Gravitational Waves: Spying the Universe’s ‘Dark Side

The Feb. 11 announcement that scientists had, for the first time, proof that space itself vibrates is expected to unleash a bevy of discoveries about things that go bump in the proverbial darkness.

The initial detection of so-called gravitational waves occurred in September when a pair of black holes, each about 30 times more massive than the sun, spiraled in toward each other and then merged into a new, larger black hole more than 1.3 billion light years away.

 

In a flash, the crash released the equivalent of 50 times the energy of all the stars in the universe, powerful enough to ever-so-slightly jiggle L-shaped, 2.5 mile-long laser beams on Earth that comprise the heart of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO.

LIGO observatories in Louisiana and Washington had just been upgraded when the detection was made. Scientists spent months verifying the gravitational waves’ footprint, which changed the length of the laser light arms an amount 10,000 times smaller than the diameter of a proton. Meanwhile, LIGO continued to monitor for other space-shaking cosmic booms.

“Before this, we didn’t even know that black holes existed in pairs,” University of Florida physicist David Reitze, now serving as LIGO director at the California Institute of Technology, told the House Science Committee last week.

“It’s the start of a new astronomy,” added Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist David Shoemaker.

http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/gravitational-waves-spying-the-universes-dark-side-160229.htm

Einstein was right: ‘We can hear the universe’

More than a billion years ago, in a galaxy far away, two black holes surrendered to one another’s inexorable attraction and collided with such force that it disturbed the very fabric of the universe.

On Thursday, scientists announced to the world that they had detected the ripple-like gravitational waves that still course from this violent event and simultaneously confirmed a prediction made by Albert Einstein a century ago.

The detection, made with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, known as LIGO, is the culmination of a decades-long search for signs of this elusive phenomenon – and an achievement some said was on par with the discovery of the Higgs boson, which earned its theorists a Nobel Prize in 2013.

Read more: http://www.afr.com/technology/einstein-was-right-we-can-hear-the-universe-20160212-gmsoop#ixzz40GmubAml
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Pixelated Squid and the Universe at Pavilion Dance South West

WEIRD science meets hip hop in a dance double bill at Bournemouth’s Pavilion Dance South West next week.

Pixelated Squid and the Universe offers an evening of dance, comedy and extremes, taking you on a journey from the bottom of the sea to the far reaches of the universe on Thursday 18 February at 7.30pm.

Dynamic street dancers Tentacle Tribe have sold out all over the world and they will present their celebrated creature feature, inspired by creatures of land and sea.
The Wonders of the Universe, meanwhile, presented by Welsh dance artist Karol Cysewski is a completely different kettle of (pre-historic) fish, offering a humorous and stimulating interpretation of the documentary of the same title. Three geeks and a celebrity scientist (voice-over by Brian Cox) take an imaginative look at the origins of the universe.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/leisure/news/14272280.Pixelated_Squid_and_the_Universe_at_Pavilion_Dance_South_West/

STUDY MAY HAVE FOUND EVIDENCE OF ALTERNATE, PARALLEL UNIVERSES

 While mapping the so-called “cosmic microwave background,” which is the light left over from the early universe, scientist Ranga-Ram Chary found what he called a mysterious glow, the International Business Times reported.

Chary, a researcher at the European Space Agency’s Planck Space Telescope data center at CalTech, said the glow could be due to matter from a neighboring universe “leaking” into ours, according to New Scientist magazine.

http://www.infowars.com/study-may-have-found-evidence-of-alternate-parallel-universes/

Black holes are a passage to another universe, says Stephen Hawking

 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/black-holes-are-a-passage-to-another-universe-says-stephen-hawking-10471397.html

BLACK HOLES ARE PASSAGE TO ANOTHER UNIVERSE, SAYS STEPHEN HAWKING

 Unfortunate space travellers won’t be able to return to their own universe, according to Hawking. But they will be able to escape somewhere else, he has proposed at a conference in Stockholm.

Black holes in fact aren’t as “black” as people thought and could be a way of getting through to an alternative universe.

“The existence of alternative histories with black holes suggests this might be possible,” Hawking said, according to a report from Stockholm University. “The hole would need to be large and if it was rotating it might have a passage to another universe. But you couldn’t come back to our universe. So although I’m keen on space flight, I’m not going to try that.

http://www.infowars.com/black-holes-are-passage-to-another-universe-says-stephen-hawking/

The Universe Is Steadily Deteriorating And So Is The Human Race – Why Is This Happening?

The human race itself is deteriorating as well.  To end this article, I would like to share with you an extended excerpt from one of my previous articles entitled “Scientists Discover Proof That Humanity Is Getting Dumber, Smaller And Weaker“.  As humans, it is our tendency to believe that we are somehow superior to all generations of humans that have ever come before us.  But the cold, hard scientific evidence actually shows that the exact opposite is true.  Compared to our ancient ancestors, our brains are smaller, our bodies are weaker and from generation to generation the number of errors in our DNA is rapidly growing.  There is a finite limit on the amount of time the human race will be able to survive just based on the pace that we are deteriorating.  Most people have never heard anything about this, and that is why such an extended excerpt from one of my previous articles is required.  I believe that many of you will find this extremely enlightening…

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-universe-is-steadily-deteriorating-and-so-is-the-human-race-why-is-this-happening

THE UNIVERSE IS STEADILY DETERIORATING AND SO IS THE HUMAN RACE – WHY IS THIS HAPPENING

In fact, they have found that the universe is only producing about half as much energy as it once did, and they have also found that the level of energy is continuing to fade.  Not only that, our sun also appears to be dying.  Solar activity has slowed down to a level not seen for about 100 years, and scientists are not quite sure what to make of it.  Pretty much all scientists agree that the sun will die “one day”, but could it be possible that it is happening faster than any of them ever imagined?  In addition, in this article I will include information about how the human race itself is deteriorating.  There is a common misconception that humanity has been constantly improving and getting better, but scientists have discovered that the exact opposite is actually true.  So why is this happening?  Why is everything steadily decaying and deteriorating?

http://www.infowars.com/the-universe-is-steadily-deteriorating-and-so-is-the-human-race-why-is-this-happening/

Falling energy levels in galaxies mean the Universe is slowly dying, say astronomers

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/falling-energy-levels-in-galaxies-mean-the-universe-is-slowly-dying-say-astronomers-10449115.html

FALLING ENERGY LEVELS IN GALAXIES MEAN UNIVERSE SLOWLY DYING, SAY ASTRONOMERS

A wide-spectrum survey of the galaxies has revealed the precise levels of energy generated within an immense segment of space and found that it is only half of what it was 2bn years ago – and that it is continuing to fade.

Previous work had already discovered that the conversion of matter to energy in the cosmos was declining but this is the most detailed survey to date of the sky across a wide range of light wavelengths, astronomers said.

http://www.infowars.com/falling-energy-levels-in-galaxies-mean-universe-slowly-dying-say-astronomers/