Cosmic Inflation: Evidence and Perspective

I want to talk about an exciting project to find traces of cosmic inflation today, but first, a bit of housekeeping. Regulars will know that server issues a couple of weekends ago caused me to change the software this site uses to a temporary Wordpress theme while I worked to install a more permanent solution. The new look is now in place, with a wider page, changes in fonts and, behind the scenes, all kinds of useful tools that will make maintaining and upgrading Centauri Dreams a far less arduous proposition. The new server configuation seems stable as well, so I'm hopeful that those recent issues are past us. No Web site is ever complete, and I have numerous tweaks to phase in over the coming months, but having a stable platform is obviously the first task. Now, to that inflation story. Over the weekend at the American Physical Society meeting in Denver, Ki Won Yoon (National Institute of Standards and Technology) described an experimental collaboration that is using incredibly...

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Black Holes Wandering the Galaxy?

Do rogue black holes wander through the distant outskirts of the Milky Way? A new theory suggests one way to find out: Look for small clusters of stars that should accompany such objects. The idea is that low-mass proto-galaxies with black holes at their center would have merged, creating a gravitational kick that would send the now larger black hole outward fast enough to escape the host dwarf galaxy, but not fast enough to leave the overall galactic halo. Image: This artist's conception shows a rogue black hole floating near a globular star cluster on the outskirts of the Milky Way. New calculations by Ryan O'Leary and Avi Loeb suggest that hundreds of massive black holes, left over from the galaxy-building days of the early universe, may wander the Milky Way. Fortunately, the closest rogue black hole should reside thousands of light-years from Earth. Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA). The 'kick' comes from the emission of gravitational waves as the black holes merge, carrying away...

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Charter

In Centauri Dreams, Paul Gilster looks at peer-reviewed research on deep space exploration, with an eye toward interstellar possibilities. For many years this site coordinated its efforts with the Tau Zero Foundation. It now serves as an independent forum for deep space news and ideas. In the logo above, the leftmost star is Alpha Centauri, a triple system closer than any other star, and a primary target for early interstellar probes. To its right is Beta Centauri (not a part of the Alpha Centauri system), with Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon Crucis, stars in the Southern Cross, visible at the far right (image courtesy of Marco Lorenzi).

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