Lifeboat Foundation

There’s a lot we still don’t know about dark matter – that mysterious, invisible mass that could make up as much as 85 percent of everything around us – but a new paper outlines a rather unusual hypothesis about the very creation of the stuff.

In short: dark matter creates dark matter. The idea is that at some point in the early stages of the Universe, dark matter particles were able to create more dark matter particles out of particles of regular matter, which would go some way to explaining why there’s now so much of the stuff about.

The new research builds on earlier proposals of a ‘thermal bath’, where regular matter in the form of plasma produced the first bits of dark matter – initial particles which could then have had the power to transform heat bath particles into more dark matter.

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

In a neighboring star cluster called NGC 1,850, astronomers spotted a small black hole tugging on the orbit of a star — a discovery that could lead us to others.

O,.o circa 2014.

When we hear the term ‘parallel universe’, we often cite the classic science fiction picture of a parallel universe; something that acts as a mirror, where on one day, in this universe, you didn’t manage to have the guts to ask that girl out, but in the parallel universe, not only did ‘you’ ask her out, but a decade later, she became your wife. We all like to subscribe to such fascinating ideas, but for a while, it was relegated to the domain of sci-fi creators/fans. The real picture tells us something a lot more interesting.

AN INFINITE NUMBER OF ‘YOUS’;

Continue reading “Parallel Universes: An Infinite Number of Yous” »

Scientists have released the largest catalog of gravitational wave detections to date, shedding new light on interactions between the most massive objects in the universe, black holes and neutron stars.

The catalog was compiled by three groundbreaking detectors: the two Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors located in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, and the European Virgo gravitational wave antenna in Pisa, Italy.

Scientists have recreated the first matter that appeared after the Big Bang in the Large Hadron Collider.

Of the cosmos’ four fundamental forces, gravity is the one that grasps us even before we exit the womb. From our first few minutes of life until we lose the fight to lift our heads from death’s pillow, this weakest of nature’s fundamental forces continues to elude researchers.

In the last few years, however, gravitational wave astronomy has made great strides in detecting gravitational radiation rippling through spacetime at the speed of light.

Einstein first predicted that any accelerating mass should emit gravitational radiation in the form of waves. Gravitational waves were first indirectly detected almost 20 years ago. But it was only recently, in 2,015 that the ground-based LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) detected waves from two merging stellar mass black holes over a billion light years distant in the general direction of the Southern Hemisphere’s Magellanic Clouds.

In 2,015 researchers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) captured the first direct evidence of gravitational waves, more than a century after the phenomenon was first proposed.

Gravitational-wave events have only been detectable for a few years, and a new study shows the remarkable diversity of waves caused by black hole mergers.

By Jeremy Batterson 11-09-2021

The equivalent of cheap 100-inch binoculars will soon be possible. This memo is a quick update on seven rapidly converging technologies that augur well for astronomy enthusiasts of the near future. All these technologies already exist in either fully developed or nascent form, and all are being rapidly improved due to the gigantic global cell phone market and the retinal projection market that will soon replace it. Listed here are the multiple technologies, after which they are brought together into a single system.

1) Tracking.
2) Single-photon image sensing.
3) Large effective exit pupils via large sensors.
4) Long exposure non-photographic function.
5) Flat optics (metamaterials)
6) Off-axis function of flat optics.
7) Retinal projection.

Continue reading “SEVEN CONVERGING TECHNOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS WILL PERMANENTLY CHANGE CITIZEN ASTRONOMY” »

A team of international scientists, including researchers from The Australian National University (ANU), have unveiled the largest number of gravitational waves ever detected.

The discoveries will help solve some of the most complex mysteries of the Universe, including the building blocks of matter and the workings of space and time.

Continue reading “Scientists detect a ‘tsunami’ of gravitational waves” »