physics about

When the Big Bang happened, about 13.8 billion years ago, all the matter in the cosmos exploded from a singularity to produce the universe that we know today. But what existed before then? What existed before the start of time and everything? Professor Stephen Hawking says he might know just what existed.  In a very recent TV interview, the famous physicist says that 'nothing was around before the Big Bang'.   Stephen Hawking claims that time and space was there in a 'bent state' that was distorted with another dimension. Sharing his views on the newest episode of the National Geographic show 'Star Talk', which was broadcasted on Sunday evening, Hawking, 76, explained the beginning of the universe. The physicist says that the Big Bang was the creation of what we now refer as time because the event broke down the laws of physics as we know it. This means that anything that come first cannot be applied to our current understanding of time and existence. Stephen H...

Researchers at NASA have just discovered that the biggest black holes in the known universe are growing faster than previous researches revealed. The speed at which 'supermassive' black holes – massive celestial bodies at the center of big galaxies - are expanding outstrips the pace at which their galaxies can produce new stars.  This ultimately means that numerous of the universe's major black holes are far greater than first thought, and they might be slowly wiping out their own parent galaxies, researchers say. This major discovery might re-shape our basic understanding of how galaxies and their massive black holes form and co-exist. Black holes are present in the middle of most galaxies. These Black holes are so dense that nothing, not even light, can escape their intense gravitational pull. These Black holes are formed when the center of a very massive star, at its last stages, collapses in upon itself. Data gathered by previous researches has recommended that bla...

At times, scientists observe flashes of radio bursts with astounding levels of energy, which are called Fast Radio Bursts (FRB’S). Such a flash was observed in 2001, a brilliant burst of light breaching the skies was observed. This event was so powerful that in the matter of seconds, power was released that was equivalent to that of 500 million suns. Just as fast as it had come, the signal disappeared in the matter of milliseconds.  Ever since such an occurrence in 2001, approximately 30 of such flashes have been identified. However, new estimates indicate that these flashes occur almost every second. Dr.Avi Loeb, science professor of Harvard University, says that “in the time it takes you to drink a cup of coffee, hundreds of FRB’s may have gone off somewhere in the universe.”  The origins these flashes remain unknown but an explanation may have been found. The FRB 121102 is the only one of such flashes that repeats. In fact, scientists have observed at least 150 flashes fro...

It was once said by Dr. Wei-Chun Jao, lead author of a new study and research scientist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Georgia State: “Finding old stars could also lead to the discovery of new planets. Maybe we can find some old ancient civilizations around these old stars. Maybe these stars have some planets around them that we don’t know about.”  Our home galaxy, The Milky Way, reaches an age that is approximately 14 billion years. It’s a very massive galaxy. Within this galaxy, the most antediluvian stars were formed in its early stages of formation, making them about six to nine billion years old. Such stars are found in the halo, a roughly spherical component of the galaxy that was one of the first to form and within it, old stars advance in eccentric orbits. However, younger stars in The Milky Way rotate together along the galaxy’s disk in nearly circular motions, resembling horses on a merry-go-round. This study primarily focused on senior stars, known as co...

Prepare for astounding investigation, for the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has elaborated the 13 proposals that will compromise the initial set of scientific observations carried out by the highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).  The James Webb Space Telescope is a component of NASA’s Next Generation Telescope program that is to be launched in 2019, developed by NASA, Canadian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency.  JWST will ultimately provide unprecedented resolution and amazing sensitivity from the long-wavelength visible light through the mid-infrared range. John C. Mather, senior project scientist for the Webb telescope and senior astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland spoke out about the telescope in a news release: “I’m thrilled to see the list of astronomer’s most fascinating targets for the Webb telescope and extremely eager to see the results. We fully expect to be surprised by what we find.” ...

This weird yet amazing Cosmic Snake galaxy is actually behind a massive galaxy cluster called MACS J1206.2-0847, but thanks to the cluster’s gravity, we can see it directly from Earth. Light from the distant galaxy arrives at Earth, having been distorted by the gigantic gravitational influence of the intervening cluster. The ‘Cosmic Snake’ galaxy. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble. Fascinatingly, instead of making it more difficult to perceive cosmological objects, such strong lensing effects improve the resolution and depth of an image by magnifying the background object. Sometimes gravitational lensing can even produce multiple images of the object as light is bent in different directions around the foreground cluster.  Using Hubble, Dr. Antonio Cava of the Université de Genève and co-authors looked at several such images of the Cosmic Snake, each with a different level of magnification. “The amplified images are more precise, luminous, and allows us to observe details up to 100 ...

