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Cosmology News

The great and the (quite) good: best books of 2009 Monday, August 30, 2010 @ 4:07AMThe UK's Royal Society announces its shortlist for the best science books of 2009, but it misses out on some great reads
First mega black holes were born soon after Big Bang Monday, August 30, 2010 @ 2:29AMA panel illustrating the complexity of dynamical evolution in a typical collision between two equal-mass disk galaxies. The simulation follows dark matter, stars, gas, and supermassive black holes, but only the gas component is visualised.
Dark Matter Detector Poised for Magical Mystery Tour Friday, August 27, 2010 @ 2:37PMA cosmic ray detector designed to search for antimatter made its way to the Kennedy Space Center Friday in preparation for a February launch that will take it to the International Space Station on the final space shuttle flight. The detector, called the "Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer," was flown in from the CERN Labs in Switzerland.
In the tracks of Goanna, a dream takes shape Friday, August 27, 2010 @ 12:10PMFew people try to hold a world in the palm of their hand. Shane Howard holds a world made of two worlds where the wash of two cultures flows and ebbs.
Blog - Fine Structure Constant Varies With Direction in Space, Says New Data Wednesday, August 25, 2010 @ 11:30PMA spatial variation in the fine structure constant has profound implications for cosmology Over the years, many physicists have wondered whether the fundamental constants of nature might have been different when the universe was younger. If so, the evidence ought to be out there in the cosmos where we can see distant things exactly as they were in the past.
Blog - Fine Structure Constant Varies with Direction in Space, Says New Data Wednesday, August 25, 2010 @ 11:30PMA spatial variation in the fine structure constant has profound implications for cosmology. Over the years, many physicists have wondered whether the fundamental constants of nature might have been different when the universe was younger. If so, the evidence ought to be out there in the cosmos where we can see distant things exactly as they were in the past.
How The First Super-Massive Black Holes Were Born Wednesday, August 25, 2010 @ 9:38PMby Staff Writers Columbus OH (SPX) Aug 26, 2010 Astronomers believe they have discovered the origin of our universe's first super-massive black holes, which formed some 13 billion years ago.
Unsatisfied with three degrees Wednesday, August 25, 2010 @ 5:13PMRecent graduate Evan Randles, 25, returns to classes this fall after completing seven years of undergraduate studies and acquiring three degrees. “Ideally, in exactly one year from now I will be entering as a first year student into a doctorates program,” Randles said.
How The First Super-massive Black Holes Were Born Wednesday, August 25, 2010 @ 3:14PMAstronomers believe they have discovered the origin of our universe's first super-massive black holes, which formed some 13 billion years ago.The discovery fills in a missing chapter of our universe's early history, and could help write the next chapter -- in which scientists better understand how gravity and dark matter formed the universe as we know it.In the journal Nature, Ohio State ...
Sam Harris: The Moral Landscape: Q & A with Sam Harris Wednesday, August 25, 2010 @ 1:37PM1. Are there right and wrong answers to moral questions? Morality must relate, at some level, to the well-being of conscious creatures. If there are...
The Moral Landscape : Thinking About Human Values in Universal Terms Wednesday, August 25, 2010 @ 1:34PMRead Sam Harris's other articles on HuffingtonPost.com
Colliding Galaxies Created the First Black Holes Wednesday, August 25, 2010 @ 12:55PMHow were the Universe’s first supermassive black holes formed? A new model of the evolution of galaxies and black holes show collisions show that colliding galaxies likely spawned black holes that formed about 13 billion years ago. The discovery fills in a missing chapter of our universe's early history, and could help write the next [...]
First mega black holes were born soon after 'Big Bang' Wednesday, August 25, 2010 @ 12:28PMThe first "supermassive" black holes were created relatively soon after the Big Bang that created the Universe, a finding which could rewrite theories about the formation of galaxies, scientists said on Wednesday.
When galaxies collide: How the first super-massive black holes were born (w/ Video) Wednesday, August 25, 2010 @ 12:08PMAstronomers believe they have discovered the origin of our universe's first super-massive black holes, which formed some 13 billion years ago.
TEDTalks: Lee Hotz: Inside an Antarctic time machine Wednesday, August 25, 2010 @ 9:24AMScience columnist Lee Hotz describes a remarkable project at WAIS Divide, Antarctica, where a hardy team are drilling into ten-thousand-year-old ice to extract vital data...
How astrocoders have mapped the universe Wednesday, August 25, 2010 @ 6:44AMIn A Grand and Bold Thing, Ann Finkbeiner tells the backstage story of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which has made the best-ever map of the universe
British bacteria are hardy space travelers Tuesday, August 24, 2010 @ 9:22PMby Staff Writers London (UPI) Aug 23, 2010 Bacteria from cliffs on the south coast of England have proved themselves hardy astronauts, surviving a year and a half as space travelers, researchers say.
