Astronomy & Cosmology

[waltky]

'Serious gap' in cosmic expansion rate calls for new physics...

'Serious gap' in cosmic expansion rate hints at new physics
11 Jan.`18 - A mathematical discrepancy in the expansion rate of the Universe is now "pretty serious", and could point the way to a major discovery in physics, says a Nobel laureate.

The most recent results suggest the inconsistency is not going away. Prof Adam Riess told BBC News that an unknown phenomenon, such as a new particle, might explain the deviation. The difference is found when comparing precise measurements of the rate obtained in different ways. However, the statistics are not yet at the threshold for claiming a discovery, Prof Riess, who is based at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, was one of three scientists who shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering that the expansion rate of the Universe is accelerating. This phenomenon was widely attributed to a mysterious, unexplained "dark energy" filling the cosmos.

Values holding

The unit of measurement used to describe the expansion is called the Hubble Constant, after 20th Century astronomer Edwin Hubble - after whom the orbiting space observatory is named. Appropriately, Prof Riess has been using the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument on the Hubble telescope (installed during the last servicing mission to the iconic observatory) to help refine his measurements of the constant. "The answer we get is 73.24. This is not very different to what people have gotten before measuring the Hubble constant. What is different is that the uncertainty has gotten quite a bit smaller," he said here at the 231st American Astronomical Society meeting in National Harbor, just outside Washington DC. "The uncertainty has been dropping progressively over time, while the value has not been changing very much." To calculate the Hubble Constant, Prof Riess and others use the "cosmic ladder" approach, which relies on known quantities - so-called "standard candles" - such as the brightness of certain types of supernova to calibrate distances across space. However, a different approach uses a combination of the afterglow of the Big Bang, known as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), as measured by the Planck spacecraft and a cosmological model known as Lambda-CDM.

Artwork: The expansion of the Universe has been accelerating in the billions of years since the Big Bang​

The Hubble Constant obtained using these data is 66.9 kilometres per second per megaparsec. (A megaparsec is 3.26 million light-years, so it follows that cosmic expansion increases by 66.9km/second for every 3.26 million light-years we look further out into space). The gap between the two is now at a confidence level of about 3.4 sigma. The sigma level describes the probability that a particular finding is not down to chance. For example, three sigma is often described as the equivalent of repeatedly tossing a coin and getting nine heads in a row. A level of five sigma is usually considered the threshold for claiming a discovery. However, Prof Riess said that at the three sigma level "this starts to get pretty serious I would say". "In fact, in both cases of measurements, these are very mature measurements... both projects have done their utmost to reduce systematic errors," he added. Indeed, a recent measurement of time delays in quasars that is completely independent of the cosmic distance ladder data gets very similar results to Prof Riess's late Universe Hubble Constant. For the early Universe, a 2017 analysis using the density of baryonic (normal) matter in the cosmos yields a very similar value as the one obtained by the Planck team.

Variable stars known as cepheids are one of the many "standard candles" used to calibrate cosmic distances​

What this all suggested, he said, was that the Universe is now expanding 9% faster than expected based on the data - a result he described as "remarkable". One way to bridge the divide is to invoke new phenomena in physics. There are various ways to account for it, including the addition of a new particle, called a sterile neutrino, to the Standard Model - the best tested theory of particle physics. The sterile neutrino would represent the fourth type - or flavour - of neutrino; but while the other three are well known to physicists, attempts to detect a fourth with experiments have not come up with much. Another possibility is that dark energy behaves in a different way now compared with how it did in the early history of the cosmos. "One promising way is if we don't have dark matter be so perfectly 'collision-less' but it could interact with radiation in the early Universe," Prof Riess said. He has submitted a paper with his latest analysis of the Hubble Constant for publication in a journal.

Expanding cosmos hints at new physics

 

[Mac1958]

There is still SO MUCH to learn.

Which is SO COOL.

