On the Nature of Things | Forum

Astrophysicists figure out the total amount of matter in the universe

LIGO and Virgo had already spotted 11 events, including one merger of neutron stars, an event that may shed light on how the universe forges heavy elements. Now, the team has cataloged 37 additional black hole mergers, one likely neutron star merger, and one possible merger of a black hole and neutron star from the first half of its third observing run, from April through September 2019.

Analyses of all 50 events show that when it comes to black holes, “the diversity is surprisingly large,” says Frank Ohme, a gravitational wave astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics. From details of the mergers’ chirplike signals, scientists can calculate the masses of the colliding black holes. They expected to find a “mass gap” between about 45 and 135 solar masses—the result of particle physics processes that should blow apart stars within a certain mass range before they can collapse into black holes.

However, LIGO and Virgo have now spotted mergers involving black holes squarely within the gap, including one with a mass of roughly 85 solar masses. De Mink, who models the evolution of black hole pairs from binary star systems, says accounting for the interlopers will be challenging. The mass gap is “such a clear prediction from the models that it’s hard to believe that there’s not a feature there” in the mass spectrum, she says.

Similarly, scientists expected another forbidden range below five solar masses, based on previous observations of individual black holes peacefully orbiting normal stars. But at least one hole in the catalog appears to fall below that limit. “How do you describe the boundaries of this population?” Ohme asks. “It’s not such a clear picture anymore.”.

Eric Lerner: Saying that the Big Bang theory is a well-confirmed theory is very much like saying that the emperor’s clothes are beautiful. It’s something that lots of people agree on because ultimately their jobs and income depend on it. But it’s not something that’s backed up by scientific evidence.

Whenever and wherever you look at what the Big Bang hypothesis predicts, and you compare with observations, then in almost every single case you get a mass of contradictions.

This theory – despite its widespread support in the cosmology community – is like Swiss cheese, full of holes. And yet the response of the cosmology community as a whole is to say, “Each of these cases is an individual anomaly. Yeah, we’re still working on it, but, you know, look at all the other things that the theory gets right.”

Mr. Perfect wrote: ↑Wed Nov 11, 2020 6:55 am I liked this video because I learned a few things. I didn't like it because the presenter talks to you like you are a child. Now, in order to make a presentation like this you would assume the presenter knows more than you, but anyone who would get anything out of it would have to have a college education, and therefore would not need to be talked to like a child. Also I really don't like the format these days, the information could have been presented in 15 minutes. No need to create narratives and stage all these shots and skits. I think people like to listen to themselves talk.

Always keep in mind at any time quantum mechanics can overthrow big bang or any other idea you may have about anything.
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NASA Goddard
771K subscribers
On April 28, a supermagnetized stellar remnant known as a magnetar blasted out a simultaneous mix of X-ray and radio signals never observed before. The flare-up included the first fast radio burst (FRB) ever seen from within our Milky Way galaxy and shows that magnetars can produce these mysterious and powerful radio blasts previously only seen in other galaxies.

A magnetar is a type of isolated neutron star, the crushed, city-size remains of a star many times more massive than our Sun. What makes a magnetar so special is its intense magnetic field. The field can be 10 trillion times stronger than a refrigerator magnet's and up to a thousand times stronger than a typical neutron star's. This represents an enormous storehouse of energy that astronomers suspect powers magnetar outbursts.

The X-ray portion of the synchronous bursts was detected by several satellites, including NASA's Wind mission.

The radio component was discovered by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), a radio telescope located at Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in British Columbia and led by several Canadian universities. It was also detected by the NASA-funded Survey for Transient Astronomical Radio Emission 2 (STARE2), a trio of detectors in California and Utah operated by Caltech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The STARE2 data showed that the burst's energy was comparable to FRBs.

By the time these bursts occurred, astronomers had already been monitoring their source, a magnetar named SGR 1935+2154, for more than half a day using NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, and the NICER X-ray telescope mounted atop the International Space Station.

About 13 hours later, when the magnetar was out of view for Swift, Fermi and NICER, a special X-ray burst erupted. The blast was seen by the European Space Agency’s INTEGRAL mission, the China National Space Administration’s Huiyan X-ray satellite, and the Russian Konus instrument on Wind. As the half-second-long X-ray burst flared, CHIME and STARE2 detected the radio burst, which lasted only a thousandth of a second.

Taken together, the observations strongly suggest that the magnetar produced the Milky Way galaxy's equivalent of an FRB, which means magnetars in other galaxies likely produce at least some of these signals.

New Study Claims Dark Matter Doesn’t Exist
Could physicists have been so wrong?
Victor TangermannJanuary 6th 2021

The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration has released a new image of the black hole at the heart of the M87 galaxy in polarized light, detailing the magnetic structure around the event horizon.

Sixteen years of timing data from the double pulsar confirm the validity of Einstein’s theory of general relativity to a new level.

kmich wrote: ↑Sat Dec 25, 2021 4:55 pm Webb's solar array is released and deployed.

Nominal Event Time: Launch + 33 minutes

JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE - WHERE IS WEBB?

kmich wrote: ↑Thu Dec 30, 2021 11:50 pm Mission continues "nominally>" Sunshield covers have been released.

Taking advantage of its flexible commissioning schedule, the Webb team has decided to focus today on optimizing Webb’s power systems while learning more about how the observatory behaves in space. As a result, the Webb mission operations team has moved the beginning of sunshield tensioning activities to no earlier than tomorrow, Monday, Jan. 3. This will ensure Webb is in prime condition to begin the next major deployment step in its unfolding process.

Specifically, the team is analyzing how the power subsystem is operating now that several of the major deployments have been completed. Simultaneously, the deployments team is working to make sure motors that are key to the tensioning process are at the optimal temperatures prior to beginning that operation