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☆ Astronomers say we may live at the center of a cosmic void 2 billion light-years wide that defies the laws of cosmology
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Jessica Orwig | Ellyn Lapointe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

But the kicker is that this giant void shouldn't exist in the first place. For example, some people have correctly argued that such a void shouldn't exist in the standard model, which is true. Cosmologists have a value, called the Hubble constant, which they use to help describe how fast the universe's expansion is accelerating. The Hubble constant should be the same value wherever you look, whether it's close by or very far away. NASA/JPL-CaltechAstronomers can't agree on what's causing this discrepancy in the Hubble constant, and the contention has become known as the Hubble tension.

Persons: —, we're, Claire Lamman, Indranil, Andrews, Hubble, Brian Keating, Keating, Banik Organizations: Service, Business, Harvard, Smithsonian Center, Astrophysics, Indranil Banik, University of St, Banik, Royal Astronomical Society, KBC, Hubble, NASA, JPL, Caltech, ESA, Palomar, Sky, UC San Diego, Sky Survey

☆ Here's the science refresher you need before diving into Netflix's '3 Body Problem'
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

AdvertisementThe three-body problem is unsolvable and chaoticSome of the show's action takes place in a virtual world that's orbited by three suns. "This is a centuries-old problem," Shane Ross, an aerospace and ocean engineering professor at Virginia Tech, told Business Insider. Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to EarthThe three-body system in the story is based on a real neighboring star system called Alpha Centauri. At about 4 light-years from Earth, it's the closest star system to our own and contains three stars: Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Proxima Centauri, which has two planets orbiting around it. A view of the bright triple-star system Alpha Centauri.

Persons: —, Liu Cixin, Shane Ross, Isaac Newton, Ross, Georgios Kollidas, Alpha Centauri, Franck Marchis, Davide De Martin, they're, Marchis, Ye Wenjie, Enrico Fermi, Benedict Wong, Jerry Ehman, Sir William Hamilton, William of Ockham, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Maximilien Brice, John Finney, It's Organizations: Service, Netflix, Oxford University, Business, Virginia Tech, Alpha, Alpha Centauri, Proxima, SETI Institute, ESO, Columbia University, USA, Keystone, Getty, Ohio State University, Extraterrestrial Intelligence, SETI, American AstroPhysical, CERN Locations: Ohio, China, North America

☆ Universe’s brightest known object and fastest-growing black hole revealed
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Astronomers have spotted the brightest known object in the universe, and it’s a quasar powered by the fastest-growing black hole on record, according to a new study. The black hole powering the quasar devours the equivalent of one sun per day and has a mass about 17 billion times that of our sun, the researchers found. A black hole is massive power sourceThe intense gravitational influence of black holes draws matter toward these celestial objects in such an energetic way that the process creates light. The blinding radiation is due to the black hole’s accretion disk, or the ring around the black hole where material gathers before being consumed. The team followed up with observations from the powerful Very Large Telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert to confirm details about the black hole, including its hefty mass.

Persons: ”, Christian Wolf, ” Wolf, Samuel Lai, Wolf, Southern Observatory’s Schmidt, Christopher Onken Organizations: CNN —, Southern, National University’s College of Science, National University’s Research, of Astronomy, Astrophysics, Hubble, Southern Observatory’s, Sky Survey, Sky, Dark Energy Survey, Energy Survey, ESO Locations: Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Atacama

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have discovered what may be the brightest object in the universe, a quasar with a black hole at its heart growing so fast that it swallows the equivalent of a sun a day. The record-breaking quasar shines 500 trillion times brighter than our sun. The black hole powering this distant quasar is more than 17 billion times more immense than our sun, an Australian-led team reported Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy. The rotating disk around the quasar's black hole — the luminous swirling gas and other matter from gobbled-up stars — is like a cosmic hurricane. Further analysis shows the mass of the black hole to be 17 to 19 billion times that of our sun, according to the team.

Persons: —, Christian Wolf, ”, Priyamvada Natarajan Organizations: —, Australian National University, Southern Observatory, ” Yale, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group, AP Locations: CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla, Australian, gobbled, Australia

☆ NASA's James Webb Space Telescope broke its own record to discover the oldest black hole yet, but it has astronomers even more confused about the beginning of the universe
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewThe James Webb Space Telescope has discovered the oldest black hole ever detected, breaking its own record. It's about 40 million years older than the record-breaking black hole Webb also discovered and announced in November. AdvertisementA cosmic clue in this black hole's outsized appetiteA disk of hot gas swirls around a feeding black hole in this illustration. AdvertisementPeering at the early universe with Webb "is like upgrading from Galileo's telescope to a modern telescope overnight," Maiolino said. He added that his team hopes to search for smaller "seeds" of black holes with future Webb observing time.

