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Tag Archives: cosmos
New map of the universe’s matter reveals a possible hole in our understanding of the cosmos
Scientists have made one of the most precise maps of the universe’s matter, and it shows that something may be missing in our best model of the cosmos.
Created by pooling data from two telescopes that observe different types of light, the new map revealed that the universe is less “clumpy” than previous models predicted — a potential sign that the vast cosmic web that connects galaxies is less understood than scientists thought.
According to our current understanding, the cosmic web is a gigantic network of crisscrossing celestial superhighways paved with hydrogen gas and dark matter. Taking shape in the chaotic aftermath of the Big Bang, the web’s tendrils formed as clumps from the roiling broth of the young universe; where multiple strands of the web intersected, galaxies eventually formed. But the new map, published Jan. 31 as three (opens in new tab) separate (opens in new tab) studies (opens in new tab) in the journal Physical Review D, shows that in many parts of the universe, matter is less clumped together and more evenly spread out than theory predicts it should be.
Related: How dark is the cosmic web?
“It seems like there are slightly less fluctuations in the current universe than we would predict assuming our standard cosmological model anchored to the early universe,” co-author Eric Baxter, an astrophysicist at the University of Hawaii, said in a statement (opens in new tab).
Spinning the cosmic web
According to the standard model of cosmology, the universe began taking shape after the Big Bang, when the young cosmos swarmed with particles of both matter and antimatter, which popped into existence only to annihilate each other upon contact. Most of the universe’s building blocks wiped themselves out this way, but the rapidly expanding fabric of space-time, along with some quantum fluctuations, meant that some pockets of the primordial plasma survived here and there.
The force of gravity soon compressed these plasma pockets in on themselves, heating the matter as it was squeezed closer together to such an extent that sound waves traveling at half the speed of light (called baryon acoustic oscillations) rippled outward from the plasma clumps. These ripples pushed away the matter that hadn’t already been drawn into the center of a clump, where it came to rest as a halo around it. At that point, most of the universe’s matter was distributed as a series of thin films surrounding countless cosmic voids, like a nest of soap bubbles in a sink.
Once this matter, primarily hydrogen and helium, had sufficiently cooled, it clotted further to birth the first stars, which, in turn, forged heavier and heavier elements through nuclear fusion.
To map out how the cosmic web was spun, the researchers combined observations taken with the Dark Energy Survey in Chile — which scanned the sky in the near-ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared frequencies from 2013 to 2019 — and the South Pole Telescope, which is located in Antarctica and studies the microwave emissions that make up the cosmic microwave background — the oldest light in the universe.
Though they look at different wavelengths of light, both telescopes use a technique called gravitational lensing to map the clumping of matter. Gravitational lensing occurs when a massive object sits between our telescopes and its source; the more that light coming from a given pocket of space appears warped, the more matter there is in that space. This makes gravitational lensing an excellent tool for tracking both normal matter and its mysterious cousin dark matter, which, despite making up 85% of the universe, doesn’t interact with light except by distorting it with gravity.
With this approach, the researchers used data from both telescopes to pinpoint the location of matter and weed out errors from one telescope’s data set by comparing it to the other’s.
“It functions like a cross-check, so it becomes a much more robust measurement than if you just used one or the other,” co-lead author Chihway Chang (opens in new tab), an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago, said in the statement.
The cosmic matter map the researchers produced closely fitted our understanding of how the universe evolved, except for a key discrepancy: It was more evenly distributed and less clumped than the standard model of cosmology would suggest.
Two possibilities exist to explain this discrepancy. The first is that we’re simply looking at the universe too imprecisely, and that the apparent deviation from the model will disappear as we get better tools to peer at the cosmos with. The second, and more significant, possibility is that our cosmological model is missing some seriously big physics. Finding out which one is true will take more cross-surveys and mappings, as well as a deeper understanding of the cosmological constraints that bind the universe’s soap suds.