It has been asked frequently-- how come only the past is present in our memories and not the future? Why time travel is not an actuality and the process of aging is irreversible? Why is entropy a definitive constant? What came before the Big Bang? Was time existent before the Big Bang?  The answers to these complex questions can be potentially traced to the moment of the Big Bang. Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist of California Institute of Technology whose research focuses on theoretical physics, astrophysics and issues in cosmology, gravitation and field theory addresses this question below. Time definitively infuses our lives for it is constantly measured. It’s tracked, put to use, machines employ time and others are built to keep track of its passage and measure it just as a ruler measures distances. There is a stark difference between the ruler and the clock-- time doesn’t necessarily employ distances but it does take use of direction pointing past from future. Sean Carroll’...

Aliens-- always a prevalent topic of discussion and one sparking controversy. It is known to everyone that scientists have been searching for extraterrestrial planets for signs of life. Now, in the hope of making contact with aliens, a message beamed by scientists towards two planets potentially capable of supporting life. The message was directed towards GJ 273-- known as Luyten’s star, a red dwarf, lying 12.36 light years away from Earth but scientists estimate that it will take a mere 12 years to reach it. If any aliens reside on the planets and the message is received and understood by them, and a reply is sent, then it is expected to be received in the duration of the northern hemisphere’s summer solstice in 2042 (June 21st, 2042). However, the plan set in motion does not please all-- Stephen Hawking, amongst other experts, warns us that if aliens were ever to discover life on Earth, it is very probable that such a discovery could be the end of a civilization. Life on Earth would...

The LIGO discovery, the finding of a merger of 30-solar-mass black holes made astronomers question just how common black holes of such enormous sizes are and the frequency of their mergers. Astronomers of the University of California, Irvine led by UCI chair and James Bullock , professor of physics and astronomy conducted this research .   An artist’s conception shows two black holes in the process of merging. (LIGO / Caltech / MIT Illustration) This research was focused on a cosmic inventory to calculate and categorize stellar-remnant black holes and found that it is highly probable that tens of millions black holes exist in the Milky Way. It is a number far higher than previously expected. James Bullock who is also co-author of the research paper printed in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society said the following about the discovery: “We think we’re shown that there are as many as 100 million black holes in our galaxy.” UCI’s celestial census began a bit over...

Earth’s been getting hit by the fast moving high energy cosmic rays bursting off from outer space. These cosmic rays comprise positrons in a small proportion. But there’s something more, in a greater amount, coming our way. In 2008 PAMELA, a probe in Earth’s orbit, detected more high energy positrons approaching nearby expanse of our galaxy, but nobody was completely sure how they’re formed.   The pulsar at the heart of Crab Nebula (NASA). Astronomers analyzed the data gathered from the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory and suggested that these antimatter particles are coming from powerful celestial objects known as pulsars . A pulsar is a highly magnetized neutron star channeling a beam of electromagnetic radiations. It works like a huge particle accelerator; shattering particles together and creating matter from energy, when the beam collides with contiguous gasses and dust. Theoretically, particles like electrons and positrons happen to form, which are abruptly...

An observatory in West Virginia picked up 15 bright radio pulses from a dwarf galaxy, 3 billion light years, earlier this year. The initial results, based on observations carried out by a team of astronomers and astrophysicists, postulate these pulses to have emerged from an unknown source, labelled as FRB 121102. It’s a source of fast radio bursts (FRBs).  They were first detected in 2001, and as the name suggests, FRBs are super-fast and really powerful burst of radio signals. But we still have no idea what causes them.   "The repeating FRB source is an anomaly in the population right now; it's the only one of its kind," says Emily Petroff, a post-doctoral researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy. However, Petroff was not directly involved in the current observations.   "We're trying hard to find more (either by checking to see if other FRBs repeat, or trying to find more FRBs and monitor them)," Petroff wrote in an email. "Keep in...