Astronomy General Space Discussion

[CD Xbow]

The big bounce rather than a big bang. What's life like living in a black hole? We might be doing it.

What if the Big Bang wasn't the beginning? Research suggests it may have taken place inside a black hole

The Big Bang is often described as the explosive birth of the universe—a singular moment when space, time and matter sprang into existence. But what if this was not the beginning at all? What if our universe emerged from something else—something more familiar and radical at the same time?

phys.org

There is a certain elegance in this theory as it can dispose of 'made up stuff' like dark energy. It also makes a testable prediction, there will be a very slight curvature to the universe.

 

[CD Xbow]

They found it! The cosmologist have found the missing 'normal' matter. This is nothing to do with the mythical dark matter problem, this was normal matter that had been missing from scientists estimations. It was always speculated that it was 'cosmic dust' in the vast void of space - and it is. Fast radio bursts (FRB) enabled detection and measurement of the cosmic dust.

Scientists find universe's missing matter while watching fast radio bursts shine through 'cosmic fog'

"Fast radio bursts shine through the fog of the intergalactic medium, and by precisely measuring how the light slows down, we can weigh that fog, even when it's too faint to see."

www.space.com

Let's hope those clever cosmologists work out that dark matter is another type of dust, pixie dust.

Some of these FRB's used were discovered by ASKAP, our early contribution to the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). When complete, the combined SKA will provide a wide frequency coverage (50 MHz to 14 GHz), with Australia's Murchison Widefield Array providing low-frequency coverage and South Africa's MeerKAT providing mid-frequency coverage. The reason all these technical goodies are coming to southern hemisphere countries is because we see the 'Milky Way' better.

I asked my silicon pal about ASKAP discoveries and was told this -

1. Odd Radio Circles (ORCs)​

ASKAP discovered a mysterious class of objects called Odd Radio Circles—large, faint rings of radio emission with no obvious counterparts in other wavelengths. These ORCs don’t match any known type of galaxy or supernova remnant, and their origin is still a mystery. They might represent a new class of cosmic phenomenon.

2. ASKAP J1832–0911: A Long-Period Transient​

In 2025, ASKAP detected a bizarre object—ASKAP J1832–0911—that emits powerful radio and X-ray signals every 44 minutes. This rhythmic pulsing is unlike anything seen before. It might be a magnetar or a highly magnetized white dwarf, but its behavior doesn’t quite fit existing models. It’s now considered a candidate for a new class of stellar remnant called a Long-Period Transient (LPT)3.

3. Mapping Millions of Galaxies​

Through the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS), ASKAP mapped over three million galaxies in just 300 hours—about a million of which were previously unknown. This survey is deeper and higher resolution than earlier efforts like NVSS or SUMSS, and it’s helping astronomers build a more complete model of the radio sky.

4. Solving the Missing Baryon Problem​

ASKAP played a key role in detecting fast radio bursts (FRBs) and using them to trace the distribution of matter in the universe. In 2020, ASKAP helped confirm that the “missing” ordinary matter—baryons—was hiding in the intergalactic medium, solving a long-standing cosmological puzzle

 

[GreyCrow]

Not a fan of Dark Matter?

I dont mind it as a convenient moniker for the stuff we dont know YET

I asked my silicon pal about ASKAP discoveries and was told this -

1. Odd Radio Circles (ORCs)​

ASKAP discovered a mysterious class of objects called Odd Radio Circles—large, faint rings of radio emission with no obvious counterparts in other wavelengths. These ORCs don’t match any known type of galaxy or supernova remnant, and their origin is still a mystery. They might represent a new class of cosmic phenomenon.

Signs of life on other planets? Or LOOPs

3. Mapping Millions of Galaxies​

Through the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS), ASKAP mapped over three million galaxies in just 300 hours—about a million of which were previously unknown. This survey is deeper and higher resolution than earlier efforts like NVSS or SUMSS, and it’s helping astronomers build a more complete model of the radio sky.

ie stuff we didnt know but are now finding

I look forward to the continuing evolvement of these

 

[CD Xbow]

Not a fan of Dark Matter?