“There is no known physical explanation for this discrepancy,” the researchers wrote in one of the studies. “Cross-correlations between surveys … will enable significantly more powerful cross-correlation studies that will deliver some of the most precise and accurate cosmological constraints, and that will allow us to continue stress-testing the [standard cosmological] model.”
The advancement of American soccer has Pelé’s arrival to NASL, New York Cosmos to thank
The soccer world lost a legend Thursday with the passing of Pelé at 82. The king of Brazillian soccer, Pelé has amassed quite the trophy list winning the World Cup three times, the intercontinental cup twice, Copa Libertadores twice, and the Brasileiro six times, but he also capped things off with an NASL title with the New York Cosmos in 1977. His impact on American soccer is unmatched.
Founded in 1968, the North American Soccer League was one of the most well-known soccer leagues in America, operating as a first-division league that preceded Major League Soccer. And within the NASL, the Cosmos were the cream of the crop, known across the world and having enough of a draw for players like Franz Beckenbauer, Giorgio Chinaglia, and the legend, Pelé.
Joining the Cosmos from Santos in June of 1975, Pelé was a surprising capture for a team of their size at the time. Prior to the Brazillian’s arrival, the Cosmos were a team of journeymen, but Pelé showed that the team meant business in an ambitious, world-shaking move. His three-year contract with the Cosmos for 2.8 million dollars made Pelé the highest-paid athlete in the world at the time. The Cosmos assisted with getting him other contracts to ensure he paid as few taxes as possible, one such contract saw him listed as a recording artist for Atlantic Records during his time with the club, along with Brazilian musician Sergio Mendes.
Pelé’s impact was immediate despite being 34 at the time and not having played soccer competitively for eight months before joining the Cosmos. Pelé made his debut with the team on June 15, 1975, netting a goal and an assist in a draw against the Dallas Tornado. That match was watched by 10 million people on CBS which was a record American TV audience for soccer at the time as the king attracted attention from everywhere. Pele would score five goals and assist four more in only nine matches, but he was just getting started.
Listen below and follow In Soccer We Trust: A CBS Sports Soccer Podcast where your three favorite former USMNT players cover all things related to the beautiful game.
Chinaglia joined Pelé the next season and magic ensued. Pelé netted 13 goals and 18 assists in his second season with the club while winning NASL MVP. The next season is when he would lead the Cosmos to the 1977 Soccer Bowl title which was the pinnacle of American soccer at the time. The club’s attendance would triple during his time there with Pelé playing in front of a sold-out Giants stadium against Santos.
Over 77,000 fans attended that match and Pelé made sure that they were treated to a show scoring a goal in a 2-1 victory over his former club. Pelé’s arrival and impact showed that soccer could make it in America and laid an important foundation for the record-setting 1994 World Cup in the United States.
A legend on the pitch and off it, Pelé’s impact on American soccer won’t be forgotten just like his impact on the global game. The only player to win three World Cups and scoring 1281 career goals (including friendlies), Pelé’s legacy is untouchable and without him, there likely is no 2026 World Cup to look forward to in America, let alone all that came before.
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National Geographic’s new ‘Stargazer’s Atlas’ is a breathtaking guide to the cosmos (exclusive)
Those seeking out an ideal gift for the astronomy lover in your life need look no further than the sizable heft and heavenly imagery of “Stargazer’s Atlas: The Ultimate Guide to the Night Sky.” (opens in new tab)
Created by an ensemble team of National Geographic experts alongside the orchestration efforts of Andrew Fazekas, a.k.a. The Night Sky Guy, the gorgeous new coffee-table book is not only a utilitarian guide to the heavens, but also a treasure trove of 170 detailed charts, historical photos, space mission images and mind-boggling maps of the planets and moons of our solar system.
This oversized, 432-page hardcover tips the scales at 6 pounds (2.7 kilograms) and is packed with glossy photographs and informative explanations that lure you out into the chilly nocturnal air to gaze up in awe at the cosmos.
