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Archive for the ‘cosmology’ category: Page 5

Dec 13, 2024

Scientists Set Out to Capture a Black Hole — an Explosion Photobombed

Posted by in category: cosmology

When you stare for long enough into the heart of a galaxy to try to catch a glimpse of the black hole that lurks therein, that may not be all you catch.

When a huge collaboration directed telescopes around the world to the heart of galaxy M87 in 2018 in an ultimately successful effort to capture detail of its supermassive black hole, they also managed to observe some of the wild shenanigans such a black hole engages in.

Now, astronomers discovered that one of those shenanigans was a colossal belch – a gamma-ray eruption from one of the powerful jets of plasma launched from the black hole’s poles as it feeds.

Dec 13, 2024

Group wants to launch a telescope to study black holes from space

Posted by in category: cosmology

Black holes are some of the most extreme objects in the universe, and a new mission proposal suggests launching a space telescope specifically to study them. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) group, which took both the first-ever image of a black hole in 2019 and the first-ever image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy in 2022, has plans for a new mission called the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX).

The idea of BHEX is to use a space-based telescope to collect even more detailed information from black holes, as there is less interference from water vapor when viewing them from above the Earth’s atmosphere. The aim would be to combine data from this telescope with the many telescopes on the ground that are already used in the EHT project. The next phase of the project is a collaboration between the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).

Dec 13, 2024

M87’s powerful jet unleashes rare gamma-ray outburst

Posted by in category: cosmology

Also known as Virgo A or NGC 4,486, M87 is the brightest object in the Virgo cluster of galaxies, the largest gravitationally bound type of structure in the universe. It came to fame in April 2019 after scientists from EHT released the first image of a black hole in its center.

Led by the EHT multi wavelength working group, a study published in Astronomy and Astrophysics presents the data from the second EHT conducted in April 2018, involving over 25 terrestrial and orbital telescopes.

The authors report the first observation of a high-energy gamma-ray flare in over a decade from the M87, based on nearly simultaneous spectra of the galaxy spanning the broadest wavelength range ever collected.

Dec 13, 2024

Max Tegmark: Will AI Surpass Human Intelligence?

Posted by in categories: cosmology, mathematics, physics, robotics/AI

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Dec 13, 2024

AI tool amplifies signals by 1,000 times to boost dark matter research

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics, robotics/AI

The instrument uses light to move atoms to measure incredibly small forces.


A self-correcting atom interferometer amplifies signals, aiding detection of ultra-weak forces from dark matter, dark energy, and waves.

Dec 12, 2024

How to catch a supernova explosion before it happens—and what we can learn from it

Posted by in categories: cosmology, nuclear energy

Stars are born, live and die in spectacular ways, with their deaths marked by one of the biggest known explosions in the universe. Like a campfire needs wood to keep burning, a star relies on nuclear fusion—primarily using hydrogen as fuel—to generate energy and counteract the crushing force of its own gravity.

But when the fuel runs out, the outward pressure vanishes, and the star collapses under its own weight, falling at nearly the speed of light, crashing into the core and rebounding outward. Within seconds, the star is violently blown apart, hurling stellar debris into space at speeds thousands of times faster than the most powerful rocket ever built. This is a .

Astronomers aim to understand what types of stars produce different kinds of explosions. Do more result in brighter explosions? What happens if a star is surrounded by dust and gas when it explodes?

Dec 12, 2024

Google Says It Appears to Have Accessed Parallel Universes

Posted by in categories: computing, cosmology, quantum physics

Google argued that its new uber-powerful quantum computer is so fast that it may have tapped a parallel universe.

Dec 12, 2024

Welcome to The Quantum Memory Matrix — Hypothesis Offers New Insight Into Black Hole Information Paradox

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

A new hypothesis suggests that the very fabric of space-time may act as a dynamic reservoir for quantum information, which, if it holds, would address the long-standing Black Hole Information Paradox and potentially reshape our understanding of quantum gravity, according to a research team including scientists from pioneering quantum computing firm, Terra Quantum and Leiden University.

Published in Entropy, the Quantum Memory Matrix (QMM) hypothesis offers a mathematical framework to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity while preserving the fundamental principle of information conservation.

The study proposes that space-time, quantized at the Planck scale — a realm where the physics of quantum mechanics and general relativity converge — stores information from quantum interactions in “quantum imprints.” These imprints encode details of quantum states and their evolution, potentially enabling information retrieval during black hole evaporation through mechanisms like Hawking radiation. This directly addresses the Black Hole Information Paradox, which highlights the conflict between quantum mechanics — suggesting information cannot be destroyed — and classical black hole descriptions, where information appears to vanish once the black hole evaporates.

Dec 12, 2024

Advanced atom interferometer could help with ‘the embarrassing problem’ of dark matter

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

Assuming dark matter exists, its interactions with ordinary matter are so subtle that even the most sensitive instruments cannot detect them. In a new study, Northwestern University physicists now introduce a highly sensitive new tool, which amplifies incredibly faint signals by 1,000 times—a 50-fold improvement over what was previously possible.

Called an atom interferometer, the incredibly precise tool manipulates atoms with light to measure exceptionally tiny forces. But, unlike other atom interferometers, which are limited by the imperfections in the light itself, the new tool self-corrects for these imperfections to reach record-breaking levels of precision.

By boosting imperceptible signals to perceptible levels, the technological advance could help scientists who are hunting for ultra-weak forces emitted from a variety of evasive phenomena, including , and in unexplored frequency ranges.

Dec 11, 2024

Google says its new quantum chip indicates that multiple universes exist

Posted by in categories: computing, cosmology, quantum physics

Google on Monday announced Willow, its latest, greatest quantum computing chip. The speed and reliability performance claims Google’s made about this chip were newsworthy in themselves, but what really caught the tech industry’s attention was an even wilder claim tucked into the blog post about the chip.

Google Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven wrote in his blog post that this chip was so mind-boggling fast that it must have borrowed computational power from other universes.

Ergo the chip’s performance indicates that parallel universes exist and “we live in a multiverse.”

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