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As if the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy weren't vexing enough, another baffling cosmic puzzle has been discovered. Patches of matter in the universe seem to be moving at very high speeds and in a uniform direction that can't be explained by any of the known gravitational forces in the observable universe. Astronomers are calling the phenomenon "dark flow." The stuff that's pulling this matter must be outside the observable universe, researchers conclude.

Scientists using data from the U.S. space agency's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe have identified an unexpected motion in distant galaxy clusters. National Aeronautics and Space Administration researchers say the cause of the motion might be the gravitational attraction of matter that lies beyond the observable universe. "The clusters show a small but measurable velocity that is independent of the universe's expansion and does not change as distances increase," said lead researcher Alexander Kashlinsky at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "We never expected to find anything like this."

Goldilocks isn’t the only one who demanded everything to be “just right.” The Earth and its fellow seven planets also needed perfect conditions to form as observed, and those right conditions occur rarely, a new computer simulation shows. The new simulation, described in the Aug. 8 Science, is the first to trace from beginning to end how planetary systems form from an initial gas disk encircling a baby star. “The really striking result of the new model is how chaotic and even violent the average story of a planet’s birth is,” says Edward Thommes, an astrophysicist now at the University...

GREENBELT, Md. (CNS) -- An adjunct professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington has devised a new way to see outer space -- from the moon. Astrophysicist Peter Chen, along with colleagues Michael Van Steenberg, Ronald Oliversen and Douglas Rabin at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, has pioneered a method to create giant telescope mirrors on the moon. "We can do something really unique here. We can go to the moon and create a large telescope 20 or 50 meters across. This is far out of anything that exists on earth," said Chen in an interview with Catholic...

Einstein rings produced by a galaxy behind the lensing galaxy. The sources are actually extended and that is why one sometimes sees arcs rather than complete rings. Credit: Photo credit: NASA, ESA, and the SLACS Survey team: A. Bolton (Harvard/Smithsonian), S. Burles (MIT), L. Koopmans (Kapteyn), T. Treu (UCSB), and L. Moustakas (JPL/Caltech) The mathematicians were trying to extend an illustrious result in their field, the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra. The astrophysicists were working on a fundamental problem in their field, the problem of gravitational lensing. That the two groups were in fact working on the same question is...

<p>Conveyor of a super-Einsteinian theory of gravitation that explains, among many other post-Einstein-effects, the Sun-Earth-Connection and the true cause of the global climate changes.</p> <p>As the glaciological and tree ring evidence shows, climate change is a natural phenomenon that has occurred many times in the past, both with the magnitude as well as with the time rate of temperature change that have occurred in the recent decades. The following facts prove that the recent global warming is not man-made but is a natural phenomenon.</p>

Images from the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed a so-called "ring of dark matter" circling a galaxy cluster. Does dark matter exist? Or is electricity a better explanation for the structure of the universe? {Galaxy Cluster CL0024+17 with an overlay showing a supposed dark matter ring. Credit: NASA, ESA, M. J. Jee and H. Ford et al. (Johns Hopkins University)} In a recent announcement, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) reported the discovery of something in deep space that seems to confirm previously inferred observations of "dark matter." Although "dark matter" cannot be seen or detected by instruments, its...

When most of us arrived home with our newly purchased PS3, we couldn't wait to start annihilating aliens in Resistance: Fall of Man or kicking butt kung fu-style in Virtua Fighter 5. Not astrophysicist Gaurav Khanna - he used his to build a supercomputer. Khanna now owns a total of 16 PS3 consoles, all linked together to provide the same computing power as a 400-node supercomputer. His set up, which he calls a 'gravity grid', is used to simulate the activity of very large black holes for the Physics Department at the University of Massachusetts. Stacked Sonies: the 'gravity grid'...

The existence of black holes is perhaps the most fascinating prediction of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. When any mass, such as a star, becomes more compact than a certain limit, its own gravity becomes so strong that the object collapses to a singular point, a black hole. In the popular mind, this immense gravity well is a place where strange things happen. And now, a Center for Astrophysics-led team has measured a black hole spinning so rapidly - turning more than 950 times per second - that it pushes the predicted speed limit for rotation. "I would say that...