 

[Mousterian]

There's still PLENTY to learn, and likely will be for a very long time.
Famous last words?
'Dark' matter and energy are still mysterious, and may well have some bearing on the expansion anomaly.
And when are we gonna peer into a black hole?
But theoreticians and mathematicians somehow manage to expose the most unbelievable stuff (Planck and Einstein) that takes decades and centuries to verify experimentally.
Science is so valuable, wherever it is directed.

 

[fncceo]

I’ve always been interested in Astronomy.

 

[irosie91]

I do not know why Y approaches infinity------nor do I know WHENCE we expand or------TO WHERE

 

[usmbguest5318]

TY for sharing.

From the article:

A mathematical discrepancy in the expansion rate of the Universe is now "pretty serious", and could point the way to a major discovery in physics, says a Nobel laureate. Prof Adam Riess told BBC News that an unknown phenomenon, such as a new particle, might explain the deviation.

Why am I reminded of the machinations people once undertook to sustain the Ptolemaic model of the universe? (See also/instead the series of essays beginning at: Naked Eye Observations | Astronomy 801: Planets, Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe)

There are various ways to account for it, including the addition of a new particle, called a sterile neutrino, to the Standard Model - the best tested theory of particle physics.

The sterile neutrino would represent the fourth type - or flavour - of neutrino; but while the other three are well known to physicists, attempts to detect a fourth with experiments have not come up with much.

LOL I had to chuckle upon reading that because experiments that do detect neutrinos also don't come up with much. Such is the nature of neutrinos.

This phenomenon [of the universe's increasingly rapid expansion] was widely attributed to a mysterious, unexplained "dark energy" filling the cosmos.....Another possibility is that dark energy behaves in a different way now compared with how it did in the early history of the cosmos. "One promising way is if we don't have dark matter be so perfectly 'collision-less' but it could interact with radiation in the early Universe," Prof Riess said.

I'm no cosmologist, astronomer, physicist, etc., so I'm of no mind to refute what's currently thought about the nature of the universe. I can only accept what such researchers find/say and "go with it" until they change their minds and present something different. Be that as it may, I have to say the idea that there's this dark energy/matter that comprises some 70% of the universe yet we can't find it, can't touch it, etc. has never sit right with me.

My simple-minded response to that "dark" mumbo-jumbo is that black holes -- because we can detect them even though we cannot see them in the traditional sense -- must weigh a hell of a lot more than anyone ever thought and all that "missing" mass has been swallowed up by them. Perhaps instead there are a bunch of black holes we haven't found yet? (cont'd below...)

Another possibility is that dark energy behaves in a different way now compared with how it did in the early history of the cosmos.

(cont'd...)

....Another possibility is that someone's made a huge mistake somewhere and nobody's yet found it. Far be it from me to assert that's so or not so, but it sure seems like a possibility.

 

[waltky]

Most Distant Star Ever Detected Sits Halfway Across Universe...

Most Distant Star Ever Detected Sits Halfway Across Universe
April 02, 2018 | WASHINGTON — Scientists have detected the most distant star ever viewed, a blue behemoth located more than halfway across the universe and named after the ancient Greek mythological figure Icarus.

Researchers said on Monday they used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to spot the star, which is up to a million times more luminous and about twice as hot as our sun, residing 9.3 billion lights years away from Earth. It is a type of star called a blue supergiant. The star, located in a distant spiral galaxy, is at least 100 times further away than any other star previously observed, with the exception of things like the huge supernova explosions that mark the death of certain stars. Older galaxies have been spotted but their individual stars were indiscernible.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope image of a blue supergiant star the Icarus, the farthest individual star ever seen, is shown in this image released April 2, 2018. The panels at the right show the view in 2011, without Icarus visible, compared with the star's brightening in 2016.​

The scientists took advantage of a phenomenon called “gravitational lensing” to spot the star. It involves the bending of light by massive galaxy clusters in the line of sight, which magnifies more distant celestial objects. This makes dim, faraway objects that otherwise would be undetectable, like an individual star, visible.

