Astronomers Seek Source of the Universe's Background Hum
Weekend Edition
NASA's new telescope could spot thousands of exoplanets and hundreds of Earth-size rogue planets, reports CBS News. "The telescope, expected to lift off between October 2026 and May 2027, may have the potential to spot 400 such rogue planets that are similar in mass to Earth, according to new research. It's unknown whether these planets will share any other similarities with Earth beside their mass."
A Background ‘Hum’ Pervades the Universe. Scientists Are Racing to Find Its Source--Astronomers are now seeking to pinpoint the origins of an exciting new form of gravitational waves that was announced earlier this year, reports Jonathan O'Callaghan for Scientific American. "Many experts suspect that the hum mostly emerges from pairs of supermassive black holes spiraling together in the gradual process of merging—but it could instead come from even stranger sources that might represent thrilling new branches of physics.”
JWST spots what could be a quasar from the early Universe--The object’s deep red color suggests it existed when the Universe was less than 700 million years old, reports Nature. A JWST photograph of the galaxy cluster Abell 2744 includes three images of the same red object. Credit: L. J. Furtak et al./Astrophys. J. (CC BY 4.0)
UFO whistleblower David Grusch defends claims in new interview--Whistleblower David Grusch is pushing back against Pentagon officials. July’s congressional UFO hearing has breathed new life in UFO interest. A top Pentagon official called the hearing “insulting", reports NewsNation.
Neil deGrasse Tyson Has a Genius Theory About Alien Life on Earth--"Non-human biologics" has a lot of interpretations, reports The Street. "What would non-human biologics be? All I did was look at the kingdoms of life here on Earth. You have the plant kingdom, you have the animal kingdom, the microbial kingdom, the fungal kingdom," Neil DeGrasse Tyson said. "Let's add them all together and subtract from it humans. Everything that remains is non-human biologic."
What Does 60 Years of Silence Tell Us About the Search for Extraterrestrials? asks Universe Today. "Although it seems odd at first blush, an absence of evidence can tell us things about the universe. Given the fact that we have found no definitive technological radio signals from an alien civilization, we can’t simply conclude that they don’t exist. But a prolonged silence after decades of study does tell us something about the likelihood of aliens, or at least the chances of us finding them.
A Jupiter-size exoplanet formed around a tiny star. Astronomers aren't sure how, reports Robert Lea for Space.com. Planets this big aren't supposed to be found around red dwarfs like TOI-4860.
Jumbo solar arrays installed on NASA’s Psyche mission aircraft--Ahead of the October launch, NASA installed a giant solar array to capture sunlight and convert it into electrical energy to power the spacecraft's systems and instruments, reports Interesting Engineering.
Can You Decode an Alien Message?--An artist, a programmer and a scientist have created a simulation of extraterrestrial communication to test Earthlings’ ability to understand it, reports Scientific American. "This interplanetary art project, called A Sign in Space, is an ongoing experiment: for all of humanity’s hopes for detecting technosignatures, do we have the chops to make sense of them?"
PLATO mission could detect tens of thousands of habitable planets--The European Space Agency will launch PLATO, an exoplanet-hunting mission that will investigate over 245,000 stars for the discovery of planets similar to Earth, reports Interesting Engineering.
Four essential reads on potential contact with aliens, reports The Conversation--"These four articles from our archives dive into what went down during the House subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs that met in July 2023 on why perceived UFO sightings usually have human explanations, and how humanity can learn from history when it comes to engaging with extraterrestrials."
New observations revealed not a linear growth of central black holes with elliptical galaxy size, but “quadratic” growth, reports Cosmos. This means that an elliptical galaxy with twice as much stellar matter will have a central black hole four times bigger. A galaxy with 10 times greater stellar mass will see a 100-fold increase in the size of the supermassive black hole.
Webb telescope stares into a galaxy that's long intrigued scientists--In the 19th century, astronomers weren't sure what it was, reports Mashable.com. "The Webb telescope — the most powerful space observatory ever built — has peered into NGC 6822, showing "countless stars in incredible detail," the European Space Agency (ESA) explained.
Curated by The Galaxy Report editorial staff.