Latest news with #galaxy
Washington Post
12 hours ago
- Science
- Washington Post
The Hubble telescope zooms in on the galaxy next door. Explore it like never before.
Cloudy blob or massive galaxy? For most of human existence, no one knew what they were looking at when they noticed the cloud-like 'nebula' in the constellation of Andromeda. The 18th-century astronomer Charles Messier included it in a catalogue of celestial objects, the 31st entry on his list, and it came to be known as M31. Many astronomers assumed this and other nebulae were clouds of dust and gas. The influential Harvard astronomer Harlow Shapley believed there was only one galaxy, our Milky Way, and that M31 and other nebulae were within it — and, in the cosmic scheme of things, not so far away. 2:16 Astronomers deployed the Hubble over the course of a decade to conduct 600 separate observations to produce an extraordinary mosaic of the great spiral galaxy. (Brian Monroe and Drea Cornejo/The Washington Post) But some scientists speculated that the nebulae might be separate galaxies of stars at a great distance. This led to the 'Great Debate' about the scale of the universe. It was resolved early in the 20th century due to a crucial discovery by Henrietta Swan Leavitt, a 'human computer' at Harvard College Observatory. She realized that stars known as Cepheid variables get brighter and dimmer in a pattern that reveals their absolute luminosity and thus their distance from Earth. Astronomer Edwin Hubble made the next leap when he identified a Cepheid variable star in Andromeda. 'Var!' he wrote on a photographic plate that, a century later, is kept secure in a fireproof vault at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California. The discovery proved Hubble's conjecture that the nebula was a galaxy outside the Milky Way. The universe kept getting vaster and vaster. Hubble (the astronomer) had observed Andromeda with a 100-inch telescope (that's the diameter of the mirror) on Mount Wilson in Southern California. Two and a half decades later, on Palomar Mountain farther to the south, astronomers began looking at the universe with a 200-inch telescope. And then came Hubble (the telescope). It was launched in 1990 with an infamous flaw in the mirror, called a 'spherical aberration,' that made stars look like squashed spiders. Astronauts visited and installed a second, smaller mirror that precisely corrected the flaw. The Hubble became the world's most famous telescope, enjoyed four more repair visits and is still a workhorse, in demand by astronomers. Today we know there are at least 100 billion galaxies. An illustration of the predicted merger between our Milky Way and Andromeda, as it will unfold over the next several billion years. (ESA/Z. Levay/ R. van der Marel/STScI/T. Hallas/ A. Mellinger/NASA) Stitching together a gift from the stars The new Hubble mosaic offers insights about the history of Andromeda, including evidence that it has been disturbed by collisions with galaxies in the past, said Benjamin Williams, an astronomer at the University of Washington and the lead scientist on the project. The Hubble has a small field of view — like looking into space through a narrow straw — and thus it can't possibly see the whole of Andromeda in a single observation. To accomplish the mosaic, astronomers aimed the Hubble at Andromeda during more than 1,000 of the telescope's orbits of Earth. The resolution is so sharp that astronomers have been able to catalogue 200 million individual stars in Andromeda. 'Pictures like this remind us that we live in an incredible universe,' said NASA's Wiseman. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement For many years the consensus has been that Andromeda and the Milky Way will someday merge. A recent report in Nature Astronomy says there's only a 50-50 chance over the next 10 billion years. In any case, the stars will mostly just be ships passing in the night. 'Stars don't crash into each other,' Williams said. 'The size of the star compared to the distances between the stars is very, very small.' The inescapable question for anyone studying Andromeda is whether there's life there, and intelligent life. Anyone staring at images of a galaxy, a cluster of galaxies or one of the Hubble 'deep field' images showing thousands of galaxies, is presented with evidence that the Earth is a minuscule element in the cosmic scheme of things. 'It's just so beautiful, and causes us to keep asking the big questions,' said Amber Straughn, a NASA astrophysicist, referring to the Andromeda mosaic. 'Can't you imagine that there might be another advanced civilization there among the trillion stars, who have also built a telescope and are looking back at us?' About this story Editing by Lynh Bui and Christian Font. Additional development by Dylan Moriarty. Video editing by Drea Cornejo. Photo editing by Maya Valentine. Copy editing by Briana R. Ellison.
