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There's an infinite amount of energy locked in the vacuum of space-time. Could we ever use it?

There's an infinite amount of energy locked in the vacuum of space-time. Could we ever use it?

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There may be an infinite amount of energy locked in the vacuum of space-time. So could we ever harness this energy for anything useful?
The idea of vacuum energy comes from quantum field theory, which is a marriage of quantum mechanics with Einstein's theory of special relativity. In quantum field theory, particles are not really what we think they are. Instead, they are better represented as fields, which are quantum entities that span all of space and time. When a localized patch of the field gets sufficient energy and starts traveling, we identify it as a particle. But the real fundamental object is the field itself.
In quantum mechanics, any system has a defined set of energies, like the energies that an electron can have in its orbital shells around an atomic nucleus. Similarly, the quantum fields have energies associated with them at every point in space. Any finite volume, like an empty box, contains an infinite number of geometric points, so this means there's an infinite amount of energy in that volume.
This happens even when the fields are in their lowest energy state possible, also known as the zero-point state or the ground state. This is the state with no extra energy added to it, no extra vibrations, no extra excitations whatsoever — just the lowest possible ground state, below which there is nothing. But due to the fundamental uncertainties of quantum mechanics, even this ground state has an energy associated with it, so you still run into an infinite amount of energy.
However, we can't extract energy out of the vacuum and use it to do work. That's because whatever its value is, it is the lowest energy state possible for the universe. To get work done, you have to transfer energy from one state to another. But if you could somehow "pull" energy out of the vacuum, there would be no place to put it, because no matter what you do, you are still surrounded by a vacuum. It's like drawing water out of the bottom of a dry well: There's nothing left to give.
Another way to look at it that is completely compatible with the field portrait is via the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which states that you can never know both the energy of a particle and the duration of its existence with a perfect degree of precision. This means that at the ground state or zero-point state of the universe, particles can temporarily pop into existence, "borrowing" energy from the vacuum, as long as they disappear in a short enough time to return that energy back.
If you were to pluck out one of these particles and make it permanent, that would violate the Heisenberg uncertainty principle because you borrowed energy from the ground state without giving it back in time.
These particles are known as virtual particles. They are the manifestation of all the fundamental energies of the quantum fields that permeate space-time.
RELATED STORIES
—Here's how the universe could end in a 'false vacuum decay'
—Is the vacuum of space truly empty?
—10 mind-boggling things you should know about quantum physics
The bottom line is that no matter what the zero-point energy is, it's the background of the universe on top of which all of physics takes place. Just as you can't go lower than the ground floor of a building with no basement, you can't get lower than the ground state of the universe — so there's nothing for you to extract, and there's no way to leverage that into useful applications of energy.
So, unfortunately, any work you do in the universe will have to be done the old-fashioned way.

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Humanity takes its 1st look at the sun's poles: 'This is just the first step of Solar Orbiter's stairway to heaven' (images)
Humanity takes its 1st look at the sun's poles: 'This is just the first step of Solar Orbiter's stairway to heaven' (images)

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Humanity takes its 1st look at the sun's poles: 'This is just the first step of Solar Orbiter's stairway to heaven' (images)