VI Arnold obituary Tuesday, August 24, 2010 @ 9:38AMMathematician and teacher renowned for his incisive solutions VI Arnold, who has died of pancreatitis aged 72, was a giant of mathematics. A prolific creator and an inspiring teacher, he had one of the sharpest and most imaginative minds in the business. His research was renowned for its clarity and incisiveness. He made major contributions to dynamical systems and singularity theory, with ...
Michael L. Norman Named Director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center Tuesday, August 24, 2010 @ 8:56AMMichael L. Norman has been named to the position of director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego.
Counselling shock for parents at inquest Tuesday, August 24, 2010 @ 5:42AMThe parents of a Staffordshire teenager who was found dead at his student flat discovered at his inquest that he had been receiving counselling for depression from Birmingham University and had previously tried to hang himself.
Franklin Avenue plan would create urban Indian cultural corridor Tuesday, August 24, 2010 @ 12:09AMOrange banners that say "American Indian cultural corridor" recently went up along a small stretch of Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis. They're the first step in a project that organizers hope will change the street's tough reputation, and make it a national attraction.
Cosmic Log: Inside a celestial super-volcano Monday, August 23, 2010 @ 6:50PMScience editor Alan Boyle's Weblog: The galaxy M87's supermassive black hole may not look like an erupting mountain, but it has an effect similar to that of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Iceland - Supermassive black hole - Alan Boyle - Black hole - Natural Disasters and Hazards
Review: How It Ends Monday, August 23, 2010 @ 9:53AMHow does it all end: life, the universe, and everything? Jeff Foust reviews a book by an astronomer who explains how it all will, or at least could, end for humans, the universe, and everything in between.
It's not easy being a humanist Monday, August 23, 2010 @ 7:12AMEditor: I have been reading and thinking about Erroll Treslan's articles on the non-religious perspective. Although I am also a non-religious person, I would like to offer another perspective on the subject.[...]
Blog - How One Idea Solves The Dark Energy and Lithium Abundance Mysteries Monday, August 23, 2010 @ 5:16AMThe same simple idea explains two of cosmology's biggest problems; but also introduces a conundrum of its own One of the great outstanding challenges of modern science is to explain the observations that point to the accelerating expansion of the universe.
Weekly Book Buzz: Reviewing Horror Movie Freak Sunday, August 22, 2010 @ 6:14PM Not much in the way of news and events this week. Kind of the calm before next week’s big release slate which will feature The War of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, the first book in his mega-epic fantasy series. Are you a horror film fan...
Setting sail for the final frontier: A review of Stephen Pyne's 'Voyager' Saturday, August 21, 2010 @ 9:13PMSetting sail for the final frontier: A review of Stephen Pyne's 'Voyager'
Blog - Buttons 'n' Levers Friday, August 20, 2010 @ 11:31PMThe best of the rest from the Physics arXiv this week: Hylogenesis: A Unified Origin for Baryonic Visible Matter and Antibaryonic Dark Matter
On the beginning and end of stories, of you, I and us Friday, August 20, 2010 @ 2:52PMI’ve noticed, of late, that while some stories are scripted to end, others end with a scripting. In other words, there is life after death. I’ve asked myself again and again whether the belief that a story ends when the chapter is closed is the greatest illusion or the most innocent claim.
How Many Physics Professors Does It Take? [Uncertain Principles] Friday, August 20, 2010 @ 2:47PMJohan Larson emails a suggestion for a post topic: How many profs would it take to offer a good, but not necessarily excellent, undergraduate physics degree? I can give you an empirical answer to this: Six. I say that because in the course of my undergraduate physics degree at Williams, I took classes from only six different professors. Five-and-a-half, really, because one of those was half of a ...
Gravitational lens helps solve mystery of dark energy Friday, August 20, 2010 @ 5:35AMUsing a galaxy cluster as a magnifying lens, an international team of astronomers has used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to examine distant regions of the universe. read more
Astronomers use galactic magnifying lens to probe elusive dark energy Thursday, August 19, 2010 @ 2:15PMAn international team of astronomers using gravitational lensing observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken an important step forward in the quest to solve the riddle of dark energy, a phenomenon which mysteriously appears to power the universe's accelerating expansion.
Astronomers Use Galactic Magnifying Lens to Probe Elusive Dark Energy Thursday, August 19, 2010 @ 1:24PMA team of astronomers has used a massive galaxy cluster as a cosmic magnifying lens to study the nature of dark energy for the first time. When combined with existing techniques, their results significantly improve current measurements of the mass and energy content of the universe. The findings appear in the August 20 issue of the journal Science.
El Nido celebrates culture and nature Wednesday, August 18, 2010 @ 9:43AMThe picturesque town of El Nido, Palawan showcased its exotic culture and rich natural resources as it recently marked the 6th Kalugtan Arts Festival.
