BOGOTA, May 23 (Reuters) – A team of Colombian soldiers will travel to Europe to train their Ukrainian counterparts on de-mining techniques, the South American country’s defense minister said on Monday. Colombia’s nearly 60 years of internal conflict between the armed forces, leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and drug cartels has made it one of the […]
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By Mircely Guanipa, Marianna Parraga and Tibisay Romero CARACAS, May 23 (Reuters) – Iranian state firms have started preparations to revamp Venezuela’s largest oil refinery, the 955,000-barrel-per-day Paraguana Refining Center, four people close to the talks said, following a contract to repair its smallest facility. A deal would deepen an energy relationship that has become […]
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An eco campaigner, who has raised thousands of pounds for charity, is thought to be the first person to swim round a Caribbean island non-stop. Oly Rush, 37, completed the 95.5km (59.3 mile) swim around Grand Cayman in 36 hours and 59 minutes. Mr Rush, from Upton, Dorset, said the “absolutely brutal” challenge was “the […]
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Some 20 countries have committed to new security assistance packages for Ukraine following a multination conference on how to meet Kyiv’s needs, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday. The virtual meeting, which included ministers and chiefs of defense from 47 countries, was the second Ukraine Contact Group gathering since Russia’s attack began in late February. New commitments: […]
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Measuring the expansion rate of the universe was one of the Hubble Space Telescope's main goals when it was launched in 1990.
Over the past 30 years, the space observatory has helped scientists discover and refine that accelerating rate – as well as uncover a mysterious wrinkle that only brand-new physics may solve.
Hubble has observed more than 40 galaxies that include pulsating stars as well as exploding stars called supernovae to measure even greater cosmic distances.
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Both of these phenomena help astronomers to mark astronomical distances like mile markers, which have pointed to the expansion rate.
In the quest to understand how quickly our universe expands, astronomers already made one unexpected discovery in 1998: "dark energy".
This phenomenon acts as a mysterious repulsive force that accelerates the expansion rate.
And there is another twist: an unexplained difference between the expansion rate of the local universe versus that of the distant universe right after the big bang.
Scientists don't understand the discrepancy, but acknowledge that it's weird and could require new physics.
"You are getting the most precise measure of the expansion rate for the universe from the gold standard of telescopes and cosmic mile markers," Nobel Laureate Adam Riess at the Space Telescope Science Institute and a distinguished professor at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said in a statement.
"This is what the Hubble Space Telescope was built to do, using the best techniques we know to do it.
"This is likely Hubble's magnum opus, because it would take another 30 years of Hubble's life to even double this sample size."
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The telescope was named for pioneering astronomer Edwin Hubble, who discovered in the 1920s that distant clouds in the universe were actually galaxies. He died in 1953.
Hubble relied on the work of astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt's 1912 discovery of the periods of brightness in pulsating stars called Cepheid variables.
Cepheids act like cosmic mile markers as they brighten and dim periodically within our galaxy and others.
Hubble's work led to the revelation that our galaxy was one of many, forever changing our perspective and place in the universe.
The astronomer continued his work and discovered that distant galaxies appeared to be moving rapidly, suggesting that we live in an expanding universe that started with a big bang.
The detection of the universe's expansion rate helped lead to the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded to Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt and Riess "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae".
Riess continues to lead SHOES, short for Supernova, H0, for the Equation of State of Dark Energy, a scientific collaboration investigating the universe's expansion rate.
His team is publishing a paper in The Astrophysical Journal that provides the latest update on the Hubble constant, as the expansion rate is known.
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Measuring distant objects has created a "cosmic distance ladder" that can help scientists better estimate the age of the universe and understand its foundations.
Multiple teams of astronomers using the Hubble telescope have arrived at a Hubble constant value that equals 73 plus or minus 1 kilometre per second per megaparsec.
A megaparsec is one million parsecs, or 3.26 million light years.
"The Hubble constant is a very special number. It can be used to thread a needle from the past to the present for an end-to-end test of our understanding of the universe. This took a phenomenal amount of detailed work," Licia Verde, a cosmologist at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies and the Institute of Cosmos Science at the University of Barcelona, said in a statement.
But the actual predicted expansion rate of the universe is slower than what the Hubble telescope has observed, according to astronomers utilising the standard cosmological model of the universe (a theory suggesting the components of the big bang) and measurements taken by the European Space Agency's Planck mission between 2009 and 2013.
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Planck, another space observatory, was used to measure the cosmic microwave background, or the leftover radiation from the big bang 13.8 billion years ago.
Planck mission scientists arrived at a Hubble constant of 67.5 plus or minus 0.5 kilometres per second per megaparsec.
The James Webb Space Telescope, which launched in December, will be able to observe Hubble's mile markers in sharper resolution and at greater distances, which could contribute to understanding the discrepancy between the two numbers.
It makes for an exciting challenge to cosmologists who were once determined to measure the Hubble constant – and now find themselves questioning what additional physics may help them unlock a new mystery about the universe.
