On February 5, 1963, Maarten Schmidt unraveled the mystery of quasars and pushed back the edges of the known cosmos. His insight into quasars – the most distant and luminous objects known – has changed the way scientists view the universe. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/this-date-in-science-maartin-schmidt-discovers-first-known-quasar…
Tag: cosmology
JADES will go deeper than the Hubble Deep Fields
Astronomers announced this month that a new deep-field survey called JADES will be carried out with the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble’s much-anticipated successor. The Webb is due to launch later this year. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/jades-deep-field-surveys-epoch-of-1st-galaxies…
China’s huge FAST telescope to open to international observers
FAST’s 500-meter (1,640-foot) dish makes it the world’s largest single-dish radio observatory. It’s expected to open to international observers in 2021. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/worlds-largest-radio-telescope-china-fast…
A new look at the universe’s oldest light
New work agrees with older research suggesting the oldest light in the universe – from the most distant galaxy yet known – started its journey toward us 13.77 billion years ago. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/a-new-look-at-the-universes-oldest-light…
The uncertainties in measuring cosmic expansion
Ninety years after Edwin Hubble discovered the systematic motions of galaxies and George Lemaitre explained them as cosmic expansion from a point using Einstein’s equations of relativity, observational cosmology today is facing a challenge. Values deduced from the two primary methodologies—the properties of galaxies and the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR)—disagree with each other at roughly the ten percent level, yet…
The universe is expanding too fast, and that could rewrite cosmology
Different measurements of the Hubble constant, the rate of space-time expansion, refuse to agree – meaning we may have to look beyond Einstein’s theories to explain the universe Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24833100-800-the-universe-is-expanding-too-fast-and-that-could-rewrite-cosmology/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Does the Human Brain Resemble the Universe?
“Does the human brain resemble the Universe?” teases an announcement that an astrophysicist of the University of Bologna and a neurosurgeon of the University of Verona “compared the network of neuronal cells in the human brain with the cosmic network of galaxies…and surprising similarities emerged.” Slashdot reader Iwastheone shares their report: Despite the substantial difference in scale between the two networks…
Do we live in a simulation? Chances are about 50–50.
Gauging whether or not we dwell inside someone else’s computer may come down to advanced AI research—or measurements at the frontiers of cosmology Source: https://www.livescience.com/do-we-live-in-a-simulation-chances-are-about-50-50.html
Physicists Argue That Black Holes From the Big Bang Could Be the Dark Matter
Long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot quotes Quanta magazine:
It was an old idea of Stephen Hawking’s: Unseen “primordial” black holes might be the hidden dark matter. It fell out of favor for decades, but a new series of studies has shown how the theory can work… Their very blackness makes it hard to estimate how many black holes inhabit the cosmos and how…
A Chinese perspective on autumn
In Chinese thought, autumn is with the direction west, considered to be the direction of dreams and visions. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/autumn-equinox-cycles-of-nature-and-chinese-philosophy…