Peering back in time

“The fraction of the universe where we can see stars is very small. But this sort of quirk of nature allows us to see much bigger volumes,” said astronomer Patrick Kelly of the University of Minnesota, lead author of the research published in the journal Nature Astronomy. “We will now be able to study in detail what the universe was like — and specifically how stars evolved and what their natures are — almost all the way back to the earliest stages of the universe and the first generations of stars,” Kelly added.

Because its light has taken so long to reach Earth, looking at this star is like peering back in time to when the universe was less than a third of its current age. The Big Bang that gave rise to the universe occurred 13.8 billion years ago.

'15 minutes of fame'

 

[westwall]

Most Distant Star Ever Detected Sits Halfway Across Universe...

Most Distant Star Ever Detected Sits Halfway Across Universe
April 02, 2018 | WASHINGTON — Scientists have detected the most distant star ever viewed, a blue behemoth located more than halfway across the universe and named after the ancient Greek mythological figure Icarus.

Researchers said on Monday they used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to spot the star, which is up to a million times more luminous and about twice as hot as our sun, residing 9.3 billion lights years away from Earth. It is a type of star called a blue supergiant. The star, located in a distant spiral galaxy, is at least 100 times further away than any other star previously observed, with the exception of things like the huge supernova explosions that mark the death of certain stars. Older galaxies have been spotted but their individual stars were indiscernible.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope image of a blue supergiant star the Icarus, the farthest individual star ever seen, is shown in this image released April 2, 2018. The panels at the right show the view in 2011, without Icarus visible, compared with the star's brightening in 2016.​

The scientists took advantage of a phenomenon called “gravitational lensing” to spot the star. It involves the bending of light by massive galaxy clusters in the line of sight, which magnifies more distant celestial objects. This makes dim, faraway objects that otherwise would be undetectable, like an individual star, visible.

Peering back in time

“The fraction of the universe where we can see stars is very small. But this sort of quirk of nature allows us to see much bigger volumes,” said astronomer Patrick Kelly of the University of Minnesota, lead author of the research published in the journal Nature Astronomy. “We will now be able to study in detail what the universe was like — and specifically how stars evolved and what their natures are — almost all the way back to the earliest stages of the universe and the first generations of stars,” Kelly added.

Because its light has taken so long to reach Earth, looking at this star is like peering back in time to when the universe was less than a third of its current age. The Big Bang that gave rise to the universe occurred 13.8 billion years ago.

'15 minutes of fame'

And, based on the life expectancy of stars, that sucker has been dead for billions of years. i wonder what it looks like now....

 

[waltky]

We'll have to wait...

... till the light of it burning up reaches us...

... to find out.

 

[there4eyeM]

Not to sound too silly, but intuitively I think there is a relation to something basic about 'gravity' that we have yet to understand. This may be the, or at least a, key to many things, including moving around in the universe. Also, it may lead to real, safe energy generation changes for us here on earth.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

'Serious gap' in cosmic expansion rate calls for new physics...

'Serious gap' in cosmic expansion rate hints at new physics
11 Jan.`18 - A mathematical discrepancy in the expansion rate of the Universe is now "pretty serious", and could point the way to a major discovery in physics, says a Nobel laureate.

The most recent results suggest the inconsistency is not going away. Prof Adam Riess told BBC News that an unknown phenomenon, such as a new particle, might explain the deviation. The difference is found when comparing precise measurements of the rate obtained in different ways. However, the statistics are not yet at the threshold for claiming a discovery, Prof Riess, who is based at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, was one of three scientists who shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering that the expansion rate of the Universe is accelerating. This phenomenon was widely attributed to a mysterious, unexplained "dark energy" filling the cosmos.