Related: Best space books for 2022
Discover the cosmos for less: Celestron 114AZ telescope now half price
Get the perfect beginner telescope for half price in this Black Friday telescope deal at Kohl’s (opens in new tab).
The Celestron 114AZ-SR telescope is now almost 50% off (okay, 49.09% to be specific) giving astronomy lovers a magnificent $108 off this already reasonably priced budget telescope.
This large 114mm Newtonian reflector telescope is handy for beginners and comes with a bundle of accessories so that you can get set up and start stargazing straight away.
A full-height aluminum tripod steadies the telescope but remains lightweight for easier transporting and it comes with an accessory tray to keep all your other goodies. The aforementioned goodies include two Plössl eyepieces at 26mm and 9.7mm sizes with 1.25-inch mounts for specific night sky object observations, a StarPointer red dot finderscope that supports approximate locating and a smartphone adapter.
The telescope is a push-to manual telescope, not computerized, so you may ask why there’s a smartphone adapter built-in to the Celestron 114AZ-SR (opens in new tab)? So you can take your own astrophotographs, of course. Line it up on the adapter and your smartphone turns the 114AZ-SR telescope into an astro camera ready to photograph the heavens.
With that smartphone, you also get free access to the SkyPortal mobile app and Starry Night software that gives information of over 36,000 celestial objects in the night sky. So whether you’re brushing up on old knowledge, want to learn something new while you stargaze or are simply starting out for the first time this telescope and bundle should be able to open up a new part of the cosmos to you.
It should take just a few minutes to set up this telescope and at just under 9 lbs in weight, it won’t ache your arm when you’re taking it to a nearby dark sky spot, either.
Be sure to check out Space.com’s Black Friday deals page, or our guide to the Best telescopes or the 10 best Black Friday telescope deals we’ve seen so far.
New Map of the Universe Displays Span of Entire Cosmos With Pinpoint Accuracy and Sweeping Beauty
Brice Ménard (left) and Nikita Shtarkman examine the map of the observable universe. Credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University
The map charts a broad expanse of the universe, from the
Compiled from data mined over two decades by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the map was created by astronomers from Johns Hopkins University. It allows the public to experience data previously only accessible to scientists.
The interactive map depicts the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. It is available online, where it can also be downloaded for free.
A new map of the universe displays for the first time the span of the entire known cosmos with pinpoint accuracy and sweeping beauty. Credit: Johns Hopkins University
“Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae, and galaxies, and now it’s our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people,” says map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. “Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like.”
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is a pioneering effort to capture the night sky through a telescope based in New Mexico. Night after night for years, the telescope aimed at slightly different locations to capture this unusually broad perspective.
The map visualizes a slice of the universe, or about 200,000 galaxies—each dot on the map is a galaxy and each galaxy contains billions of stars and planets. The Milky Way is simply one of these dots, the one at the very bottom of the map. Ménard assembled the map with the help of former Johns Hopkins computer science student Nikita Shtarkman.
Created by Johns Hopkins University astronomers with data mined over two decades by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the map allows the public to experience data previously only accessible to scientists. Credit: Johns Hopkins University
The map is even more colorful due to the expansion of the universe. Because of this, the farther an object is, the redder it appears. The first flash of radiation emitted soon after the
Powerful Radio Pulses Originating Deep in the Cosmos Probe Hidden Matter Around Galaxies
This artist’s concept shows distant fast radio bursts piercing the gaseous halos around galaxies in the local universe. The radio bursts are depicted traveling from the distant cosmos, through the galactic halos, and finally reaching telescopes on Earth. The bumps seen in two of the lines represent the radio burst themselves as they travel toward Earth. Credit: Courtesy of Charles Carter
Powerful cosmic radio pulses originating deep in the universe can be used to study hidden pools of gas cocooning nearby galaxies, according to a new study that was published last month in the journal Nature Astronomy.
