Latest news with #NoirLab
CBS News
13-05-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Universe will die "much sooner than expected," new research says
Could dark energy cause the universe to collapse? The universe is poised to die much faster than previously thought, according to new research by Dutch scientists. But there's no great need to panic. We still have 10 to the power of 78 years before it happens — that's a one with 78 zeroes. However, that is a major revision from the previous estimate of 10 to the power of 1,100 years, notes the research paper from Radboud University, published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. "The final end of the universe is coming much sooner than expected but fortunately it still takes a very long time," said lead author Heino Falcke. A trio of scientists at Radboud set out to calculate when the most "durable" celestial bodies — white dwarf stars — would eventually die out. They based their calculations on Hawking radiation, named after celebrated British physicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking postulated in the mid-1970s that black holes leak radiation, slowly dissolving like aspirin in a glass of water -- giving them a finite lifetime. The Radboud scientists extended this to other objects in the universe, calculating that the "evaporation time" depends on density. This enabled them to calculate the theoretical dissolution of the longest-lasting body, the white dwarf. "By asking these kinds of questions and looking at extreme cases, we want to better understand the theory, and perhaps one day, we can unravel the mystery of Hawking radiation," said co-author Walter van Suijlekom. Humankind needn't worry too much about the end of the universe. Unless we escape planet Earth, we'll be long gone. Scientists think that our sun will be too hot for life in about a billion years, boiling our oceans. In about eight billion years, our star will eventually expand towards the Earth, finally gobbling up our by-then barren and lifeless planet and condemning it to a fiery death. Shedding light on dark energy The research comes just weeks after scientists released new findings that may also shed light on the fate of the universe. Researchers in March said new data shows dark energy — a mysterious force that makes up nearly 70% of the universe — may actually be weakening. If dark energy is constant, an idea first introduced by Albert Einstein in his theory of relativity, scientists say our universe may continue to expand forever, growing ever colder, lonelier and still. If dark energy ebbs with time, the universe could one day stop expanding and then eventually collapse on itself in what's called the "Big Crunch." "Now, there is the possibility that everything comes to an end," said cosmologist and study collaborator Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki of the University of Texas at Dallas. "Would we consider that a good or bad thing? I don't know." This image provided by NSF's NOIRLab shows the trails of stars above Kitt Peak National Observatory, where a telescope is mapping the universe to study a mysterious force called dark energy. NSF's NoirLab via AP Other efforts around the globe have an eye on dark energy and aim to release their own data in the coming years, including the European Space Agency's Euclid mission and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. Launched in 2023, the ESA's $1.5 billion Euclid space telescope is equipped with a near-perfect 3-feet 11-inch-wide primary mirror and two instruments: a 600 megapixel visible light camera and a 64-megapixel infrared imaging spectrometer. The telescope's field of view is roughly twice the size of the full moon.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Telescopes spot monster radio jet streaming from ancient quasar
The Brief A monster jet of radio waves was discovered by astronomers. It's double the width of our Milky Way galaxy and the jet is shooting out of a quasar. The quasar formed when the universe was about 1.2 billion years old. LOS ANGELES - Telescopes worldwide have spotted a monster radio jet shooting out from a quasar that dates back to the first billion years of the universe. The jet of radio waves is double the width of our Milky Way galaxy and is the biggest ever detected so early in the universe's history, astronomers said on Thursday. Dig deeper Radio jets like this are not uncommon in our cosmic neighborhood. But they've been elusive in the distant early universe — until now — because of the obscuring cosmic microwave background left over from the Big Bang. RELATED: 'Heartbeat' radio signal detected billions of light-years from Earth What they're saying "It's only because this object is so extreme that we can observe it from Earth, even though it's really far away," lead author Anniek Gloudemans of the National Science Foundation's NoirLab said in a statement. The backstory A quasar is formed when dust and gas fall into a black hole and let out enormous amounts of energy due to friction, according to NoirLab. The result is a luminous galactic core called a quasar which can expel jets of energetic matter. The quasar involved in this study, J1601+3102, is relatively small, researchers said. It weighs about 450 million times the mass of our sun. The double-sided radio wave that is being shot out from the quasar is estimated to be at least 200,000 light-years across. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. The Source Information for this article was gathered from The Associated Press and NoirLab. This story was reported from Los Angeles.
The Independent
06-02-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Telescopes spy a monster radio jet streaming from a bright and early object in the universe
Telescopes around the world have spotted a monster radio jet streaming from a quasar dating back to the first 1 billion years of the universe. At double the width of our Milky Way galaxy, this jet of radio waves is the biggest ever detected so early in the history of the universe, astronomers reported Thursday. Radio jets like this are not uncommon in our cosmic neighborhood. But they've been elusive in the distant early universe — until now — because of the obscuring cosmic microwave background left over from the Big Bang. 'It's only because this object is so extreme that we can observe it from Earth, even though it's really far away,' lead author Anniek Gloudemans of the National Science Foundation's NoirLab said in a statement. Observatories across Europe and in Hawaii and Texas contributed to the study appearing in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The double-sided radio wave is estimated to be at least 200,000 light-years across. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. Discovered just a few years ago, the quasar powering this jet formed when the universe was just 9% of its current age — within the first 1.2 billion years. Some of the brightest objects in the universe, quasars are galactic cores with gas and dust falling into a black hole, releasing a tremendous amount of energy that makes them exceedingly luminous. The mass of this quasar is equivalent to 450 million times our sun with a black hole that is not particularly massive. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Associated Press
06-02-2025
- Science
- Associated Press
Telescopes spy a monster radio jet streaming from a bright and early object in the universe
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Telescopes around the world have spotted a monster radio jet streaming from a quasar dating back to the first 1 billion years of the universe. At double the width of our Milky Way galaxy, this jet of radio waves is the biggest ever detected so early in the history of the universe, astronomers reported Thursday. Radio jets like this are not uncommon in our cosmic neighborhood. But they've been elusive in the distant early universe — until now — because of the obscuring cosmic microwave background left over from the Big Bang. 'It's only because this object is so extreme that we can observe it from Earth, even though it's really far away,' lead author Anniek Gloudemans of the National Science Foundation's NoirLab said in a statement. Observatories across Europe and in Hawaii and Texas contributed to the study appearing in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The double-sided radio wave is estimated to be at least 200,000 light-years across. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. Discovered just a few years ago, the quasar powering this jet formed when the universe was just 9% of its current age — within the first 1.2 billion years. Some of the brightest objects in the universe, quasars are galactic cores with gas and dust falling into a black hole, releasing a tremendous amount of energy that makes them exceedingly luminous. The mass of this quasar is equivalent to 450 million times our sun with a black hole that is not particularly massive. ___
