Dark Matter Is an Illusion, New Antigravity Theory Says

The mysterious substance called dark matter may actually be an illusion created by gravitational interactions between fleeting particles of matter and antimatter, a new study.

Dark matter is thought to be an invisible substance which constitutes almost a quarter of the mass of the universe. The concept was first proposed in 1933 to explain why galaxies, clusters of galaxies in orbit more quickly than they should, based on the mass of the visible galaxies'.

The velocities of the galaxies observed outside should be thrown out into space, because the grapes do not seem to have enough mass to keep the edges of galaxies gravitationally bound.

So physicists suggested that galaxies are surrounded by a halo of invisible matter. Dark matter provides the extra mass, which in turn creates gravitational fields strong enough to hold clusters together.

In the new study, physicists Dragan Hajdukovic is the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland to offer an alternative explanation, based on what he calls the "gravitational polarization of the quantum vacuum."

The empty space filled with "virtual" particles

The quantum vacuum is the name physicists give what we see as empty space.

According to quantum physics, the vacuum is not really sterile, but a boiling sea of ​​so-called virtual particles and antiparticles constantly in and out of existence.

Antimatter particles have the opposite mirror image of normal matter particles. For example, a negatively charged antiproton is a version of the positively charged proton, a basic constituent of atoms.

When matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate in a flash of energy. Virtual particles spontaneously created in the quantum vacuum appears and disappears as fast as they can not be observed directly.

In his new mathematical model, Hajdukovic studied what would happen if matter and antimatter virtual virtual opposites not only electricity but also opposed an idea of ​​some previously proposed physical gravity.

"The traditional physics assumes that there is a single charge of gravity, while I assumed that there are two gravitational charges" Hajdukovic said.

According to him the idea, outlined in the journal Astrophysics and Space Science course, this is a positive charge and a negative anti-matter gravity.

This would mean that matter and antimatter is gravitationally repulsive, so the object made of antimatter would "fall up" in the Earth's gravitational field, which is composed of normal matter.

Particles and antiparticles could still face, but since the gravitational repulsion is much weaker than the electrical attraction.

How to Increase the galaxies have serious

While the idea of ​​a particle of gravity may seem exotic, Hajdukovic says his theory is based on the established tenants of quantum physics.

For example, it has long been known that particles can come together to create a so-called electric dipole with a positively charged particles at one end and negatively charged particles in the other. (See "existence Universe can be explained by new materials.")

According to theory, there are countless electric dipoles created by the virtual particles in a given volume of the quantum vacuum.

All of these electric dipoles are randomly oriented, like countless points of the compass needle in every way imaginable. But if the dipoles formed in the presence of an electric field exists, they immediately adjust along the same direction as the field.

According to quantum field theory, the sudden blow in the order of electric dipoles, called polarization, generates a high electric field, which combines and strengthens the first field.

Hajdukovic suggests that a similar phenomenon occurs with gravity. If the virtual matter and antimatter particles have different gravity, while the randomly oriented dipoles are generated in space.

If these gravitational dipoles form a massive galaxy that the article would have been a strong gravitational field, a dipole is polarized.

This polarization will generate a gravitational field of the secondary, which will combine with and strengthen the gravitational field of the galaxy.

"My theory makes the gravitational field of the galaxy, and powerful, without dark matter," said Hajdukovic.

Evidence of Dark Matter "very impressive"

Physicist David Evans has called the new study "an interesting theoretical exercise," but said he is not ready to abandon dark matter yet.

"The evidence for dark matter is very convincing," said Evans, University of Birmingham, who led the British team for the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

For example, unveiled in 2006, astronomers have an image of two colliding galaxies known as the Bullet cluster, which would have shown that the separation of the material of the dark matter.

A similar effect was observed at the beginning of the Pandora team this summer, says Evans, who was not involved in the study.

Hajdukovic said he is expanding his theory account of comments. His preliminary calculations, he said, that "what has been observed Bullet Cluster, and more recently the group Pandora can be understood as part of the gravitational polarization of the quantum vacuum."

