Retired Vice Adm Ted Carter: Midwestern academic alliances would be powerful draw for U S Space Command capitalgazette.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from capitalgazette.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Illustration by Sandbox Studio, Chicago with Corinne Mucha
Physics at tiniest scale could explain ‘impossible’ black holes
12/15/20
By Scott Hershberger
Until recently, scientists had never detected black holes in the “mass gap” now, particle physicists are exploring ideas beyond the Standard Model that could explain them.
On May 21, 2019, a ripple in spacetime alerted scientists to what they thought was an impossible event: a collision between two black holes that should not have existed.
The LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories had witnessed over a dozen black-hole collisions, but this merger was different. Both black holes were situated in the “mass gap,” a range of masses that, for black holes, should be forbidden.
The Omaha-area base has its own space legacy, with the Offutt-based U.S. Strategic Command actually having overseen military space operations until just last year.
Combine that mission synergy with Offuttâs tremendous communications infrastructure, a state university thatâs one of just 14 nationally designated by the Defense Department as a center for national security research, and community leaders whoâve shown theyâre not afraid to open their wallets in a big way to support the military. Taken together, those pushing the Offutt bid believe the base can rocket to the top.
âWe have all the right things to be highly competitive for this mission,â said Rick Evans, a retired Air Force major general from Omaha who is working with the state and Greater Omaha Chamber on the Offutt bid. âI would be surprised if we arenât in the top 1 or 2. We have a solid chance.â