First dreamed up decades ago, the world’s first nuclear clocks are set to improve quickly, becoming more precise and aiding the hunt for dark matter.
Category: cosmology
The Big Bang miracle
We think of our accounts of the universe and cosmology as well-founded and value-free. The Big Bang theory is surely one of those. But critics argue this is not the case. It was first put forward by a Catholic priest and physicist, Georges Lemaître, who initially called it the ‘hypothesis of the primeval atom’ — the primeval atom being created by God. As the originator of cosmic inflation theory, Alan Guth, points out the Big Bang says nothing about what banged, why it banged, or what happened before it banged.
From Supernova Physics to Fusion Energy: The Laser Experiments Changing Science — Dr. Mario Manuel
Fusion energy is no longer just science fiction — it’s becoming experimental reality. Dr. Mario Manuel, Ph.D. — General Atomics.
What if we could recreate the inside of a star — not in theory, but inside a laboratory on Earth using the world’s most powerful lasers?
Dr. Mario Manuel, Ph.D. is a plasma physicist and laser-science researcher at whose work sits at the frontier of fusion energy, laboratory astrophysics, high-energy-density physics, and advanced laser diagnostics. Trained in applied plasma physics and aerospace engineering, Dr. Manuel has spent his career developing new ways to visualize and understand the extreme electromagnetic environments created when ultra-powerful lasers interact with matter.
Dr. Manuel’s research has spanned some of the most ambitious scientific efforts underway today — from inertial fusion energy and plasma-instability control to recreating supernova-like shock waves in the laboratory and generating ultra-intense gamma-ray and particle beams using petawatt-class lasers.
Early in his career, Dr. Manuel helped pioneer advanced proton-radiography techniques capable of imaging invisible electric and magnetic fields inside laser-produced plasmas, work that opened new windows into the turbulent physics that can either enable or destroy fusion reactions.
Collapsing stars could spawn mini-universes, offering new path to gravastars
Stars shine because atoms fuse in their interiors, releasing energy. When a very massive star has exhausted its nuclear fuel, radiation pressure can no longer provide sufficient counterforce to gravity. The star then collapses under its own mass until only a single point remains: the singularity.
While the formation of a black hole appears plausible, black holes themselves continue to pose major challenges for science. How can 10 billion solar masses concentrate at a single tiny point? How can spacetime be curved infinitely at that point, the singularity? At this stage, the laws of physics break down, making it impossible to predict what happens. Moreover, black holes conceal all information from observation: Everything, including light, disappears irretrievably beyond the event horizon.
Does the Universe Contain Negative-Mass Particles?
The mainstream of cosmology asserts that 84% of the matter in the Universe is invisible, labeled as “dark matter”. The total matter which accounts for attractive gravity amounts to 32% of the cosmic mass-energy budget, while the remaining 68% — in the form of “dark energy”- induces repulsive gravity. The ordinary matter that we are made of, makes only 5% of the cosmic budget. We are made of rare materials in the cosmic context!
Since the dark matter and dark energy components are invisible, we had not observed them directly but only inferred them indirectly through their gravitational influence. This is all fine as long as gravity is the curvature of spacetime, as formulated by Albert Einstein in 1916. Despite the overwhelming consensus of the mainstream, the nature of dark matter and dark energy remains unknown following a century of unsuccessful searches. Is it possible that these constituents are fictitious “ghosts” that do not actually exist, but were imagined because Einstein’s equations fail to describe gravity correctly on cosmic scales?
I spent the day today brainstorming through this possibility along the following lines.
Cosmic acceleration holds up as new analysis rebuts slowdown claim
Our universe’s expansion is still accelerating despite recent claims suggesting otherwise, an international team of astrophysicists says.
They refuted a study published last year claiming the growth of the universe is slowing and insist there is no flaw in the widely accepted theory that a mysterious force known as dark energy is driving the expanding cosmos.
The researchers, who include two Nobel laureates and represent institutions worldwide, say the debate that followed last November’s revelations was the result of a scientific misunderstanding rather than a cosmic grenade threatening to blow apart everything we know about the universe.
An underground detector in China unveils its first major findings about mysterious ghost particles
A massive underground detector aimed at understanding the mysterious ghost particles in our universe released its first major results on Wednesday.
The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory in China started collecting data in August with the goal of understanding neutrinos: tiny cosmic particles that date back to the Big Bang and whiz harmlessly through our bodies by the trillions every second. Yet they weigh almost nothing, making them difficult to sniff out.
In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, the JUNO team unveiled its initial findings from two months of data collection—including some of the most precise measurements to date of how neutrinos switch between three varieties, or flavors, as they zip through space.