Geek Dad
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
Review – The New Gods #8: The Gathering
The New Gods #8 cover, via DC Comics. Ray: The first arc of this series was a no-holds-barred cosmic war, showing the New Gods in a battle for survival on both New Genesis and Apokalips like we rarely do. After Lightray fell i combat, the fallout forced both factions to decamp to a safe zone – Earth. There, they found refuge – the New Genesis refugees with the Justice League, and the Apokalips survivors with an opportunistic Maxwell Lord. It's clear that all the residents of New Genesis are grieving – but none more than Highfather, who viewed Lightray like a son. A flashback shows this isn't the only loss he's grieving, and that leads him to make a dramatic decision – he's stepping down as Highfather, and allowing someone else to lead New Genesis into its new era. Now named Izaya once again, he seeks quiet contemplation rather than leadership – and the most peaceful planet in the galaxy is suddenly thrown into flux. Love lost. Via DC Comics. To calm nerves, Mister Miracle proposes a ceremonial feast traditional on New Genesis, and that gives us the opportunity to see these alien heroes in a very unusual setting – at peace, as well as bringing in some lesser-used Kirby creations. There are a lot of great character bits along the way, especially for Big Barda. But at the same time, the Justice League's representatives are investigating the other arrivals that have gone to ground – and Max Lord is becoming involved with them in a way I didn't expect. He's always the type to make deals with devils – but if the last panel of this segment is what it looks like, this may be a new low for him. This issue has plenty of suspense, but it definitely is the lowest-key issue of the run so far. I think that's something that works very well, as after the chaos of this first arc, pulling back on the impact of the war was essential. I think this run is going to become essential read for fans of the Fourth World. To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week. GeekDad received this comic for review purposes. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists detect most massive black hole merger ever — and it birthed a monster 225 times as massive as the sun
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Scientists have detected the biggest black hole merger ever known — a gigantic collision from two massive space-time ruptures spiraling into each other — and it could hold evidence of the most elusive type of black hole in the universe. The merger, which happened on the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy, produced a black hole roughly 225 times more massive than the sun. That's nearly double the previous record holder, which spawned a final black hole with a mass of around 142 suns. The new collision was found by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration, a group of four detectors that identify cataclysmic cosmic events from the gravitational waves that spill out in their wakes. Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time, first predicted to exist by Albert Einstein and confirmed by LIGO in 2015. For their groundbreaking discovery, physicists involved with the research earned a Nobel Prize in 2017. But most intriguing to the scientists are the two black holes' masses: approximately 100 and 140 times that of the sun. As was the case with the previous detection, black holes of these sizes fall into a "mass gap" that challenge conventional wisdom on how the space-time ruptures form. The researchers will present their findings July 14 to 18 at the 24th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR24) and the 16th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves in Glasgow, Scotland. "We expect most black holes to form when stars die — if the star is massive enough, it collapses to a black hole," Mark Hannam, a physics professor at Cardiff University in Wales and a member of the LVK Collaboration, told Live Science. "But for really massive stars, our theories say that the collapse is unstable, and most of the mass is blasted away in supernova explosions, and a black hole cannot form." "We don't expect black holes to form between about 60 and 130 times the mass of the sun," he added. "In this observation, the black holes appear to lie in that mass range." Related: Europe approves LISA, a next-generation space mission that will discover the faintest ripples in space-time Black holes are born from the collapse of giant stars and grow by gorging on gas, dust, stars and other black holes. Currently, known black holes fall into two categories: stellar-mass black holes, which range from a few to a few dozen times the sun's mass; and supermassive black holes, which can be anywhere from about 100,000 to 50 billion times as massive as the sun. Yet those that fall into the gap of these two mass ranges, known as intermediate-mass black