Space Features of the Week (20 May)

This week I’m going for another space summary, simply because there were so many interesting headlines that they deserve to be at least mentioned here. As usual, references and the links just after the general description.

The first and most disquieting of all, this article about a startling declaration by Professor Stephen Hawking: we humans have to find a new planet to populate within 100 years. Why? It’s our only way to survive. Climate change, overdue asteroid strikes, epidemics and population growth, will lead us to extinction otherwise. This is not the first time Hawking said that, but in the past he put a 1,000 year time limit. It seems we’re running out of time.

NASA space probes have detected a massive, human-made ‘barrier’ surrounding Earth, and this is rather worrying, too. As the article explains,”that’s a big deal, because not only do we know very little about these quantum phase transitions – it’s been less than a year since they were observed for the first time – but they could also be the key to unlocking all kinds of crazy properties, such as high-temperature superconductivity.”

Reconciling General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics

Scientists at the University of British Columbia have proposed a radical new theory to explain the exponentially increasing size of the universe, which is promising in terms of implications, especially in the field of the mysterious dark energy (does it even exist for real? Still controversial).

Finally, one news that not exactly space-related for now, but that is going to be. The new type of massive German nuclear fusion reactor looks the real deal. [The reactor] “was successfully able to contain a scorching hot blob of helium plasma. But since then, there’s been a big question – is the device working the way it’s supposed to? That’s pretty crucial when you’re talking about a machine that could potentially maintain controlled nuclear fusion reactions one day, and thankfully, the answer is yes.”

8 Comments

  1. sjhigbee

    Another fascinating article, Steph – thank you so much for sharing:))

    Reply
    1. Steph P. Bianchini (Post author)

      Thanks! 🙂

      Reply
  2. maddalena@spaceandsorcery

    Only a 100 years? Where is the closest spaceport???? 🙂
    Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    1. Steph P. Bianchini (Post author)

      I’m afraid only the Moon and Mars might be viable – let’s read again the whole Mars Trilogy 😀

      Reply
  3. ccyager

    I wonder if Hawking has any ideas where we should go? It’s one thing to make predictions, quite another to make them combined with some constructive ideas of how to deal with the dire news. He must read about the different discoveries that have been happening lately, especially about the earth-like planets only 40 light years away. Is that correct? Or is it 40 million light years? Anyway, I respect Hawking’s intellect, but I don’t think his pronouncements are as helpful as they could be.

    Reply
    1. Steph P. Bianchini (Post author)

      I agree (it is 40 ly, but it far away enough…) but I also think a lot of his statements are intended to be a provocation. No matter if we “end” in 100 years or 1000, we need to realise we’ll eventually have to live Earth. There’s no way out of it.

      Reply
      1. ccyager

        I wonder if Hawking is any closer to figuring out the physics behind warp drive? 🙂

        Reply
        1. Steph P. Bianchini (Post author)

          Good question! 😀

          Reply

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