Stars Could Be Invisible Within 20 Years --Weekend Edition

Weekend Edition

Today’s stories include: The Search For Habitable Planets Expands and Why is Betelgeuse glowing so brightly and behaving so strangely?

Bosons--the force carrying glue of the universe. Bosons aren't like other elementary particles in the universe, like quarks, protons, electrons, and the rest. These particles are special force carriers that are the glue holding reality together, reports John Loeffler for Interesting Engineering.

Could Advanced Civilizations Weaponize Black Holes? explores Harvard’s Avi Loeb.

Stars could be invisible within 20 years as light pollution brightens night skies, reports The Guardian--The increased use of light-emitting diodes is obscuring our view of the Milky Way as well as taking a toll on human and wildlife health.

‘It’s new territory’: why is Betelgeuse glowing so brightly and behaving so strangely?--After the ‘great dimming’, the closest red giant star to Earth is pulsating twice as fast as usual and lighting up the southern hemisphere’s early evening sky, reports The Guardian. “One of the coolest things about Betelgeuse is that we’re watching the final stages of big star evolution play out almost in real time for us, which we’ve never really been able to study in this much depth before,” says Dr Sara Webb, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia.

What is the Universe expanding into?--It's been 100 years since we discovered that the Universe was expanding. But if it's expanding, then what is it expanding into? explores Ethan Siegel for Big Think. "The Universe expands into itself, rather than into any definable “outside” medium. This is another example where the science of General Relativity defies our common experience and intuition."

Supermassive black hole at heart of ancient galaxy ‘far larger than expected’--Discovery of GS-9209, one of the furthest from the Milky Way, adds to evidence that large black holes prevent star formation, astronomers say, reports The Guardian. "This work gives us our first really detailed look at the properties of these early galaxies, charting in detail the history of GS-9209, which managed to form as many stars as our own Milky Way in just 800m years after the big bang,” said Dr Adam Carnall, who led the effort.

The Search For Habitable Planets Expands, taking into account a zone not previously considered: the space between the star and what’s called soot-line in planet-forming disks. reports the University of Michigan. "It adds a new dimension in our search for habitability. It may be a negative dimension or it may be a positive dimension.”

Hibernation artificially triggered in potential space travel breakthrough--If discovery is feasible in humans it could be used to send astronauts into suspended animation, reports The Guardian. “If this proves feasible in humans, we could envision astronauts wearing a helmet-like device designed to target the hypothalamus region for inducing a hypothermia and hypometabolism state,” said Hong Chen, an associate professor at Washington University in St Louis, who led the work.

Impulse and Relativity Space to launch first commercial Mars mission in 2026--The firms claim they want to set up a "constant supply chain to Mars" by sending missions every 26 months when the Mars launch window opens, reports Interesting Engineering.

A Key Planetary System Helps To Understand Formation Mechanisms Of Super-Earths, reports Astrobiology. "A study led by researchers of the University of Liège and the CSIC – using observations from NASA’s TESS telescope – presents the detection of a system of two planets slightly larger than Earth orbiting a cold star in a synchronized dance. Named TOI-2096, the system is located 150 light-years from Earth."

The evolutionary significance of dreaming--Ancient societies revered dreams. Modern science tells us why, reports Big Think. "Neuroscientist Patrick McNamara emphasizes the importance of REM sleep, during which we dream, in fueling human creativity and cultural progression. He explains that during REM sleep, our brains cultivate an atmosphere conducive to fostering connections between unrelated concepts, leading to uniquely human, innovative outcomes."

Quarks and leptons are the smallest particles we know. Does something smaller exist?--Particle physicists use gigantic accelerators to investigate the infinitesimal, reports Big Think.

Stanford Professor Gary Nolan on Life in the Universe

Curated by The Galaxy Report Editorial Staff