When astronomers detected the first long-predicted gravitational waves in 2015, it opened a whole new window into the Universe. Before that, astronomy depended on observations of light in all its wavelengths.
We also use light to communicate, mostly radio waves. Could we use gravitational waves to communicate?
The idea is intriguing, though beyond our capabilities right now. Still, there’s value in exploring the hypothetical, as the future has a way of arriving sooner than we sometimes think.
Using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), astronomers from the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) and elsewhere have observed an ultra-diffuse galaxy known as FCC 224. Results of the observational campaign, published Jan. 18 on the arXiv pre-print server, provide important insights into the properties of this galaxy and its globular cluster system.
Globular clusters (GCs) are collections of tightly bound stars orbiting galaxies. Astronomers perceive them as natural laboratories enabling studies on the evolution of stars and galaxies. In particular, GCs could help researchers to better understand the formation history and evolution of early-type galaxies, as the origin of GCs seems to be closely linked to periods of intense star formation.
Located some 65 million light years away in the Fornax galaxy cluster, FCC 224 is a quiescent ultra-diffuse galaxy about 10 billion years old. It has a major axis effective radius of approximately 6,160 light years and its mass is estimated to be at a level of 200 million solar masses.
Did Mars have lakes and rivers during a single period or over separate periods? This is what a recent study published in Nature Geoscience hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated whether Mars experienced a single event of liquid water on its surface, or many events spread over millions of years. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the early conditions on Mars and whether these conditions were suitable to support life as we know it.
“Early Mars is a lost world, but it can be reconstructed in great detail if we ask the right questions,” said Dr. Robin Wordsworth, who is a Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at Harvard University and a co-author on the study. “This study synthesizes atmospheric chemistry and climate for the first time, to make some striking new predictions – which are testable once we bring Mars rocks back to Earth.”
For the study, the researchers used a series of computer models to simulate how the atmosphere on Mars billions of years ago potentially reacted to surface water-rock interactions and climate changes over time. The goal was to ascertain whether Mars experienced a single event of liquid water on its surface, or a series of events spread over millions of years with periods of dryness in between them.
“The presence of methane is critical to the existence of Titan’s atmosphere,” said Dr. Kelly Miller. “Scientists think an internal source must replenish the methane, or else the atmosphere has a geologically short lifetime.”
Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is the only moon in the solar system with a dense atmosphere which is comprised of thick hazes of 95 percent nitrogen (N2) and 5 percent methane (NH4) that require radar instruments to see the moon’s surface. But what processes are responsible for keeping this thick atmosphere from escaping to space? This is what a recent study published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta hopes to address as a team of researchers led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) investigated how processes occurring in Titan’s interior could be fueling Titan’s atmosphere, specifically the methane.
“The presence of methane is critical to the existence of Titan’s atmosphere,” said Dr. Kelly Miller, who is a SwRI research scientist and lead author of the study. “The methane is removed by reactions caused by sunlight and would disappear in about 30 million years after which the atmosphere would freeze onto the surface. Scientists think an internal source must replenish the methane, or else the atmosphere has a geologically short lifetime.”
For the study, the researchers conducted a series of laboratory experiments with organic matter obtained from the Murchison meteorite to simulate conditions on Titan that could help explain how its atmosphere is replenished from the interior. In the end, the researchers found that temperatures above 250 degrees Celsius (482 degrees Fahrenheit) result in the methane production that is enough to replenish Titan’s atmosphere, along with enough nitrogen production to replenish the atmosphere, as well.
“This process is like a cosmic CT scan, where we can look through different slices of cosmic history and track how matter clumped together at different epochs,” team co-leader Mathew Madhavacheril of the University of Pennsylvania said in a statement. “It gives us a direct look into how the gravitational influence of matter changed over billions of years.”
In order for the team to build this so-called CT scan of the universe, they needed to turn to light that has existed almost as long as the cosmos itself.
With such ancient light, it’s possible to track the changes the universe underwent as gravity reshaped it over around 13.8 billion years.
Mathematics and physics have long been regarded as the ultimate languages of the universe, but what if their structure resembles something much closer to home: our spoken and written languages? A recent study suggests that the mathematical equations used to describe physical laws follow a surprising pattern—a pattern that aligns with Zipf’s law, a principle from linguistics.
This discovery could reshape our understanding of how we conceptualize the universe and even how our brains work. Let’s explore the intriguing connection between the language of mathematics and the physical world.
What Is Zipf’s Law?
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are one of the greater mysteries facing astronomers today, rivaled only by gravitational waves (GWs) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Originally discovered in 2007 by American astronomer Duncan Lorimer (for whom the “Lorimer Burst” is named), these short, intense blasts of radio energy produce more power in a millisecond than the sun generates in a month.
In most cases, FRBs are one-off events that brightly flash and are never heard from again. But in some cases, astronomers have detected FRBs that were repeating in nature, raising more questions about what causes them.
Prior to the discovery of FRBs, the most powerful bursts observed in the Milky Way were produced by neutron stars, which are visible from up to 100,000 light-years away. However, according to new research led by the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), a newly detected FRB was a billion times more radiant than anything produced by a neutron star.
The Anthropic Principle and Super-Intelligence, or SI, are vital concepts to understanding the Universe and our future place in it.
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