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Massive Dark Matter Cloud Detected Near Our Solar System: What’s at Stake?

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Dark Matter Discovery

Possible Large Clump of Dark Matter Near Our Galaxy

Credit: Alamy

A significant discovery indicates the presence of a gigantic dark matter cloud adjacent to our solar system. These clouds, previously unidentified in the Milky Way, have been detected thanks to precise cosmic clocks known as pulsars.

Current cosmological models propose that galaxies are enveloped in diffuse clouds of dark matter called halos, with smaller subhaloes scattered throughout. However, the elusive nature of dark matter, which neither emits, absorbs, nor reflects light, complicates the detection of these halos and subhalos.

To quantify this dark matter phenomenon, Sukanya Chakrabarti and her research team at the University of Alabama in Huntsville leveraged pairs of rapidly spinning neutron stars known as pulsars. These cosmic clocks emit beams of light at consistent intervals, allowing researchers to measure variations in their trajectories when influenced by large nearby mass.

Given that dark matter interacts with ordinary matter solely through gravity, an adjacent dark matter subhalo would alter the orbit of neighboring pulsars. This is precisely what Chakrabarti and her collaborators identified approximately 3,000 light years from our solar system. “Our observations detected a pair of pulsars whose motions indicate an unexpected gravitational pull from an unseen object,” comments Philip Chan from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The research revealed that this gravitational influence originated from an object approximately 60 million times more massive than the Sun and spanning hundreds of light years. After mapping the location against stellar data, no correlations with known celestial bodies were found. If validated, this object could be a unique example of dark matter.

This potential dark matter subhalo could be the only instance of such size in our local galactic vicinity. “There may only be one or two of these large features nearby, depending on dark matter models,” suggests Alice Quillen at the University of Rochester in New York. “Different dark matter theories propose varying distributions of these structures.”

This pursuit is what catalyzed Chakrabarti’s interest in subhalo research. “Our objective is to map as many subhaloes as we can throughout the galaxy, and we’re just beginning to achieve that. Ultimately, we aim to elucidate the nature of dark matter,” she asserts.

However, pulsar binaries are scarce; only 27 instances provide sufficient accuracy for measuring gravitational acceleration. This scarcity explains why this subhalo remained undetected until now. “Given the finite number of pulsars, we are exploring alternative methods to monitor them using a broader array of objects,” states Zhang. If successful, this could be a breakthrough in understanding the true nature of dark matter.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Scientists Uncover Largest Protoplanetary Disk Ever Detected Around Young Star

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IRAS 23077+6707: A Turbulent Protoplanetary Disk – Located approximately 1,000 light-years away, this young star exhibits an unexpectedly chaotic and turbulent surrounding protoplanetary disk, with material fragments extending farther than what astronomers have previously observed in similar systems. For more details, check the study here.

This Hubble image showcases the protoplanetary disk surrounding IRAS 23077+6707. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / K. Monsch, CfA / J. DePasquale, STScI.

Protoplanetary disks, rich in dust and gas, form around young stars and serve as primary locations for planet formation.

The disk surrounding IRAS 23077+6707 spans approximately 644 billion km (400 billion miles), making it about 40 times the diameter of our solar system, reaching to the outer Kuiper belt.

This vast disk obscures the star, which scientists suggest could be a massive star or potentially a binary star system.

Not only is this disk the largest known for planet formation, but its unique characteristics also make it exceptionally rare.

“It’s uncommon to capture such fine detail in protoplanetary disks. The new Hubble images suggest that planetary nurseries might be much more dynamic and chaotic than we previously thought,” explained Dr. Christina Monsch, an astronomer at Harvard University and the Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

“Observing this disk nearly head-on reveals its delicate upper layers and asymmetrical features,” she added.

Both the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have glimpsed similar structures, but IRAS 23077+6707 allows for unmatched visibility of its substructure in visible light.

This unique perspective makes it an exceptional laboratory for studying planet formation and the environments in which it occurs.

