New Data Support Einstein on Accelerating Universe
Galaxy measurements indicate dark energy, not flaw in relativity, to blame for cosmic repulsion
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Detection of Cosmic Effect Brings Universe’s Formation Into Focus
A large research team from two major astronomy surveys reports in a paper submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters that scientists detected the movement of distant galaxy clusters via the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (kSZ) effect, which has never before been seen. Now that it has been detected, the kSZ effect could prove to be an…
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Dark Energy and the Joy of Being Wrong
From Adam Frank at 13:7: Sometimes nature just throws you a loop. All your carefully laid plans, all your exquisite calculations, all your deeply held beliefs and expectations get blown away in the simple eloquence of real data from the real world. That is how Dark Energy made its appearance into the world of cosmology. Its…
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Hubble Hunts Down Spacetime-Bending Galaxies
The Hubble Space Telescope is taking advantage of a naturally occurring lens in space to extend its range even more. Scientists report this week that Hubble has found several bright quasars — galaxies that are home to supermassive black holes — which are strategically positioned so that that are warping the light from even more…
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Telescopes Give Clues to Star Births
Astronomers using U.S. and European telescopes say they’ve obtained a first tantalizing look at a crucial early stage in star formation. The new observations using radio and infrared telescopes will help scientists understand the early stages of a sequence of events through which a giant cloud of gas and dust collapses into dense cores that,…
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Science Follows Dark Path Trying to Explain the Observed Universe
What are the options when a scientist faces a problem with no obvious solution? That is the dilemma astronomers have faced over the last few decades as they took a census of cosmic matter and motion. Mapping the beautiful pinwheel arcs of spiral galaxies, they found the constituent stars moving far too fast to be…
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Neutrinos Could Help Explain Missing Antimatter
Neutrinos produced by a nuclear reactor in China are changing from one flavour to another more rapidly than expected. The result means physicists could soon explain why the universe is filled with matter instead of featureless radiation. Neutrinos and antineutrinos each come in three flavours: electron, muon and tau. As they fly through space, these…
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Antimatter Goes Under the Microscope
The antimatter version of the hydrogen atom could soon finally give up its secrets. Scientists expect that antihydrogen will have exactly the same properties as hydrogen; but after 80 years, the test is only just becoming possible. Every particle has an antiparticle, which is identical in every respect except that it has opposite charge. The…
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Scientists Closing in on ‘God Particle’
More scientists are getting closer in the search for the “God particle” of physics that would help explain the fundamentals of the universe, but they haven’t found it yet. In the hunt for the Higgs boson, which is key to understanding why matter has mass, two teams of physicists using results from a now-closed American…
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Dark-Matter Behavior Puzzles Astronomers
Astronomers have spotted what appears to be a core of dark matter left behind from a wreck between massive clusters of galaxies. The result could challenge current theories about dark matter and how it behaves.