It could be a strange way of achieving immortality—or at least, everlasting life for copies of you.
A spinning plasma ring mimics the rotating structure surrounding a black hole.
Astrophysicists have many questions about the so-called accretion disk that forms from plasma and other matter falling into a black hole. Now researchers have generated a rotating ring of plasma in an unconfined arrangement in the lab, which will enable more realistic studies of plasma in astrophysical disks [1]. The lab plasma also produced a jet perpendicular to the disk, as real black holes do. The experiment could provide a platform for testing theories describing the evolution of astrophysical disks.
According to observations, the matter in a black hole accretion disk spirals inward at a rate that is thousands of times faster than would be expected from turbulence-free rotation. The leading explanation involves turbulence generated in part by the interaction of magnetic fields with the plasma in the disk, but this theory is difficult to test without a lab plasma that rotates rapidly. Such an experimental system would also allow researchers to investigate accretion disks around massive objects other than black holes.
A panoramic image of the M87 black hole.
A black hole is a place in space where the gravitational field is so strong that not even light can escape it. Astronomers classify black holes into three categories by size: miniature, stellar, and supermassive black holes. Miniature black holes could have a mass smaller than our Sun and supermassive black holes could have a mass equivalent to billions of our Sun.
Thanks to data from a magnified, multiply imaged supernova, a team led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers has successfully used a first-of-its-kind technique to measure the expansion rate of the universe. Their data provide insight into a longstanding debate in the field and could help scientists more accurately determine the universe’s age and better understand the cosmos.
The work is divided into two papers, respectively published in Science and The Astrophysical Journal.
In astronomy, there are two precise measurements of the expansion of the universe, also called the “Hubble constant.” One is calculated from nearby observations of supernovae, and the second uses the “cosmic microwave background,” or radiation that began to stream freely through the universe shortly after the Big Bang.
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has captured a “GigaMoon” — a 1.3-gigapixel highly-detailed image of the Moon made from 280,000 photos.
It’s an image that McCarthy has wanted to capture for a long time, with multiple attempts thwarted by poor conditions.
The object’s gravity and velocity, the study suggested, would have ignited the gas and left a blazing trail of stars in its wake. This exciting discovery would mark the first observation of a rogue supermassive black hole — objects that are theorized to roam the universe after being ejected from their host galaxy, possibly due to collisions with other black holes.
Now, new research hints at a more mundane explanation.
The new study, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics (opens in new tab), suggests that the weirdly thin streak might simply be a flat galaxy viewed on its edge, like the rim of a plate. Unlike the Milky Way, this supposed galaxy would not have a bulge of stars at its center but would be totally flat — a relatively common type of galaxy called a thin or flat galaxy.
Lurking in the darkness of space, black holes are notorious for shredding stars that venture too close, and then gobbling them up. But astronomers have had only a rudimentary understanding of that dramatic process.
A new study sheds some light. Astronomers have spotted streams of star matter that came full circle around black holes and bumped into themselves. Such collisions were long theorized, but the new observations for the first time provide a direct look at the early stages of disk-forming around black holes.
Making a wormhole that a human could theoretically travel through would require an upside-down universe and negative energy.
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A new way to gauge the universe’s expansion rate has delivered a confusing result that may conflict with previous related measurements.
