universe

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Seeing The Universe More Clearly Than Even Its Own Engineers Hoped For – The James Webb Space Telescope Is Finally Ready To Do Science

NASA is scheduled to release the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, 2022. They’ll mark the beginning of the next era in astronomy as Webb – the largest space telescope ever built – begins collecting scientific data that will help answer questions about the earliest moments of the universe and allow astronomers to study exoplanets in greater detail than ever before. But it has taken nearly eight months of travel, setup, testing and calibration to make sure this most valuable of telescopes is ready for prime time. Marcia Rieke, an astronomer at the University of Arizona and the scientist in charge of one of Webb’s four cameras, explains what she and her colleagues have been doing to get this telescope up and running. 1. What’s happened since the telescope launch...

Here Are 3 Reasons Black Holes Are The Scariest Things In The Universe

31Oct

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS, SCIENCE

Here Are 3 Reasons Black Holes Are The Scariest Things In The Universe

Halloween is a time to be haunted by ghosts, goblins and ghouls, but nothing in the universe is scarier than a black hole. Black holes – regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape – are a hot topic in the news these days. Half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Roger Penrose for his mathematical work showing that black holes are an inescapable consequence of Einstein’s theory of gravity. Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel shared the other half for showing that a massive black hole sits at the center of our galaxy. Black holes are scary for three reasons. If you fell into a black hole left over when a star died, you would be shredded. Also, the massive black holes seen at the center of all galaxies have insatiable appetites. And black holes are places ...

The Fundamental Building Blocks Of The Universe May Be Fragments Of Energy – Not Waves Or Particles

3Apr

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TECHNOLOGY

The Fundamental Building Blocks Of The Universe May Be Fragments Of Energy – Not Waves Or Particles

Matter is what makes up the universe, but what makes up matter? This question has long been tricky for those who think about it – especially for the physicists. Reflecting recent trends in physics, my colleague Jeffrey Eischen and I have described an updated way to think about matter. We propose that matter is not made of particles or waves, as was long thought, but – more fundamentally – that matter is made of fragments of energy. In ancient times, five elements were thought to be the building blocks of reality. IkonStudio/iStock via Getty Images From five to one The ancient Greeks conceived of five building blocks of matter – from bottom to top: earth, water, air, fire and aether. Aether was the matter that filled the heavens and explained the rotation of the stars, as observed from the ...

How the Hubble Space Telescope opened our eyes to the first galaxies of the universe

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY

How the Hubble Space Telescope opened our eyes to the first galaxies of the universe

How the Hubble Space Telescope opened our eyes to the first galaxies of the universe The launch of Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990. This photo captures the first time that there were shuttles on both pad 39a and 39b. NASA The Hubble Space Telescope launched on the 24th of April, 30 years ago. It’s an impressive milestone especially as its expected lifespan was just 10 years. One of the primary reasons for the Hubble telescope’s longevity is that it can be serviced and improved with new observational instruments through Space Shuttle visits. When Hubble, or HST, first launched, its instruments could observe ultraviolet light with wavelengths shorter than the eye can see, as well as optical light with wavelengths visible to humans. A maintenance mission in 1997 added an in...