MOSCOW. Oct 3 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia will orbit its Radioastron telescope by the end of 2008, said Nikolai Kardashev, head of the Russian Physics Institute's Astro-Space Center. "It is expected that the astrophysical observatory Radioastron will be orbited in late 2007. A slight delay is possible. I think that in any case this will not happen later than 2008," Kardashev told a news conference on Tuesday. The total cost in creating the telescope is about 3 billion rubles, he said.

Home About Edge Features Edge Editions Press Edge Search A striking consequence of the new picture of the world is that there should be an infinity of regions with histories absolutely identical to ours. That's right, scores of your duplicates are now reading copies of this article. They live on planets exactly like Earth, with all its mountains, cities, trees, and butterflies. There should also be regions where histories are somewhat different from ours, with all possible variations. For example, some readers will be pleased to know that there are infinitely many O-regions where Al Gore is the President...

An international research team led by Prof. Michael Kramer of the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory, UK, has used three years of observations of the "double pulsar", a unique pair of natural stellar clocks which they discovered in 2003, to prove that Einstein's theory of general relativity - the theory of gravity that displaced Newton's - is correct to within a staggering 0.05%. Their results are published on the14th September in the journal Science and are based on measurements of an effect called the Shapiro Delay. The double pulsar system, PSR J0737-3039A and B, is 2000 light-years away in...

Pluto got its walking papers yesterday. Throw away the place mats. Redraw the classroom charts. Take a pair of scissors to the solar system mobile. After years of wrangling and a week of debate, astronomers voted for a sweeping reclassification of the solar system. In what many of them described as a triumph of science over sentiment, Pluto was demoted to the status of a “dwarf planet.” In the new solar system as defined by the International Astronomical Union, meeting in Prague, there are eight planets instead of nine, at least three dwarf planets and tens of thousands of so-called...

One of the brightest and furthest known objects in the universe might not be a black hole as traditionally believed, but rather an exotic new type of object, a new study suggests. (snip)

Scientists studying the energy output of black holes have discovered to their surprise that "the conversion of energy by matter falling toward a black hole is much more efficient than nuclear or fossil fuels" - so much so that "if a car was as fuel-efficient as these black holes, it could theoretically travel more than a billion miles on a gallon of gas". That's according to boffins at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, who studied the inner regions of nine elliptical galaxies with a view to determining the rate at which gas is being sucked towards said galaxies' supermassive black holes....

A pair of supermassive black holes in the distant universe are intertwined and spiraling toward a merger that will create a single super-supermassive black hole capable of swallowing billions of stars, according to a new study by astronomers at the University of Virginia, Bonn University and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. The study appears in the April 6, 2006 issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Black holes are among the oldest regions of the universe and hold clues to understanding the formation of the universe and its destiny. Though astronomers have theorized that coupled black holes exist, and that...

A proposal to scrap leap seconds - small adjustments made to clock time - could create chaos for astronomers and satellite operators, it is claimed. Every six months, the Paris Observatory tells the world whether to add or subtract a second from atomic clocks. This synchronises clock time with the solar time used by astronomers. The US plan to abolish leap seconds would force astronomers to look for new ways to make sure their telescopes are pointed in the right part of the sky. The Earth isn't a very good timekeeper Peter Whibberley, NPL The row highlights the tug of...

n a kind of belated birthday present to Albert Einstein, whose theory of relativity is 100 years old this year, astronomers say they have confirmed an essential but previously unconfirmed prediction of general relativity, namely that the entire universe can act as a magnifying lens. The light from distant quasars, enigmatic and violent galaxy-birthing events on the shores of time, some 10 billion light-years away, has been magnified by the gravitational force of lumps and irregularities in the structure of the nearby cosmos. So the quasars appear slightly brighter in telescopes than they actually are, according to a multinational team...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The boys were halfway across a snowfield when the German airplane appeared. Their rifles, clumsily camouflaged, were sticking out of their backpacks. They stood frozen as the plane buzzed in tighter and tighter circles around them, wondering if they should run for the only possible shelter, a large boulder in the middle of the field. It might finally have been curtains for the Kavli boys, Fred and Aslak. "If we'd run, we would have been done for," Fred Kavli, 77, recalled recently, his head thrown back as he communed with memories of an adventurous youth in...

