Category Astronomy/Space

Superhorizon Modes Can Explain Hubble Tension

The sketch depicts a perturbation of very large wavelength, larger than the size of the maximum distance light could have travelled since the origin of the Universe. The volume inside is the visible universe. (Image by Prabhakar Tiwari) 

A research team led by Dr. Prabhakar Tiwari from the National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) has found that superhorizon modes could explain the observed Hubble tension.

Their findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on Jan. 18.

It is generally believed that the universe is isotropic and homogeneous on large distance scales. This hypothesis forms the basis of the standard Big Bang cosmology, called the cosmological principle (CP)...

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Cosmic Physics Mimicked on Table-Top as Graphene enables Schwinger Effect

Science_final_4k_compositeMatteo

Researchers at The University of Manchester have succeeded in observing the so-called Schwinger effect, an elusive process that normally occurs only in cosmic events. By applying high currents through specially designed graphene-based devices, the team — based at the National Graphene Institute — succeeded in producing particle-antiparticle pairs from a vacuum.

A vacuum is assumed to be completely empty space, without any matter or elementary particles. However, it was predicted by Nobel laureate Julian Schwinger 70 years ago that intense electric or magnetic fields can break down the vacuum and spontaneously create elementary particles.

This requires truly cosmic-strength fields such as those around magnetars or created transitorily during high-e...

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Mysterious Energy Source unlike anything Astronomers have seen before

An artist’s impression of what the object might look like if it’s a magnetar. Magnetars are incredibly magnetic neutron stars, some of which sometimes produce radio emission. Known magnetars rotate every few seconds, but theoretically, “ultra-long period magnetars” could rotate much more slowly. Credit: ICRAR.

A team mapping radio waves in the universe has discovered something unusual that releases a giant burst of energy three times an hour, and it’s unlike anything astronomers have seen before.

The team that discovered it think it could be a neutron star or a white dwarf—collapsed cores of stars—with an ultra-powerful magnetic field...

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Liquid Water Beneath Martian South Polar Cap?

NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS/SwRI An SwRI scientist studied the antifreeze properties of exotic salts that exist on Mars, which could allow brines to remain liquid down to -103 degrees Fahrenheit. The studies show how a mile below the Martian south polar cap, brines between the grains of ice or sediments could produce the strong reflections detected by the radar instrument aboard ESA’s Mars Express orbiter.

Geophysical radar reflections, laboratory experiments point to slushy brines. A Southwest Research Institute scientist measured the properties of ice-brine mixtures as cold as -145 degrees Fahrenheit to help confirm that salty water likely exists between grains of ice or sediment under the ice cap at Mars’ south pole. Laboratory measurements conducted by SwRI geophysicist Dr...

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