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Category: cosmology – Page 405

The new work addresses not only what dark energy is but why the rate of universal expansion has the value it does.

“Everybody wants to know what dark energy is,” Wang told Live Science. “I reconsidered this question more carefully,” from the perspective of the universe’s energy density.

Wang and his colleagues assumed that modern quantum field theory was correct about the energy density being very large, but that the vacuum fluctuations, or the movements of empty space, were very large on tiny scales, near what is called the Planck length, or 1.62 × 10 ^ minus 35 meters. That’s so small that a proton is 100 million trillion times bigger.

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May 25 (UPI) — In 2015, a star tracked by astronomers since 2009, suddenly disappeared. New research suggests the star collapsed and became a black hole, but avoided the explosive violence of a supernova.

The discovery, detailed in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, could explain why many of the universe’s most massive stars die without a parting explosion.

“The typical view is that a star can form a black hole only after it goes supernova,” Christopher Kochanek, professor of astronomy at Ohio State University, said in a news release. “If a star can fall short of a supernova and still make a black hole, that would help to explain why we don’t see supernovae from the most massive stars.”

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Researchers have proposed a method for detecting exotic events in physics by looking for the scars they leave behind on the fabric of space.

By identifying how objects like cosmic strings or evaporating black holes leave behind memories of their existence on the Universe, it might be possible to move some rather strange phenomena from theoretical to empirical science.

It all comes down to an effect of general relativity called gravitational-wave memory, which is the distortion left behind as space is stretched and relaxed by a massive object.

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Experts suggest that the cooler area could be caused by our universe colliding with another.

If true, this could provide evidence for the multiverse theory.

For years, scientists have been stumped by the Cold Spot, which measures around 1.8 billion light years across.

Measurements of the universe’s background radiation found this spot is colder than its surroundings by around 0.00015 degrees Celsius (0.00027 degrees Fahrenheit).

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RELATED: Building Blocks for Life Found in Rosetta’s Comet

“Understanding the origin of molecular oxygen in space is important for the evolution of the Universe and the origin of life on Earth,” the researchers wrote.

The finding muddies the waters in how detecting oxygen in the atmospheres of exoplanets might not necessarily point to life, as this abiotic process means that oxygen can be produced in space without the need for life. The researchers say this finding might influence how researchers search for signs of life on exoplanets in the future.

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For decades, scientists have tracked hints of a thread-like structure that ties together galaxies across the universe. Theories, computer models, and indirect observations have indicated that there is a cosmic web of dark matter that connects galaxies and constitutes the large-scale structure of the cosmos. But while the filaments that make up this web are massive, dark matter is incredibly difficult to observe.

Now, researchers have produced what they say is the first composite image of a dark matter filament that connects galaxies together.

“This image moves us beyond predictions to something we can see and measure,” said Mike Hudson, a professor of astronomy at the University of Waterloo in Canada, co-author of a new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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