I dont mind it as a convenient moniker for the stuff we dont know YET

Signs of life on other planets? Or LOOPs

ie stuff we didnt know but are now finding

I look forward to the continuing evolvement of these

Mark my words Grey, dark matter has all the qualities of pixie dust. It's the late 20C version of the ether. On a interesting discovery note, the Japanese IR space telescope may have detected 'Planet 9'.

The solar system's greatest mystery may finally be solved

For years, astronomers have been searching for a mysterious ninth planet lurking in the dark outer reaches of our solar system. Now, a team of researchers have taken a completely different approach to this cosmic detective story—instead of looking for reflected sunlight, they're hunting for the...

phys.org

Which to me is really planet 10, in my pantheon of planets Pluto remains number 9. Besides, it becomes the vastly more sexy (que spooky 50's scifi sounds) 'Planet X'. I'm sure Mr Musk would agree.

 

[CD Xbow]

3D Time!

New theory proposes time has three dimensions, with space as a secondary effect

Time, not space plus time, might be the single fundamental property in which all physical phenomena occur, according to a new theory by a University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist.

phys.org

This theory is fascinating, but very speculative, the phys.org editors even put a warning at the end expressing that. I have never seen them do that before. It will be an interesting one to watch.

 

[CD Xbow]

Our 3rd documented interstellar visitor, 3I/Atlas. Up to 20km in size, it's closet approach to the sun is at about 2 astronomical units (AU) in October this year. At that time it should be moving at a fair old clip, about 68 km/s, or at about 152,000 miles per hour.

| EarthSky

earthsky.org

 

[MP_]

If anyone’s interested in citizen science projects you can now do comet hunting thanks to the new Rubin telescope

Zooniverse

The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research.

www.zooniverse.org

 

[CD Xbow]

This should be of interest to you MP, the Parker Solar probe has been orbiting the sun and dipping into the corona, you can see close up the stuff that makes those auroras you photograph. This vid has a very enthusiastic Italian physicist explaining it. Nice close up video of a CME with multiple separate ejections sort of barrelling into each other and combining.

 

[MP_]

This should be of interest to you MP, the Parker Solar probe has been orbiting in the suns heliosphere, you can see close up the stuff that makes those auroras you photograph. This vid has a very enthusiastic Italian physicist explaining it. Nice close up video of a CME with multiple separate ejections sort of barrelling into each other and combining.

Yes I saw this the other day, absolutely amazing footage. You cannot grasp how massive those cme’s are and the solar flares. The solar wind that is being pumped out is crazy too. IMO we should be extremely worried about an earth facing cme during solar maximum phase. It’s only going to be a matter of time when one cause mass problems to sattelites.

 

[CD Xbow]

I found a couple of articles from Futurism of interest. The first asks the question 'what if Starship can't be made reliable'

Elon Now Facing the Possibility That SpaceX Will Never Get Starship Working

SpaceX is nine full-scale test launches into developing its Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built. But will it ever work?

futurism.com

I will point out that with the Falcon rocket, SpaceX had many spectacular failures before nailing it and with the current configuration of Starship they have managed to catch the booster with the magic chopsticks, which many thought was one of the major risks.

The second articles headline is 'Scientists Reveal Easy Three-Step Plan to Terraform Mars'. The writers certainly have a different idea on what constitutes easy than what I do. They propose a number of steps, all based on non existing technologies, a myriad of untested assumptions, requiring many hundreds of spaceflights and 1000 years.

https://futurism.com/three-step-plan-terraform-mars

They quote one of scientists: "We now know that Mars was habitable in the past, from data returned by the Mars rovers, so greening Mars could be viewed as the ultimate environmental restoration challenge," coauthor Edwin Kite, an associate professor at the University of Chicago, told Space.com.

