After studying this course, you should be able to:
understand the basis of modern cosmology based on the hot big bang
summarise the main candidate dark matter particles, and the prospects for directly detecting them
compare models to explain the late-time acceleration of the Universe's expansion, i.e. dark energy and the cosmological constant
discuss observational prospects for understanding the nature of dark energy
explain the theoretical problems that led to the theory of inflation, how an early inflationary period solves them, and how researchers are investigating inflation.
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Advances in formation theory of supermassive black holes.
Supermassive black holes exist in the centres of Galaxies, there is one at the centre of the Milky way galaxy which was photographed a few years ago. The photo below is from the Wikipedia article.
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There were two big bangs
This new theory is fast gaining ground, the idea being that the current theory only produced 5% of the matter we can see, where as the universe is made up of 95% dark energy and dark matter. So this had to come from somewhere. The idea now is there was a secondary big bang producing the remaining 95% of this matter.
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Physicists suggest that black holes could have an exit to other places in the universe
Interesting article from Meson Stars regarding black holes having possible exits. I have included a paste of my Fediverse comment below. However feel free to discuss on Fediverse or on Science forums.
This does make some sense, I have heard about white holes, which are the opposite of black holes as they allow matter to be ejected in to space. This seems to tie in with the suggestion in the article that if you could pass through you cannot get back again. However in relation to this
"Scientists have already said that all matter inside a black hole is destroyed, "
I got the impression matter can't be created or destroyed, it is interchangeable with energy. In which case, could it be that matter is drawn in to a black hole, somehow converted in to energy then ejected from a white hole?
So purely on a speculative idea
So how do we find these white holes, perhaps we have already found them as we can detect things like gamma ray bursts or neutrino emissions but can't always explain them, perhaps these are related to white holes and we are observing the release of energy in to space as these or similar phenomenon
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Spacetime: real and physical, or a calculational tool?
This is interesting, even if it may be hard to get your head round it sometimes. There is an activity we could try and do at the STEM group that will demonstrate the warping of space around a mass. This isn't complex to do, just needs the right materials.
As always we can discuss on Science forums or on the Fediverse.
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Astronomy updates
A few updates from the world of Astronomy, these were published last week, just that my blog has lots of stuff scheduled.
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The Universe is Broken
This is an interesting podcast from Awesome Astronomy looking at a how a recent James Webb telescope discovery could force us to re-write what we know about the evolution of the universe.
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The Universe May Have Started with a Dark Big Bang
So if I understand this correctly normal matter (protons & Neutrons) formed at the same time as Dark Matter but the Dark matter evolved separately via a second big bang which produced the dark matter.
If this sounds confusing, then welcome to the world of cosmology, but it still really interesting.
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