Today’s stories include the Great Filter means we could die out before we discover alien life to White dwarf study suggests planets are as old as their stars to Early meteorites brought enough water to Mars to create a global ocean, and much more.
What is the purpose of this universe? A New Calculation Suggests Our Cosmos Is Typical, reports Charlie Wood for Quanta.com–Two physicists have calculated that the universe has a higher entropy — and is therefore more likely — than alternative possible universes.
Roger Penrose: “Consciousness must be beyond computable physics”–The mathematician shares his latest theories on quantum consciousness, the structure of the universe and how to communicate with civilizations from other cosmological aeons, reports New Scientist.
Will the Galaxies and Intelligences they Host Beyond the Observable universe evolve like our own?The Daily Galaxy asks. “The volume of space-time within range of our telescopes—what astronomers have traditionally called ‘the universe’—is only a tiny fraction of the aftermath of the big bang,” says astrophysicist Martin Rees. “We’d expect far more galaxies located beyond the horizon, unobservable, each of which –along with any intelligences it hosts– will evolve rather like our own.”
NASA’s Webb Draws Back Curtain on Universe’s Early Galaxies,NASA reports. “Everything we see is new. Webb is showing us that there’s a very rich universe beyond what we imagined,” said Tommaso Treu of the University of California at Los Angeles, principal investigator on one of the Webb programs. “Once again the universe has surprised us. These early galaxies are very unusual in many ways.”
No, there isn’t a hole in the Universe–The image you’re seeing isn’t a hole in the Universe, and the cosmic voids that do exist aren’t hole-like at all, reports Big Think. “The picture that normally accompanies it is wildly misleading, showing a dark cloud of gas and dust just a few hundred light-years away, not a large-scale cosmic structure. But the claim itself isn’t true; even in the deepest depths of the largest cosmic voids, lots of matter still remains, and so do stars, galaxies, and numerous electromagnetic signatures.”
Dark matter might be information. Melvin Vopson reports that he is a Senior Lecturer at University of Portsmouth’s School of Mathematics and Physics for iAiTV. “Some have proposed that “information” is the 5th state of matter along solid, liquid, gas and plasma and possibly the dominant form of matter in the universe.”
New concerns arise for astronomers as a giant satellite outshines the stars–Transmissions from BlueWalker 3 also pose threat to radio observatories, reports Science.com. “It’s like exactly what astronomers don’t want,” says astronomer Meredith Rawls of the University of Washington, Seattle, who helps run the International Astronomical Union’s Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference. “It’ll show up as a superbright streak in images and potentially saturate camera detectors at observatories.”
Hunting for ocean worlds that are habitable beyond our solar system–Astronomers think that planets covered in water, with oceans hundreds of meters deep, could be relatively common in our galaxy. New Scientist reports that the race to find one is on.
Early meteorites carried enough water to Mars to form a global ocean–“Meteorites bombarding the Red Planet may have carried so much water that it could have covered the planet in a layer 300 metros deep if spread out, while also depositing molecules essential for life, reports New Scientist.
How to distinguish between a regular black hole or a wormhole–Physicists have worked out how to see whether a black hole is actually a wormhole that could theoretically be travelled through – but we can’t tell yet with the black holes we have observed, reports New Scientist.
Sun-like star found orbiting close to Earth’s nearest black hole reports Astronomy.com–“Located just under 1,600 light-years away, the discovery suggests there might be a sizable population of dormant black holes in binary systems.”
Study of white dwarfs suggests that planets may be as old as their stars.–“Astronomers have long known how planets form, but the when of it has always been unclear. If a Cambridge University team’s conclusion from a study of white dwarf stars proves correct, that question has been answered,” reports The Register.
The Best Way to Search for Extraterrestrial Life–An airborne chemical sends a distinctive biological signal, reports SciTechDaily, “Broccoli, along with many other plants and microorganisms, release gases to aid in the removal of toxins. These gases, according to scientists, might provide strong evidence that there is life on other planets.”
What’s the real reason you can’t go faster than the speed of light?Big Think. “Space and time are unified into a single entity known as spacetime. Each object travels through spacetime at light speed. Even a stationary object is moving at the speed of light, but it is moving only through time and not space.”
Invisible Numbers Are the Most Beautiful Part of Every ‘Space’ Image–We are drawn to breathtaking images of the heavens, but there is beauty in the numbers those images hold, reports Fabio Pacucci for Scientific American.
Highlights From NASA’s Artemis Moon Rocket Launch--The uncrewed mission overcame scrubbed launches, hurricanes and late launchpad drama to kick off a key test of America’s ability to send astronauts back to the moon, reports The New York Times.
Great Filter means we could die out before we discover alien life,The Times of London reports. “Threats such as nuclear war, climate change and pandemics could finish off humanity before we have a chance to discover other intelligent life, continuing a cycle that scientists say may account for why extraterrestrials have not been found despite decades spent looking.”
Is Global Conflict Possible After Alien Contact? asks Supercluster.com –“Anthropologist John Traphagan and geothermal physicist and former United States Air Force Major General, Ken Wisian, published a paper in the journal Space Policy, suggesting that SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, could be dangerous. However, the threat wouldn’t come from invading aliens, but from ourselves and our messy geopolitics.”
Meteorite that landed in Cotswolds may solve mystery of Earth’s water–“a 4.6bn-year-old rock that crashed on to a driveway in Gloucestershire last year has provided some of the most compelling evidence to date that water arrived on Earth from asteroids in the outer solar system,” reports The Guardian.
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