Unknown Universe okładka

Unknown Universe

Unknown Universe

Autor: Reyna Rogers
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O tym tytule
The universe is filled with things we can observe but still cannot fully explain.Unknown Universe explores the biggest mysteries in astronomy and space science, from black holes and hidden oceans to distant worlds, dark matter, dark energy, and the strange physics shaping the cosmos.Each episode follows the evidence, separates what scientists know from what remains uncertain, and takes you to the edge of our understanding of the universe.Copyright Reyna Rogers
  • Our Galaxy Is Bent, and Nobody Knows Why
    Nov 5 2026
    Gaia mapped the Milky Way in three dimensions and found its disk is warped into an S-shape, flaring at the edges, and the warp itself is slowly precessing like a wobbling top. Reyna investigates the three suspects: the Large Magellanic Cloud, a tilted halo of dark matter, and ancient mergers, plus the Great Wave rippling through the disk. This episode is about the galaxy's present-day shape and motion, distinct from the story of how it formed upside down. What was observed? A warped, flaring galactic disk mapped by Cepheid variables and Gaia, with outer stars up to 5,000 light-years above or below the plane. How was it measured? Cepheid distances from OGLE and three-dimensional positions and motions for over a billion stars from Gaia. Why is it important? The warp's rapid prograde precession should not happen in the standard tilted-ring picture, so something is actively bending our galaxy. What explanations are supported? The Large Magellanic Cloud's passage fits the timing and location; a tilted dark halo fits the persistence but not the precession; ancient mergers leave scars that should have decayed. What remains unknown? Which combination of causes maintains the warp, whether the precession rate is really as high as first measured, and what the Great Wave is. Sources: Skowron et al. 2019 (OGLE Cepheids); Chen et al. 2019, Nature Astronomy; Poggio et al. 2020, Nature Astronomy; Chrobakova and Lopez-Corredoira 2021; Poggio et al. 2025 (the Great Wave, Gaia DR3).
    Rozwiń Zwiń
    12 min
  • The Brightest Explosion Ever Seen Broke the Rules
    Nov 4 2026
    On 9 October 2022, a gamma-ray burst so bright it saturated detectors across the solar system swept past Earth, disturbing our ionosphere from two billion light-years away. Reyna follows GRB 221009A, the BOAT, through its impossible ten-TeV photons, its structured jet, and its strangely faint supernova to ask how the most powerful explosion ever recorded actually works. What was observed? The brightest gamma-ray burst ever recorded, with an isotropic-equivalent energy around ten to the fifty-fifth ergs and photons above 10 TeV seen by LHAASO. How was it measured? Fermi, Swift, INTEGRAL, Konus, LHAASO's 64,000 photons above 0.2 TeV, and VLBI radio imaging of superluminal expansion. Why is it important? An event this bright may occur once in ten thousand years, and it broke the standard jet model. What explanations are supported? A structured jet with a narrow one-degree core and wider wings explains the afterglow; the survival of 10 TeV photons challenges extragalactic background light models, with axion-like particles as one candidate. What remains unknown? How the jet is launched, how 10 TeV photons are produced, whether they really survived the journey, and why the supernova was so faint. Sources: Burns et al. 2023, ApJL; Lesage et al. 2023, ApJL; LHAASO Collaboration 2023, Science; O'Connor et al. 2023; Blanchard et al. (JWST follow-up).
    Rozwiń Zwiń
    12 min
  • The Gas in the Clouds of Venus That Should Not Be There
    Nov 3 2026
    In September 2020, astronomers reported phosphine in the clouds of Venus, a gas that on Earth is made by microbes living without oxygen, with no known non-living source on a rocky planet. Within weeks, other teams were tearing the claim apart. Reyna follows the detection, the sulfur dioxide dispute, the reanalyses, and the missions that will settle it, to ask what it takes to prove life on another world. What was observed? A millimetre-wave absorption line at about 267 GHz seen by the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and ALMA, attributed to phosphine at about 20 parts per billion, later revised to 1-5 ppb. How was it measured? Millimetre-wave spectroscopy of Venus's atmosphere, plus reanalyses of Pioneer Venus mass-spectrometer data. Why is it important? Venus's cloud decks are the most Earth-like environment in the solar system, and phosphine is a candidate biosignature gas. What explanations are supported? The line is contested: sulfur dioxide confusion, baseline-fitting artefacts, and non-detections by SOFIA and Venus Express all argue against it, while reprocessed ALMA data and the 2024 JCMT-Venus campaign support a weak, variable signal; no known abiotic source can make even 1 ppb. What remains unknown? Whether phosphine is present at all, and if so, what makes it. Sources: Greaves et al. 2020, Nature Astronomy; Villanueva et al. 2021, Nature Astronomy; Snellen et al. 2020; Greaves et al. 2021 replies; Cordiner et al. 2022 (SOFIA); Mogul et al. 2021 (Pioneer Venus); Truong & Lunine 2021, PNAS; Bains et al. 2021, Astrobiology; Bains et al. 2024, Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences; Sousa-Silva et al. 2020.
    Rozwiń Zwiń
    14 min
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