Michael Doser at CERN physicists have agreed that the thoughts Hajdukovic are "unusual", but not immediately reject the new theory.

"The general perception is suffering from the absence of a dark matter particle is detected, then explore a variety of options right now perfectly legitimate as long as they are compatible with all the data," Dose said in an e -mail.

Doses are a member of AEGIS experiment at CERN aims to measure the gravitational load of antihydrogen, the antimatter version of hydrogen, and therefore would show whether the matter and antimatter is gravitationally repulsive.

"In a few years," Doser said, "we should certainly be able to confirm or refute the hypothesis [of Hajdukovic]."

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Space Pictures This Week: Shuttle Swap, Hubble's Jewels

Sharp Dumbbell

Image courtesy Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CFA/NASA

The remains of a Sun-like star wings butterfly painting through the cosmos in a recently published infrared image of Messier 27, also known as the Dumbbell Nebula, taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope.

The object is what is known as a planetary nebula, so called because astronomers had thought that the first interstellar clouds of light as the Jovian planets. In fact, what is clear is when the stars die and medium shed their outer layers of gas.

M27 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764, which included the now famous list of vague objects. While Messier did not realize at the time, handlebars was the first planetary nebula, he said.

Shuttle Swap
Photograph by Roberto Gonzalez, Getty Images

A space shuttle Endeavour for workers on August 11 as it is in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Endeavour is moved to the orbiter processing facility to make way for Kennedy to the discovery, he was transferred to the CPO for the technicians to prepare the profession to retire from the museum display.

Endeavour to head near California Science Center in Los Angeles, when Discovery moves to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.

European Night Lights
Diagram courtesy NOAA

A picture recently published by NOAA satellite shows the changes in night lights in Europe between 1992 and 2009. Areas where yellow lights indicate that they have increased, where the lights show purple have decreased, and the white areas show no change.

The image reveals dramatic changes in Eastern Europe, probably related to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1992, when more people moved west and the urbanization of former Soviet states has declined.

Greeting Crete
Photograph courtesy NASA

The light is reflected into the ocean creates a silver halo around western Crete in an image taken July 22 by an astronaut aboard the international space station.

Crete is the largest Greek island and the largest population that extends 161 miles (260 kilometers) from east to west. From 2700 to 1420 BC The island was the cultural center of the Minoan civilization, and is said to have been the home of the legendary Minotaur.

Spacey Jewelry
Image courtesy ESA/NASA

Bright, dense knots of gas light like jewels in a table published recently by the Hubble telescope the nebula collar, a planetary nebula about 15,000 light-years. Discovered in 2005, the dress is actually a cosmic cloud of gas and dust created by the death of a sun-like star

Around 10,000 years ago a dying star swells into a red giant, enveloping a nearby companion star. This is because the core of the dead star and the companion star is seen along the top as a central point to spin around each other so rapidly that they now carry an orbit in less than a day.

Because of centrifugal force, most of the gas escaped from the star along the equator of the star to produce a ring full of unusual.

Siberian Thaw
Image courtesy Landsat-5/NASA

As the veins of jade, which runs through the cave walls, green-tinted waters of the bays and Omulyakhskaya Khromskaya (see map) cut on the north coast of Siberia, in a satellite image released by NASA August 11 . The land around the bay is dotted with lakes icing call, which are created by water released as the thawing of permafrost.

Thawing permafrost and thermokarst lakes both release carbon dioxide and methane gases in the atmosphere, scientists monitor these landscapes to unravel the implications of climate change in the future.

Mercury's Depths
Image courtesy NASA/Johns Hopkins/Carnegie Institution of Washington

A small crater on the crater rim Oskison more mercury is cast in high relief on a satellite image taken by NASA's MESSENGER and released August 15 Sunlight casts shadows that help show deep corner terraced walls of the crater and smooth floors.

The image is part of a series being compiled by email to create a base map with high resolution. The map of time will cover 90 percent of the planet's surface, helping scientists better understand the topography of the battered world.