Values holding

The unit of measurement used to describe the expansion is called the Hubble Constant, after 20th Century astronomer Edwin Hubble - after whom the orbiting space observatory is named. Appropriately, Prof Riess has been using the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument on the Hubble telescope (installed during the last servicing mission to the iconic observatory) to help refine his measurements of the constant. "The answer we get is 73.24. This is not very different to what people have gotten before measuring the Hubble constant. What is different is that the uncertainty has gotten quite a bit smaller," he said here at the 231st American Astronomical Society meeting in National Harbor, just outside Washington DC. "The uncertainty has been dropping progressively over time, while the value has not been changing very much." To calculate the Hubble Constant, Prof Riess and others use the "cosmic ladder" approach, which relies on known quantities - so-called "standard candles" - such as the brightness of certain types of supernova to calibrate distances across space. However, a different approach uses a combination of the afterglow of the Big Bang, known as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), as measured by the Planck spacecraft and a cosmological model known as Lambda-CDM.

Artwork: The expansion of the Universe has been accelerating in the billions of years since the Big Bang​

The Hubble Constant obtained using these data is 66.9 kilometres per second per megaparsec. (A megaparsec is 3.26 million light-years, so it follows that cosmic expansion increases by 66.9km/second for every 3.26 million light-years we look further out into space). The gap between the two is now at a confidence level of about 3.4 sigma. The sigma level describes the probability that a particular finding is not down to chance. For example, three sigma is often described as the equivalent of repeatedly tossing a coin and getting nine heads in a row. A level of five sigma is usually considered the threshold for claiming a discovery. However, Prof Riess said that at the three sigma level "this starts to get pretty serious I would say". "In fact, in both cases of measurements, these are very mature measurements... both projects have done their utmost to reduce systematic errors," he added. Indeed, a recent measurement of time delays in quasars that is completely independent of the cosmic distance ladder data gets very similar results to Prof Riess's late Universe Hubble Constant. For the early Universe, a 2017 analysis using the density of baryonic (normal) matter in the cosmos yields a very similar value as the one obtained by the Planck team.

Variable stars known as cepheids are one of the many "standard candles" used to calibrate cosmic distances​

What this all suggested, he said, was that the Universe is now expanding 9% faster than expected based on the data - a result he described as "remarkable". One way to bridge the divide is to invoke new phenomena in physics. There are various ways to account for it, including the addition of a new particle, called a sterile neutrino, to the Standard Model - the best tested theory of particle physics. The sterile neutrino would represent the fourth type - or flavour - of neutrino; but while the other three are well known to physicists, attempts to detect a fourth with experiments have not come up with much. Another possibility is that dark energy behaves in a different way now compared with how it did in the early history of the cosmos. "One promising way is if we don't have dark matter be so perfectly 'collision-less' but it could interact with radiation in the early Universe," Prof Riess said. He has submitted a paper with his latest analysis of the Hubble Constant for publication in a journal.

Expanding cosmos hints at new physics

All Is Lava

The original expansion, which is being viewed in the present as the farthest reaches of the universe, moved at the square of the speed of light. It was an eruption from another dimension, where the ultimate velocity is equivalent to a light-year every three minutes. The material following the front part of the flow was slowed down to a maximum of c by what the front created, which was space itself.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

There's still PLENTY to learn, and likely will be for a very long time.
Famous last words?
'Dark' matter and energy are still mysterious, and may well have some bearing on the expansion anomaly.
And when are we gonna peer into a black hole?
But theoreticians and mathematicians somehow manage to expose the most unbelievable stuff (Planck and Einstein) that takes decades and centuries to verify experimentally.
Science is so valuable, wherever it is directed.

Motto of Quantum Quacks: "If It's Weird, It's Wise"

The Quantum Leap is an illusion that is easily explained as a re-route through the outside universe.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

TY for sharing.

From the article:

A mathematical discrepancy in the expansion rate of the Universe is now "pretty serious", and could point the way to a major discovery in physics, says a Nobel laureate. Prof Adam Riess told BBC News that an unknown phenomenon, such as a new particle, might explain the deviation.