So-called fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are pulses of radio waves that typically originate millions to billions of light-years away. (Radio waves are electromagnetic radiation like the light we see with our eyes but have longer wavelengths and lower frequencies). The first FRB was discovered in 2007, and since then, hundreds more have been detected. In 2020, Caltech’s STARE2 instrument (Survey for Transient Astronomical Radio Emission 2) and Canada’s CHIME (Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment) detected a massive FRB that went off in our own Milky Way galaxy. Those earlier findings helped confirm the theory that the energetic events most likely originate from dead, magnetized stars called magnetars.
As more and more FRBs roll in, scientists are now investigating how they can be used to study the gas that lies between us and the bursts. Specifically, they would like to use the FRBs to probe halos of diffuse gas that surround galaxies. As the radio pulses travel toward Earth, the gas enveloping the galaxies is expected to slow the waves down and disperse the radio frequencies. In the new study, the research team looked at a sample of 474 distant FRBs detected by CHIME, which has discovered the most FRBs to date. They showed that the subset of two dozen FRBs that passed through galactic halos were indeed slowed down more than non-intersecting FRBs.
“Our study shows that FRBs can act as skewers of all the matter between our radio telescopes and the source of the radio waves,” says lead author Liam Connor, the Tolman Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Astronomy, who works with assistant professor of astronomy and study co-author, Vikram Ravi.
“We have used fast radio bursts to shine a light through the halos of galaxies near the
The study also reports finding more matter around the galaxies than expected. Specifically, about twice as much gas was found as theoretical models predicted.
All galaxies are surrounded and fed by massive pools of gas out of which they were born. However, the gas is very thin and hard to detect. “These gaseous reservoirs are enormous. If the human eye could see the spherical halo that surrounds the nearby Andromeda galaxy, the halo would appear one thousand times larger than the moon in area,” Connor says.
Researchers have developed different techniques to study these hidden halos. For example, Caltech professor of physics Christopher Martin and his team developed an instrument at the W. M. Keck Observatory called the Keck Cosmic Webb Imager (KCWI) that can probe the filaments of gas that stream into galaxies from the halos.
This new FRB method allows astronomers to measure the total amount of material in the halos. This can be used to help piece together a picture of how galaxies grow and evolve over cosmic time.
“This is just the start,” says Ravi. “As we discover more FRBs, our techniques can be applied to study individual halos of different sizes and in different environments, addressing the unsolved problem of how matter is distributed in the universe.”
In the future, the FRB discoveries are expected to continue streaming in. Caltech’s 110-dish Deep Synoptic Array, or DSA-110, has already detected several FRBs and identified their host galaxies. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), this project is located at Caltech’s Owen Valley Radio Observatory near Bishop, California. In the coming years, Caltech researchers have plans to build an even bigger array, the DSA-2000, which will include 2,000 dishes and be the most powerful radio observatory ever built. The DSA-2000, currently being designed with funding from Schmidt Futures and the NSF, will detect and identify the source of thousands of FRBs per year.
Reference: “The observed impact of galaxy halo gas on fast radio bursts” by Liam Connor and Vikram Ravi, 4 July 2022, Nature Astronomy.
DOI: 10.1038/s41550-022-01719-7
Deep space video shows James Webb telescope peering into the distant cosmos
The Webb telescope can do things other telescopes can’t.
It’s the most powerful observatory in space ever built. And a new video from the European Space Agency, which partners with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, shows how it can view distant cosmic objects with unprecedented detail and clarity.
Behold the Southern Ring Nebula, which is the site of a dramatic stellar death some 2,500 light-years away. A sun-sized star has run out of fuel and is shedding great clouds of gas into space. It’s a spectacular sight.
The European Space Agency video below travels well beyond our Milky Way galaxy to depict what the James Webb Space Telescope — with its over 21-foot-wide mirror — is seeing in the distant universe.
