WE ARE SURROUNDED BY ANTIMATTER EVERYBODY PANIC

THE ONLY WAY OUT IS TO TUNNEL THROUGH THE EARTH AND BEG THE HYPERBORIANS FOR SAFE PASSAGE THROUGH THE FOURTH DIMENSION GIVE THEM ANYTHING THEY WANT OUR CIVILIZATION IS AT STAKE. PRIDE IS A LUXURY OF AN AGE OF INNOCENCE WE SHALL NEVER KNOW AGAIN. TELL US OF OUR DOOM, BBC! A thin band of [...]

What if you’re somebody’s shadow?

Two days ago, I discussed several theories which call for universes parallel to our own. Brian Greene, writing in Discover Magazine, floats another one even queerer than the three I mentioned. Whereas the other worlds in my last post were causally isolated from our own, this hypothesis posits that all the events in our universe are [...]

Inflationary multiverse theory may have recieved first direct empirical evidence

Democritus, or perhaps Leucippus, was the first Western thinker to propose an infinite universe. Many of Democritus’ commentators in early Greek philosophy, most notably Aristotle, found the hypothesis extravagant. However, numerous strands of 20th century physics suggest Democritus not have gone far enough, and advance a succession of theories positing an infinite number of universes. Quantum [...]

Astronomical survey seems to confirm existence of dark energy

Via BBC News: First results from a major astronomical survey using a cutting-edge technique appear to have confirmed the existence of mysterious dark energy. Dark energy makes up some 74% of the Universe and its existence would explain why the Universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate. The finding was based on studies [...]

Some black holes may predate Big Bang

Via Technology Review’s Physics arXiv Blog: Black holes are regions of space in which gravity is so strong that nothing can escape, not even light. Conventionally, black holes form during a gravitational collapse, after a large supernova for example. But there is another class of objects called primordial black holes that cosmologists think must have [...]

The heart of dark energy

Via Science News: New evidence bolsters the case that a bizarre form of energy is uniformly accelerating the expansion of the universe, refuting one of the alternative models developed by researchers who refuse to accept the idea. The new study, which measures the present-day expansion of the universe to unprecedented accuracy, also suggests that the [...]

A succession of temporal parts

Via Earth Science, amateur astrophotographer Chris Kotsiopoulos explains his project to capture an entire day’s sky in one time-lapsed photograph: After hours of planning and preparation, and a full day of shooting, the image above is the result of this labor of love. It took me about 12 hours to pull together and process a single [...]

Smallest exoplanet ever discovered, Kepler-10b, is 1.65X Earth’s size

Via ScienceMag: Astronomers have announced the discovery of an extrasolar planet not much larger than Earth—the smallest exoplanet yet found. Although the world orbits too close to its sun to sustain life, the finding is a milestone in the quest to find out how common Earth-sized, habitable planets really are. It also shows that, with [...]

Oxygen discovered on moon of Saturn, could (but probably doesn’t) indicate life

Via the Guardian: A spacecraft has tasted oxygen in the atmosphere of another world for the first time while flying low over Saturn’s icy moon, Rhea. Nasa’s Cassini probe scooped oxygen from the thin atmosphere of the planet’s moon while passing overhead at an altitude of 97km in March this year. Until now, wisps of [...]

First planet outside of Milky Way galaxy described

Via The Guardian (for some reason, WordPress doesn’t want to hyperlink, so cit. : http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/nov/18/wandering-star-planet-galaxy): HIP13044b is the first planet ever detected in the Milky Way that was born outside our galaxy. Thanks to improvements in telescope technology, astronomers have found evidence for almost 500 extrasolar planets in the past 15 years, heavenly bodies of [...]