Dismal Fire
Image courtesy MODIS/NASA

Cascades of smoke south of Outer Banks in North Carolina in an image of southern West Virginia is lateral wildfire, as a NASA satellite on August 10 Lightning started the fire on August 4 in the dry grass and brush of pines of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.

Since August 9 the fire had burned 3,200 acres (1295 hectares), and fire managers say it will take at least six inches (15 cm) of rain in a short period to settle naturally.

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NASA Spacecraft Tracks Storm Until The Sun Envelopes The Earth First

NASA spacecraft away from the sun has seen a storm destroys the planet for the first time.

STEREO-A was more than 65 million miles of our planet, gives it a "big picture" view of other spacecraft in orbit around the earth is missing.

Recordings of the event has intrigued scientists, who say it could lead to significant advances in space weather forecasting.

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Best seat in the house: STEREO-A was more than 65million miles from our planet, giving it a 'big picture' view other spacecraft orbiting Earth lack, when it tracked the solar storm from the sun to our planet

Craig DeForest, Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said: "The film has sent shivers down my spine.

"It shows a coronal mass ejection (CME) will be a huge swelling of the wall of the plasma and washing over the blue speck of land in which we live. I felt very small."

CMEs are billion tons of solar plasma clouds of explosions began at the same time that the spark of solar flares. When you sweep the planet, can cause the aurora, the radiation storms, and, in extreme cases of power outages.

Following these clouds and to predict their arrival is an important part of the weather in space.

Lika Guhathakurta, STEREO program scientist role, said: "We have seen CME, but never quite like this CD has given us a new vision of solar storms .."

The images show that when the CME first left the Sun, which was hollow, with walls of magnetism surrounding a cloud of low-density gas.

Long journey: STEREO-A tracks a coronal mass election from the sun to Earth

Across the ditch Sun and Earth, however, as amended. The snow plow MEC "through the solar wind, waste material to form a huge wall of plasma.

At the time the CME reaches Earth, its facade was collapsing under the weight into the accumulated gas.

STEREO-A is one of the two satellites launched in 2006 to observe solar activity from different points in space.

When CME first leave the sun, they are lightweight and easy to do. Visibility is reduced quickly, but as the clouds expand in a vacuum.

Goes far beyond the orbit of Venus typical CME, it is a billion times fainter than the surface of the moon, and more than a thousand times fainter than the Milky Way.

CME reaches the Earth are so tenuous as the vacuum itself, and therefore transparent.

Mr. DeForest said: "By taking these small clouds of confusion of stars and interplanetary dust was a great challenge."

In fact, it took nearly three years of your team to learn how.

Solar storm: Footage of the event has amazed scientists who say it could led to important advances in space weather forecasting

Images of the storm on Thursday was recorded in December 2008 and worked on it since.

Now that the technique was perfected, it can be used on a regular basis without a long delay.

Images are not only identifies the time of arrival of the CME, but also its mass. The brightness of the cloud, scientists can calculate the density of gas with impressive accuracy.

Their results in December 2008 the event has been agreed with the actual field measurements at a few percent. When this technique is used to storms coming, they will be able to assess its effects with greater confidence.



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The Boy With One Hand Grant £ 35,000 Mercedes Car Strong Desire For Children With Disabilities

There are many a young boy who dreams of one day is owned by Mercedes.

Formula One fan Matthew James, however, had a specific goal. He wanted the car company to build him a new bionic hand.

Now, thanks to the determination and a good dose of chutzpah, 14 years, has had his wish granted.

Matthew, who was born without a left hand to put his plan into action by writing to Ross Brawn, the team leader Petronas F1 Grand Prix Mercedes, demanding £ 35,000 to pay for a top of the range artificial.

In return, the scholar said the company would sponsor the hand to put the Mercedes logo on it - such as advertising on F1 cars.

Instead of being discouraged by the early breakthrough, Mercedes was hit by Matthew "letter and the MIT" and has pledged to help raise the money needed.

