A wandering spirit leaves the vessel of an animistic being, drawn toward a new materialism. Through ritual, it gradually forgets its origin. It spins through

Researchers analyze GW250114, clearest gravitational wave signal from binary black hole merger. Tests Einstein's general relativity theory.

**_NASA Space Telescopes Spot an_**** _Early Universe_**** _Surprise_**** _: A Mature Galaxy Cluster_** A new discovery captures the cosmic moment when a galaxy cluster—among the largest structures in the universe—started to assemble only about a billion years after the big bang, one or two billion years earlier than previously thought. This result, made using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope, will force astronomers to rethink when and how the first galaxy cluster in the universe formed. Galaxy clusters contain hundreds or even thousands of individual galaxies immersed in enormous pools of superheated gas, along with large amounts of unseen dark matter. In addition to being the giants of the cosmos, astronomers use galaxy clusters to measure the expansion of the universe and the roles of dark energy and dark matter as well as look into other important cosmic questions. The newly-discovered object, known as JADES-ID1 for its location in the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES, has a mass about 20 trillion times that of the sun. Astronomers classify JADES-ID1 as a “protocluster” because they see it as it is undergoing an early, violent phase of formation. (One day, it will turn into a full-fledged galaxy cluster, but not for billions of years.) However, astronomers found JADES-ID1 at a much larger distance—corresponding to a much earlier time in the universe—than they expected to find protoclusters. This creates a mystery. _How could it form so quickly?_ This discovery of JADES-1 resets the clock as to when astronomers know this can happen. Before JADES-1, most of the computational models predicted that protoclusters would start forming about 3 billion years after the big bang. In other words, JADES-1 is showing up at least a billion years too early to fit into those theories. In order to find JADES-ID1, astronomers combined deep observations from Chandra and Webb. By design, the JADES field overlaps with the Chandra Deep Field South, the site of the deepest X-ray observation ever conducted. A discovery like this was only possible when two powerful telescopes like Chandra and Webb stare at the same patch of sky at the limit of their observing capabilities. Scientists will continue to work on their ideas of how JADES-1 could form so quickly after the big bang. In the meantime, astronomers will continue to use telescopes like Chandra to find more like it and learn all they can about the secrets of galaxy clusters. Video Credit: NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory Duration: 3 minutes Release Date: Jan. 28, 2026 #NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #JWST #Galaxies #GalaxyClusters #JADES #JADESID1 #Astrophysics #Cosmology #Cosmos #Universe #JWST #InfraredAstronomy #NASAChandra #XrayAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #CSA #Canada #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Supernova explosions in our galaxy occur once or twice a century. Historical records reveal the last core-collapse supernova was 1,000 years ago. Vera Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey aims to catch any future events.

Astronomers define dark energy as unexplained universal energy. Rice University researchers discover

Astronomers from University of Groningen, Germany, France & Sweden reveal

Ziggurat, a raised platform resembling a tiered pyramid with four sloping sides, defined in ancient architecture.

Study topological defects in complex systems as ordered states emerge, revealing universal structures in the universe and everyday materials through symmetry breaking.

Международная команда Dark Energy Survey опубликовала итоги шестилетнего обзора неба и показала самый чёткий на сегодня результат о том, как тёмная энергия влияет на расширение Вселенной. Наблюдения шли почти 760 ночей с 2013 по 2019 год. Учёные работали в Чили на 4-метровом телескопе Victor M. Blanco и использовали камеру Dark Energy Camera на 570 мегапикселей. […]

Новое изображение от космического телескопа Джеймса Уэбба показывает массивное скопление галактик MACS J1149.5+2223 в созвездии Льва. Гравитационное линзирование позволяет увидеть далекие объекты ранней Вселенной, включая рекордно удаленную звезду

A Coruña será el primer lugar de Europa donde se observará un fenómeno que oscurecerá el cielo en una franja del territorio peninsular

Scientists at CERN's LHC find new evidence of particle behavior post-Big Bang. Pressure gradients drive particle distribution in heavy ion collisions.

Бывший профессор Гарварда Майкл Гиллен предлагает необычную гипотезу: высший уровень библейского рая соответствует области за космологическим горизонтом, где время останавливается и царит вечность.

SFI professors explore Boltzmann brain hypothesis in new paper on statistical physics and cosmology, published in Entropy journal.

