A physicist from America believes that she has scientifically disproved the existence of black holes in our universe.

The theory combines Steve Hawking's radiation theory with quantum theory’s fundamental law that no information ever disappears from the universe.

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Professor Laura Mersini-Houghton upholds she managed to merge two apparently contradicting theories, Einstein's theory of gravity and a fundamental law of quantum theory.

While Einstein's theory forecasts the formation of black holes, the quantum theory law states that no information from the universe can ever disappear, in an attempt to resolve the so-called ‘information law paradox.’

“I'm still not over the shock,” said Mersini-Houghton. Until now, contemporary science generally believed that a black hole forms from a massive star that collapses under its own gravity into a solitary spot in space;astronomers call this the singularity, surrounded by the event horizon that neither light nor energy could escape from. Three decades ago renowned physicist Stephen Hawking proposed that black holes could emit radiation. Hawking’s hypothesis, made in 1974, was based on quantum mechanics.

Mersini-Houghton agrees with Hawking on the radiation being given off by a collapsed star for a certain period of time, yet she insists that by emitting radiation, the star also loses too much of its mass right to the point when formation of a singularity – and a black hole –in essence, is impossible.

The academic suggests that the dying stars do not fall inward, but “probably blow up.”

“Physicists have been trying to merge these two theories — Einstein's theory of gravity and quantum mechanics — for decades, but this scenario brings these two theories together, into harmony,” Mersini-Houghton said in the statement. “And that's a big deal.”

Mersini-Houghton’s conclusions have already been severely criticized by William Unruh, a theoretical physicist from the University of British Columbia.

 “Attempts like this to show that black holes never form have a very long history, and this is only the latest. They all misunderstand Hawking radiation, and assume that matter behaves in ways that are completely implausible,” he claimed.

Back to back solar storms from earlier this week triggered astonishing aurora displays. The massive explosions of Sun material from Monday (8th) and Wednesday (12th) cause beautiful auroras all over the Northern hemisphere for some observers. Wednesdays blast was on the most extreme scale of possible solar storms.


See photos sent into Space.com by Neil Simmons, Diane Doiron and John Stetson:

Staff, Space.com, ed. "Aurora Photos: Amazing Northern Lights Display from Solar
     Storms." Space.com. N.p., 15 Sept. 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.

On Monday (Sept. 8), an average sized solar flare shot off the sun, unleashing a surge of solar particles into space. Then on Wednesday (Sept. 10), an X-class solar flare — the most extreme class of solar flare — erupted from the same spot as Monday’s surge.

The solar particles blown out of the sun can prompt geomagnetic storms on Earth, which can disrupt GPS signals, radio communications and power grids.

However, geomagnetic storms also have harmless effects, beautiful effects — they can supercharge the northern and southern lights.

Consecutive explosions on the sun triggered a geomagnetic storm last week, which caused stunning auroras over the northern latitudes.

Night sky photographer Mike Taylor captured green and purple northern lights above Unity Pond in central Maine Friday night (Sept. 12). "No color saturation needed; Mother Nature provided a brilliant display of lights," Taylor said in an email. [See the amazing aurora photos after the double solar storms]

Chad Blakley, who captured photos of the northern lights over Sweden's Lapland region, wrote: "It is aurora season in Sweden so you know I am a happy man!"

In a description of a time-lapse video of the northern lights, Blakley said the display "will never be forgotten by the people that were lucky enough to witness the event."
 

Gannon, Megan, ed. "Spectacular Auroras from Solar Storms Wow Stargazers (Photos,
     Video)." Space.com. N.p., 15 Sept. 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.

Russian scientists state that they made a “unique” finding while analyzing samples from the exterior of the International Space Station – traces of tiny sea creatures on the station’s windows and walls. It remains unclear how marine plankton found a way into space.

The findings of the recent experiments show that that some organisms are capable of living on the outer surface of the International Space Station (ISS), Vladimir Solovyev, head of the Russian segment of the ISS, has revealed.

