Tag: Cosmic

A theory of reality beyond Einstein's universe is taking shape and a mysterious cosmic signal could soon fill in the blanks

IT WASN'T so long ago we thought space and time were the absolute and unchanging scaffolding of the universe. Then along came Albert Einstein, who showed that different observers can disagree about the length of objects and the timing of events. His theory of relativity unified space and time into a single entity - space-time. It meant the way we thought about the fabric of reality would never be the same again. "Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade into mere shadows," declared mathematician Hermann Minkowski. "Only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality."

Over the next decade, the United States... Germany... England... Japan... India... China... Russia... and even a few private companies... have plans to send rockets to explore the moon.
They will map the lunar surface... search for clues to its origins... and find out what's there that humans can use to survive.

Cold Sparks & Black HolesThis is an excerpt from Cosmic Journeys "Cold Sparks & Black Holes." It's the start of a journey through the incredible continuum of cosmic energy that produced us.
Today, energy is very much on our minds, as we search for ways to power our civilization and serve the needs of our citizens.

Explore the biggest question of all... in 1080p. How far do the stars stretch out into space? And what's beyond them? In modern times, we built giant telescopes that have allowed us to cast our gaze deep into the universe. Astronomers have been able to look back to near the time of its birth. They've reconstructed the course of cosmic history in astonishing detail.

Watch in high-resolution 1080p. Launched three years before the new century... a spacecraft wound its way through the empty reaches of the solar system. On Earth, its progress was little noted, as it swung twice by the planet Venus, then our moon. And Earth. The asteroid belt. And Jupiter.

ScienceDaily (Apr. 18, 2010) Astronomers investigating why the cosmic background radiation is much brighter at radio wavelengths than expected have identified a potential culprit: fast spinning black holes early in the galaxy formation process.

The results were presented by Professor Andy Lawrence at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Glasgow on April 14.

ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2009) A weak cosmic infrared radiation field that reaches Earth from all directions contains not yet deciphered messages about the evolution of galaxies.
Using first observations with the PACS Instrument on board ESA's Herschel Space Telescope, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and other institutions have for the first time resolved more than half of this radiation into its constituting sources. Observations with Herschel open the road towards understanding the properties of these galaxies, and trace the dusty side of galaxy evolution.