Space and astronomy news
Cosmology is a fairly young science, one which attempts to reconstruct the history of our Universe from billions of years ago. Looking back so far in time is extremely difficult, and adding to the complexity is that many of the pillars upon which the theories of cosmology rest have only been conceived within the last …
Continue reading “A Cosmologist’s Wish List: Four Most-Wanted Discoveries”
[/caption] How were the Universe’s first supermassive black holes formed? A new model of the evolution of galaxies and black holes show collisions show that colliding galaxies likely spawned black holes that formed about 13 billion years ago. The discovery fills in a missing chapter of our universe’s early history, and could help write the …
Continue reading “Colliding Galaxies Created the First Black Holes”
[/caption] What is the speed of gravity? It’s 299,792,458 m/s. Seem familiar? Yep, it’s the speed of light (in a vacuum)! How do we know that that’s the speed of gravity? Not by direct measurement, yet, but by the great success of Einstein’s theory of general relativity (GR). In general, because it is so successful, …
[/caption] So you think you know your universe? We’ve got our own top 10 list on the most interesting facts about the Universe. 1. It was hot when it was young The most widely accepted cosmological model is that of the Big Bang. This was proven since the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation …
[/caption] The Herschel and Planck spacecraft successfully launched together Thursday from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The Ariane V rocket performed flawlessly, with the rocket’s trajectory matching exactly the predicted flight path. The two spacecraft separated individually and in different directions from the launch vehicle, about four minutes apart, after spinning to orient themselves …
The Solar System: Solar System Guide The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) Mars Phobos and Deimos The Asteroid Belt Ceres Vesta Jupiter Jupiter’s Moons Galilean Moons Saturn Saturn’s Moons Uranus Uranus’ Moons Neptune Neptune’s Moons Dwarf Planets The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud Comets, Asteroids, and KBOs Outer Space: Stars Magnetars …
Perhaps one of the best reasons to return to the Moon will be the boon to astronomy. Without an atmosphere, an observatory the Moon won’t have to peer through an obscuring atmosphere, but people will still be able to walk over and fix it – and even upgrade it – into the future. It’s the …
Continue reading “Listening to the Universe from the Far Side of the Moon”
We can all guess what would happen should a massive black hole drift into our solar system… there wouldn’t be much left once the intense gravitational pull consumes the planets and starts sucking away at our Sun. But what if the black hole is small, perhaps a left over remnant from the Big Bang, passing unnoticed through our …
Continue reading “What Would Happen if a Small Black Hole Hit the Earth?”
Albert Einstein made enough predictions about the nature of gravity and relativity that NASA has dedicated a whole office and fleet of spacecraft to him. This week the space agency announced their new Einstein Probes Office, where they’ll be compiling evidence for the strangest stuff in the Universe: dark energy, black holes, and the cosmic …
One of Einstein’s predictions for relativity is the concept of gravity waves; these are emitted whenever massive objects move. The more massive the object the stronger the gravity wave.