It has also partnered with prosthetics specialists to create a Touch Bionics i-LIMB Pulse measurement - the most advanced technology of its kind in the world.

Hand - strong enough to keep the 14-stone load - it is also so versatile that Matthew good grip on the pen to draw and write tie his shoes, and catch a ball.

When it was installed on Friday, a teenager - who lives with his parents Rob, 44, and Tina, 42, Wokingham, Berkshire - said: "It 'just amazing my old artificial hand was pretty simple, on- off corresponding to the printing process ..

". But what I can do anything that looks really cool too - the outer shell is see-through so you can actually see the mechanics working They will even put a small Mercedes badge on the wrist .. "

Matthew went to the headquarters Touch Bionics in Livingston, Scotland, after the company agreed to waive his £ 25,000 fee to fit the hand and led him to use it.

He said: "I'm really looking forward to going back to school, so I can prove it.

"I like science and planning to enter engineering, but used to fight with the laboratory experiments. Now you should not be a problem.

"I love sports, but everything that involves both hands, like cricket, has always been a struggle. Now I can compete with the other kids."

After receiving a letter from Matthew in June, Mercedes invited him to his seat, where he visited the factory and met the race, Michael Schumacher.

The company will help to raise the remaining € 10,000 will pay the unit asking the supporters and sponsors to donate.

Mr Brawn said: "letter to the team of Matthew was very moving.

"If you look carefully at the pulse of i-LIMB, we realized that the technology in Formula One has in common with those used to create this part of the art prosthetics.

Dealership is now thought to be working on a new prototype of the bionic arm with touch.

Ruth Burns, the signing of the hearing, said the technology of the hand allowed patients to experience a wide range of natural movements and could feel the vibrations.

She said: "The workforce by taking instructions on the residual limb muscles.

"Most patients have difficulty moving your hand at first, but Matthew has evolved into several movements. It is very bright."

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Darkest Planet Found: Coal-Black, It Reflects virtually No light-weight

It may be arduous to imagine a planet blacker than coal, however that's what astronomers say they've discovered in our home galaxy with NASA's Kepler house telescope.

Orbiting only regarding three million miles out from its star, the Jupiter-size gas big planet, dubbed TrES-2b, is heated to one,800 degrees Fahrenheit (980 degrees Celsius). yet the apparently inky world appears to replicate virtually none of the starlight that shines on it, per a new study.

"Being less reflective than coal or even the blackest acrylic paint—this makes it by so much the darkest planet ever discovered," lead study author David Kipping said.

"If we may see it up shut it might look like a near-black ball of gas, with a slight glowing red tinge to it—a true exotic amongst exoplanets," added Kipping, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

NASA's Planet Detector

The Earth-orbiting Kepler spacecraft was specifically designed to search out planets outside our solar system. however at such distances—TrES-2b, for example, is 750 light-years from us—it's not as simple as snapping footage of alien worlds.

Instead, Kepler—using light-weight sensors called photometers that continuously monitor tens of thousands of stars—looks for the regular dimming of stars.

Such dips in stellar brightness might indicate that a planet is transiting, or passing in front of a star, relative to Earth, blocking a number of the star's light—in the case of the coal-black planet, blocking surprisingly little of that light-weight.

Black Planet Spurs Dimmest of Dimming

When a planet passes in front of its star, the world's shaded side faces Kepler. however because the planet begins orbiting to the side of and "behind" its star, its star-facing side comes to face the viewer. the number of starlight grows until the earth, becoming invisible to Kepler, passes absolutely in back of its star.

Watching TrES-2b and its star, Kepler detected only the slightest such dimming and brightening, though enough to ascertain that a Jupiter-size gas big was the cause.

The light reflected by the newfound extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, changed by only regarding half dozen.5 parts per million, relative to the brightness of the host star.

"This represents the smallest photometric signal we've got ever detected from an exoplanet," Kipping said.

