Showing posts with label Physics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Physics. Show all posts

Friday, 1 February 2008

Seeing new dimensions

Particle accelerator may reveal shape of alternate dimensions

When the world's most powerful particle accelerator starts up later this year, exotic new particles may offer a glimpse of the existence and shapes of extra dimensions.

Exotic particles makes me think of those cartoons of anthropomorphised atoms we had in high school. And the shapes of extra dimensions? That just plays with my mind!

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Tuesday, 15 January 2008

Einstein is right! Again!

He must be getting sick of always being right, surely! Einstein predicted that light would bend while passing large masses due to something called 'gravitational lensing'. Low and behold, we've observed it happen numerous times in history. Now we've found perhaps the most extraordinary example of such a thing.

If you have a large light source lined up in a line-of-sight perspective behind something massive, like a galaxy, the light should bend around it. This then forms a ring of light around the foreground object. Add another galaxy into the line-up, and you'll get more bending, hence another ring.

It's highly unlikely you'd ever get two galaxies lined up perfectly in front of a third bright galaxy...but that's pretty much what astronomers have found.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080110102319.htm

Amazing.

Mike

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