Edge-on, these disks resemble hamburgers, with bright upper and lower layers of glowing dust and gas, separated by a dark central lane.

In addition to its significant height, the new images reveal that vertical filament-like structures only appear on one side of the disk, indicating an uneven distribution of material.

“We were astonished by how asymmetric this disk appeared,” noted Dr. Joshua Bennett Lovell from the Harvard University & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

“Hubble provides us with an exceptional view of the chaotic processes involved in the formation of disks and new planets. This process remains poorly understood, but these insights allow for fresh study opportunities.”

All planetary systems originate from a disk of gas and dust surrounding young stars. Over time, gas is absorbed by the star while planets form from the remaining material.

IRAS 23077+6707 might act as an extended analog to the early Solar System, with an estimated disk mass between 10 to 30 times that of Jupiter, providing sufficient material for multiple gas giant planets.

This and other discoveries make IRAS 23077+6707 an extraordinary case for examining planetary system formation.

“Theoretically, IRAS 23077+6707 could support a vast planetary system,” Dr. Monch stated.

“While planet formation may differ in such expansive conditions, the fundamental processes are likely akin to those in smaller systems.”

“At this point, we have more questions than answers, but these new images serve as a valuable foundation for understanding how planets evolve in diverse environments.”

Findings are set to be published in the Astrophysical Journal and can be accessed here.

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Christina Monche et al. 2025. Hubble reveals the complex multiscale structure of the edge-on protoplanetary disk IRAS 23077+6707. APJ in press. arXiv: 2510.11819

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers May Have Detected Signs of the Largest Star Ever Observed

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Artist’s Impression of Population III Stars in the Early Universe

Noir Lab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Space Engine/M. Zamani

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) offers astronomers a unique opportunity to explore distant galaxies that exist far beyond the early Universe. Some of these galaxies exhibit chemical signatures that may suggest the presence of exotic supermassive stars, possibly weighing up to 10,000 times that of our Sun.

These enormous stars are puzzling, as our current understanding suggests that stars in the nearby universe generally have a maximum size limit. “Our models for galaxy evolution are predicated on the assumption that stars cannot exceed around 120 solar masses,” explains Devesh Nandal at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Massachusetts. “While we had theorized about stars potentially larger than this, there were no observational data to validate it.”

That all changed recently. Nandal and his team analyzed JWST observations of a distant galaxy dubbed GS 3073, discovering its chemical signature contained an unexpectedly high concentration of nitrogen. Though elevated nitrogen levels have also been noted in several other remote galaxies,

For most galaxies, nitrogen concentrations aren’t high enough to cause ambiguity and can be attributed to certain classes of relatively ordinary stars or other cosmic phenomena. However, this isn’t the case for GS 3073, as Nandal asserts that the nitrogen levels are simply too elevated.

There exists a hypothetical category of protostar referred to as a Population III star, which models indicate can grow to considerable sizes. Simulations suggest that if these stars form, they would produce significantly more nitrogen than typical stars. Nandal and his co-researchers concluded that only a handful of Population III stars—ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 solar masses—could account for the excess nitrogen observed in GS 3073. “Our research provides the most compelling evidence yet for the existence of Population III supermassive stars in the early universe,” he declares.

However, some scholars challenge whether only supermassive Population III stars can account for this data, or if they do so accurately. “Population III should be linked with an environment where elements heavier than helium are scarce,” notes Roberto Maiorino of Cambridge University. “Conversely, GS 3073 is a fairly chemically mature galaxy, which makes it seem ill-suited for the types of environments typically associated with Population III.”

On the other hand, John Regan from Maynooth University in Ireland suggests that this may simply be an unusual galaxy. “When we look back at the early universe, what we see are incredibly strange, exotic galaxies. It’s challenging to assert that we shouldn’t expect the formation of supermassive stars simply because it’s peculiar; you just claimed these galaxies are quite bizarre,” he states.