Why am I reminded of the machinations people once undertook to sustain the Ptolemaic model of the universe? (See also/instead the series of essays beginning at: Naked Eye Observations | Astronomy 801: Planets, Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe)

There are various ways to account for it, including the addition of a new particle, called a sterile neutrino, to the Standard Model - the best tested theory of particle physics.

The sterile neutrino would represent the fourth type - or flavour - of neutrino; but while the other three are well known to physicists, attempts to detect a fourth with experiments have not come up with much.

LOL I had to chuckle upon reading that because experiments that do detect neutrinos also don't come up with much. Such is the nature of neutrinos.

This phenomenon [of the universe's increasingly rapid expansion] was widely attributed to a mysterious, unexplained "dark energy" filling the cosmos.....Another possibility is that dark energy behaves in a different way now compared with how it did in the early history of the cosmos. "One promising way is if we don't have dark matter be so perfectly 'collision-less' but it could interact with radiation in the early Universe," Prof Riess said.

I'm no cosmologist, astronomer, physicist, etc., so I'm of no mind to refute what's currently thought about the nature of the universe. I can only accept what such researchers find/say and "go with it" until they change their minds and present something different. Be that as it may, I have to say the idea that there's this dark energy/matter that comprises some 70% of the universe yet we can't find it, can't touch it, etc. has never sit right with me.

My simple-minded response to that "dark" mumbo-jumbo is that black holes -- because we can detect them even though we cannot see them in the traditional sense -- must weigh a hell of a lot more than anyone ever thought and all that "missing" mass has been swallowed up by them. Perhaps instead there are a bunch of black holes we haven't found yet? (cont'd below...)

Another possibility is that dark energy behaves in a different way now compared with how it did in the early history of the cosmos.

(cont'd...)

....Another possibility is that someone's made a huge mistake somewhere and nobody's yet found it. Far be it from me to assert that's so or not so, but it sure seems like a possibility.

Sheldon Cooper in a Chicken Coop

If physicists cared at all about the real world and practical value, instead of being childish escapist misfits, we could have used the neutrino to invent a GPS Geiger Counter that would map every mineral and hydrocarbon deposit below the surface of the earth all the way to its core.

 

[waltky]

Milky Way & Anti-matter...

Milky Way teeming with black holes
Fri, Apr 06, 2018 - The center of our galaxy is teeming with black holes, sort of like a Times Square for strange super gravity objects, astronomers have discovered.

For decades, scientists theorized that circling in the center of galaxies, including ours, were lots of stellar black holes, collapsed giant stars where gravity is so strong even light does not get out, but they had not seen evidence of them in the Milky Way core until now. Astronomers poring over old X-ray observations have found signs of a dozen black holes in the inner circle of the Milky Way and since most black holes cannot even be spotted that way, they calculate that there are likely thousands of them. They estimate it could be about 10,000 or more, according to a study in Wednesday’s edition of Nature. “There’s lots of action going on there,” said lead author Chuck Hailey, a Columbia University astrophysicist. “The galactic center is a strange place. That’s why people like to study it.”

The stellar black holes are in addition to — and essentially circling — the already known supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A, that is at the center of the Milky Way. In the rest of the massive Milky Way, scientists have only spotted about five dozen black holes so far, Hailey said. The newly discovered black holes are within about 30.9 trillion kilometers of the supermassive black hole at the center so there is still a lot of empty space and gas amid all those black holes, but if you took the equivalent space around Earth there would be zero black holes, not thousands, Hailey said. Earth is in a spiral arm about 3,000 light-years away from the center of the galaxy.

An illustration provided by Columbia University shows the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A, at the center of the Milky Way surrounded by 12 black holes​

Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who was not part of the study, praised the finding as exciting, but confirming what scientists had long expected. The newly confirmed black holes are about 10 times the mass of our sun, as opposed to the central supermassive black hole, which has the mass of 4 million suns. Also the ones spotted are only the type that are binary, where a black hole has partnered with another star and together they emit large amount of X-rays as the star’s outer layer is sucked into the black hole. Those X-rays are what astronomers observe. When astronomers look at closer binary black hole systems they can calculate the ratio between what is visible and what is too faint to be observed from far away.

