• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Astronomical News

Galaxies need to have a certain amount of mass relative to the velocities of the stars in them otherwise they would fly apart, at any distance the deficit is deemed to be dark matter. Or something else we totally don't understand is going on.
All highly theoretical (not wrong, just not provably in an absolute scientific manner). No one knows for sure if dark matter holds galaxies, etc together and maintain the velocities (speed) needed for their present position in the universe.
So arouse the theory of dark matter. Which provides a convenient answer for this conundrum.

The following NASA article discusses dark matter and some uncertainty surrounding it.
https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy
 
Last edited:
I wondered if someone could maybe please help me out here?

Trying to explain - 7-year-old granddaughter - why stars were actually distant suns in our galaxy, which is one of many others.

'So, how many stars are there in the universe, Grampa'?

Realised, I didn't actually know the estimate... anyone?

Isn't the estimated answer, almost an unfathomable amount? o_O
 
The short answer seems to be that it's impossible to know.

We know the universe formed 13.8 billion years ago. That means that theoretically we can detect light from stars and galaxies up to 13.8 billion light years in any direction.

However in practical terms the number of stellar objects we can actually detect depends on the sensitivity of our equipment. Since this is constantly improving, we are constantly seeing things we couldn't see before.

However the observable universe is much smaller than the actual universe, since spacetime itself can expand faster than the speed of light.

The consensus seems to be that the early universe expanded extremely rapidly but has since slowed. The precise figures are subject to debate, and so consequently is the total size of the universe and the amount of matter it may contain.

With the naked eye you can actually only see a few thousand stars under ideal viewing conditions (i.e a clear sky with no light pollution).

As for how many stars there are in the so-called observable universe, everyone seems to agree there will actually be far more than our equipment will ever be able to detect.

Current guestimates generally suggest there are around 2 trillion galaxies each containing around 100 million stars.

So whatever that comes to. 2e20 apparently. What's that in English?
 
The consensus seems to be that the early universe expanded extremely rapidly but has since slowed. The precise figures are subject to debate, and so consequently is the total size of the universe and the amount of matter it may contain.
Seriously, so grateful.

I was surprised that the recent evidence - Universe is expanding faster than mathematical models predicted - didn't attract more discussions.

If it's, 'back to the drawing board', is that not somewhat fundemental?
 
Yes, that does suggest there's something pretty fundamentally inaccurate or missing in our current model of the development of the universe
 
Yes, that does suggest there's something pretty fundamentally inaccurate or missing in our current model of the development of the universe
What I predominantly don't understand, is... why we are alive in such an unfathomable cosmos, yet still given enough intelligence to try and figure it out...

This and quite a few other things... meaning of life and all that...

201955_112216557.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jim
In the very early universe the rate of expansion increased to a fantastic rate, but this very very fast expansion only lasted a fraction of a second (the so-called Inflation Era). Subsequently expansion slowed almost to a halt. Since that time, expansion has been slowly speeding up again, but it seems that the rate of increase in expansion in the current era is slightly higher than was previously believed. What this means for the future is anyone's guess, but it may mean that we a re heading for a Big Rip scenario.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip
 
Subaru Telescope captures 1800 exploding stars

Date: May 31, 2019

Source: Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe

Summary:The Subaru Telescope has captured images of more than 1800 exploding stars in the Universe, some located 8 billion light years from Earth.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190531085408.htm

'8 billion light years from Earth...'.

Anyone else find this verging on incomprehensible...
 
The world's oldest astronomical (motion picture) film is believed to be this one, from 1900 ...
Magician's Film of 1900 Solar Eclipse Is World's Oldest Astronomical Movie (And It's Pure Magic)

Magicians are known for making things disappear, but when the sun vanished from the sky on May 28, 1900, it happened not through a sleight of hand, but because of a solar eclipse.

There was magic in the air that day after all — movie magic. Nevil Maskelyne, a performing magician who also happened to be a pioneering filmmaker, preserved the spectacular event — as the moon passed between Earth and the sun — on celluloid, from a location in North Carolina.

More than a century later, Maskelyne's film of the eclipse has been digitally scanned and restored in a collaboration between the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and the British Film Institute (BFI), and is free to view online. The film, titled "Solar Eclipse," is thought to be the world's oldest surviving astronomical film ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/65619-magician-made-oldest-solar-eclipse-film.html

ADDITIONAL LINK to online video: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-solar-eclipse-1900-online
 
https://earthsky.org/space/mudball-meteorite-fall-aguas-zarcas-costa-rica-2019
------------------------------------------------------
Meteorite falls on Earth are fairly common, but not all meteorites are the same. Some of them are “mud balls,” rich in clays, organic compounds and water-bearing minerals, called carbonaceous chondrites. They are of great interest to scientists, due to their unique composition, and now a bunch more prime specimens have been found, which rained down after a large fireball was seen over Aguas Zarcas, a small town in Costa Rica, on April 23, 2019.

The fireball was a meteor, or space rock, entering the Earth’s atmosphere that broke apart into hundreds of smaller pieces. When the pieces of this rock hit the ground, their name changed to meteorite. One meteorite fragment weighed about two pounds and smashed through the roof of a house, destroying the owner’s dining table. Another one crashed through the roof of a dog house, narrowly missing a sleeping dog. Close calls!
 
All highly theoretical (not wrong, just not provably in an absolute scientific manner). No one knows for sure if dark matter holds galaxies, etc together and maintain the velocities (speed) needed for their present position in the universe.
So arouse the theory of dark matter. Which provides a convenient answer for this conundrum.

The following NASA article discusses dark matter and some uncertainty surrounding it.
https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy

Looks like someone checked down the back of the sofa;

A huge discovery that was incompatible with our current theories of dark matter and galaxy formation may have just been resolved.

After a new analysis, astronomers have determined that NGC1052-DF2 - found last year to contain absolutely no dark matter - is a lot closer to us than previous calculations estimated. Which means that it likely does have dark matter after all.

Science Alert
 
Crash bang wallop what a picture! It says in the article the blue is probably ice, but maybe under the red dust and rock there is blue dust and rock?
 
A quick Google reveals there is cobalt on Mars, but I don't know if it looks like that. Or would look like that if you hit it with a meteorite.

One article I saw on this impact crater mentioned the possibility the blue-ish area might be ice from which the covering soil / dust was blown away by the meteor strike.
 
Back
Top