Universe

Space Audio available

Astronomers spot new bumper crop of supermassive black holes in the early universe

Michael Irving March 13, 2019

To look through space is to look through time. Astronomers on a 5-years survey have turned up 100 supermassive black holes from a time when they were thought to be rare, suggesting we might need to rewrite our understanding of their evolution.

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Ancient white dwarf with rings calls star system evolution into question

Michael Irving February 19, 2019

A NASA-led citizen scientist project has discovered an ancient white dwarf that’s surrounded by large rings, which is shaking up our understanding of how these systems form.

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NASA's newest mission to look for life's ingredients and probe the universe's deep past

Michael Irving February 13, 2019

NASA has selected the newest space mission for its Explorer program: the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx). The spacecraft will search for the ingredients of life in the Milky Way, and peer as far as 10 billion years back in time.

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Physics

Dark matter and dark energy may really be one "dark fluid" with negative mass

Michael Irving December 5, 2018

An astrophysicist from Oxford has put forward a new theory that suggests that dark matter and dark energy are actually part of the same phenomenon: a “dark fluid” with negative mass that fills the universe.

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Space

Astronomers calculate the total amount of starlight ever produced in the observable universe

Michael Irving November 29, 2018

Astronomers have now asked “how much light has been emitted in the universe?” Using a new measurement method, the team has apparently managed to quantify all the starlight ever produced in the observable universe – and the result is a figure that’ll make your eyes water.

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13.5 billion year old star was born just after the Big Bang - and it’s in our neighborhood

Michael Irving November 4, 2018

Astronomers have identified one of the oldest stars ever found, which appears to be just one generation removed from the beginning of the universe itself. Being relatively close to Earth, the find could mean our galactic neighborhood is much older than previously thought.

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Space

First galaxies to enter creation could be orbiting the Milky Way right now

Anthony Wood August 16, 2018

The results of a new study suggest that a number of small satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way are actually some of the first to come into existence following the creation of the universe.

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Space

Hubble reveals the local universe in glorious ultraviolet detail

Anthony Wood May 18, 2018

An international team of astronomers has completed the most comprehensive ultraviolet survey of the local universe to date, with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope. The survey could help scientists better understand how stars come to form, and how galaxies like our own evolve over time.

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Physics

Simulations suggest multiverse is either teeming with life – or doesn't exist

Michael Irving May 14, 2018

Our universe seems to contain a suspiciously perfect amount of "dark energy" to sustain life. But new research suggests that life is still possible even with far more dark energy than we have, and the results have some big implications for the multiverse theory.

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Physics

Stephen Hawking's final paper bursts the multiverse bubble with a Holographic Universe theory

Michael Irving May 2, 2018

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking passed away earlier this year, but his legacy to science will live on. His final theory on the origin of the universe has now been published, and it offers an interesting departure from earlier ideas about the nature of the “multiverse.”

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