8 million times more massive than the sun. Surrounding gas is sucked into a tight orbit around the black hole, becoming so hot that it radiates in the extreme. Webb’s mid-infrared instrument captured the stunning details.

Testing quantum collapse theory with the XENONnT dark matter detector

Theories of quantum mechanics predict that some particles can exist in superpositions, which essentially means that they can be in more than one state at once. When a particle’s state is measured, however, this superposition appears to “collapse” into a single outcome; a phenomenon often referred to as the “measurement problem.”

In recent years, various theoretical physicists have tried to explain why and how this collapse happens. This led to the introduction of various models, such as the Continuous Spontaneous Localization (CSL) and Diósi–Penrose models.

Both these models predict that spontaneous quantum collapse would also lead to the emission of faint X-ray radiation. The experimental detection of this radiation would thus provide evidence of these theories’ validity.

/* */