Are We Alone? A Tête-à-Tête Between Neil deGrasse Tyson and Peter Ward Despite decades of concerted effort by radio astronomers working on the project known as SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, we've had no sign of beings elsewhere in the universe that match or exceed us in smarts. That's just one of many pieces of evidence that paleontologist Peter Ward, coauthor of Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe, points to when claiming that intelligent life beyond Earth must be exceedingly rare. Since many other scientists believe advanced life is common out there—Carl Sagan estimated...

The corpses of three "dead" galaxies - which to the surprise of astronomers stopped forming stars long ago - have been identified by the Spitzer Space Telescope during a survey of the distant, early universe. The find bolsters a theory that colossal black holes can starve galaxies of the gas needed to create new stars. An infrared telescope on Earth first found the galaxies two years ago. They appeared red - a sign that most of their stars were old. But our planet's own heat clouded the observations, making it impossible to rule out whether dust was obscuring the light...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Scientists may not have to go over to the dark side to explain the fate of the universe.The theory that the accelerated expansion of the universe is caused by mysterious "dark energy" is being challenged by New York University physicist Georgi Dvali. He thinks there's just a gravity leak.Scientists have known since the 1920s that the universe is expanding. In the late 1990s, they realized that it is expanding at an ever-increasing pace. At a loss to explain the stunning discovery, cosmologists blamed it on dark energy, a newly coined term to describe the mysterious antigravity force...

Parallel Universes exist in other Circuits, Indian Cosmo Theorist - MIL, Feb 15, 2005. Chun Seoul - Dr. Raj Baldev, Cosmo Theorist from India, replied in my interview " As the scientists have found more than 1000 planets covered with ice beyond Neptune last week, similarly they will one day confirm that there are many Universes in other Circuits." When asked why scientists are puzzled as a result of getting more and more peculiar revelations and they are obviously not matching with the single Big Bang Theory, Dr. Raj Baldev replied: " It is just because the scientists erroneously picked...

Going Beyond Einstein: Spacetime Wave Orbits Black Hole San Diego, CA--Astronomers Jon Miller (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and Jeroen Homan (MIT) have seen evidence of hot iron gas riding a ripple in spacetime around a black hole. This spacetime wave, if confirmed, would represent a new phenomenon that goes beyond Einstein's general relativity. These observations confirm one important theory about how a black hole's extreme gravity can stretch light. The data also paint an intriguing image of how a spinning black hole can drag the very fabric of space around with it, creating a choppy spacetime sea that distorts everything...

One of the universe's great mysteries, how we came to exist, has been solved. Astronomers have long wondered why the infant universe did not simply spread out evenly after the Big Bang 14 billion years ago, creating a cosmos filled with nothing more than a uniform mist of matter. Instead, matter mysteriously clumped together, forming stars, galaxies, planets - and finally us. A team of 30 Australian and British astronomers has found the "missing link" between the early fog-like universe and the lumpy one we see today. Using the 3.9 metre Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring, near Coonabarabran, the team...

This is a great link to all kinds of Astronomy and Astrophysics webpages.

In Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," the title character declares, "But I am constant as the Northern Star, of whose true fixed and resting quality there is no fellow in the firmament." In modern astronomical terms, Caesar was saying that he was a flaky, unstable guy. Astronomers have known for some time that Polaris, the North Star, sitting almost directly over the North Pole, is a Cepheid variable, a type of star that is caught in a cycle of bloating and collapsing because it has exhausted its hydrogen fuel. In this unsettled state, Polaris brightens and dims every four days or so,...

Observations of giant clouds of galaxies far out in space and time have revealed new evidence that some mysterious force began to push the cosmos apart six billion years ago, astronomers said yesterday. The results constitute striking confirmation of one of the weirdest discoveries of modern science: that the expansion of the universe seems to be accelerating, the galaxies flying apart faster and faster with time, under the influence of some antigravitational force. The work, astronomers said, opens up a powerful new way of investigating the nature of this "dark energy" and its effect on the destiny of the cosmos....

What Is a Cosmos? The Greek Idea of Cosmos and its Contemporary Meaning By David Fideler The Greek word cosmos cannot be translated into a single English word, but refers to an equal presence of order and beauty. When the Greek philosopher Pythagoras first called the universe a cosmos, he did so because it is a living embodiment of nature’s order, beauty, and harmony. The fact that the physical world embodies beauty and harmony can be demonstrated in many ways, but rational proof is only required when we have forgotten our own connection with the underlying fabric of life. When...

OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 13 — At least three advanced diagnostic tests suggest that an experiment at the Brookhaven National Laboratory has cracked open protons and neutrons like subatomic eggs to create a primordial form of matter that last existed when the universe was roughly one-millionth of a second old, scientists said here on Tuesday. The hot, dense substance, called a quark-gluon plasma, has managed to generate intense disputes in the 15 years or so in which scientists have pursued it. In 2000, a major European laboratory claimed that it had, for the first time, liberated particles called quarks from where...

Do We Live In A "Stop And Go" Universe? Anyone who drives is familiar with the frustration of being caught in "stop and go" traffic, a phenomenon found in urban areas all over the world. Astronomers have found that stop-and-go traffic is even more widespread than that, affecting galaxies throughout the universe. Today at the 202nd meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Robert Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), on behalf of the international High-z Supernova Search Team led by Brian Schmidt (Mount Stromlo Observatory), presented evidence that the expanding universe slowed for billions of years before galaxies began accelerating,...

09 April 2003SETI – The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence“Next we come to a question that everyone, scientist and non-scientist alike, must have asked at some time. What is man’s place in the Universe?” The Nature of the Universe, Fred Hoyle. In March this year 13,000 people from across the U.S converged on Philadelphia for the largest meeting of science educators in the world. Many teachers there remarked that their students are always asking about SETI and astronomy. Kids have a keen interest in astronomy and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. What's out there? Are we alone? The first question we...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 September 27 Accretion Disk Simulation Credit: Michael Owen, John Blondin (North Carolina State Univ.) Explanation: Don't be fooled by the familiar symmetry. The graceful spiral structure seen in this computer visualization does not portray winding spiral arms in a distant galaxy of stars. Instead, the graphic shows spiral shock waves in a three dimensional simulation of an accretion disk -- material swirling onto a compact central object...

Asteroid detected in a close call with Earth Thu Jun 20, 4:22 PM ETBy THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer LONDON - An asteroid the size of a soccer field narrowly missed the Earth by 75,000 miles (120,000 kms) last week, in the closest known approach by objects of this size in decades, scientists said Thursday. "In the unlikely event the asteroid had struck Earth in a populated area, it would have caused considerable loss of life," said Grant Stokes, the principal investigator for the Lincoln Laboratory Near Earth Asteroid Research Project, whose New Mexico observatory spotted the object. "The energy...

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada author Clive Douglas Campbell and Phoenix, Arizona, USA publisher Selah Publishing Group are pleased to announce the release of Messiah: 2030. Nobody knows the day and hour of the Second Coming, but the following years are on the front cover: Messiah: 2030 Cluny: 1030 Jesus: 30 David: 970 Abraham: 1970 Noah: 2970 Adam: 3970 Messiah: 2030 claims the Bible prophesies a sixth Arab-Israeli war will be over in 2003 and include the following: --the Palestinians will be deported to Jordan --Israel will go to war with Jordan, possess Jordanian land east of the Jordan River and King...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 April 6 Vintage Gamma Rays Credit: ESA / IAS / CEA-SACLAY Explanation: Gamma-rays are the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation. But these high energy photons penetrate and interact in normal materials and cannot be focused by lenses and mirrors like those in optical telescopes. So how do you make an image in gamma-ray light? One way is to use a patterned mask of material which can...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 March 10 A Southern Sky View Credit amp; Copyright: Gordon Garradd Explanation: On 1996 March 22, a Galaxy and a comet shared the southern sky. They were captured together, from horizon to horizon, in the night sky above Loomberah, New South Wales, Australia by astronomer Gordon Garradd. Garradd used a home made all-sky camera with a fisheye lens, resulting in a circular 200 degree field of view....

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 March 11 The 100-Meter Green Bank Radio Telescope Credit: NRAO, NSF Explanation: The largest single-dish fully steerable radio telescope began operation in 2000 August in Green Bank, West Virginia, USA. Dedicated as the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, the device weighs over 30 times more than the Statue of Liberty, and yet can point anywhere in the sky more precisely than one thousandth of a degree....