Researchers at Maynooth University reveal how black holes grew rapidly, solving a cosmic mystery. Published in Nature Astronomy, the study sheds light on their massive expansion.

Вероятно, внушительная часть космоса состоит из темной материи — таинственной субстанции, не испускающей свет и не поглощающей его. Космолог Мухаммад Гулам Хуваджа Хан из Индийского технологического института в Джодхпуре предложил сравнить космос с вязкой жидкостью, похожей на мед.

For nearly 100 years, dark matter has remained one of the biggest unanswered questions in cosmology. Although it cannot be seen directly, its gravitational influence shapes galaxies and the large-scale structure of the universe. At the Perimeter Institute, two physicists are investigating how a particular form of dark matter, known as self-interacting dark matter (SIDM), may influence the way cosmic structures grow and change over time. In research published in _Physical Review Letters_ , James Gurian and Simon May introduce a new computational tool designed to study how SIDM affects galaxy formation. Their approach makes it possible to explore types of particle interactions that were previously difficult or impractical to model accurately. **When Dark Matter Interacts With Itself** SIDM is a theoretical form of dark matter whose particles can collide with one another but do not interact with baryonic matter, the familiar matter made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. These collisions conserve energy through what physicists call elastic self-interactions. This behavior can strongly influence dark matter halos, the massive concentrations of dark matter that surround galaxies and help guide their evolution. “Dark matter forms relatively diffuse clumps which are still much denser than the average density of the universe,” says Gurian, a Perimeter postdoctoral fellow and co-author of the study. “The Milky Way and other galaxies live in these dark matter halos.” **Heat, Energy Flow, and Core Collapse** The self-interacting nature of SIDM can trigger a process known as gravothermal collapse within dark matter halos. This phenomenon arises from a counterintuitive property of gravity, where systems bound by gravity become hotter as they lose energy rather than cooling down. “You have this self-interacting dark matter which transports energy, and it tends to transport energy outwards in these halos,” says Gurian. “This leads to the inner core getting really hot and dense as energy is transported outwards.” Over time, this process can drive the core of the halo toward a dramatic collapse. **A Missing Link in Dark Matter Modeling** Simulating the structures formed by SIDM has long been a challenge. Existing methods work well only under certain conditions. Some simulations perform best when dark matter is sparse and collisions are rare, while others are effective only when dark matter is extremely dense and interactions are frequent. “One approach is an N-body simulation approach that works really well when dark matter is not very dense and collisions are infrequent. The other approach is a fluid approach — and this works when dark matter is very dense and collisions are frequent.” “But for the in-between, there wasn’t a good method,” Gurian says. “You need an intermediate range approach to correctly go between the low-density and high-density parts. That was the origin of this project.” **A Faster and More Accessible Simulation Tool** To solve this problem, Gurian and his co-author Simon May, a former Perimeter postdoctoral researcher now serving as an ERC Preparative Fellow at Bielefeld University, developed a new code called KISS-SIDM. The software bridges the gap between existing simulation methods, delivering higher accuracy while requiring far less computing power. It is also publicly available for other researchers. “Before, if you wanted to check different parameters for self-interacting dark matter, you needed to either use this really simplified fluid model, or go to a cluster, which is computationally expensive. This code is faster, and you can run it on your laptop,” says Gurian. **Opening the Door to New Dark Matter Physics** Interest in interacting dark matter has grown in recent years, partly due to puzzling features seen in galaxies that may not fit standard models. “There has been considerable interest recently in interacting dark matter models, due to possible anomalies detected in observations of galaxies that may require new physics in the dark sector,” says Neal Dalal, a member of the Perimeter Institute research faculty. “Previously, it was not possible to perform accurate calculations of cosmic structure formation in these sorts of models, but the method developed by James and Simon provides a solution that finally allows us to simulate the evolution of dark matter in models with significant interactions,” Dalal says. “Their paper should enable a broad spectrum of studies that previously were intractable.” **Implications for Black Holes and Beyond** The collapse of dark matter cores is especially intriguing because it may leave observable signatures, including possible connections to black hole formation. However, how this process ultimately ends remains an open question. “The fundamental question is, what’s the final endpoint of this collapse? That’s what we’d really like to do — study the phase after you form a black hole.” By making it possible to explore these extreme conditions in detail, the new code represents an important step toward answering some of the deepest questions about dark matter and the structure of the universe. Source link