Astronomers, astrophysicists and particle physicists gathered recently at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California to discuss the seriousness of differing measurements of the Hubble Constant. They met to talk about a problem that has become a major concern in astrophysics—figuring out how fast the universe is actually expanding. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-07-scientists-debate-seriousness-problems-hubble.html…
Tag: measurements
US Issues Hacking Security Alert for Small Planes
wiredmikey writes: The DHS has issued a security alert for small planes, warning that modern flight systems are vulnerable to hacking if someone manages to gain physical access to the aircraft. The alert stems from research done by security firm Rapid7, which found that an attacker could potentially disrupt electronic messages transmitted across a small plane’s network, for example by attaching…
Debate over the universe’s expansion rate may unravel physics. Is it a crisis?
Measurements of the Hubble constant don’t line up. Scientists debate what that means. Source: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/debate-universe-expansion-rate-hubble-constant-physics-crisis4…
Second laser boosts Aeolus power
ESA’s Aeolus satellite, which carries the world’s first space Doppler wind lidar, has been delivering high-quality global measurements of Earth’s wind since it was launched almost a year ago. However, part of the instrument, the laser transmitter, has been slowly losing energy. As a result, ESA decided to switch over to the instrument’s second laser—and the mission is now back on…
Modeling exoplanet atmospheres
All atoms and molecules emit distinctive spectral lines across the spectrum, the details of which depend on the internal structures of the species (for example, the vibration and rotation properties of molecules) and how they are excited by their environments. Measurements of the features’ brightnesses, relative intensities, and shapes enable astronomers, at least in principle, to reconstruct most of the essential…
Gaia starts mapping our Milky Way’s bar
“We knew the Milky Way had a bar, like other barred spiral galaxies. But we only had indirect indications from the motions of stars and gas. This is the first time we see the galactic bar in 3D space, based on geometric measurements of stellar distances.” Source: https://earthsky.org/space/gaia-starts-mapping-our-milky-ways-bar…
New measurements imply dramatically higher abundance of helium hydride ions in the early universe
Physicists report the first laboratory measurements of electron reactions with helium hydride ions in the cryogenic storage ring CSR at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg. At temperatures down to 6 K, the reaction rates destroying the molecule were found to be significantly lower compared to previous measurements at room temperature. This translates into a strongly enhanced abundance…
Scientists still can’t agree on the universe’s expansion rate
A mismatch in measurements of how fast the universe is expanding might not be real, a study hints. Source: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/universe-expansion-rate-mystery4…
Small fragments of carbon-rich asteroids too fragile to survive atmospheric entry
Ryugu and other asteroids of the common “C-class” consist of more porous material than was previously thought. Small fragments of their material are therefore too fragile to survive entry into the atmosphere in the event of a collision with Earth. This has revealed the long-suspected cause of the deficit of this meteorite type in finds on Earth. Researchers at the German…
Mystery of universe’s expansion deepens with new cosmic calculation
Cosmologists have two clashing measurements of the universe’s expansion, and a new method of measuring surprisingly doesn’t match up with either. What gives? Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2210010-mystery-of-universes-expansion-deepens-with-new-cosmic-calculation/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…