The Carnival of Space 647 is up at Urban Astronomer.
Universe Today reports that the Hubble space telescope found tiny clumps of dark matter.
Dark Matter is believed to make up the bulk of the Universe’s mass and is the scaffolding on which galaxies are built. We cannot directly see Dark Matter but have to measure how the presence of Dark Matter by watching stars and galaxies in an area. Evidence of dark matter clumps have been seen around medium and large galaxies.
Hubble images showed that light coming from eight quasars was subject to a gravitational lensing effect that is consistent with the presence of small clumps along the telescope’s line of sight and in and around the foreground lensing galaxies.
Measurements were also used to calculate the masses of the dark matter concentrations, which indicated that they were 1/10,000th to 1/100,000th times the mass of the Milky Way’s own Dark Matter halo.
The Hill describes how the Space Force, the newest US military branch, would wage war. There are more advanced anti-satellite and satellite defense capabilities that will be developed. An anti-satellite device could pretend to be space debris and then activate to take out an enemy satellite. The US, China and Russia and some other nations have the capability to destroy satellites. Satellites are critical for global positioning and for spy satellite capabilities.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
this !
Maybe net them and drag them out of orbit.
It’ll be cool if they can extend this technique to start making maps of dark matter surrounding the galaxy, by detecting tiny shifts in apparent galaxy or star positions.
If we have learned anything from SF TV shows, it’s that a cliffhanger or unexplained mystery is often much better than whatever lame solution they end up with. eg. Lost.
Some military zealot in the space force is the most likely trigger to start the Kessler syndrome that will lock space away from everyone on earth. There Should be a rule about only capturing enemy satellites, not “taking them out” with ordinance.
Dark matter was a good science fiction tv show also… too bad they canceled the show on a cliff hanger…