"Actually, I don't care what the expansion value is specifically, but I like to use it to learn about the universe," Riess said.
NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (May 23, 2022) — Travellers from all over the world are discovering the incredible natural beauty and therapeutic resources provided by the Caribbean Island of Nevis. The Nevis Tourism Authority (NTA) expressed that view in a recent press release. With year-round opportunities to disconnect from the hustle and bustle of everyday […]
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CHARLESTOWN, NEVIS, May 23, 2022 (MMS-SKN) — Twelve teams assembled at the Vance Amory International Airport Saturday morning May 21 for the Nevis Co-operative Credit Union (NCCU) Limited’s 50th Anniversary Relay Run, which was won by Extreme Velocity with a time of 38 minutes and 43 seconds. The Relay Run that had six stations along […]
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It has been a day of celebration at Sunshine Marketplace Lotto in Melbourne's west after it sold Powerball's $40 million winning ticket.
The player, from St Albans, held one of two division one winning entries nationally, splitting the $80 million jackpot with a New South Wales player.
The lucky woman was gifted the $40 million Powerball ticket.
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"I'm still shocked," the winning woman said.
"I've barely slept since I discovered the win. It's hard to put the feeling of knowing you've won $40 million into words."
The woman plans to use the money to go travelling and buy a house.
"I don't think it's truly hit me yet," she said.
"The ticket was a gift, but I didn't check it immediately… First and foremost, I'll be looking to help my family and share it with them.
"I'll need some time, though to think about what else to do. I'll obviously buy a home, and I'd love to travel to Japan and the United States. I'd love to go everywhere.
"You always wonder about what you would do if something like this were to happen, and now it has happened, I have no idea what to do."
Sunshine Marketplace Lotto owner Yen Le-Mai said she felt like she'd won the jackpot when she realised one of the division one winning tickets had been sold at her store.
"I was oblivious to it until a friend of mine contacted me to congratulate me on selling the winning ticket," she said.
"At that moment, I felt I'd personally won.
"I was so excited and overwhelmed by the news."
Le-Mai said she would be celebrating with balloons and decorations in her store.
"(I just want) to let all my customers know about this exciting win," she said.
"It's created such a buzz."
The winning numbers in Powerball draw 1357 on Thursday 19 May 2022 were 15, 34, 5, 11, 28, 8, 27. The all-important Powerball number was 3.
A former colleague of Lynette Dawson has claimed the mother was feeling very positive about her future just a day before she vanished.
Susan Strath said today she felt great about giving evidence in the murder trial of Chris Dawson after waiting more than 40 years to speak about Lynette's disappearance.
"I am here to see justice done… so let's hope that happens," Strath said outside court.
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The pair worked together at a childcare centre inside the Warriewood shops on Sydney's Northern Beaches on what would be Lynette's last shift before she disappeared in January 1982.
Strath said Lynette confided in her about issues at home, including the troubled teenage babysitter moving in and being caught naked in the backyard pool.
She also claimed Lynette told her about Dawson leaving the family over Christmas in 1981 before reappearing a few days later.
Strath told the court she believed things had turned around after seeing the couple walk hand-in-hand following marriage counselling.
"I asked how did it go? And Lyn said, 'Oh it was really good, really positive and I am hoping we can move forward and work together'," Strath told the court.
The day after this conversation, Dawson alleges Lynette ran away.
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Three years after Lynette vanished, Strath said she lodged a formal complaint with the NSW Ombudsman as she was concerned police had failed to investigate what she thought to be suspicious circumstances.
"I was never interviewed, no one ever came looking for her," Strath said outside court.
"I just said what's happened, what have the police done to look for my friend?"
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Anna Grantham considered herself Lynette's best friend and also gave evidence during the trial today.
Grantham told the court of a time when Lynette agreed she could have been killed when Dawson allegedly grabbed her by the hair and pressed her face into the mud.
Dawson has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife.
The trial continues.
Police are searching for a machete-wielding offender who allegedly stabbed a teenager outside a popular Melbourne gelato shop.
Police said the attack took place during an altercation between a group of males just before 7.30pm yesterday on the Lygon Street dining strip in Carlton.
The 17-year-old was found with stab wounds to his neck in front of Pidapipo Gelateria, with blood sprayed across the walls by the outdoor seating.
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He remains in the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a serious but stable condition.
CCTV from across the road shows a group of young men running down the street following the attack, one armed with a machete.
Sarah, a witness, saw it all unfold and said it was extremely distressing.
"I just kept saying "hold your throat, hold your throat, it's going to be okay, stay calm, stay calm," she said.
"(He) was definitely (stabbed) in the jugular because his throat came out like a golf ball or a tennis ball, it was pretty bad."
"This was the scariest, most horrific thing I have ever seen."
The inside of the store was sprayed with blood.
Police today set up a major crime scene, forensics officers searching for clues that could help identify the offenders.
A crime scene has been established at the intersection of Lyon and Faraday streets.
No arrests have been made.
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