Gizmorama - May 4, 2015

Good Morning,

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has turned 25! It's time to celebrate and learn about this orbital observatory and what sights it has allowed us to see.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Hubble telescope turns 25 --*
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Twenty-five years ago today, April 24, 1990, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope -- the world's preeminent orbital observatory -- was launched into low Earth orbit. For last quarter-century, it's been capturing stunning images of deep space and the celestial bodies that populate it.

Hubble's construction began in the 1970s. It's launch was originally slated for 1983, but its completion was delayed nearly a decade by technical challenges and budget issues. But the massive mirrored telescope, orbiting just 100 miles beyond the International Space Station, quickly proved it was worth the wait.

"Hubble has completely transformed our view of the universe, revealing the true beauty and richness of the cosmos," John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a press release. "This vista of starry fireworks and glowing gas is a fitting image for our celebration of 25 years of amazing Hubble science."

A series of upgrades over the years has resulted in an increasingly impressive resolution, delivering remarkable photos of faraway galaxies, nebulas and supernovas.

More than just provide pretty pictures, Hubble's observations advanced the work of astronomers in understanding the vast universe. Its data helped scientists estimate the universe's age more accurately. Its observations also led to the realization that the universe is still expanding. Its imagery allowed researchers to better understand the relationship between galaxies and massive black holes.

And the the world's most famous telescope isn't done. NASA officials suggest its scientific life will continue well into the next decade. But all good things must come to an end; the telescope will have to be replaced eventually. Sometime between 2030 and 2040, a combination of atmospheric drag and solar activity will push and pull back into Earth's atmosphere.


*-- Is the universe 3-D? Or just a hologram? --*
VIENNA (UPI) - New and ongoing research suggests physicists are using one too many dimensions to explain the universe. They say the cosmos can be mathematically explained using just two dimensions.

The universe isn't 3-D, in other words, it is -- as was described in a recent Vienna University of Technology press release -- "the image of two-dimensional processes on a huge cosmic horizon." The universe is a hologram.

The idea that quantum physics and gravitational theories can be solved using two dimensions has proven fruitful when applied to curved spaces -- like the negatively curved space-time structures of the universe theorized by astronomer Willem de Sitter, who worked closely with Albert Einstein at the Leiden Observatory in the 1920s. These curved shapes are commonly called Anti-de Sitter spaces.

But while Anti-de Sitter spaces help work out many of Einstein's more profound quantum theories, they don't reflect the reality of our universe.

"Our universe, in contrast, is quite flat -- and on astronomic distances, it has positive curvature," explained Vienna researcher Daniel Grumiller.

But Grumiller thought that a correspondence could appease the mathematics of 2-D quantum physics and 3-D gravitational theories on a flat surface.

"If quantum gravity in a flat space allows for a holographic description by a standard quantum theory, then there must be physical quantities, which can be calculated in both theories--and the results must agree," Grumiller said.

Entangled particles in a quantum system cannot be described individually, they much be measured as a singular object. The measurement is called "entropy of entanglement." The most recent work of Grumiller and his colleagues suggests that measurement is the same in both theories -- flat quantum gravity and in a low-dimension quantum field theory.

It's the latest research to lend credence to cosmological holography.

"This however, does not yet prove that we are indeed living in a hologram -- but apparently there is growing evidence for the validity of the correspondence principle in our own universe," explained Florian Aigner, a spokesman for Vienna's research efforts.

The ideas of Grumiller and his colleagues -- from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Edinburgh, Harvard University, the University of Kyoto and elsewhere -- were published this week in the journal Physical Review Letters.

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