Astrophysics

Sep 22 2021

A huge hole in space

About 500 to 1000 light-years from Earth, two large masses of cold cosmic matter are concentrated in space. "Cold" because they are matter in molecular form. The Perseus and Taurus molecular clouds each contain so much mass that at least 10,000 suns could form from them. Nevertheless, they are almost invisible in their entire extent, because they do not glow. The situation is different in the infrared. Heat radiation arises here, because an area concentrates more and more and gives birth to new stars. Between these two clouds, however, there is no normal interstellar matter. Rather, astronomers have now…

Let there be light: How to generate photons from nothing

Astrophysics

Sep 10 2021

Let there be light: How to generate photons from nothing

From black holes we know the effect of Hawking radiation: If in vacuum a pair of photons is born in a random way and one of them falls into the black hole, the other one remains: light from nothing. The energy debt to the universe must be paid by the black hole, which is why it evaporates over many billions of years. But there is a second trick. With the black hole the gravity plays the role of the magician who makes the one photon disappear. But according to the equivalence principle of the general relativity, the wizard can…

Sharpest radio image of the Andromeda galaxy achieved

Astrophysics

Jul 28 2021

Sharpest radio image of the Andromeda galaxy achieved

The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way - but still 2.5 million light-years away. Details are therefore difficult to discern. This makes it all the more important to observe our future home (Andromeda will merge with the Milky Way in a few billion years) in all possible wavelengths. Each region of the spectrum reveals different secrets. Such an image has now been obtained with unprecedented accuracy at the microwave frequency of 6.6 GHz by physicist Sofia Fatigoni of the University of British Columbia, together with colleagues from the Sapienza University of Rome and the…

Atomic nucleus swallows electrons: New supernova type found

Astrophysics

Jul 5 2021

Atomic nucleus swallows electrons: New supernova type found

At the end of its life, stars, if they are only heavy enough, perish in a gigantic firework, a supernova. Up to now, one knew roughly two ways to get there. A core-collapse supernova occurs when a massive star - one with more than 10 times the mass of the Sun - runs out of nuclear fuel and its iron core collapses, creating a black hole or neutron star. On the other hand, if a white dwarf - a low-mass star at the end of its lifetime - captures so much mass from a companion that it becomes unstable,…

The birth of supermassive black holes from dark matter – and their growth

Astrophysics

Jun 17 2021

The birth of supermassive black holes from dark matter – and their growth

The universe is about 13.8 billion years old. In the beginning, there were no stars in it. But 600 to 800 million years later already mighty galaxies existed with gigantic black holes in their center, which are millions to billions times heavier than our sun. But where did these giants come from? For a long time it was assumed that they could have been formed by the collapse of gas clouds in protogalaxies. But the result is unsatisfactory. In this way, the black holes simply don't grow fast enough. A team led by a theoretical physicist at the University…

The first millisecond of the universe: How big bang matter drips out of the tap

Astrophysics

May 28 2021

The first millisecond of the universe: How big bang matter drips out of the tap

The beginning of the universe is notoriously difficult to investigate. Anyone who has read my book "The Disruption" (coming soon in English) knows the problem. This is not so much because it happened so long ago. Whereas 13.8 billion years are also a long time. It is more difficult for scientists because they have not yet fully understood the physics of the great beginning. Under the extreme, today hardly in the experiment to be imitated conditions at that time still completely different, superordinate laws applied, which we must still find out slowly. There are already some suggestions. And there…

Astrophysics

May 21 2021

The first spiral galaxy

Well, it may not have been the first spiral galaxy researchers have now discovered in data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), but it was the oldest and most distant (which is synonymous in astronomy) to date. We observed it at a time when the universe was only 1.4 billion years old. Today it is almost ten times as old. The discovery of a galaxy with a spiral structure at such an early date is an important clue to solving the classic questions of astronomy: "How and when did spiral galaxies form?" "I was excited because I had never…

Astrophysics

May 20 2021

Watching a star being born

Starforge is the name of a simulation program developed by an international team of researchers that enables the most realistic and highest-resolution 3D simulation of star formation to date. The result is a visually stunning, mathematically driven marvel that allows viewers to float around a colorful cloud of gas in 3D space as they watch sparkling stars form. STARFORGE (Star Formation in Gaseous Environments) simulates an entire gas cloud for the first time, with masses 100 times greater than previously possible. It is also the first simulation to simultaneously model star formation, evolution, and dynamics, taking into account feedbacks…