If these colossal stars truly exist, they may unlock mysteries related to the formation of supermassive black holes in the universe’s distant past. Should they originate from supermassive stars instead of conventional stars, we could gain critical insights into how these black holes achieved their immense sizes in what appears to be a relatively brief time frame.

Confirming the existence of supermassive stars in GS 3073 and other nitrogen-rich galaxies from the early Universe is complex, and additional discoveries of these chemical signatures may be necessary. “It’s quite challenging to bolster the argument for their existence; establishing definitive signatures is difficult,” Regan lamented. “Nonetheless, this indication is incredibly robust.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Astronomers Uncover the Most Distant Black Hole Ever Detected

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A newly identified supermassive black hole resides in the center of the “Little Red Dot” galaxy, known as Capers-LRD-Z9, existing merely 500 million years after the Big Bang.

Artistic impressions of Capers-Lrd-Z9. Image credit: Erik Zumalt, University of Texas, Austin.

“Finding a black hole like this pushes the limits of what we can currently detect,” remarked Dr. Anthony Taylor, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin.

“We’re truly expanding the boundaries of technological capability today.”

“While astronomers have identified more distant candidates, clear spectroscopic signatures for black holes have yet to be found,” noted Dr. Stephen Finkelstein from the University of Texas at Austin.

The astronomers conducted their research using data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, as part of the CAPERS (Candels-Area Prism Epoch of Reionization Survey) program.

Initially regarded as a mere speck in the program images, Capers-LRD-Z9 is now recognized as part of a newly classified category of galaxies called Little Red Dots.

“The find of the Little Red Dot was a surprising revelation from initial Webb data. It did not resemble the galaxies captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope,” Dr. Finkelstein explained.

“We are currently working to understand what they are and how they formed.”

Capers-Lrd-Z9 contributes to the growing evidence that the ultra-large black hole plays a critical role in the unusual luminosity of small red dots.

Typically, such brightness signifies a galaxy teeming with stars. However, in the absence of substantial stellar mass, these small red dots cease to exist.

These galaxies may also help clarify what causes the distinct red hue observed in small red dots, which is altered to a red wavelength as it passes through surrounding gas clouds encircling the black hole.

“I’ve observed these clouds in other galaxies,” Dr. Taylor stated.

“When I compared this object to others, it was unmistakable.”

Capers-LRD-Z9 merits attention due to the immense size of its black hole.

It’s estimated to be as massive as 300 million solar masses, equating to half the total star mass within the galaxy. This size is notably large, even among supermassive black holes.

By discovering such massive black holes early on, astronomers provide a unique opportunity to investigate the growth and evolution of these entities.

Black holes existing in later epochs had diverse opportunities for growth over their lifetimes, yet this was not the case during the initial hundreds of millions of years.

“This reinforces the increasing evidence that early black holes grew much faster than previously believed,” Dr. Finkelstein mentioned.

“Or they might have originated much larger than our models suggested.”

These findings are detailed in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal.

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Anthony J. Taylor et al. 2025. Capers-Lrd-Z9: Gasensing Little Dot hosts Broadline’s active galactic nucleus at z = 9.288. apjl 989, L7; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ade789

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers May Have Detected a Gas Giant Still Forming Around RIK 113

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Astronomers utilizing ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (VLT) have captured stunning images of a highly structured planetary formation disc surrounding the star Rik 113.

This image, captured with a very large telescope at ESO in Chile, illustrates the RIK113 system. Image credits: ESO/Ginski et al.

RIK 113 is located approximately 431 light-years away in the constellation Scorpio.

Also referred to as 2MASSJ16120668-3010270, this star hosts a structured protoplanetary disc.

“In a study published last year, the intricate nature of this protoplanetary disc was first unveiled by the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA),” remarked Galway astronomer Christian Ginsky and colleagues.

“These findings indicated the presence of gaps, suggestive of planet-like objects within them.”

“This prompted the team to conduct follow-up observations using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT).”