Some studies suggest that these organisms may even develop in the hostile conditions of spaceflight, which include vacuum, low temperatures, radiation and others, he added.

“The results of the so-called ‘Test’ experiment are unique. On the surface of the [ISS] windows we found traces of marine plankton – the microparticles – that will become the subject of further studies,” Solovyev was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass.

While the experiments on the matter were finalized last year, it is still unclear how the microparticles could get all the way to the ISS, Solovyev stated.

“[Plankton in] such phases of development is found on the surface of the ocean. It isn’t characteristic to Baikonur,” he explained, referring to Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan from where crew and cargo deliveries to ISS are launched.

“It turns out that there are some rising air currents, which settle on the surface of the station,” Solovyev added.

"Life in space? Sea plankton discovered attached to ISS outer hull." RT. N.p.,
     20 Aug. 2014. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.

Astronomers have mapped the cosmic crisis in which our Milky Way Galaxy is a but a small component. The enormous structure, which the research team labels the Laniakea Supercluster, extends more than 500 million light-years and comprises 100,000 large galaxies.

Researchers have been working out the gravitational structure in our universe for years. Based on Gerard de Vaucouleurs’s work in the 1950s, astrophysicists have thought of our galaxy as being on the edge of what is called, Local Supercluster, a structure about 100 million light-years wide.

But astronomers have also seen even larger structures in the universe, on the scale of several hundred million light-years, thanks to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and other work.

Brent Tully (University of Hawaii, Honolulu) and his colleagues have engaged in quite a different approach. The team used galaxies’ peculiar velocities, which are the galaxies’ motions due to the local gravitational landscape. Galaxies fall to or from one another in this landscape, the Milky Way, and many others seem to be moving toward what’s called the Great Attractor, a dense region in the vicinity of the Centaurus, Norma, and Hydra clusters about 160 million light-years away.

Unusual velocities are on the order of a few hundred kilometers per second, whereas the cosmic expansion velocities rise to 10,000 km/s roughly 130 million light-years away. Tully believes that there’s about 10-20% ambiguity in the peculiar velocity measurement for an individual galaxy.

But the team found a method to avoide this set back, by using an analysis technique called Wiener filtering. This algorithm made it possible for the team to basically take a step back and look at the big picture, revealing the large-scale flow patterns created by galaxies’ motions. With this wide-field view, the individual uncertainties are have no effect.

Carlisle, Casmille M. "Laniakea: Our Home Supercluster." Sky and Telescope.
     N.p., 3 Sept. 2014. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.

The spacesuit of one of the pair of the world-famous, first-ever dogs in space, Belka and Strelka, were sold at an auction on Saturday. One lucky fan of Soviet space memorabilia purchased it for a total of €14,000.

Many dogs were trained t o go into space, and many of their space suits were put on display. However, not all space dogs were as lucky as Belka and Strelka. For example, we all remember Laika, the dog who traveled into space in 1957, yet died from stress and overheating during the flight.

The famous Pchyolka and Mushka were able to spend a day in the orbit in 1960, but due to a navigation error, their spacecraft was destroyed to prevent its secrets falling into Westerns hands.

Image of the training spacesuit of Belka and Strelka

Apart from the spacesuit there will be other Soviet space memorabilia, including cosmonauts’ autographs, commemorative stamps and medals, and collectible pins. There will be a bottle of cognac tasted and autographed by Yuri Gagarin, and a 1963 porcelain bust of the spaceman. It also includes a small piece of Vostok 1, Gagarin’s space capsule in which he made his first flight to space.

"Canine collectible: Soviet cosmo-dogs’ spacesuit sold for $18,000 at auction."
     RT. N.p., 13 Sept. 2014. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.

More than 100,000 people have taken to the streets of New York City this Sunday to take part in the People’s Climate March, the biggest of its kind.

The march is occurring ahead of the United Nations climate-change summit, which is summoning to discuss an international carbon emissions agreement. Those marching are anticipating that their protest will put pressure on world leaders who are attending the meeting, such as President Barack Obama, to take policy action to curb the damage of climate change.