Idiot. Mars was never habitable! It was wet, it may have had a thicker atmosphere but it was never habitable. You could never put on a parker and go for a stroll around Utopia Planitia.

 

[Mofra]

This is fascinating.

Harvard physicist claims new interstellar comet is alien probe

"The consequences, should the hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity," said Avi Loeb.

www.newsweek.com

 

[MP_]

This is fascinating.

Harvard physicist claims new interstellar comet is alien probe

"The consequences, should the hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity," said Avi Loeb.

www.newsweek.com

Imagine getting paid to come up with cool scenarios. I want to be a theoretical physicist.

 

[Mofra]

Imagine getting paid to come up with cool scenarios. I want to be a theoretical physicist.

I'd imagine there a fair bit of chemistry involved as well given my very basic knowledge of how they determine elements in far away celestial bodies.

It's amazing how little we actually know. There are constant discoveries.

 

[MP_]

I'd imagine there a fair bit of chemistry involved as well given my very basic knowledge of how they determine elements in far away celestial bodies.

It's amazing how little we actually know. There are constant discoveries.

Yep , all these telescopes both space and land based are discovering so much. It’s also hard to believe that those voyager crafts launched 50 odd years ago are still performing but my weather station I bought last year didn’t even last a year

 

[Chief]

I think the Klingons blow Voyager up in a few hundred years. Or it becomes a god in another star system. Can't recall which.

 

[MP_]

I think the Klingons blow Voyager up in a few hundred years. Or it becomes a god in another star system. Can't recall which.

It’s gotta get through the Oort Cloud before the Klingons can get to it

 

[Frank Bunn]

Mark my words Grey, dark matter has all the qualities of pixie dust. It's the late 20C version of the ether.

The idea that space isn't empty has come back into fashion with the Higgs Field - a quantum field filling all space that gives mass to elementary particles through their interaction with it. It doesn't easily explain dark matter but it's an active area of research. Photons aren't impacted by the Higgs Field as they have no mass.

Dr. Weiping Yu, a physicist affiliated with NASA, has some interesting alternative ideas. He proposes the Uon Theory. Unlike the Standard Model, which treats gravity, electromagnetism, and nuclear forces separately, Uon Theory posits that magnetism is the primary force governing all interactions. Yu proposes the idea of a fundamental particle, the 'Uon', which serves as the building block of all matter and energy. He suggests that space is filled with a magnetic medium and that the speed of light isn't a property of light itself but of its interaction with that medium. We know that light slows down in water and glass etc. One rabbit hole to go down is whether the photons entering a piece of glass are the same ones that come out on the other side.

Dark matter might be composed of Uons or configurations of Uons that don’t emit or absorb light but still have mass and magnetic properties — explaining why dark matter is 'dark' yet exerts gravitational pull.

 

[CD Xbow]

The idea that space isn't empty has come back into fashion with the Higgs Field - a quantum field filling all space that gives mass to elementary particles through their interaction with it. It doesn't easily explain dark matter but it's an active area of research. Photons aren't impacted by the Higgs Field as they have no mass.

Dr. Weiping Yu, a physicist affiliated with NASA, has some interesting alternative ideas. He proposes the Uon Theory. Unlike the Standard Model, which treats gravity, electromagnetism, and nuclear forces separately, Uon Theory posits that magnetism is the primary force governing all interactions. Yu proposes the idea of a fundamental particle, the 'Uon', which serves as the building block of all matter and energy. He suggests that space is filled with a magnetic medium and that the speed of light isn't a property of light itself but of its interaction with that medium. We know that light slows down in water and glass etc. One rabbit hole to go down is whether the photons entering a piece of glass are the same ones that come out on the other side.

Dark matter might be composed of Uons or configurations of Uons that don’t emit or absorb light but still have mass and magnetic properties — explaining why dark matter is 'dark' yet exerts gravitational pull.

