"At the End of Spacetime to Something's Amiss in the Milky Way"
This week’s news begins forbiddingly at the “Gates of Hell” and the “End of Spacetime” and ends with the almost religious question of what will aliens look like when they finally arrive?
“At the End of Spacetime” –Mystery of Magnetic Fields and 5,000-Light-Year Jets Unveiled in New Image of the M87 Galaxy Black Hole, reports The Daily Galaxy--The massive now-iconic object at the center of the M87 was described by scientists on April 10, 2019 as the “Gates of Hell” and the “End of Spacetime”. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, who produced the first ever image of a black hole –described as “fathomless dark creations of the Universe”— an image equal to the famous “Earthrise” photo taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders in December 1968. The EHT has released a new view of the monster elliptical galaxy located 55 million light-years away, that harbors the black hole the size of our solar system, unveiling new insights into the mystery of its magnetic fields and jets that reach at close to the speed of light beyond the galaxy.
Unknown Object Near Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole –“A Cosmic String from the Dawn of the Universe? --The center of our Galaxy has been intensely studied for many years, but it still harbors surprises for scientists. A snake-like structure lurking near our galaxy’s supermassive black hole is one of the more intriguing discoveries. “Part of the thrill of science is stumbling across a mystery that is not easy to solve,” said Jun-Hui Zhao of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics,. “While we don’t have the answer yet, the path to finding it is fascinating.”
Something Invisible Is Tearing Apart The Nearest Star Cluster to Earth --Strange things are afoot in the Milky Way. According to a new analysis of Gaia satellite data, the closest star cluster to our Solar System is currently being torn apart - disrupted not just by normal processes, but also by the gravitational pull of something massive we can't see, reports Science Alert.
How to Photograph a (Possible) Alien Artifact –We don’t know if the interstellar object ‘Oumuamua was natural or artificial—but a new telescope coming online in a few years could help us identify the next one, reports Harvard’s Avi Loeb for Scientific American,
The dark matter mystery deepens with the demise of a reported detection --A new experiment fails to support previous report of WIMPs in space, reports Science News.
Get Ready for the First Flight of NASA’s Mars Helicopter --The experimental vehicle named Ingenuity traveled to the red planet with the Perseverance rover, which is also preparing for its main science mission, reports The New York Times
Scientists Pin Down When Earth’s Crust Cracked, Then Came to Life --New data indicating that Earth’s surface broke up about 3.2 billion years ago helps clarify how plate tectonics drove the evolution of complex life, reports Quanta.
NASA Analysis: Earth Is Safe From Asteroid Apophis for 100-Plus Years --After its discovery in 2004, asteroid 99942 Apophis had been identified as one of the most hazardous asteroids that could impact Earth. But that impact assessment changed as astronomers tracked Apophis and its orbit became better determined. Now, the results from a new radar observation campaign combined with precise orbit analysis have helped astronomers conclude that there is no risk of Apophis impacting our planet for at least a century.
NASA Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Prepares for First Flight -- On March 21, the rover deployed the guitar case-shaped graphite composite debris shield that protected Ingenuity during landing. The rover currently is in transit to the “airfield” where Ingenuity will attempt to fly. Once deployed, Ingenuity will have 30 Martian days, or sols, (31 Earth days) to conduct its test flight campaign.
“The Loophole” –The Discovery That Could Have Predicted Why the Universe Exists --“The Standard Model as it stands cannot possibly be right because it cannot predict why the universe exists,” said Gerald Gabrielse, the Board of Trustees Professor of Physics at Northwestern University, about the theory that describes the seventeen known fundamental particles and their interactions and provides us with a detailed set of predictions for how each of them should behave and interact. The model is a mathematical picture of reality, and no laboratory experiments yet performed have contradicted it.
Major Earth Satellite to Track Disasters, Effects of Climate Change --Designed to spot potential natural hazards and help researchers measure how melting land ice will affect sea level rise, the NISAR spacecraft marks a big step as it takes shape.
Titanic Explosion in Andromeda –A Prelude?--So far, we have had only close calls from gamma ray explosions so large, scientists have suggested, that if they occurred within our solar neighborhood (less than 1,000 light years) they could potentially trigger mass extinctions on Earth.
Alien Molecules of the Cosmos –“Never Before Seen in Space”--“The amazing thing about these observations, about this discovery, and about these molecules, is that no one had looked, or looked hard enough,” said Michael McCarthy, an astrochemist and Acting Deputy Director of Harvard Center for Astrophysics (CfA) about the discovery of a vast, previously unknown reservoir of new molecules in a cold, dark molecular cloud in the interstellar medium for the first time, “It makes you wonder what else is out there that we just haven’t looked for.”
When the Aliens Arrive, What Will They Look Like? A Zoologist Has Answers, reports The New York Times --One zoologist suggests some answers actually may be hiding in plain sight, right here at home. In a provocative new book, “The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy,” Arik Kershenbaum contends that life on Earth provides hints of what we might expect to find on other planets.