Using that ratio, Hailey figures that even though they have only spotted a dozen there must be 300 to 500 binary black hole systems, but binary black hole systems are likely only 5 percent of all black holes, so that means there are really thousands of them. There are good reasons the Milky Way’s black holes tend to be in the center of the galaxy, Hailey said. First, their mass tends to pull them to the center, but mostly the center of the galaxy is the perfect “hot house” for black hole formation, with lots of dust and gas. It is “sort of like a little farm where you have all the right conditions to produce and hold on to a large number of black holes,” Hailey said.

Milky Way teeming with black holes - Taipei Times

See also:

Scientists studying mysterious missing anti-matter
Fri, Apr 06, 2018 - When the universe arose about 13.7 billion years ago, the Big Bang generated matter and anti-matter particles in mirroring pairs. So the reigning physics theory goes.

Yet everything we can see in the cosmos today, from the smallest insect on Earth to the largest star, is made of matter particles whose anti-matter twins are nowhere to be found. Physicists at Europe’s massive underground particle laboratory on Wednesday said they have taken a step closer to solving the mystery through unprecedented observation of an anti-matter particle they forged in the lab — an atom of “anti-hydrogen.” “What we’re looking for is [to see] if hydrogen in matter and anti-hydrogen in anti-matter behave in the same way,” said Jeffrey Hangst of the ALPHA experiment at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN). Finding even the slightest difference might help explain the apparent matter, anti-matter disparity and would rock the Standard Model of physics — the mainstream theory of the fundamental particles that make up the universe and the forces that govern them.

However, somewhat disappointingly, the latest, “most precise test to date,” has found no difference between the behavior of a hydrogen atom and an anti-hydrogen atom. Not yet. “So far, they look the same,” Hangst said in a CERN video. The Standard Model, which describes the makeup and behavior of the visible universe, has no explanation for “missing “anti-matter. It is widely assumed that the Big Bang generated pairs of matter and anti-matter particles with the same mass, but an opposite electric charge. Trouble is, as soon as these particles meet, they annihilate one another, leaving behind nothing but pure energy — the principle that powers imaginary spaceships in Star Trek. Physicists believe matter and anti-matter did meet and implode shortly after the Big Bang, which means the universe today should contain nothing but leftover energy.

Yet, scientists say that matter, which makes up everything we can touch and see, comprises 4.9 percent of the universe. Dark matter — a mysterious substance perceived through its gravitational pull on other objects — makes up 26.8 percent and dark energy the remaining 68.3 percent. Anti-matter, for all intents and purposes, does not exist, except for rare and short-lived particles created in very high-energy events such as cosmic rays, or produced at CERN. Some theoretical physicists believe the “missing” anti-matter might be found in hitherto unknown regions of the universe — in anti-galaxies comprised of anti-stars and anti-planets.

At ALPHA, physicists are trying to unravel the mystery using the simplest atom of matter — hydrogen. It has a single electron orbiting a single proton. The team creates hydrogen mirror particles by taking anti-protons left over from the CERN’s high-energy particle collisions and binding them with positrons (the twins of electrons). The resulting anti-hydrogen atoms are held in a magnetic trap to prevent them from coming into contact with matter and self-annihilating. The team then studies the atoms’ reaction to laser light. Atoms from different types of matter absorb different frequencies of light and under the prevailing theory, hydrogen and anti-hydrogen should absorb the same type. So far, it seems they do, but the team hope differences will emerge as the experiment is fine-tuned.

MORE

 

[JoeMoma]

Most Distant Star Ever Detected Sits Halfway Across Universe...

