TechInScience

Happy Hunting Based on scientists’ calculations, the first molecule to ever form from stray atoms in the  universe  was likely helium hydride, a combination of helium and hydrogen. For decades, physicists have hunted the universe for the elusive molecule. And now an international team of researchers say they’ve  finally found it  — thereby confirming the presumed first step in the universe’s chemistry. Watch Here - No Doubt In a  study  published in the journal  Nature  Wednesday, the researchers describe how they used NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), the world’s largest airborne observatory, to detect helium hydride in a planetary nebula about 3,000 light-years away from Earth. “It was so exciting to be there, seeing helium hydride for the first time in the data,” researcher Rolf Guesten said in a  news release . “This brings a long search to a ha...

Fade to black: a type 1a supernova remnant as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.(P.C. NASA)  Primordial black holes do not account for all dark matter, according to new research by  Miguel Zumalacárregui  and  Uroš Seljak  at the University of California, Berkeley. The duo has made the best measurement yet of the abundance of black holes in the cosmos by measuring the gravitational lensing of light from type 1a supernovae. Their study puts an upper limit of 40% on how much dark matter can be accounted for by primordial black holes For decades, physicists have grappled with growing evidence that the formation and dynamics of galaxies and larger structures in the universe are governed by gravitational forces from unseen dark matter. While the mysterious substance appears to account for about 85% of all matter in the universe, dark-matter particles have yet to detected directly. While most astrophysicists believe that dark m...

Liz Hurley's model nephew, 21, is fighting for his life after being repeatedly stabbed by a stranger in a London street attack sciencetech 'Pharma bro' Martin Shkreli is sentenced to seven years behind bars after sobbing in court and asking the judge to show him mercy at fraud trial where even his own lawyer said he wanted to punch him in face Scientists detailed a plan dubbed HAMMER to deal with asteroid threats In the proposal, a spacecraft could be used as an 'impactor' to deflect an object But, if there isn't enough time, the experts say it would be better to nuke it If an asteroid the size of a small village were headed straight toward Earth, there isn’t much we could do on short notice to prevent a major disaster – except blow it up, that is. Scientists are investigating the possibility of using a specially designed spacecraft to nuke approaching cosmic objects, in hopes that doing so could deflect the threat. While it could be p...

Like part of a cosmic Russian doll, our universe may be perfectly nested inside a black hole that is itself part of a larger universe. In turn, all the black holes found so far in our universe—from the microscopic to the supermassive—may be ultimate doorways into alternate realities. According to a mind-bending new theory, a black hole is actually a tunnel between universes—a type of wormhole. The matter the black hole attracts doesn’t collapse into a single point, as has been predicted, but rather gushes out a “white hole” at the other end of the black one, the theory goes. In a paper published in the journal Physics Letters B, Indiana University physicist Nikodem Poplawski presents new mathematical models of the spiraling motion of matter falling into a black hole. His equations suggest such wormholes are viable alternatives to the “space-time singularities” that Albert Einstein predicted to be at the centers of black holes. According to Einstein’s equations ...

For the first time astronomers have glimpsed a long-predicted population of black holes lurking at the heart of the Milky Way. Scientists already knew our galaxy’s core holds a supermassive black hole weighing millions of times more than our sun, and that this great beast is enveloped by a diverse entourage of lesser companions. Trapped in its gravitational clutches, run-of-the-mill stars whip around this gargantuan black hole like fireflies in a hurricane. So, too, do astrophysical exotica such as neutron stars and white dwarfs—the remnants left by normal stars when they die. Presumably black holes should be there as well, either born on the galactic center’s doorstep from the deaths of massive stars or arriving via migration from farther out. Such black holes should each weigh 10 to 20 times more than our sun. That bulk would make them behave a bit like heavy pebbles outpacing fine silt to the watery bottom of a well, jostling through the lighter surrounding stars to reach stab...