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Scientists are trying to understand how supermassive black holes (SMBHs) formed early in the universe. One idea is that the first stars, called Population III (Pop III) stars, may have helped. These stars were made of hydrogen and helium and were very massive but short-lived. When they exploded, they left behind black holes. For a black hole to grow into an SMBH, it needs a lot of gas. Researchers studied whether Pop III stars could create special conditions to form even bigger stars, called supermassive stars, which could later become SMBHs. They focused on atomic-cooling halos (ACHs), large gas clouds where stars could form. The first Pop III stars produced radiation that could affect nearby gas and slow down star formation. However, computer simulations showed that this radiation wasn’t strong enough to stop cooling and create a supermassive star. Instead, smaller stars formed, leading to smaller black holes. This means forming SMBHs through this process alone is unlikely. Scientist...

Scientists study where and when stars and their planets were born in the Galaxy to understand how planets form. They used data to estimate the ages and chemical makeup of stars with and without planets. The results show that stars with planets are younger, richer in metals, and were born closer to the Galaxy's center compared to stars without planets. Stars with bigger planets tend to have even more metals and were born even closer. Planet formation becomes less common farther from the Galaxy's center, especially for big planets. Over time, planets have formed farther out as the Galaxy evolved, following its chemical changes. Scientists have discovered over 5,500 exoplanets—planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. These exoplanets come in many forms, from massive gas giants to smaller rocky planets similar to Earth. One of the biggest mysteries in astronomy is understanding where these planets originally formed in the Milky Way and how their formation is influenced by...

Black holes are fascinating objects in space, but while we know a lot about their outside, their inside remains a big mystery. Scientists are now using ideas from quantum physics to better understand what happens inside a black hole. The outside of a black hole is well studied, thanks to theories like AdS/CFT, which help explain how black holes behave. One interesting fact is that black holes can mix up information very quickly, a process called "scrambling." This makes them act like complex quantum systems. The big question is: What’s inside a black hole? Some scientists believe that the same rules that explain the outside also describe the inside. However, proving this is difficult. One possible answer comes from quantum complexity , which measures how complicated a system becomes over time. Researchers think that the space inside a black hole grows in the same way as quantum complexity increases. A popular idea, called the Complexity = Volume (CV) theory, suggests that th...

In the brane-world model, our four-dimensional universe is embedded in a higher-dimensional space known as the bulk. This setup suggests that gravitational effects from extra dimensions can influence our universe, potentially creating phenomena like wormholes. Juliano Neves, using the Nakas-Kanti approach, explored how wormholes like the Morris-Thorne and Molina-Neves types could exist in this framework. These wormholes are induced on the brane (our universe) by the gravitational influence of the bulk, without requiring any exotic matter or fields on the brane itself. The Nakas-Kanti approach starts with a five-dimensional bulk spacetime and derives solutions for the brane. This method reveals that certain wormhole geometries can emerge naturally, supported by the bulk's energy, not by matter on the brane. This work shows that regular solutions, like the Morris-Thorne and Molina-Neves wormholes, could exist without violating physical laws. Additionally, this framework may help expl...

Wormholes are theoretical shortcuts in space that connect distant points, allowing faster-than-light travel. Cosmic strings are hypothetical, dense, one-dimensional objects that could have formed in the early universe. Vedant Subhash's research explores how these cosmic strings affect rotating wormholes, which spin and have more complex behaviors than static ones. Subhash’s study shows that cosmic strings cause spacetime around a rotating wormhole to change. These changes, especially near the wormhole’s throat (the central point), are uneven, making the wormhole less stable. This instability means more exotic matter—matter with negative energy—is needed to keep the wormhole open. Without this exotic matter, the wormhole would collapse. Subhash also looked at how energy fields, called scalar fields, behave around these modified wormholes. By studying these interactions, he helps us understand how cosmic strings affect spacetime and energy near a wormhole. The idea of wormholes—t...

Massive black holes in the early universe seem too big to form so quickly based on current models. A new idea suggests "fuzzy dark matter" (FDM) could help explain this. Simulations show that soliton cores in FDM, made of tiny particles, form early and grow massive enough (similar to observed black holes). These cores create extra gravity, speeding up how black holes grow by pulling in more gas, up to 10,000 times faster. This works for specific FDM particle sizes and conditions. Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are giant objects with masses millions or billions of times that of our Sun. Scientists have discovered these massive black holes existed very early in the universe, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. The big question is: how did they grow so large, so quickly? New research led by Chiu and colleagues suggests that a special type of dark matter, called fuzzy dark matter (FDM) , might hold the answer. Let’s break this down step by step. The Mystery ...

New research reveals that habitable worlds may have formed much earlier in the Universe than we once believed—just 200 million years after the Big Bang. During this time, the first massive stars, called Population III stars, lived brief lives and ended in colossal explosions known as supernovae. These explosions scattered heavy elements like oxygen and carbon into space, creating the building blocks for planets and life. The debris from these supernovae collapsed into dense clouds that formed rotating disks around smaller stars. Within these disks, tiny dust particles clumped together to form planetesimals, the precursors to planets. Remarkably, some of these disks had "habitable zones," regions where water could exist in liquid form, similar to the area around our Sun where Earth orbits today. These findings show that rocky, water-rich planets could have formed long before galaxies even existed. This challenges the belief that planets and life emerged much later in the Unive...