SEE ALSO:
What NASA actually said about the space rock that hit the Webb telescope
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Unlike the legendary Hubble Space Telescope, which captures light we can see (“visible light”), the Webb telescope captures another type of light, with longer wavelengths, called infrared light. These longer light wavelengths can slip through clouds of dust and gas, illuminating things that were previously shrouded (like the dying star shedding gas at the center of the Southern Ring Nebula) or murky.
“It lifts the veil,” Jean Creighton, an astronomer and the director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, told Mashable last year.
The Webb telescope is just getting started. It will view some of the oldest galaxies in the universe. It will reveal what the atmospheres of mysterious exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system, are made of.
For now, take a ride on this deep dive through the cosmos.
Scientists find the secret to birth of earliest black holes in the Cosmos
It takes a long time to grow a supermassive black hole, even if it eats voraciously. So just how supermassive black holes billions of times heavier than the Sun formed within the first billion years of the universe has been an enduring puzzle.
But new work by an international team of cosmologists suggests an answer: flows of cold matter, shaped by mysterious dark matter, force-feeding black holes born from the deaths of gigantic primordial stars.
“There is a recipe for creating a 100,000 solar mass black hole at birth, and that is a 100,000 solar mass primordial star,” Daniel Whalen, a cosmologist at the University of Portsmouth, told The Independent. “In the universe today, the only black holes we’ve discovered, all formed from the collapse of massive stars. So that means the minimum mass for a black hole likely has to be at least three to four solar masses.”
But the gulf is huge between a 4 solar mass star and a 100,000 solar mass star, a “hypergiant” star that, if centered on the Sun, would extend out to the orbit of Pluto. For the past 20 years, Dr Whalen said, much of the research on early universe quasars – very bright centres of galaxies powered by supermassive black holes – has focused on the finely tuned set of conditions that would allow such a massive primordial star to form.
But in a new paper published in the journal Nature, Dr Whalen and his colleagues use supercomputer modeling of cosmic evolution to show that rather than developing from a set of very special circumstances, hyper-giant primordial stars form and collapse into the “seeds” of quasars quite naturally from a set of initial conditions that, while still relatively rare, are far less delicate. And it all starts with dark matter.
“If you look at the total content, let’s call it the total mass energy content of the universe, 3 per cent of it is in the form of matter we understand,” Dr Whalen said – matter made of protons and neutrons and electrons, hydrogen, helium and so forth. But “24 per cent is in the form of dark matter, and we know it’s there because of the motion of galaxies and clusters of galaxies, but we don’t know what it is.”
That is, dark matter only appears to interact with normal matter through gravity, and the gravity of dark matter is what created the largest scale structure of the universe: the cosmic web. Early in the universe, vast expanses of dark matter collapsed into long filaments under its own weight, Dr Whalen said, and dragged normal matter with it, forming a web of filaments and their intersections
Galaxies and stars would eventually form within the filaments and, particularly, the matter-rich intersections of the filaments.
“We call them halos, cosmological halos,” Dr Whalen said of the intersections, “and we think primordial stars first formed there.”
Previous thinking held that to form a large enough primordial star to birth a supermassive black hole and create a quasar within the first billion years of the universe, a halo would need to grow to massive proportions under special conditions: no other stars too nearby, the formation of molecular hydrogen in order to keep the gas cool, and supersonic flows of gas keeping the halo turbulent. So long as the halo is cool and turbulent enough, it cannot cohere enough to ignite as a star, prolonging its growth phase until it’s finally born at a tremendous size.
And once a massive star ignites, lives its life, burns out, and collapses into a black hole, it must have access to large amounts of gas in order to grow supermassive, Dr Whalen said, “because the way the black hole grows is by swallowing up gas”.
But rather than requiring finely tuned conditions for forming a massive star and, eventually, a massive black hole, Dr Whalen and his colleagues’ simulation suggests that cold gas flowing into a halo from the dark matter defined filaments of the cosmic web could replace the multitude of necessary factors for primordial star formation in older models.