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter has captured humanity's first-ever images of the sun's poles. If this doesn't seem like a big deal, consider that every image you have ever seen of the sun was taken from around our star's equator. That is because Earth, the other solar system planets, and all other modern spacecraft orbit the sun in a flat disc around it called the "ecliptic plane." This European Space Agency (ESA) sun-orbiting mission has done things a little differently, however, tilting its orbit out of that plane. This allowed the Solar Orbiter to image the sun from a whole new angle and in an entirely new way. The captured images of the solar south pole were taken between March 16 and 17, 2025, with the Solar Orbiter's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI), Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), and Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instruments. They constitute humanity's first ever look at the sun's poles. This was the Solar Orbiter mission's first high-angle observation campaign of the sun, conducted at an angle of 15 degrees below the solar equator. Just a few days after snapping these images, the ESA spacecraft reached a maximum viewing angle of 17 degrees, which it sits in currently as it performs its first "pole-to-pole" orbit of our star. "Spacecraft normally orbit the sun on the flat disc called the ecliptic plane, just like most of the planets in our solar system. This is the most energy-efficient way to launch and maintain orbits," co-principal leader of the Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager instrument, Hamish Reid of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London (UCL) said in a statement to "These first images of the solar poles are just the start. Over the next few years, there is scope for discovery science. "We are not sure what we will find, and it is likely we will see things that we didn't know about before." Another ESA/NASA spacecraft, Ulysses, has flown over the poles of the sun, but this spacecraft lacked an imaging instrument, and its passage of our star was also much further away than that of the Solar Orbiter. The Solar Orbiter is so useful for observing the sun because each of its instruments sees our star in very different ways. The PHI captures solar observations in visible light and is able to map its magnetic field. Meanwhile, the EUI images our star in ultraviolet light, which allows scientists to study the superheated plasma in the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, which can reach temperatures as great as 5.4 million degrees Fahrenheit (around 3 million degrees Celsius). This could help solar scientists determine how the corona can reach temperatures much greater than the sun's surface, the photosphere, despite being much further away from the solar core, where the vast majority of the sun's heat is generated. The SPICE instrument of the Solar Orbiter, responsible for the bottom row of images in the picture above, is capable of capturing light emitted by plasmas at different temperatures above the surface of the sun. This helps to model the different layers of the solar atmosphere. Comparing these three different but complementary methods of observing the sun should allow solar scientists to map the flow of material through the outer layers of the sun. This effort could reveal hitherto undiscovered and unexpected patterns of movement, like vortices around the poles of the sun similar to those spotted above the poles of Venus and Saturn. All that is for the future, so what has this pioneering approach to solar observations revealed thus far? The main aim of the shift in Solar Orbiter's orbit around the sun is to build a more complete picture of our star's magnetic activity. This could help explain the sun's 11-year cycle that sees its activity increase toward solar maximum before the poles flip and a new cycle begins. "Being able to observe the poles is vital for understanding how the sun's magnetic field operates on a global scale, leading to an 11-year cycle in the sun's activity," Lucie Green of Mullard Space Science Laboratory at UCL, who has been working with the Solar Orbiter since 2005, said. "We'll see previously unobserved high-latitude flows that carry magnetic elements to the polar regions, and in doing so sow the fundamental seeds for the next solar cycle." Indeed, this approach has already revealed things we didn't know about our star's most southern region and its magnetism. "We didn't know what exactly to expect from these first observations – the sun's poles are literally terra incognita,' Sami Solanki, who leads the PHI instrument team from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), said in a statement. One of the first discoveries made by the Solar Orbiter is the fact that the magnetic fields around the sun's southern poles appear to be, for lack of a better phrase, a complete mess. While standard magnetic fields have well-defined north and south poles, these new observations reveal that north and south polarities are both found at the sun's southern seems to happen at solar maximum when the poles of the sun are about to flip. Following this exchange of poles, the fields at the north and south poles will maintain an orderly single polarity during solar minimum until solar maximum during the next 11-year cycle. "How exactly this build-up occurs is still not fully understood, so Solar Orbiter has reached high latitudes at just the right time to follow the whole process from its unique and advantageous perspective," Solanki Solar Orbiter observations also revealed that while the equator of the sun, where the most sunspots appear, possesses the strongest magnetic fields, those at the poles of our star have a complex and ever-changing structure. The Solar Orbiter's SPICE instrument provided another first for the ESA spacecraft, allowing scientists to track elements via their unique emissions as they move through the sun. Tracing the specific spectral lines of elements like hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, neon, and magnesium, a process called "Doppler measurement," revealed how materials flow through different layers of the sun. The Solar Orbiter also allowed scientists to measure the speed of carbon atoms as they are ejected from the sun in plumes and jets. "The Solar Orbite''s new vantage point will give us a fuller view of how solar wind expands to form a vast bubble around the sun and its planets called the heliosphere," Principal Investigator on the Solar Wind Analyser and Mullard Space Science Laboratory at UCL researcher Chris Owen said in a statement to "We will now see this happen in three dimensions, enhancing the single slice we get from observing only in the ecliptic plane." SPICE team leader, Frédéric Auchère from the University of Paris-Saclay, explained that Doppler measurements of the solar wind flowing from the sun by other sun-orbiting missions have suffered because they could only get a grazing view of the solar poles. "Measurements from high latitudes, now possible with Solar Orbiter, will be a revolution in solar physics," Auchère added. Related Stories: — The sun's magnetic field will flip soon. Here's what to expect — How the Sun's Magnetic Field Works — Magnetic fields appear to be as old as the universe itself. What created them? Perhaps the most exciting element of these Solar Orbiter results is the fact that the best is yet to come. This initial data has not yet been fully analyzed, for instance, an image of the solar north pole has been captured but not downloaded yet. Also, data from the ESA mission's first full "pole-to-pole" orbit of the sun, which began in February 2025, will not arrive at Earth until October 2025. "This is just the first step of Solar Orbiter's 'stairway to heaven.' In the coming years, the spacecraft will climb further out of the ecliptic plane for ever better views of the sun's polar regions," ESA's Solar Orbiter project scientist Daniel Müller said. "These data will transform our understanding of the sun's magnetic field, the solar wind, and solar activity."

