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Showing posts with label Astrophysics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Astrophysics. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 01, 2025

Dark Energy Is Not Real, New Data Analysis Finds

According to our current understanding of astrophysics, the universe is not only expanding, but also growing at an ever-increasing rate. The most-accepted model for this expansion attributes the accelerated expansion to dark energy – but what if it’s wrong? A group of astrophysicists have offered up a different explanation, which they call the “timescape” model. They claim that it fits the data better than dark energy. Let’s take a look.



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Thursday, December 12, 2024

Our Sun Can Make Superflares Once a Century, Scary Study Finds

The largest solar flare on record was the Carrington event from 1859. But astrophysicists now looked at other stars like our own and found that our sun might be able to produce superflares – solar flares that are at least 100 times stronger than even the Carrington event – once a century.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Universe Had Two Big Bangs, Physicists Say

The Big Bang is the first moment our universe existed according to calculations within Einstein’s theory of general relativity. But then what is the “Dark Big Bang” that some physicists are talking about? Does this really solve any problems, or is it just another theory that we’ll never be able to test? Let’s find out.



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Thursday, December 05, 2024

Theory of Everything Predicts New Physics For Supermassive Black Holes

Mathematician Stephen Wolfram has attempted to develop a theory of everything using hypergraphs, which are essentially sets of graphs that can describe space-time. Recently, another mathematician named Jonathan Gorard has used hypergraphs to describe what happens if a black hole accretes matter. He claims that evidence for hypergraphs should be observable in the energy that is emitted during the accretion. Big if true, as they say. Let’s take a look.

Sunday, December 01, 2024

The Crisis in Cosmology Just Got So Much Worse

In the past decade, astrophysicists have found a lot of evidence that our large-scale theory for how the universe works has some large-scale problems as well. It has, however, remained controversial whether this is a problem with data collection or whether it is indeed a problem with our understanding of the universe. In a new paper, astrophysicists now demonstrate that something is wrong with the theory indeed. It could be the first good evidence that “Einstein was wrong.” Let’s take a look.



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You can now also create your own quizzes on my website!

Saturday, November 30, 2024

Is the Universe Infinite or Finite?

Is the universe really infinite? Or could it close back on itself like a sphere? If it’s infinite, how can it expand? And is it true that there might be copies of you in it? Today I want to explain how much we know about those questions and what the expansion of space has to do with Hilbert's Hotel.

This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:



You can now also create your own quizzes on my website!

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

We’ve Been Searching For Aliens All Wrong, Researchers Say (and they have a point)

Civilizations need energy to expand. You’ve probably heard of the Kardashev scale, which classifies civilizations based on their ability to generate and use energy (if you’re interested, humans are barely on the scale). A new paper has shaken up that scale by putting forth new ways that advanced civilizations could harvest energy, including “eating” stars. Let’s take a look.

Sunday, November 24, 2024

We are unlikely to be in this universe, new study finds. Multiverse falsified?

According to the multiverse theory, we are likely to find ourselves in a universe particularly suited to the emergence of life. According to a new paper, though, that’s not the case given how it’s expanded over time. But does that mean the multiverse theory has also been invalidated? Let’s take a look.

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Why Physicists Changed Their Mind about Dark Matter Particles

Axions were introduced to the world of physics in the 1970’s, when researchers believed they might be the particles that make up dark matter. While early conceptions about axions have since been proven wrong, the particles are now making a comeback as the best motivated candidates for dark matter. Let’s find out why.



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You can now also create your own quizzes on my website using AI.

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Webb Falsified Dark Matter Prediction – And No One Cares

Data collected by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is in conflict with predictions based on the hypothesis of dark matter and instead confirmed predictions made with Modified Newtonian Dynamics, MOND. While the failure of dark matter has been widely discussed as galaxies that are “too big” or “too old”, little has been said about the success of MOND. In a paper that just appeared, we have an excellent summary of the present situation, and it doesn’t look good for dark matter at all.

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Dark Energy Might Be Black Holes

Recently, some astrophysicists have claimed that black holes are the source of dark energy, a force that speeds up the expansion of our universe. The idea fits well together with observations that seem to show that dark energy is getting weaker. How does this work? Let’s have a look.

Thursday, November 07, 2024

Space-Filling Aether Theory Makes Comeback

In the 19th century, scientists came up with the idea of the “aether,” a medium that filled all of space and allowed forces to travel from one place to another. While this was famously proved wrong by the Michelson-Morley experiment, the idea of the aether made a comeback. The new aether is compatible with Einstein’s theories and could explain dark energy and maybe even dark matter.


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Sunday, November 03, 2024

Did the Black Hole Information Paradox just Disappear?

Do black holes destroy information? Physicists have been trying to answer that question for decades, because the idea that black holes could irreversibly destroy information is incompatible with the principles of quantum physics. Now, researchers claim that some information actually can escape black holes, so there was never a problem to begin with. Let’s take a look.

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Tiny Black Holes Might Have Left Holes in… Everything

That dark matter is made of black holes is an old idea that never worked well and yet never went entirely away. In a new paper, physicists have now proposed that microscopic black holes, even if not enough to make up dark matter, could leave holds in everything, including us. Let’s take a look.



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Saturday, October 12, 2024

Surprise Comeback: Dark Energy Could Be Holographic After All

Dark energy is (probably) real, but physicists still don’t know what it’s made of or how to interact with it. One idea that solves this problem is that dark matter isn’t made of anything, but is a consequence of the universe being holographic. While that idea has been floating around since the ‘90s, it's had a few problems. Now a pair of physicists claim to have solved that problem.


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Friday, October 04, 2024

These physicists think they know what's inside a black hole

Physicists are obsessed with black holes, but we still don’t know what’s going on inside of them. One idea is that black holes do not truly exist, but instead they are big quantum objects that have been called fuzzballs or frozen stars. This idea has a big problem. Let’s take a look.

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Near-Collision With Other Star Jumbled Up Our Solar System, Physicists Says

In a normal solar system, planets orbit the central star in the same direction on the same plane. Our solar system, though, is a bit different: while most of our planets follow similar orbits along one plane, some of the celestial bodies circle the sun at different angles – or in the entirely wrong direction. In a new paper, a group of researchers say they figured out why. Let’s take a look.

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Tuesday, September 10, 2024

This New Idea to Detect a Quantum of Gravity Might Just Work

Gravitons are one of the most sought-after particles in physics. They could help physicists combine quantum physics with gravity to create a theory of "quantum gravity." We thought until recently they were for all practical purposes impossible to detect, but now scientists are coming up with some ideas for how graviton-detecting experiments could work for real. Let’s take a look.

This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:

Tuesday, September 03, 2024

The Nightmare Scenario for Dark Matter is Inching Closer

The idea of “dark matter” -- transparent stuff that supposedly makes up the bulk of matter in the universe -- has been around for a century, but researchers have thus far failed to detect even a single particle of if. What if dark matter exists but it interacts so rarely with our detectors that we will never be able to measure it?

Sunday, August 18, 2024

Fermi Paradox Explained by Quantum Communication

The Fermi Paradox is an estimate that says: Given all we currently know about the universe, we should have found extraterrestrial life already. So why haven’t we? In a paper that just appeared two weeks ago, a physicist has now put forward the idea that aliens use quantum communication. How does that solve the Fermi Paradox? I've had a look.