“If cold accretion flows are fueling the growth of these halos, they must be pounding those halos,” Dr Whalen said, “pounding them with so much gas so quickly, that turbulence might be preventing the gas from collapsing and forming a primordial star.”
When they simulated such a halo fed by cold accretion flows, the researchers saw two massive primordial stars form, one as massive as 31,000 suns, and the other as massive as 40,000 suns. The seeds of supermassive black holes.
“It was beautifully simple. The problem for 20 years was gone overnight,” Dr Whalen said. Anytime you have cold flows pumping gas into a halo in the cosmic web, “you’re gonna have so much turbulence, that you’ll get supermassive star formation and massive seed formation that produces a massive quasar seed.”
It’s a finding that matches up with the number of quasars so far observed in the early universe, he added, noting that large halos at that early epoch are rare, and so are quasars.
But the new work is a simulation, and scientists would next like to actually observe the formation of an early-universe quasar in the wild. New instruments, such as the James Webb space telescope, may make that a reality relatively soon.
“Webb will be powerful to see one,” Dr Whalen said, perhaps viewing the birth of black holes within one or two million years of the Big Bang.
Webb’s New Look at the Cosmos, Scouting Landing Sites for Mars Sample Return
The Webb Space Telescope’s new look at the cosmos …
Technology used to fine-tune Webb improves the vision of millions on Earth ….
And a new climate study heads to the space station … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at 
The Webb Space Telescope’s New Look at the Cosmos
“It’s a new window into the history of our universe.”—POTUS
On July 11, President Joe Biden released the first full-color image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope during a public event at the White House in Washington. The image, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, reveals thousands of galaxies in a section of the sky so tiny that it is only about as big as a grain of sand that is held at arm’s length by a person on the ground.
“Every part of this mission is a partnership …”
The next day, in cooperation with our partners from the European Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency, and Space Telescope Science Institute, we released the full set of Webb’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data. The new observations uncover a collection of previously hidden cosmic features. This includes the clear signature of water on a planet outside our solar system that was not detected by previous studies of that planet, the earliest rapid phases of star formation in the Carina Nebula, never-before-seen details of a galaxy group that may help us better understand galactic mergers and interactions, and a second dying star brought into full view for the first time by Webb’s new infrared look at a planetary nebula about 2,000 light years from us. These first images kick off the beginning of the telescope’s science operations. Now, astronomers will have a chance to utilize the power of Webb to observe everything from objects within our solar system to activity from the very early history of the universe.
“We are now going to be determining things that we don’t even know what the questions are that we ought to ask. And so it’s one of these great engineering feats – not just for us, but for humanity.”—Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator
Johnson & Johnson’s iDesign Refractive Studio, pictured here, takes precise eye measurements that map visual pathways and cornea curvature to help doctors diagnose and plan treatment for eye issues. Credit: Johnson & Johnson Vision
NASA Tech for Webb Telescope Mirrors Boosts Eye Surgery Precision
Meanwhile, some NASA-developed technology used during construction of the Webb Space Telescope to measure deviations in its mirrors is driving major improvements to LASIK laser eye surgery and helping to improve the vision of millions of people on Earth. Medical company, Johnson & Johnson has incorporated the tech into a device that takes precise eye measurements to map imperfections in visual pathways and cornea curvature. NASA has a long history of transferring technology to the private sector. Learn more about our efforts to bring space technology down to Earth at spinoff.nasa.gov.
When strong winds on one continent stir up mineral rock dust (such as calcite or chlorite), the airborne particles can travel thousands of miles to affect entirely different continents. Dust suspended in the air can heat or cool the atmosphere and Earth’s surface. This heating or cooling effect is the focus of NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
New Climate Research Launches to Space Station
On July 14, a 
In this illustration of a Mars sample return mission concept, a lander carrying a fetch rover touches down on the surface of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Perseverance Scouts Landing Sites for