holes, are physically unable to form from direct star collapses and thus remain incredibly rare. Hints of their existence have nonetheless been found, leading astrophysicists to postulate that these black holes grow from merging with others that are similar in size. Evidence for this merger arrived on Nov. 23, 2023, when two minuscule distortions in space-time passed through the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory's (LIGO) detectors in Louisiana and Washington. The two detectors — each with two L-shaped 2.5-mile-long (4 kilometers) arms containing two identical laser beams — are designed so that if a gravitational wave passes through Earth, the laser light in one arm of the detector will get compressed while the other expands, creating a tiny change in relative path lengths of the beams. The signal that arrived at the detectors was complex, coming from two high-mass black holes that were spinning rapidly. Astronomers typically analyze black hole mergers by modeling signals from different types of black hole binary systems, before matching them to any new signal they see. But for this technique to work, the models have to be precise, and Einstein's equations are harder to solve (and therefore less accurate) when the black holes are spinning quickly. Related stories —To hunt gravitational waves, scientists had to create the quietest spot on Earth —One of the world's largest lasers could be used to detect alien warp drives —Physicists want to use gravitational waves to 'see' the beginning of time "The black holes in GW231123 appear to be highly spinning, and our different models give different results," Hannam said. "That means that although we're sure that the black holes are very massive, we don't measure the masses especially accurately. For example, the possible masses for the smaller black hole span the entire mass gap." For scientists to get better calculations of these masses, these models will have to be refined, which will likely require more observations of similar high-spin mergers. Such detections would be likely; the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA gravitational wave detectors have spotted 300 mergers since the start of the first run in 2015, with 200 being found in the fourth run alone. Yet LIGO, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, is facing Trump administration budget cuts that could shut down one detector, making current detections "near-impossible," according to the facility's director, David Reitze.
ABC News
4 days ago
- Science
- ABC News
‘Truly magnificent': Scientists pick up biggest ever merger of two massive black holes in space
Scientists have picked up the biggest ever merger of two massive black holes in Space. It happened on the far edges of our galaxy - a violent collision... producing an extremely large black hole - about 225 times the mass of our Sun. Laura Tchilinguirian spoke with Astrophysicist Dr Sara Webb from Swinburne University of Technology.
Gizmodo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
The Cleon Clones of ‘Foundation' on Getting to Cut Loose in Season 3
Foundation season three begins today, bringing viewers 152 years beyond season two. Empire is still in power, but its grasp on the galaxy has weakened considerably. As for the ruling Cleon clones, Brother Day (Lee Pace) has shrugged off his official duties in favor of a pleasure-filled lifestyle, leaving Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton), who's on the brink of aging into Brother Day's throne, and Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann), who's facing his rapidly approaching permanent retirement, taking charge in his place. Amid all this personal turmoil, Empire's robot advisor, Demerzel (Laura Birn), informs the Cleons a bigger problem is at hand: while they've long been aware the fall of their reign is coming, that time is now much closer than they realized. Also, there's the small matter of a possible doomsday on the horizon, threatening not just Empire's long-held control on humanity, but the existence of humanity itself. At a press day ahead of Foundation's return, io9 talked to Bilton and Mann about what Brother Dawn and Brother Dusk are facing in the show's thrilling, high-stakes third season. Cheryl Eddy, io9: Season three brings out maybe the most distinctive Cleons we've met yet. As performers, how do you approach playing the different versions? Does it start from the same place and you build nuance from there? Terrence Mann: Cassian came upon this metaphor that is so apt, and it's so perfect, and I wish we'd have known it five years ago when we started. Cassian Bilton: I'm sure he's hyped this up too much now [laughs]. But [my approach to the] character is essentially [that] playing Cleon over an extended period, but coming each time back to play different iterations of him, is a bit like coming to a season and dipping a brush into the same paint pot, but using a different movement on the