“The Galaxy Report” brings you news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch. Today’s stories range from astrophysicists use scientific theory and broader questions about how life alters a planet to alien contact may be happening all around us, and more.
Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter May Challenge Established Physics –Observations of galaxies up to seven billion light-years away revealed a potential conflict with the standard model of cosmology, reports Becky for Vice Science. “Astronomers have discovered a potential challenge to the established physics of the universe by studying the evolution of a mysterious type of matter at the center of hundreds of distant galaxies/”
Can a planet have a mind of its own? “In a self-described “thought experiment,” University of Rochester astrophysicist Adam Frank and colleagues David Grinspoon at the Planetary Science Institute and Sara Walker at Arizona State University use scientific theory and broader questions about how life alters a planet, to posit four stages to describe Earth’s past and possible future,” reports the University of Rochester.
Scientists Are Data Mining Black Holes to See If They Are Holograms –Quantum computing can help probe the bizarre innards of black holes, an environment that defies standard physics, reports Becky Ferreira for Vice Science.
Moon’s Hidden Depths Uncovered with New Algorithm, reports Connie Chang for Scientific American. The permanently shadowed regions at the lunar poles might contain thick ice reservoirs.
Astronomers discover a tiny planet orbiting our nearest galactic neighbor –-Proxima d, which orbits the star nearest our Sun, is estimated to be only a quarter of Earth’s mass, reports Salon. “Astronomers have evidence that a third planet is circling the red dwarf star, which is situated 4.2 light-years from our solar system and is therefore the closest star to Earth after our own Sun. The exoplanet candidate is more massive than Mars, but less than Venus.”
Advanced Alien Intelligence -“May Not Need a Language” reports The Daily Galaxy –“Language has existed on Earth for about one million years beginning with Homo erectus, says linguist Daniel Everett (see video below), which begs the question: do sentient beings with language exist elsewhere in the Cosmos?”
Astronomers find largest radio galaxy ever, reports Leiden University. “A Dutch team has discovered a radio galaxy of at least 16 million light-years long. The pair of plasma plumes is the largest structure made by a galaxy known thus far. The finding disproves some long-kept hypotheses about the growth of radio galaxies.
Alien Contact May Be Happening All Around Us (Podcast from the Arthur C. Clarke Center for the Human Imagination), reports The Daily Galaxy. “It all comes down to extremophiles and exoplanets: This mesmerizing podcast from the Arthur C. Clarke Center for the Human Imagination explores ideas of alien contact with Jill Tarter (SETI Institute) and the “weird Thoreau,” Jeff VanderMeer (bestselling science-fiction author of the Southern Reach trilogy).
Astrophysicists find new way to detect Sun’s coronal mass ejections, reports Princeton University. “Princeton astrophysicists have made a new discovery that allows them to detect potential coronal mass ejections and learn more about their behaviors to prevent them before they reach Earth. Their research takes a novel, analytical approach to understanding plasmoid behavior — a tedious yet effective task due to the variance of plasmoid occurrence.
Supermassive black-hole merger could solve astrophysics mystery–“Recently, a group of astronomers published a prediction that a binary pair of supermassive black holes located in the center of a distant galaxy, will merge together in the next 100 to 300 days. If this prediction turns out to be true and we are able to observe the effects of this merger, it will represent a major breakthrough in the field of astrophysics. For the first time ever we will have observed direct evidence for the leading theory of how supermassive black holes form.”
Recent “Galaxy Reports”
Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter to Are Black Holes Holograms?
Mystery of Stephen Hawking’s “Exxon Gravity” to Alien Life in Stellar Graveyards
Epsilon Algorithms to Search for Life as We Don’t Know It to Cosmic Ruins at Milky Way’s Edge
Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids of the Milky Way
Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact
Mysteries of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist
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