What's more, because the coal-black planet passed in front of its star, the starlight's dimming was "so little that it's like the dip in brightness we might see with a fruit fly stepping into front of a automobile headlight."

The Dark Mystery of TrES-2b

Current pc models predict that hot-Jupiter planets—gas giants that orbit very close to their stars—could be only as dark as Mercury, that reflects regarding 10 p.c of the daylight that hits it.

But TrES-2b is therefore dark that it reflects just one p.c of the starlight that strikes it, suggesting that the present models may have tweaking, Kipping said.

Assuming the new study's measurements are sound, what exactly is creating the new planet's atmosphere therefore dark?

"Some have proposed that this darkness may be caused by an enormous abundance of gaseous sodium and titanium oxide," Kipping said. "But more doubtless there's something exotic there that we've got not thought of before.

"It's this mystery that I realize therefore exciting regarding this discovery."

TrES-2b might even represent an entire new class of exoplanet—a chance Kipping and company hope to place to the test with Kepler, that has to date detected hundreds of planets outside our solar system.

"As Kepler discovers more and more planets by the day, we are able to hopefully scan through those and compute if this is often unique or if all hot Jupiters are very dark," Kipping said.

Meanwhile, the very darkness of the new exoplanet suggests perhaps a catchier moniker for TrES-2b, Kipping said. "Maybe an applicable nickname would be Erebus"—ancient Greece's god of darkness.

The coal-black planet study has been accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Discovery and Endeavour come face-to-face on runway as Nasa officials prepare them for life on the ground

Two of Nasa's three retired space shuttles were greeted with cheers as they traded places yesterday.

In a rare nose-to-nose encounter, Discovery and Endeavour met outside the shuttle hangar at Kennedy space Centre in Florida.

Discovery moved into the hangar and Endeavour went to the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Nasa workers lined the route to look at one thing they'll never see once more as the 2 giant shuttles, paying homage to 2 retired heavyweight boxers, were wheeled towards one another.

The switch was necessary for Nasa to continue getting ready both spaceships for their future homes.

Discovery will head next spring to a Virginia hangar belonging to the Smithsonian institution.

Endeavour will then be transported to the California Science Centre in l.  a.  .

Atlantis - that recently completed the last shuttle flight - will remain at Kennedy for public display.

Last month, Atlantis was towed into its hangar at the Orbiter Processing Facility many hours after it landed, ending not solely its two-week mission, but a 30-year shuttle programme that has long been the pride of America.

The shuttle, that was paraded through the streets to thousands of cheering fans, was fastidiously locked away for the last time, signalling the top of an era.

It was the last time the shuttle are seen by the general public for a short time after it made an ideal landing at Cape Canaveral, finishing the 135th mission for the fleet, that has coated an astonishing 542million miles and circled Earth twenty one,150 times.

The 5 shuttles have carried 355 people from 16 countries.

Nasa originally promised 50 shuttle flights a year, but the programme suffered 2 tragic accidents that killed 14 astronauts and destroyed 2 shuttles - Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003.

Nasa never managed more than nine flights in an exceedingly single year. and therefore the cost was virtually £1billion a flight.

The very 1st shuttle flight passed off in April 1981. it'll be another three to five years at best before Americans are kicked off space once more from U.S. soil, with non-public firms gearing up to seize the Earth-to-orbit-and-back baton from Nasa.

After Atlantis arrived home, 3,200 of the shuttle program's 5,500 contract workers lost their jobs.

Asteroids and Mars are now the destinations of alternative, nevertheless Nasa has nevertheless to settle on a rocket style to urge astronauts there.

Nasa's 5 space shuttles launched, saved and revitalised the Hubble space Telescope, engineered the space station - the world's largest orbiting structure, and opened the final frontier to girls, minorities, schoolteachers, even a prince.

The first american to orbit the world, John Glenn, became the oldest person ever in space, thanks to the shuttle. He was 77 at the time; he turned 90 in July.
Born with Columbia, it absolutely was Nasa's longest-running space exploration programme.

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