Thanks for posting, it sounds interesting, I'll have a read.

We made such incredible progress with fundamental physics in the first part of last century and since then it's slowed to a crawl. Lot's of new stuff discovered with our better eyes and ears but we really are stuck with some wicked problems wrt the fundamentals. Perhaps the Uon will be the key. I'd like to see some progress before I shuffle off.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Thanks for posting, it sounds interesting, I'll have a read.

We made such incredible progress with fundamental physics in the first part of last century and since then it's slowed to a crawl. Lot's of new stuff discovered with our better eyes and ears but we really are stuck with some wicked problems wrt the fundamentals. Perhaps the Uon will be the key. I'd like to see some progress before I shuffle off.

I agree. The discovery of the elements and the assembly of the periodic table was amazing. Then Einstein's work.

I tried to find a good link for Dr. Weiping Yu's ideas but he's mostly on videos and he's not the clearest of speakers. It's all still in the theoretical stage but it has potential implications for anti-gravity, super-conductivity and energy production.

 

[CD Xbow]

This one is another theory of everything. Time is no longer a fixed dimension, rather it is a emergent phenomena from the quantum realm.

Physicists discover that time may be an illusion born from quantum entanglement

Study challenges the idea that time flows independently, rather suggesting that time only appears when quantum systems interact.

www.thebrighterside.news

It's early days and without real evidence, similar situation to the Uon, discussed above. Still any new approach may have something to offer to break the stalemate. For 100 years the cleverest folks on the planet have failed to marry the quantum world with the classical world of relatively.

 

[GreyCrow]

Time is atrophy

 

[Frank Bunn]

This one is another theory of everything. Time is no longer a fixed dimension, rather it is a emergent phenomena from the quantum realm.

Physicists discover that time may be an illusion born from quantum entanglement

Study challenges the idea that time flows independently, rather suggesting that time only appears when quantum systems interact.

www.thebrighterside.news

It's early days and without real evidence, similar situation to the Uon, discussed above. Still any new approach may have something to offer to break the stalemate. For 100 years the cleverest folks on the planet have failed to marry the quantum world with the classical world of relatively.

From the article, I understood these parts.

One major problem in physics is how differently time behaves in two major theories. In quantum mechanics, time acts like an outside ruler—it stays constant and doesn’t exist within the system being studied. Instead, it’s used to track change from the outside. This setup creates a paradox: how can time control change if it doesn’t actually exist inside the quantum system?​

​

On the other hand, Einstein’s theory of general relativity describes time as flexible. Time stretches and bends depending on speed and gravity. For example, time runs slower near a black hole. This means time is not fixed but flows differently depending on where and how it’s observed. The conflict between this view and quantum mechanics has long puzzled scientists, who call it the “problem of time.”​

But I got lost at this point and thereafter.

To address this, the researchers took a fresh look at the PaW mechanism. According to this theory, time doesn’t exist on its own. It arises through entanglement between two quantum systems: one acts as a clock, the other as the system being measured. Without this relationship, time disappears completely, and the universe becomes motionless—a frozen snapshot without any flow.​

 

[Frank Bunn]

The first launch of Australia's orbital rocket did not go well.

Australian-made rocket crashes after attempted north Queensland launch

Gilmour Space Technologies attempted to launch its rocket from a spaceport in the north Queensland community of Bowen in an Australian-first on Wednesday morning.

www.abc.net.au

 

[MP_]

The first launch of Australia's orbital rocket did not go well.

Australian-made rocket crashes after attempted north Queensland launch

Gilmour Space Technologies attempted to launch its rocket from a spaceport in the north Queensland community of Bowen in an Australian-first on Wednesday morning.

www.abc.net.au

Vale the jar of Vegemite that was on board

 

[Mofra]

Vale the jar of Vegemite that was on board

I'm betting it's fine