Russian scientists discover a new island in the Caspian Sea — the world's largest inland body of water
Russian scientists discover a new island in the Caspian Sea — the world's largest inland body of water

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Russian scientists discover a new island in the Caspian Sea — the world's largest inland body of water

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A new island has appeared in the northern part of the Caspian Sea, a Russian research expedition has confirmed. The island, which does not have a name yet, is located 19 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of another island called Maly Zhemchuzhny, according to a translated statement published by the Russian state-owned news agency TASS. The island is only slightly elevated above the water level, and its surface was damp and mostly flat but covered in sand ridges at the time of the expedition, the statement said. The new island emerged due to a drop in the Caspian Sea's water levels, Stepan Podolyako, a senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences' P. P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (IO RAS) who was on the expedition, wrote in a statement shared with Live Science. The Caspian Sea, which lies at the junction between Europe and Asia, is the largest inland body of water in the world when measured by its surface area of 143,200 square miles (371,000 square kilometers). "The occurrence of new islands in the Caspian Sea is associated with cyclical processes of long-term fluctuations in the level of [these] landlocked waters," Podolyako wrote in the statement. "Awash islands are uplifts on the seabed that come to the surface during periods of falling sea level." The Caspian Sea's levels fell during the 1930s and 1970s before bouncing back — and they started dropping again around 2010, Podolyako said. Related: Surprised Russian school kids discover Arctic island has vanished after comparing satellite images Climate change may be to blame for the recent decline, because the Caspian Sea's water levels partly depend on evaporation rates, Podolyako said. There are also tectonic shifts happening beneath the sea, which could explain changes in water levels, he added. Scientists first spotted signs of the new island in satellite images in November 2024. A pile of sand and sediment had breached the surface of the water and was beginning to dry, according to the statement in TASS — but the claim that a new island was forming remained somewhat controversial. During the recent expedition, researchers managed to approach the island to confirm its existence, but they were unable to land due to bad weather and shallow water conditions. Photographs taken from a drone revealed the island's size and some of its features, but further research is needed to describe it thoroughly. RELATED STORIES —New island that emerged from the ocean off Japan is now visible from space —Melting ice in Antarctica reveals new uncharted island —Newly discovered island is the closest land to the North Pole "A next visit to the island is planned [...] in the second half of 2025," Podolyako said. A decision about the official name of the island will then be made, depending on whether researchers find any notable characteristics to name it after. Otherwise, the island could be named after a person who has made significant scientific or cultural contributions in the area, Podolyako said. The island currently sits just inches above water level, but that could change with declining river flows into the Caspian Sea in the summer and fall, according to the statement in TASS. This may lower water levels around the island and increase its elevation.

