All posts tagged: deepest

Yes, JWST should take the deepest deep-field image ever

Yes, JWST should take the deepest deep-field image ever

Published by Jenni Sidey

Each time we’ve looked at the Universe in a fundamentally new way, we didn’t just see more of what we already knew what was out there. In addition, those novel capabilities allowed the Universe to surprise us, breaking records, revolutionizing our view of what was out there, and teaching us information that we never could have learned without collecting that key data. It’s happened many times before, including: with the invention of the telescope, with the development of astrophotography (astronomical photography), with the birth of multiwavelength astronomy, with the advent of space telescopes, with the technique of deep-field imaging, and with the improvements of larger-aperture, longer-wavelength observatories. We gained, in each instance, a better appreciation for what the Universe was made of as well as what it looked like, and a greater understanding of what objects were present within it, in what numbers, and where they could be found. Here in the 21st century, the Hubble Space Telescope — the flagship telescope of the 20th century — now finds itself alongside an array of brilliant …

Afraid of dying alone? How a Chinese app exposed single people’s deepest, darkest fears | China

Afraid of dying alone? How a Chinese app exposed single people’s deepest, darkest fears | China

Published by Sam Flores

A few days before Christmas, after a short battle with illness, a woman in Shanghai called Jiang Ting died. For years, the 46-year-old had lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Hongkou, a residential neighbourhood that sits along the Huangpu River. Neighbours described her as quiet. “She rarely chats with people. We only see her when she goes to and from work, and occasionally when she comes out to pick up takeout,” said a local resident interviewed by a Chinese reporter. Her parents long deceased, Jiang had no partner or children to inherit her estate. Her lonely death sparked a debate in Chinese media about how society should handle the increasing number of people dying with no next of kin. For Xiong Sisi, also a professional in her 40s living alone in Shanghai, the news triggered uncomfortable feelings. “I truly worry that, after I die, no one will collect my body. I don’t care how I’m buried, but if I rot there, it’s bad for the house,” she says. So Xiong was intrigued when, a few …

Our elegant universe: rethinking nature’s deepest principle

Our elegant universe: rethinking nature’s deepest principle

Published by skeptic

In the Altes Museum in Berlin stands a boy with his arms raised to the heavens. Aside from the right heel, which is slightly arched, this ancient Greek statue is almost perfectly symmetrical. Did the sculptor impose this balance for purely artistic reasons? Hermann Weyl thought not. We are drawn to symmetry, said the German mathematician, because it governs the very order of the universe. In the early 20th century, Weyl helped to uncover symmetry – and, by extension, beauty – as the bedrock of modern physics. Here, it means far more than visual balance. It means that nature behaves the same way in different places, at different times and under countless other changes. Symmetry explains why energy cannot be created or destroyed, and even why many things exist at all. No wonder Weyl thought it had a metaphysical status. Symmetry, he said, “is one idea by which man through the ages has tried to comprehend and create order, beauty, and perfection”. Today, most physicists are chasing ever-greater symmetry in ideas such as supersymmetry and …

Scientists film deepest ever fish on seabed off Japan

Scientists film deepest ever fish on seabed off Japan

Published by Sam Flores

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. CNN  —  Cruising at a depth of 8,336 meters (over 27,000 feet) just above the seabed, a young snailfish has become the deepest fish ever filmed by scientists during a probe into the abyss of the northern Pacific Ocean. Scientists from University of Western Australia and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology released footage of the snailfish on Sunday filmed last September by sea robots in deep trenches off Japan. Along with the filming the deepest snailfish, the scientists physically caught two other specimens at 8,022 meters and set another record for the deepest catch. Previously, the deepest snailfish ever spotted was at 7,703 meters in 2008, while scientists had never been able to collect fish from anywhere below 8,000 meters. “What is significant is that it shows how far a particular type of fish will descend in the ocean,” said marine biologist Alan Jamieson, founder of the Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Centre, who …