(ORDO NEWS) — Today we will look at the Universe through the eyes of “James Webb”, learn about the discovery of the most powerful source of the magnetic field, look for lost matter in the entire Universe, and find out when the 8 billionth inhabitant of the Earth will be born and which country will soon become the most densely populated.
Through the eyes of James Webb
On July 12, NASA broadcast live images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. But the pictures themselves were taken two weeks before this demonstration. Then one of the astronomers, giving an interview, almost burst into tears.
She was so shocked. She can be understood. James Webb is the most expensive scientific instrument in history. It costs $10 billion and took 20 years to build. Developers have a huge responsibility. If anything had gone wrong, it would have been a massive failure.
But everything worked out. After such an emotional press conference, not only astronomers, but everyone who is at least slightly interested in science, was waiting for the presentation. NASA gave up and released the first image a day early.
This was spectacular. And on July 12, everything was already official: 3 pictures taken in the infrared range, and one graph. Of course, it is not as beautiful as photographs of galaxies or the process of the birth of stars in the Carina Nebula, but, in fact, everything was started for the sake of this nondescript schedule.
It shows the spectrum of the atmosphere of an exoplanet – the hot giant WASP-96B. And the graph shows the spectrum of water. Yes, we can now explore distant planets and search for “another Earth”.
Lost Matter
We have all heard that only 5% of the mass of the universe is visible (baryonic) matter. The rest is mysterious dark matter and completely mysterious dark energy. But even visible matter is extremely difficult to find in the Universe, because the mass of all galaxies is only 10% of the estimate of the entire baryonic mass.
And where is everything else? Scattered across space. But astrophysicists have found a part of this lost matter – it turned out to be near the threads of the large structure of the Universe, a kind of grid that stretches over billions of light years. Already something.
Astrophysicists have launched a “dark matter” particle detector. It is not very clear what to catch in this case, but scientists will try to catch something. They call the dark matter particles “wimp”.
Astronomers have registered the most powerful source of the magnetic field in the universe. It turned out to be a neutron star, which “sucks in” the material of the companion star with terrible force. Power 1.6 billion Tesla. In general, do not approach in iron. Fortunately, it is not close – about 15 thousand light years.
China retreats
The UN released the World Population Prospects report. It says that on November 15, 2022, the world‘s population could reach 8,000,000,000 (billions) people. This is a lot, but the rate of human growth is slowing down.
According to forecasts, in 2030 there will be 8.5 billion of us, in 2050 – 9.7 billion, in 2080 – 10.4 billion. And then the world’s population will begin to decline. Soon China will no longer be the most populous country in the world.
Now there are 1.426 billion people living there, and in India – 1.412 billion. The difference is very small. But India will continue to grow and reach 1.668 billion by 2050. And China’s population will decline and reach about 1.317 billion by the middle of the century.
According to all forecasts, if humanity survives the 21st century with all its troubles and problems, it will become the century in which the largest number of people lived on Earth. Never before have people lived in such cramped quarters, and apparently never will again.
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