Atomic Gas Superfluid Might Help Model the Early Cosmos

Quantum physicists have shown that superfluid gases can conduct without experiencing any resistance, possibly paving a way to help model the early Universe in the lab.

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The Brightest Flare Ever Observed from Sagittarius A*

The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*, emits relatively little energy for its size, as much energy as Sol even though it’s 4 billion times as massive.

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12 Billion-Year Old Supernova Discovered by Astronomers

Astronomers have discovered a pair superluminous supernovae, which are more than 10 billion years old. The Universe was only 3.75 billion years old back then. Of the pair, one is more remote and ranks as the most distant supernova ever discovered.

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Mira Supercomputer Will Run Simulation of Our Universe

The advent of the Mira supercomputer, along with more powerful Sequoia and K supercomputers, marks the first time that computers have enough computational power to simulate trillions of particles on the move, running a simulation of the Universe.

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Dark Matter Filament in Galaxy Supercluster Directly Measured

A filament of dark matter, which works like the Universe’s backbone, and dictates where galaxies can form, was observed for the first time by astronomers using a technique that could help astrophysicists understand the structure of the Universe.

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Gamma Ray Bursts Hold Clues to Chemical Composition of the Early Universe

Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have been routinely observed by orbiting observatories, such as NASA’s Fermi and Swift spacecraft, and astronomers are planning on using them as cosmic flashbulbs to probe the details of the early Universe. The researchers published their findings in the journal Nature today.

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Links Between Core Collapse Supernovae and Star Formation Established

When massive stars accumulate more iron that they can hold, they explode in what is called a core-collapse supernova, also known as Type II supernovae. Such supernovae will enrich their surroundings with key elements, seeding them for the formation of other stars. Now, cosmologists and extragalactic astrophysicists have linked the number of core-collapse supernovae (CCSN) in a galaxy with the actual star formation rate (SFR).

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The Bolshoi Simulation: Boxing the Universe

The Bolshoi simulation is the most accurate cosmological simulation of the evolution of the large-scale structure of the universe. Larger simulations, including the BigBolshoi and Multidark, run at a volume 64 times bigger than Bolshoi and have just been publicly made available to astronomers and astrophysicists. The Bolshoi simulation used data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe that measured tiny spatial variations in the cosmic microwave background radiation, giving a glimpse of the distribution of matter and energy at an earlier epoch of the visible universe.

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Lasers Mimic Supernova to Explain Cosmic Magnetic Fields

Scientists are using powerful lasers to mimic the effects of supernovae, which are helping to reveal how the magnetic fields of galaxies may have been formed in the early universe. All galaxies have magnetic fields, ones that might affect how fast stars are born, but it hasn’t been discovered where these magnetic fields come from.

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Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Measures the Universe’s Expansion and Dark Energy

One of nature’s biggest mysteries, dark energy, is being explored thanks to a deceptively simple tool that David Schlegel came up with. 2,200 aluminum plates, about the size of a manhole cover, each one drilled with a specific pattern of holes that match the arrangement of galaxies in a particular section of the sky, are used for an hour each at the prime focus of the 2.5-meter telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. When the telescope points to the right spot, the light from each galaxy streams through its corresponding hole. This light is then broken up and used to measure how fast each galaxy is being carried away.

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