'People thought this couldn't be done': Scientists observe light of 'cosmic dawn' with a telescope on Earth for the first time ever
'People thought this couldn't be done': Scientists observe light of 'cosmic dawn' with a telescope on Earth for the first time ever

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'People thought this couldn't be done': Scientists observe light of 'cosmic dawn' with a telescope on Earth for the first time ever

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. For the first time, scientists have used Earth-based telescopes to peer back into the cosmic dawn — an era more than 13 billion years ago when light from the first stars began reshaping our universe. The residual light from this ancient epoch is millimeters in wavelength and extremely faint, meaning that although space-based observatories have been able to peer into it, the signal is drowned out by the electromagnetic radiation in Earth's atmosphere before ground-based telescopes can detect the primordial light. But now, by deploying a specially designed telescope, scientists at the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) project have detected traces that the first stars left on the background light of the Big Bang. They published their findings June 11 in The Astrophysical Journal. "People thought this couldn't be done from the ground," study co-author Tobias Marriage, CLASS project leader and a professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement. "Astronomy is a technology-limited field, and microwave signals from the Cosmic Dawn are famously difficult to measure. Ground-based observations face additional challenges compared to space. Overcoming those obstacles makes this measurement a significant achievement." The CLASS observatory sits at an altitude of 16,860 feet (5,138 meters) in the Andes mountains of northern Chile's Atacama desert. The telescope, which obtained its first light in 2016, is tuned to survey the sky at microwave frequencies. Besides enabling it to map 75% of the night sky, the telescope's unprecedented sensitivity lets it receive microwave signals from the cosmic dawn, or the first billion years of the universe's life. For the first 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with a cloud of electrons so dense that light couldn't travel across it. But our cosmos eventually expanded and cooled, and the electrons were captured by protons to form hydrogen atoms. Related: Astronomers discover the 1st-ever merging galaxy cores at cosmic dawn These hydrogen atoms not only enabled microwave-wavelength light to move freely — filling space with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) — but also, where it was dense enough, collapsed under gravity and ignited to form the first stars. The light from these stars then reionized pockets of unclumped hydrogen gas, separating their electrons so that some collided with light from the CMB, causing it to become polarized. The signal from this polarized portion of the CMB is a vital part of the cosmological puzzle; without it, our picture of the early universe remains muddy. And while efforts from past space-based telescopes, such as NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and the European Space Agency's Planck space telescope, have filled in parts of this gap, their pictures contain noise and, being satellites, could not be tweaked and improved once deployed in orbit. RELATED STORIES —Atacama Telescope reveals earliest-ever 'baby pictures' of the universe: 'We can see right back through cosmic history' —'We had less than a 2% chance to find this': James Webb telescope uncovers baffling 'Big Wheel,' one of the most massive galaxies in the early universe —1st supernovas may have flooded the early universe with water — making life possible just 100 million years after the Big Bang "Measuring this reionization signal more precisely is an important frontier of cosmic microwave background research," co-author Charles Bennett, a physics professor at Johns Hopkins who led the WMAP space mission, said in the statement. To arrive at these observations, the researchers compared CLASS telescope data with that from the Planck and WMAP missions, narrowing down a common signal for the polarized microwave light. "For us, the universe is like a physics lab. Better measurements of the universe help to refine our understanding of dark matter and neutrinos, abundant but elusive particles that fill the universe," Bennett added. "By analyzing additional CLASS data going forward, we hope to reach the highest possible precision that's achievable."

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