A puzzling gravitational wave was detected, and astronomers have determined that it comes from a record-breaking black hole merger
Category: cosmology – Page 30
Surprising JWST Observations Hint We Might Be Inside A Black Hole
While the study is intriguing, additional observations will be essential to verify or challenge its findings.
104 Quasi-Stellar Objects Studied Using Telescope Reveal Stunning Details
A group of astronomers, led by researchers at Rhodes University, has analyzed 104 quasars through the MIGHTEE survey, a large-scale project using South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope.
JWST finds plenty of low mass black holes in the early universe
Black holes played a critical role in the formation of the early universe. However, astronomers have been debating for a long time just how critical, as the information we had about early black holes, which exist at high red-shifts, was relatively limited.
Rewriting Physics Textbooks: Scientists Propose a Bold New Theory About the Universe’s Origins
A team of researchers, led by Raúl Jiménez, an ICREA scientist at the University of Barcelona’s Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB), and working in partnership with the University of Padua (Italy), has introduced a groundbreaking new theory about how the Universe began.
Published in Physical Review Research, their study offers a major shift in how scientists understand the earliest moments following the Big Bang.
The Big Bang is the leading cosmological model explaining how the universe as we know it began approximately 13.8 billion years ago.
Astronomers share best-ever evidence that Betelgeuse has a secret companion star — and they’ve nicknamed it ‘her bracelet’
The red supergiant Betelgeuse likely has a companion star, astronomers have confirmed.
Long theorized to share an orbit with Betelgeuse — an extremely bright star that may go supernova in the next few thousand years — a sun-size companion star has finally appeared in unique observations taken with the Gemini North telescope high on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea.
Research reveals quantum topological potential in material
New research into topological phases of matter may spur advances in innovative quantum devices. As described in a new paper published in the journal Nature Communications, a research team including Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists used a novel strain engineering approach to convert the material hafnium pentatelluride (HfTe5) to a strong topological insulator phase, increasing its bulk electrical resistance while lowering it at the surface, a key to unlocking its quantum potential.
“I’m excited that our team was able to show that the elusive and much-sought-after topological surface states can be made to become a predominant electrical conduction pathway,” said Michael Pettes, scientist with the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) at the Laboratory.
“This is promising for the development of types of quantum optoelectronic devices, dark matter detectors and topologically protected devices such as quantum computers. And the methodology we demonstrate is compatible for experimentation on other quantum materials.”
Is Earth inside a huge void? ‘Sound of Big Bang’ hints so
Earth and our entire Milky Way galaxy may sit inside a mysterious giant hole which makes the cosmos expand faster here than in neighbouring regions of the universe, astronomers say.
Their theory is a potential solution to the ‘Hubble tension’ and could help confirm the true age of our universe, which is estimated to be around 13.8 billion years old.
The latest research – shared at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting (NAM) in Durham – shows that sound waves from the early universe, “essentially the sound of the Big Bang”, support this idea.
Study inspects over 100 quasars from the MIGHTEE survey
A team of astronomers from Rhodes University and elsewhere have investigated a sample of 104 quasars detected with the MeerKAT International GHz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration (MIGHTEE) survey. The new study, published July 16 on the pre-print server arXiv, could help us advance our knowledge about quasars and their properties.
Quasars, or quasi-stellar objects (QSOs), are among the brightest and most distant objects in the known universe, and serve as fundamental tools for numerous studies in astrophysics as well as cosmology.
In general, they are active galactic nuclei (AGN) of very high luminosity, emitting electromagnetic radiation observable in radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths.
