Life and Its Place in the Cosmos to Our Universe is Unlikely to Exist – Unless It's One of Many
Today’s news stories include ‘Unstable’ Moons May Be Obliterating Alien Life across the Universe and Great Mysteries of Physics podcast, and much more.
The multiverse: our universe is suspiciously unlikely to exist – unless it is one of many, argues Lord Martin Rees, Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, University of Cambridge, for The Conversation. "Most physicists would agree there are galaxies that we can’t ever see, and that these outnumber the ones we can observe. If they stretched far enough, then everything we could ever imagine happening may be repeated over and over. Far beyond the horizon, we could all have avatars."
Life and Its Place in the Cosmos: The Origins Federation--Researchers from four leading institutions announcedtheir intent to create a research consortium with the goal of facilitating efficient multidisciplinary and innovative collaborative research to advance our understanding of the emergence and early evolution of life in the Universe, including The Origins of Life Initiative (Harvard University), Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life (ETH Zurich), Center for the Origins of Life (University of Chicago),Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe (University of Cambridge).
Wolf-Rayet Star WR 124 Dust Contains Materials Needed For Life, reports Keith Cowing for Astrobiology. Cosmic dust is forming in the turbulent nebulas surrounding these stars, dust that is composed of the heavy-element building blocks of the modern Universe, including life on Earth.
‘Unstable’ Moons May Be Obliterating Alien Life across the Universe--Collisions between moons and planets may be a regular danger for possible extraterrestrial life, reports Briley Lewis for Live Science.
James Webb space telescope captures a rare image of a star in Sagitta constellation on the cusp of going supernova, reports The Guardian. This star, officially known as WR 124, is 30 times as big as our sun and already has shed enough material to account for 10 suns, according to Nasa.
Quantum Light Could Probe Chemical Reactions in Real Time--Quantum bursts of light could help examine minute chemical reactions and reveal the quantum properties of mysterious materials, reports Dina Genkina for Scientific American.
Great Mysteries of Physics (Podcast) at The Conversation. Host Miriam Frankel delves into some of the great mysteries still puzzling the world's top physicists in this new series from The Conversation. This podcast will take you on a mind-blowing journey from the smallest to the largest conundrums, exploring curled-up dimensions, consciousness and parallel universes on the way.
How Big Is a Proton? Neutrinos Weigh In--A first-of-its-kind probe brings physicists one step closer to solving the proton radius puzzle, reports Davide Castelvecchi, Nature magazine. "Precise measurement affirms that the particle’s radius is smaller than physicists once thought."
The Science Behind the Multiverse in ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ reports Will Sullivan for The Smithsonian. The movie that won Best Picture imagines a reality composed of an uncountable number of universes
Vent on Venus is clearest sign yet the planet is volcanically active--After painstakingly combing through radar images collected by NASA’s Magellan probe in the 1990s, researchers have found a vent that grew larger – evidence of current volcanic activity, reports Alex Wilkins for New Scientist.
How imaginary universes advanced the field of cosmology, reports Marcelo Gleiser for Big Think. "Armed with Albert Einstein’s powerful new equations and no data, physicists in the 1920s invented all sorts of universes. Which Universe would emerge from the conjecture? One that forever expands, or one that expands or contracts? Not even Einstein could have known how tricky this story would become."
Earliest evidence of a meteorite hitting Earth found in Australia--Tiny pieces of stone found in a rock formation in Western Australia may be the oldest evidence of a meteorite impact on Earth, dating back nearly 3.5 billion years, reports Leah Crane for New Scientist.
The Galaxy Report curation staff.