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8mon
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Half of the universe's hydrogen gas, long unaccounted for, has been found

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-universe-hydrogen-gas-unaccounted.html
pwnicholson - 8mon

It's always in the last place you look.

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snooggums - 8mon

Because you stop looking...

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pwnicholson - 8mon

Yes, that's the joke.

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Eldritch @lemmy.world - 8mon

No matter where you go, there you are.

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enkers - 8mon

Because I'm in the last place I look?

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sepi - 8mon

You look like you're in the last place we looked

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thefartographer @lemm.ee - 8mon

Was it in the couch cushions? That's where I often find things.

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Scubus @sh.itjust.works - 8mon

Surprised jd vance face

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luckystarr @feddit.org - 8mon

If I understood this correctly, they analyzed incredibly blurry images and concluded that there are clouds of gas around galaxies, then they extrapolated the found gas up to all or almost all galaxies and concluded that it can fulfill the calculated expectations.

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OfCourseNot - 8mon

What I understood is kind of the opposite–they already knew there were hidrogene clouds around galaxies but analyzed some almost imperceptibly blurry images and found they were bigger than currently thought. They're blurry because they were taken in some wavelength not observable until now that is scattered by the ionized gas.

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BaroqueInMind @lemmy.one - 8mon

Thank you. Saved me a click?

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Grandwolf319 @sh.itjust.works - 8mon

Astronomers have generally thought that massive black holes at the centers of galaxies expel gas in jets of material only during their formative years, when the central black hole is gobbling up gas and stars and producing lots of radiation. This makes them stand out as what astronomers call active galactic nuclei (AGN), or quasars.

If, as the new study suggests, the ionized hydrogen halo around galaxies is more diffuse, but also more extensive, than thought, this implies that the central black holes may actually become active at other times in their lives.

I love how we keep finding more and more about the role that black holes play in our universe.

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5714 @lemmy.dbzer0.com - 8mon

Astronomical bookkeeping 🥴

Hydrogen alienation is a crime.

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