#cosmology

#cosmology

By observing the brightness of distant dying stars, astronomers have long come to believe that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. In fact, that apparent reality is deeply built into cosmological models: a mysterious force that influences the universe on the largest scales, dubbed dark energy, is believed to explain the acceleration. However, not everybody agrees with this widely accepted scientific consensus.

Modelling shows how the infant Universe might have stayed warm and dense during its primoridal expansion.

Along with John Mather of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Smoot won the 2006 Nobel Prize for physics for finding the background radiation that finally pinned down the Big Bang theory, the idea that the universe was born in a rapid cosmic expansion some 14 billion years ago. The Florida native earned a PhD in particle physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970.

It sounds like something from the latest science fiction blockbuster. But scientists in Massachusetts have revealed the terrifyingly high odds a black hole will explode in the next 10 years. In a new paper, they say there's a 90 per cent chance of at least one black hole exploding by 2035. If and when it happens, telescopes positioned in space and here on Earth should be able to capture the event - which fortunately won't be dangerous for Earthlings.

When most of us think about science, we don't often think about something very fundamental to the enterprise: what the goal of it all actually is. Reality is a complicated place, and the only tools we have to guide us in understanding what it is and how it works is the combination of what we can observe, measure, and experiment on.

NASA explains the incredible shot captured by the Hubble Space Telescope of 3I/ATLAS shows a 'teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust' trailing behind the object, suggesting it's a sizable comet.

The search for axions remains crucial in the ongoing quest to understand dark matter, though no direct evidence for these particles has yet been found.

"Predicting future mergers requires knowledge about the present coordinates, velocities, and masses of the systems partaking in the interaction."

It used to appear destined to merge with Andromeda forming a colossal "Milkomeda." Now, there is a chance that we could avoid this fate entirely.

Humans often hold egocentric views of their place in the universe, considering themselves the pinnacle of evolution, which reveals a profound sense of pride and importance in our existence.

'The universe evolves in a way that the information content in it is compressed, optimized and organized - just as computers and computer code do.'