Most Distant Star Ever Detected Sits Halfway Across Universe
April 02, 2018 | WASHINGTON — Scientists have detected the most distant star ever viewed, a blue behemoth located more than halfway across the universe and named after the ancient Greek mythological figure Icarus.

Researchers said on Monday they used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to spot the star, which is up to a million times more luminous and about twice as hot as our sun, residing 9.3 billion lights years away from Earth. It is a type of star called a blue supergiant. The star, located in a distant spiral galaxy, is at least 100 times further away than any other star previously observed, with the exception of things like the huge supernova explosions that mark the death of certain stars. Older galaxies have been spotted but their individual stars were indiscernible.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope image of a blue supergiant star the Icarus, the farthest individual star ever seen, is shown in this image released April 2, 2018. The panels at the right show the view in 2011, without Icarus visible, compared with the star's brightening in 2016.​

The scientists took advantage of a phenomenon called “gravitational lensing” to spot the star. It involves the bending of light by massive galaxy clusters in the line of sight, which magnifies more distant celestial objects. This makes dim, faraway objects that otherwise would be undetectable, like an individual star, visible.

Peering back in time

“The fraction of the universe where we can see stars is very small. But this sort of quirk of nature allows us to see much bigger volumes,” said astronomer Patrick Kelly of the University of Minnesota, lead author of the research published in the journal Nature Astronomy. “We will now be able to study in detail what the universe was like — and specifically how stars evolved and what their natures are — almost all the way back to the earliest stages of the universe and the first generations of stars,” Kelly added.

Because its light has taken so long to reach Earth, looking at this star is like peering back in time to when the universe was less than a third of its current age. The Big Bang that gave rise to the universe occurred 13.8 billion years ago.

'15 minutes of fame'

How does anyone know how far half the way across the universe is? How far is all the way across?

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

The Authoritarian Irrationalism of German Physicists Set the Stage for the Politics and Culture of the 20th Century

Space itself is a substance, with gravitational pull. So it is not "dark matter" that explains the gravity above the limits of what regular matter pulls. Is this required false conclusion the only reason the dominant dogmatic physicists give for their claim that anti-matter exists?[/QUOTE]

 

[waltky]

Granny says she ain't visitin' any time soon...

Astronomers Discover New Planet Not Orbiting Any Star
August 06, 2018 - Astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is 12 times the size of Jupiter, striking not only for its size but also for the fact that it is not orbiting any star.

The so-called "rogue" planet does not revolve around a star, but instead rotates around the galactic center in interstellar space. Astronomers say there have been only a few rogue planets discovered to date. They say even though finding such celestial objects are rare, there could be large amounts of such planets in the universe that have yet to be discovered.

This April 3, 2017 image made available by NASA shows the planet Jupiter. A newly discovered planet outside our solar system is 12 times the size of Jupiter.​

The recently discovered planetary mass was originally found in 2016 but was mistaken for a brown dwarf planet. According to new research published in the Astrophysical Journal, the object is now thought to be a planet in its own right, with an usually strong magnetic field.

Astronomers say the magnetic field of the new planet, named SIMP J01365663+0933473, is more than 200 times stronger than Jupiter's. They say its strong magnetic field likely led to its being detected by a large radio-telescope in New Mexico known as the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). The planet is thought to be 200 million years old and is 20 light-years from Earth.

Astronomers Discover New Planet Not Orbiting Any Star

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

I have to say the idea that there's this dark energy/matter that comprises some 70% of the universe yet we can't find it, can't touch it, etc. has never sit right with me

Nor with cosmologists. But wave/particle duality doesn't sit right with scientists, either. Neither do black holes, or the concept of gravity. But we can measure where dark matter and dark energy are and aren't, and we can measure their effects on matter.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Is this required false conclusion the only reason the dominant dogmatic physicists give for their claim that anti-matter exists?

Uh...did you mean, "dark matter"?

 

[irosie91]

if you cannot see it, measure it or weigh it--------how do you use
it in recipes? can you taste it?