THE HUNT FOR DARK ENERGY; EINSTEIN@HOME; Magnetars
Posted on Sunday, February 20, 2005 @ 22:01:07 UTC by vlad
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PENN ASTROPHYSICIST OUTLINES A MULTI-PRONGED APPROACH IN THE HUNT FOR DARK ENERGY, February 18
For the last few years evidence that we are living on a very "weird" universe has been growing: the expansion of the universe is accelerating, and one theory proposed to account for this acceleration is what has been termed "dark energy."
In order to find out what this mysterious energy really is, astronomers need to compare astrophysical observations that are at first sight completely unrelated. At a session on dark energy at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science today, University of Pennsylvania astrophysicist Licia Verde outlines how the hunt for dark energy will draw on the avalanche of recent and forthcoming data on surveys of objects throughout the universe.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news3105.html
REVOLUTIONARY GRASSROOTS ASTROPHYSICS PROJECT "EINSTEIN@HOME" GOES LIVE, February 18
A new grassroots computing project dubbed Einstein@Home, which will let anyone with a personal computer contribute to cutting edge astrophysics research, will be officially announced at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington DC on Saturday, February 19.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news3103.html
SCIENTISTS MOUNT AMBITIOUS EXPERIMENTS, PROPOSE DRAMATIC NEW THEORIES ABOUT DARK ENERGY, February 18
A panel of physicists and astronomers will preview emerging theories and experiments aimed at solving the mystery of dark energy, an invisible force that dominates the universe, from 1:45 to 4:45 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. The discussion will take place in the Omni Shoreham Hotel Diplomat Room on the lobby level.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news3102.html
STRING THEORIST EXPLORES DARK ENERGY AND OUR UNIQUE 'POCKET' OF THE UNIVERSE, February 18
Some celestial bodies are so cold that methane freezes; others are so hot that nuclear reactions occur. And then there's Earth, with a benign temperature hovering in the narrow range between freezing and boiling, allowing the existence of liquid water-and life.
''There's no question that there are many things about the [universe] which if they were very much different, even just a little bit different, life couldn't exist, intelligent life couldn't exist,'' said Stanford physics Professor Leonard Susskind, who is currently on sabbatical and writing a popular book titled The Cosmic Landscape. ''The [universe] is truly an incredibly fine-tuned place.''
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news3101.html
NYU'S DVALI SAYS CHANGE IN LAWS OF GRAVITY, NOT 'DARK ENERGY,' SOURCE OF COSMIC ACCELERATION, February 18
New York University physicist Georgi Dvali concludes that the cosmic acceleration of the universe may be caused by the modification of standard laws of gravity at very large distances, and not by "dark energy," as posited by many in the field. This modification, Dvali argues, could be triggered by extra space dimensions to which gravity "leaks" over cosmic distances.
Dvali's presentation took place at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, D.C.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news3110.html
RHESSI SATELLITE CAPTURES GIANT GAMMA-RAY FLARE, February 18
Astronomers around the world recorded late last year the brightest explosion ever of high-energy X-rays and gamma rays - a split-second flash from the other side of our galaxy that was strong enough to affect the Earth's atmosphere.
The flash, called a soft gamma repeater flare, reached Earth on Dec. 27 and was detected by at least 15 satellites and spacecraft between Earth and Saturn, swamping most of their detectors. Some of the best observations were recorded by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), a NASA/University of California, Berkeley, satellite launched in 2002 to study gamma-ray emissions from solar flares.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news3113.html
VLA PROBES SECRETS OF MYSTERIOUS MAGNETAR, February 18
A giant flash of energy from a supermagnetic neutron star thousands of light-years from Earth may shed a whole new light on scientists' understanding of such mysterious "magnetars" and of gamma-ray bursts. In the nearly two months since the blast, the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) telescope has produced a wealth of surprising information about the event, and "the show goes on," with continuing observations.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news3112.html
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