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    Category Astronomy/Space

    New Theory may explain why Dark Matter has Evaded Direct Detection in Earth-based experiments

    September 25, 2015, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    This 3D map illustrates the large-scale distribution of dark matter, reconstructed from measurements of weak gravitational lensing by using the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

    This 3D map illustrates the large-scale distribution of dark matter, reconstructed from measurements of weak gravitational lensing by using the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

    Lattice Strong Dynamics Collaboration, led by a Lawrence Livermore National Lab team, has combined theoretical and computational physics techniques and used the Laboratory’s massively parallel 2-petaflop Vulcan supercomputer to devise a new model of dark matter. It identifies it as naturally “stealthy” today, but would have been easy to see via interactions with ordinary matter in the extremely high-temperature plasma conditions that pervaded the early universe.

    Dark matter makes up 83% of all matter in the universe and does not interact directly with elect...

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    ‘Fossils’ of Galaxies reveal the Formation and Evolution of Massive Galaxies

    September 25, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Composite spectrum of 24 massive dead galaxies in the universe 4 billion years after the Big Bang. The spectra is equivalent to 200 hours of Subaru Telescope's observing time. Rectangles on the spectrum indicate spectral features, which are used to calculate the ages, the amount of heavy elements and the ?-element abundance in the stellar populations of these galaxies. Credit: ETH Zürich/NAOJ

    Composite spectrum of 24 massive dead galaxies in the universe 4 billion years after the Big Bang. The spectra is equivalent to 200 hours of Subaru Telescope’s observing time. Rectangles on the spectrum indicate spectral features, which are used to calculate the ages, the amount of heavy elements and the ?-element abundance in the stellar populations of these galaxies. Credit: ETH Zürich/NAOJ

    Astronomers have observed massive dead galaxies in the universe 4B yrs after the Big Bang. They discovered the stellar content of these galaxies is strikingly similar to that of massive elliptical galaxies seen locally...

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    A New Study Predicts a Quantum Goldilocks Effect

    September 24, 2015, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Astronomy/Space

    The 'just right' structure that emerges when you drive a system containing light and matter (like the universe), neither too fast nor too slow across a quantum phase transition. It illustrates the findings of the study titled "Enhanced dynamic light-matter entanglement from driving neither too fast nor too slow," published in the journal Physical Review. Credit: Oscar Acevedo, Universidad de los Andes, and Neil Johnson, University of Miami. The study is a collaboration between the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia and the University of Miami.

    The ‘just right’ structure that emerges when you drive a system containing light and matter (like the universe), neither too fast nor too slow across a quantum phase transition. It illustrates the findings of the study titled “Enhanced dynamic light-matter entanglement from driving neither too fast nor too slow,” published in the journal Physical Review. Credit: Oscar Acevedo, Universidad de los Andes, and Neil Johnson, University of Miami. The study is a collaboration between the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia and the University of Miami.

    By studying a system that couples matter and light together, like the universe, researchers have found crossing a quantum phase transition at intermediate speeds generates the richest, most complex structure...

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    Hot, Dense material surrounds O-type Star with largest Magnetic Field known

    September 24, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The magnetic field of the O-type star called NGC 1624-2 is unusually large for its class. Credit: SOHO/[instrument] Consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

    The magnetic field of the O-type star called NGC 1624-2 is unusually large for its class. Credit: SOHO/[instrument] Consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

    Findings have implications on evolution of massive stars. Observations revealed that the unusually large magnetosphere around an O-type star NGC 1624-2 contains a raging storm of extreme stellar winds and dense plasma that gobbles up X-rays before they can escape into space. Florida Institute of Technology Assistant Professor Véronique Petit and team may help scientists better understand the lifecycle of certain massive stars, which are essential for creating metals needed for the formation of other stars and planets.

    The massive O-type star – the hottest and brightest type of star in the univers...

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