Employing VLT’s Sphere Instrument, Dr. Ginski and co-authors obtained a new image of the system, revealing an appealing spiral feature in the inner ring.

“Our team is currently examining nearly 100 planet-forming discs around nearby stars, and these images are exceptional,” Dr. Ginsky noted.

“It is rare to find a system exhibiting both rings and spiral arms. This aligns almost perfectly with predictions regarding how planets form from the parent disk, according to theoretical models.”

“Such detections bring us a step closer to comprehending how planets, in general, formed and the origins of our solar system in the far past.”

A detailed analysis of the VLT/Sphere data hinted at two potential signals, as well as two possible signals from a protoplanet orbiting Rik 113, close to the original detection by ALMA.

At this stage, these signals serve more as proposals than definitive confirmations.

Nonetheless, these results are highly promising for future explorations, with both ALMA and VLT studies indicating the presence of at least one planet.

“We identified an inner disc (up to 40 AU) with two spiral arms, which are separated by a gap from the outer ring extending to 115 AU,” the astronomer stated.

“Comparing with unique and hydrodynamic models from the literature, we found that these structures are consistent with the existence of embedded gas giants, with masses ranging from 0.1 to 5 Jupiter masses depending on the model and its underlying assumptions.”

“The RIK 113 system is one of the few that displays this remarkable form of spiral arms amidst the scattered gaps of light and the ring,” they added.

“We hypothesize that this could be linked to higher disk viscosity compared to other systems, such as PDS 70.”

“If a planet in the disk is confirmed, RIK 113 will become a focal point for studying planetary disk interactions.”

Study published online in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

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C. Ginsky et al. 2025. Disk evolution studies with imaging of nearby young stars (Destinys): 2MassJ16120668-3010270 Evidence of planetary disk interaction in the system. A&A in press; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202451647

Source: www.sci.news

Mysterious X-ray oscillations detected in supermassive black hole by XMM-Newton

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In 2018, astronomers discovered that the corona of 1ES 1927+654, an actively accreting black hole with 1.4 million solar masses located in a galaxy some 270 million light-years away, suddenly disappeared and reassembled several months later. I observed that. The short but dramatic outage was the first of its kind in black hole astronomy. Now, astronomers using ESA's XMM-Newton Observatory have captured the same black hole exhibiting even more unprecedented behavior. They detected X-ray flashes from 1ES 1927+654 at a steadily increasing clip. Over a two-year period, the frequency of millihertz vibration flashes increased from every 18 minutes to every 7 minutes. This dramatic speed-up of X-rays has never been observed from a black hole before.

In this artist's concept, material is stripped from a white dwarf (bottom right sphere) orbiting within the innermost accretion disk surrounding the supermassive black hole of 1ES 1927+654. Image credit: NASA/Aurore Simonnet, Sonoma State University.

Black holes are a prediction of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. They are gravitational monsters that trap any matter or energy that crosses their “surface,” a region of spacetime known as the event horizon.

In its final descent into the black hole, a process known as accretion, the doomed material forms a disk around the black hole. The gas in the accretion disk heats up and emits primarily ultraviolet (UV) light.

The ultraviolet light interacts with the cloud of electrically charged gas or plasma that surrounds the black hole and accretion disk. This cloud is known as the corona, and the interaction energizes the ultraviolet light and amplifies it into X-rays, which can be captured by XMM Newton.

XMM-Newton has been observing 1ES 1927+654 since 2011. Back then, everything was very normal.

But things changed in 2018. As the X-ray corona disappeared, the black hole erupted in a massive explosion that seemed to disrupt its surroundings.

The coronavirus gradually returned, and by early 2021, it seemed like normal conditions had returned.

However, in July 2022, XMM Newton began observing its X-ray output fluctuating at a level of about 10% on timescales of 400 to 1,000 seconds.

This type of fluctuation, called quasi-periodic oscillations (QPO), is notoriously difficult to detect in supermassive black holes.

“This was the first sign that something strange was going on,” said Dr. Megan Masterson. Student at MIT.

