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Archive for the ‘cosmology’ category: Page 110

Jul 29, 2023

The Anthropic Principle — How Your Existence Could Lead to a Multiverse

Posted by in categories: computing, cosmology, mathematics, particle physics

Watch over 2,400 documentaries for free for 30 days AND get a free Nebula account by signing up at https://curiositystream.com/upandatom and using the code “upandatom”.

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Continue reading “The Anthropic Principle — How Your Existence Could Lead to a Multiverse” »

Jul 29, 2023

Roger Penrose: “Time Has No Beginning And Big Bang Wrong”

Posted by in category: cosmology

The Big Bang theory suggests that the universe emerged out of nothing, signifying the beginning of the universe. Before this, there was nothing — no time, no space. However, what if I told you that time doesn’t exist and that the Big Bang Theory is incorrect? Recent discoveries made by the James Webb Telescope provide evidence that challenges the validity of the Big Bang Theory.

Jul 29, 2023

The Search for WIMPs Continues

Posted by in category: cosmology

Two mammoth underground detectors have delivered more stringent upper limits on how strongly a putative dark matter candidate interacts with normal matter.

Jul 29, 2023

Has JWST shown the Universe is TWICE as old as we think?!

Posted by in categories: cosmology, robotics/AI

Go to https://brilliant.org/drbecky to get a 30-day free trial and the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual subscription. A new research study has come out claiming that to explain the massive galaxies found at huge distances in James Webb Space Telescope images, the Universe is older than we think, at 26.7 billion years (rather than 13.8 billion years old). In this video I’m diving into that study, looking at what model they used to get at that claim (a combination of the expansion of the universe and “tired light” ideas of redshift), how this impacts our best model of the Universe and the so-called “Crisis is Cosmology”, and why I’m not convinced yet!

#astronomy #JWST #cosmology.

Continue reading “Has JWST shown the Universe is TWICE as old as we think?!” »

Jul 29, 2023

God is not a Good Theory (Sean Carroll)

Posted by in category: cosmology

Lecture from the 2nd mini-series (Is “God” Explanatory) from the “Philosophy of Cosmology” project. A University of Oxford and Cambridge Collaboration.

Jul 28, 2023

The hunt for dark matter is further along than you think

Posted by in category: cosmology

Dark matter isn’t just floating around filling up empty space. Importantly, it is found in clumps and structures, similar to ordinary matter. It forms the structure onto which ordinary matter gloms and is thought to be responsible for the structures of galaxies and the universe as a whole.

“We know that galaxies form in the scaffold that dark matter produces,” astronomer and early universe researcher Steve Wilkins of the University of Sussex explained. “It is an integral part of our universe to explain what we see.”

“We don’t have a firm theoretical handle on what dark matter should be.”

Jul 28, 2023

The Big Bang Theory: Revolutionizing Our Understanding of Existence

Posted by in categories: cosmology, information science, quantum physics, singularity

Throughout history, humans have gazed at the sky, contemplating the celestial lights, including the sun, the moon, and beyond. In those ancient moments, an insatiable curiosity ignited within them, urging them to seek answers about the origins of the cosmos. Over time, this burning curiosity has been passed down, compelling generations to develop theories in pursuit of one timeless question: Where did it all come from?

One of the most complete and widely accepted theories in this regard is the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang is a scientific theory that proposes that the birth and development of the universe originated from a point in space-time called the singularity. Think of this in a way that all the matter and energy of the universe were trapped in an inconceivably small point of high density and high temperature (Williams & Today, n.d.). It is theorized to be a colossal release of energy that initiated the rapid expansion of the universe over 13.7 billion years that led to the creation of galaxies, stars, planetary systems and eventually humankind. What happened that led to the sudden expansion? This question continues to puzzle cosmologists, as the answer remains unknown to this day (What Is the Big Bang Theory? n.d.).

In 1915, while developing his General Theory of Relativity, Albert Einstein faced a challenge. If gravity were to solely attract all objects, the universe would ultimately collapse under its overwhelming force. However, observations indicated that the universe was not collapsing. To address this issue, Einstein introduced a cosmological constant into his equations. This constant acted as a counterforce to gravity and proposed a static model of the universe. Little did Einstein know that an astronomer named Edwin Hubble would soon contradict his proposed static model of the universe. Working at Mount Wilson Observatory in California, Hubble made a noteworthy observation in the late 1920s. He noticed a peculiar phenomenon known as redshift, where light emitted by celestial bodies moved toward the red end of the spectrum, indicating that they were moving away from us (Vogel, 2021).

Jul 27, 2023

Why the Big Bang might not have been the beginning of our Universe

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

The Big Bang marks the birth of the Universe, right? The physicists brave enough to look beyond it aren’t so sure.

Jul 27, 2023

Astronomers reveal new features of galactic black holes

Posted by in categories: cosmology, materials

Black holes are the most mysterious objects in the universe, with features that sound like they come straight from a sci-fi movie.

Stellar-mass with masses of roughly 10 suns, for example, reveal their existence by eating materials from their companion stars. And in some instances, accumulate at the center of some galaxies to form bright compact regions known as quasars with masses equal to millions to billions of our sun. A subset of accreting stellar-mass that can launch jets of highly magnetized plasma are called microquasars.

An international team of scientists, including UNLV astrophysicist Bing Zhang, reports in Nature on a dedicated observational campaign on the galactic microquasar dubbed GRS 1915+105. The team revealed features of a microquasar system that have never before been seen.

Jul 27, 2023

Our Universe wasn’t empty, even before the Big Bang

Posted by in category: cosmology

All of the matter and radiation we measure today originated in a hot Big Bang long ago. The Universe was never empty, not even before that.