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| The much delayed James Webb Telescope pic Chris Gunn / NASA |
The Kepler spacecraft is running low on fuel, 94 million miles away, ending its years of data- gathering. A technical hitch in 2003 led to the previous mission ending, and Kepler being redesignated K2 , with a new mission of scanning the stars for evidence of exo-worlds.
It will be superceded by the James Webb Telescope, which promises to see further out in space (and back in time), than ever before.
Could be a real boon to testing the final theory of Stephen Hawking...
It is now just over a week since Stephen Hawking died, and we hear that his ashes will be interred in historic Westminster Abbey.
I'm not sure how that sits with his belief that religion is for those who are scared of the dark, but then again, he also believed in multiple universes, which is like hedging your bets...
rather neatly, this brings us to the issue of his last paper, which was co - authored with Thomas Hertog.
It posits that there was more than one Big Bang, and that a spacecraft equipped with the right sort of probe can conclusively prove the existence of multiple universes from readings in the cosmic microwave background radiation.
If this gets proven, it would change our entire understanding of everything...as Professor Hawking was asked by John Oliver on the subject -
" ...so there's a universe where I'm smarter than you ?"
Professor Hawking replied : " Yes - and there's also a universe where you're funny"
The paper is due for publication in a major journal, very soon.
The launch of the James Webb Telescope is currently scheduled for sometime in early/ mid 2019.
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| Does Cosmic Background Radiation hold clues to a multiverse ? |
New discoveries in science come from all quarters, these days - many from ' citizen scientists ' , most recently the discovery of aurora named Steve, in Canada
sometimes, though, it can go horribly wrong, and you may find yourself wishing that the Earth would swallow you - for instance, the excitement generated by the apparent 'discovery' of a bright object in the sky. This paper on the discovery is highly technical , but the fact is that someone just re-discovered Mars.
Embarassing, yes - to go public with it, even moreso - but the icing on the cake here is that the discovery was made by a Professor of Astronomy...
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| I wonder if he'll frame the diploma ? |
Just When You Thought Conspiracy Was Dead...
We hear that Cambridge Analyica have been harvesting user data from millions of people for nefarious reasons which are mostly about interfering with elections and keeping corrupt politicians in power.
On the other hand, the article about this comes from the Cambridge University Trustworthy Technologies, so obviously they are the GOOD guys, the important word being ' Trustworthy'.
So that's alright, then.
Hmmmm