canvas and ending up with something different. You're ultimately working with the same raw material, but you're in a different circumstance. And really what we do as actors is trust that we have that knowledge of Cleon the First behind us, and then we just basically—it's our writers that really put us in circumstances that differ each season, and that's how these different expressions of Cleon the First come out. io9: Brother Dusk has a powerful arc in season three. He's facing the end, but he's not going down quietly. How would you describe his headspace as the season begins? Mann: I think you could literally take the template of King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1, and go all the way to Act 5, Scene 4. That seems to be his descent into madness. But it doesn't start out that way. It starts out with a very clear picture of what he wants the family to do and become, and then things just go awry. That's what I thought about when I was reading it. And by the way, you know, these were page-turners. All 10 episodes, when we got them, we were just like, 'Wow that's happening? That's happening?' That's kind of the beauty of what we're doing this season, certainly for Cassian and I, is that [our characters] start out hoping for something in the beginning, and that drastically changes by the end of episode 10. So we've got a big sandbox to play in, and we're bouncing all over the place doing that. Big time. io9: The idea that the clones are on this regular cycle of decanting and 'ascension' has been well established, but this is the first time we've really dug into the emotions around that. What was it like getting to explore that aspect of your character? Bilton: If I'm honest, I've sort of been waiting for this moment since I was cast. I think it's a very strange thing as an actor to watch other actors take on the later life of a character that you're playing. I think my position in the show has always been young, fragile naiveté. Dawn is very lonely and sadly introspective in season one, and I think he finds his feet a little bit more in season two. But I've kind of been sitting on the sidelines like, 'Coach, let me play!' when it comes to ruling the galaxy. And I feel like I managed to take a swing of the bat this season and hopefully be the kind of Dawn that we can conceivably, as an audience, believe could turn into Brother Day. io9: Did you feel like you were getting to cut loose more this time around? Bilton: 100%, 100% was able to cut loose for sure. I felt like, just to speak to it from an acting point of view, I was able to stretch and flex my muscles a little bit more as an actor. I was given so much opportunity by the writers to really jump in headfirst to this season and really help drive that story forward. And I'm really grateful to them for that chance because I had such a great time filming it. I think the scenes that I've shot with Terry and Lee [Pace] landed in a really interesting place because I think what's fascinating about the Cleons is—it's both seeing them as individuals and seeing this inflection point of, 'Well, how close can I get to the performance of this other actor?' io9: We don't get a ton of scenes with the three Cleons together in season three. But there's that one lighthearted moment you share in the throne room where you're all laughing together. Was that a special scene to film amid a season that's otherwise filled with a lot of darkness? Mann: That was art imitating life. That was really the three of us sitting out there because we hadn't worked together, I don't think, for a week or two or maybe even longer. And we've been really in disparate parts of studios and stuff. So to have that moment—and there's never been a moment like that in any of the other seasons—it was very special. Bilton: I think because Day has left [palace life] behind, they're able to sort of drop the front a bit. In that scene particularly, you see them all dropping the front. 'Okay, yes, we rule the galaxy, but yeah, we're kind of exhausted by it. Like, how are you doing? How are you feeling about this?' Really something that we've touched on a lot in our conversations about this season is the Cleons ultimately are very lonely people. They live in an environment where they only interact with different iterations of themselves or a humanoid robot; they're lacking in intimacy or a gentleness and closeness to other human beings in a huge way. I think that's why their relationship with Demerzel is so moving in the show, because she's the only person that shows them kindness. I'm so glad to hear that that scene [in the throne room] resonates, because I think it's a really pivotal point in the season. And it's the first time and the last time you see the three of them together before they go off on their own separate journeys of self-discovery. The first episode of Foundation season three is now streaming on Apple TV+. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