The occasion is said to be the largest climate change-related demonstration in world history. It may also be the loudest — protesters are using horns, speakers and other noise-making methods to literally sound the alarm on climate change. “It’s going to be beautiful,” McKibben told NBC News. “It’s like sounding a burglar alarm on the people who are stealing the future.”

Fmr. NASA Scientist James Hansen demands climate 'reparations' & proposes global 'carbon fee' — he should be at  'The People's March' in NYC.  More on the story to come.



Feeney, Nolan. "New York City Climate Change March Could Be Largest of Its
     Kind." New York Time. N.p., 2014. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.

NASA has opened the world’s largest spacecraft welding instrument for business.
After a ribbon cutting ceremony, The Vertical Assembly Center of NASA’s — a 170-foot-tall welding instrument — made its entrance in New Orleans, Louisiana on Friday (Sept. 12).

NASA will use the facility to weld more than 200-foot-tall core stage of the agency's Space Launch System (SLS), a huge rocket designed to bring humans into deep space – deeper than has ever been achieved.

"This rocket is a game changer in terms of deep space exploration and will launch NASA astronauts to investigate asteroids and explore the surface of Mars while opening new possibilities for science missions, as well,” NASA administrator Charles Bolden said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony today. [See images of NASA's SLS rocket design]

NASA officials expect that the SLS will be set for its first flight no later than 2018. In its final configuration, the rocket will stand close to 400 feet tall (122 meters). For its first test flight, however, the rocket is expected to deliver an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit.

The Orion capsule is currently being assembled in Florida. It is designed astronaut crews to deep space destinations like Mars or an asteroid in orbit around the moon. Orion first test flight launch will be aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket this December.

Kramer, Miriam. "NASA Unveils World's Largest Welder to Build New Mega-Rocket."
     Space.com. N.p., Sept. 2014. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.

Boeing is confident to win the lucrative contract to build space taxis for NASA.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Boeing, the Chicago-based aerospace giant, will likely be the winner of the competition to build spacecraft that would take astronauts to and from orbit.

In the past, Boeing has said in that it plans on ferrying people into space aboard its CST-100 crew transportation vehicle.

The space taxi contract is worth more than $3 billion, reported the Seattle Times earlier this week, which added that the first flights under the program may take place as early as 2017.

Boeing's victory would come as a surprise to many, since SpaceX who is also competing, was seen as the preferred candidate, according to the Wall Street Journal, "because of its lower costs and nimbler approach."

The Journal also said that NASA would likely award a smaller contract "as a second source" to the other competing corporations.

Terdiman, Daniel. "Boeing said to win NASA space taxi contract." CNET. N.p., 15 Sept. 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.

In April 2014 Scientists government officials, emergency planned, and others got together in Colorado for an annual gathering space weather workshop. The purposes of the workshops are to discuss relevant and potentially dangerous space storms. The members at the meeting were surprised to learn about a large scale solar storm that just missed earth.  

The close call happened in July 2012 when a coronal mass ejection shot out from the sun as fast as 3000 kilometer per second. Researches have concluded that this storm was one of the strongest in logged solar storm history.


If the storm had happened just one week earlier, earth would have been hit, causing severe technological disturbances

There would have been two evident waves of damage associated with the dangerous solar storm. First, X-rays and ultraviolet radiation from the solar flare would have produced radio blackouts and GPS navigation errors.

Secondly, within the next day, magnetized plasma from the CME would have struck earth. Power blackouts could have been devastating, making it difficult to even flush the toilet because most urban areas use electric water pumps.

"I have come away from our recent studies more convinced than ever that Earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the 2012 eruption happened when it did," Daniel Baker at the University of Colorado.

Howell, Elizabeth. "Huge Solar Storm of 2012 Would Have Sparked Calamity on
     Earth." Space.com. N.p., Sept. 2014. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.