Einstein@Home volunteer scientists discover new neutron star Monday, August 16, 2010 @ 6:58AMRadio pulsar find put down to grid computing project The Einstein@Home project, one of dozens of grid computing projects that rely on the CPU cycles of volunteers' home and office computers, is being credited with discovery of a new radio pulsar.
New Physics Blogs [Uncertain Principles] Sunday, August 15, 2010 @ 8:47AMA couple of new-to-me but good physics blogs to point out this week: All That Matters by Joerg Heber. This looks like it will be updated weekly-ish, and has a couple of good entries, including a nice write-up of an ultrafast laser experiment that I had flagged to write about before I got distracted by crazy people and lab porn this week. The Dayside by charles Day of Physics Today . This has ...
Old Sudbury mine the site of search for dark matter Sunday, August 15, 2010 @ 6:53AMResearchers are peering deep under the Canadian Shield, in the hopes of unlocking one of the secrets of the universe. The dark matter detectors are at an underground facility at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory.
American Astronomical Society Endorses Astro2010 Decadal Survey Friday, August 13, 2010 @ 7:25PMAmerican Astronomical Society Endorses Astro2010 Decadal Survey
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Gets Top Ranking in NRC Decadal Survey Friday, August 13, 2010 @ 7:25PMLarge Synoptic Survey Telescope Gets Top Ranking in NRC Decadal Survey
Hawking's big-bang team harness SGI super power Friday, August 13, 2010 @ 1:44PMA precise science demands big hardware Cambridge University cosmologists working with physicist Stephen Hawking are getting their first real taste of supercomputing power as they upgrade to Silicon Graphics' Altix UV parallel supers.…
A lifetime of dreams and stories Friday, August 13, 2010 @ 9:00AMTHE Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award has gone to senior western desert artist Jimmy Donegan.
Einstein's helpers discover neutron star via grid computing project Friday, August 13, 2010 @ 8:51AMThe Einstein@Home project – one of dozens of grid computing projects that rely on the CPU cycles of volunteers' home and office computers – is being credited with discovery of a new radio pulsar. Discovery of the pulsar, also known as a neutron star, was first reported by the journal Science's Science Express online site. The pulsar is in the Milky Way, about 17,000 light years from Earth, and...
Einstein@Home Citizen Scientists Discover Weird Pulsar Thursday, August 12, 2010 @ 2:40PMHooray for citizen scientists! The Einstein@Home project has discovered a unusual pulsar approximately 17,000 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula. The project works by people "donating" idle time on their home computers. This is the first deep-space discovery by Einstein@Home, and the finding is credited to Chris and Helen Colvin, from Ames, Iowa in the [...]
Home computers from Iowa and Germany, using Arecibo data, help discover unusual pulsar Thursday, August 12, 2010 @ 2:32PMBy putting their home computers to work when they would otherwise be idle, three people on two continents have discovered a lone pulsar approximately 17,000 light years away in the constellation Vulpecula.
The state at 7 p.m. Wednesday, August 11, 2010 @ 6:32PMRon Todt is the breaking news staffer in Philadelphia.
'Dark matter' search to go underground Wednesday, August 11, 2010 @ 5:26PMCHICAGO, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. physicists say they'll take their search to find and identify the universe's "dark matter" to new depths -- into a Canadian mine almost a mile underground. Dark matter - Cosmology - Astronomy - Canada - Universe
COSMOS Consortium Selects SGI to Accelerate Research on the Origin of the Universe Wednesday, August 11, 2010 @ 3:24PMFREMONT, Calif. & READING, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SGI (NASDAQ:SGI), a global leader in HPC and data center solutions, today announced that the UK Computational Cosmology Consortium (COSMOS), based at the University of Cambridge, has selected SGI® Altix® UV 1000 to support its research. Altix UV will help cosmologists answer questions at the foundation of our understanding of how the universe ...
COSMOS Consortium Selects SGI to Accelerate Research on the Origin of the Universe Wednesday, August 11, 2010 @ 3:15PMFREMONT, Calif. & READING, England----SGI , a global leader in HPC and data center solutions, today announced that the UK Computational Cosmology Consortium , based at the University of Cambridge, has selected SGI® Altix® UV 1000 to support its research.
Making sense of space dust: Researchers explore solar system's origins Wednesday, August 11, 2010 @ 2:25PMMaking sense of space dust: Researchers explore solar system's origins
Researchers Explore Solar System's Origins Wednesday, August 11, 2010 @ 10:27AMThe chemical breakdown of minerals that may be lurking in space dust soon will be available to scientists around the world.Because space dust contains the basic ingredients that form planets, the University of Central Florida physicists' analysis could provide important clues about how the solar system formed and how life emerged.For decades, astrophysicists have been studying these clouds of ...