Persons: —, James Webb, Webb, Nick Risinger, JWST, Chandra, Daniel Holz, Roberto Maiolino, Maiolino Organizations: Service, Business, ESA, Hubble, Sky Survey, NASA, CSA, University of Chicago, New York Times, University of Cambridge, JPL, Caltech

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A newly discovered comet is swinging through our cosmic neighborhood for the first time in more than 400 years. Stargazers across the Northern Hemisphere should catch a glimpse as soon as possible — either this week or early next — because it will be another 400 years before the wandering ice ball returns. The comet, which is kilometer-sized (1/2-mile), will sweep safely past Earth on Sept. 12, passing within 78 million miles (125 million kilometers). The comet will come closest to the sun — closer than Mercury is — on about Sept. 17 before departing the solar system. “The comet looks amazing right now, with a long, highly structured tail, a joy to image with a telescope,” he said.

Persons: ”, Paul Chodas, Chodas, Gianluca Masi, it’s, Masi, Nishimura, Galileo Organizations: NASA’s Center, Telescope, Northern, Southern Hemisphere, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group, AP Locations: CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla, Italian, Southern

☆ Euclid telescope shares its first glimpses of the universe
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —The Euclid space telescope, designed to investigate some of the universe’s biggest mysteries, has captured its first glimpses of the cosmos. Investigating invisible dark matterEuclid’s primary goal is to observe the cosmic mysteries of the universe, including dark matter and dark energy. While dark matter has never actually been detected, it is believed to make up at least 85% of the total matter in the universe. These observations will effectively allow Euclid to see how the universe has evolved over the past 10 billion years. As Euclid makes its observations, the telescope will create a catalog of about 1.5 billion galaxies and the stars within them.

Persons: ”, Giuseppe Racca, “, Euclid, NASA’s James Webb, Josef Aschbacher, Reiko Nakajima, we’ve, William Gillard, Georges Lemaître, Edwin Hubble, Webb Organizations: CNN, European Space Agency, Telescope, ESA, Canadian Space Agency, Euclid, Euclid Consortium, NASA Locations: Alexandria

☆ Euclid mission: A journey aiming to unravel the universe’s biggest mysteries has begun
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope launched at 11:12 a.m. The Euclid space telescope is seen right before its installation in the nose of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday. Investigating cosmic mysteriesEuclid’s primary goal is to observe the “dark side” of the universe, including dark matter and dark energy. While dark matter has never actually been detected, it is believed to make up 85% of the total matter in the universe. Both dark matter and dark energy also play a role in the distribution and movement of objects, such as galaxies and stars, across the cosmos.

Persons: NASA’s James Webb, Georges Lemaître, Edwin Hubble, Euclid, Nancy Grace Roman, ”, Jason Rhodes, Rhodes, Roman, Yun Wang Organizations: CNN, SpaceX, Cape Canaveral Space Force, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, ESA, NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Euclid, California Institute of Technology Locations: Alexandria, United States, Canada, Japan, Pasadena , California

☆ Earth's neighboring star Betelgeuse unexpectedly got 50% brighter —part of a weird process that will end in the dying star going supernova
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

This dying red giant had only recently mysteriously dimmed its shine after an enormous explosion. It is expected to explode into a supernova visible from Earth, though likely not for thousands of years. The red giant — a star not far from death — is now shining about 50% brighter than it usually would, scientists said. Scientists are keeping a close eye on Betelgeuse, as this red giant is a dying star that is close to turning supernova. Betelgeuse could burst into a supernova visible from Earth — one dayA pre-supernova star, called a Wolf-Rayet star, 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.

☆ The Taurids meteor shower is expected to peak this weekend. Here's how to watch bright fireballs dazzle the night sky.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Northern Taurids meteor shower will be at its best overnight, between November 11 and 12. In the Southern Hemisphere, the meteor shower reached another peak in mid-October. The Southern and Northern Taurids' last peaks were in 2015. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/Southwest Research InstituteIn 2005, a Taurids meteor struck the surface of the moon. During the peak, the American Meteor Society says you might see around five meteors per hour under clear, dark skies.

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