The Galaxy with One Star to Michio Kaku "The Universe Is Simpler Than We Think"
Another epic week in the Cosmos with stories ranging from former C.I.A. director John Brennan revealing that UFO phenomena could involve some type of activity that some might say constitutes a different form of life to a dark-matter storm speeding toward our Solar System.
“The Galaxy With One Star” –A Profound Puzzle for Physics, reports astrophysicist Maxwell Moe for The Daily Galaxy. "If this monster was at the center of the Milky Way it would likely make life on Earth impossible with the huge amounts of x-rays emanating from it,” said Christian Wolf, with the Australian National University (ANU) Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics who made the momentous detection in 2018.
Michio Kaku Says the Universe Is Simpler Than We Think –“Kaku’s latest concern is with what he calls the “holy grail” of all science, the metaphorical “umbilical cord” of our infant universe, whenever it was (or wasn’t) born out of the alleged multiverse,” reports The New York Times.
How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously –For decades, flying saucers were a punch line. Then the U.S. government got over the taboo, reports Gideon Lewis-Kraus for the New Yorker. ““Some of the phenomena we’re going to be seeing continues to be unexplained and might, in fact, be some type of phenomenon that is the result of something that we don’t yet understand and that could involve some type of activity that some might say constitutes a different form of life,” said former C.I.A. director John Brennan.
One Incredible Ocean Crossing May Have Made Human Evolution Possible, reports Singularity Hub --"Humans evolved in Africa, along with chimpanzees, gorillas, and monkeys. But primates themselves appear to have evolved elsewhere—likely in Asia—before colonizing Africa. At the time, around 50 million years ago, Africa was an island isolated from the rest of the world by ocean—so how did primates get there?"
“Unknown” — Colossal Circular Cosmic Object Invisible to All Wavelengths of Light Except Radio with an Elliptical Galaxy at its Center, reports Maxwell Moe for The Daily Galaxy. "Astronomers have discovered a new, bizarre type of cosmic object, ORC J0102–2450, while using the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder telescope. The colossal object is now the third odd radio circle (ORC) that is invisible to all wavelengths of light except radio with an elliptical galaxy at its geometrical center."
Our Most Effective Weapon Is Imagination --Why science changes everything, reports Guido Tonelli for Nautilus. "Culture, the awareness of one’s own deepest roots, is a kind of superpower."
“We are Only Starting to Grasp Pluto’s Life Story” –Formed from a Billion Comets with a Hidden Ocean and Possibility of Life, reports Avi Shporer, Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research via Washington University in St. Louis. Avi was formerly a NASA Sagan Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “When NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft zipped past Pluto in 2015,” reported Shannon Hall for Nature, “it showed a world that was much more dynamic than anyone had imagined. The dwarf planet hosts icy nitrogen cliffs that resemble the rugged coast of Norway, and giant shards of methane ice that soar to the height of skyscrapers. "
Massive Flare Seen Close to Our Solar System: What It Means for Chances of Alien Neighbors, reports Singularity Hub. --"On April 21, 2021, a team of astronomers published new research describing the brightest flare ever measured from Proxima Centauri in ultraviolet light. To learn about this extraordinary event, and what it might mean for any life on the planets orbiting Earth’s closest neighboring star, The Conversation spoke with Parke Loyd, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University and co-author of the paper."
How Gravity Is a Double Copy of Other Forces --An enigmatic connection between the forces of nature is allowing physicists to explore gravity’s quantum side, reports Quanta. “There’s a schism in our picture of the world, and this is bridging that gap,” said Leron Borsten, a physicist at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
Dark-Matter Storm is Speeding Toward Our Solar System, reports Maxwell Moe, astrophysicist, NASA Einstein Fellow, University of Arizona for The Daily Galaxy. --A strange dark-matter phenomenon is speeding towards the Sun at speeds of 500 kilometers per second according to a 2018 study led by theoretical physicist Ciaran O’Hare from the University of Zaragoza in Spain.
It’s the End of the World ... Somewhere, reports Caleb Sharf for Scientific American. Extraterrestrials in existential trouble might be easiest to find—and also the most informative.
The Glowing Universe –“This is a Great Discovery!” reports Maxwell Moe, astrophysicist, NASA Einstein Fellow, University of Arizona for The Daily Galaxy. --"The next time you look at the moonless night sky and see the stars, imagine the unseen glow of hydrogen: the first building block of the universe, illuminating the whole night sky.”
Anti-Matter Stars—Astronomers using data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have identified 14 candidate antistars — stars made of antimatter — in our Milky Way Galaxy, reports Sci-News.
The Ultimate Mystery –”Consciousness is Like Space-time Before Einstein’s Theory of Relativity”, reports Avi Shporer, Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research for The Daily Galaxy via Andrei Linde, Universe, Life, Consciousness and Scientific American. Avi was formerly a NASA Sagan Fellow at the Jet Propulsion.
NASA’s Bold Bet on Starship for the Moon May Change Spaceflight Forever, reports Eric Berger for Ars Technica“ --Until now, the plans NASA had contemplated for human exploration in deep space all had echoes of the Apollo program. …By betting on Starship, which entails a host of development risks, NASA is taking a chance on what would be a much brighter future. One in which not a handful of astronauts go to the Moon or Mars, but dozens and then hundreds. In this sense, Starship represents a radical departure for NASA and human exploration.”
“The Day the Earth Rained Glass”, reports Jackie Faherty with The Daily Galaxy. "“Driving through the lonely, windswept ranchlands of southwestern North Dakota, we got out of our field vehicle, passed through through a rickety gate in a flimsy barbed-wire fence, and entered a postage-stamp-sized plot of eroded landscape. Soon we were digging out fossil fish that died 66 million years ago choking on melt-glass spherules thrown into the atmosphere by the meteor impact 1800 miles to the south in Yucatan, Mexico, that had killed the dinosaurs, opening the way for mammals, and eventually humans, to take over the terrestrial world,” said planetary scientist Mark Richards.
We may have just realized how little we understand about our universe, reports City News--In this Big Story podcast, in the middle of a world gripped by plague, a major scientific discovery passed nearly unnoticed. If it’s verified, it means one of the most important models we use to understand particle physics is incomplete. And that would open a doorway to a world of things we can’t explain yet.
Mysterious ‘yellowballs’ littering the Milky Way are clusters of newborn stars --The cosmic objects were thought to be gas bubbles blown by supermassive baby stars, reports Science News.
'Dark sirens' could solve one of the greatest mysteries in cosmology, reports Adam Mann for Live Science --A team has offered a way for gravitational wave events called dark sirens to resolve a crisis in cosmology.
Neil deGrasse Tyson Thinks Science Can Reign Supreme Again --reports The New York Times.