The oscillations could suggest that a massive object, such as a star, is embedded in the accretion disk and rapidly orbiting the black hole on its way to being swallowed.

As an object approaches a black hole, the time it takes to orbit decreases and the frequency of its oscillations increases.

Calculations revealed that the orbiting object was probably the remains of a star known as a white dwarf, had about 0.1 times the mass of the Sun, and was moving at an astonishing speed.

It was completing one orbit of the central monster, covering a distance of about 100 million km, about every 18 minutes. Then things got even weirder.

Over nearly two years, XMM Newton showed an increase in the strength and frequency of the vibrations, but not as much as the researchers expected.

They assumed that an object's orbital energy is being emitted as gravitational waves, as prescribed by the theory of general relativity.

To test this idea, they calculated when the object crossed the event horizon, disappeared from view, and stopped oscillating. It turns out to be January 4, 2024.

“Never in my career have I been able to predict anything so accurately,” says Dr. Erin Kara of MIT.

In March 2024, XMM Newton observed it again and the oscillations were still present.

The object was currently traveling at about half the speed of light, completing an orbit every seven minutes.

Whatever was inside the accretion disk, it stubbornly refused to be swallowed up by the black hole.

Either something more than gravitational waves is at play, or the entire hypothesis needs to be changed.

Astronomers also considered other possibilities for the origin of the vibrations.

Remembering that the X-ray corona disappeared in 2018, they wondered if this cloud itself was vibrating.

The problem is that there is no established theory to explain such behavior, so there is no clear path to take this idea further, so they go back to the original model and realize there is a way to fix it. I did.

“If the black hole has a white dwarf companion, the gravitational waves produced by the black hole could be detected by LISA, an ESA mission scheduled to launch within the next 10 years in partnership with NASA.” said Masterson.

team's paper will appear in journal nature.

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Megan Masterson others. 2025. Millihertz oscillations near the innermost orbit of a supermassive black hole. naturein press. arXiv: 2501.01581

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers Find the Farthest Blazar Ever Detected

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Astronomers have discovered a blazar — a quasar with a jet aligned along our line of sight — at redshift of 7. Named VLASS J041009.05-013919.88, this object is the most distant blazar ever identified, providing a rare glimpse into the epoch of reionization when the Universe was less than 800 million years old.

An artist's impression of a blazar. Image credit: DESY / Science Communication Lab.

VLASS J041009.05-013919.88 (J0410-0139 for short) is powered by a black hole with a mass of 700 million solar masses.

Multi-wavelength observations show that its radio variability, compact structure, and X-ray properties identify it as a blazar with a jet aligned toward Earth.

The discovery of J0410-0139 implies the existence of a much larger population of similar jetted sources in the early Universe.

These jets likely enhance black hole growth and significantly affect their host galaxies.

“The fact that J0410–0139 is a blazar, a jet that by chance happens to point directly towards Earth, has immediate statistical implications,” said Dr. Eduardo Bañados, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.

“As a real-life analogy, imagine that you read about someone who has won $100 million in a lottery.”

“Given how rare such a win is, you can immediately deduce that there must have been many more people who participated in that lottery but have not won such an exorbitant amount.”

“Similarly, finding one active galactic nucleus with a jet pointing directly towards us implies that at that time, there must have been many active galactic nuclei in that period of cosmic history with jets that do not point at us.”

“Where there is one, there's one hundred more,” said Dr. Silvia Belladitta, also from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.

Observations with instruments such as NSF's Very Large Array, NSF's Very Long Baseline Array, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) indicate that J0410-0139 exhibits radio emission amplified by relativistic beaming, a hallmark of blazers.

Its spectrum also confirms stable accretion and emission regions typical of active black holes.

This discovery raises questions about how supermassive black holes grow so rapidly in the Universe's infancy.

Models may need to account for jet-enhanced accretion or obscured, super-Eddington growth to reconcile this finding with the known black hole population at such high redshifts.

“This blazar offers a unique laboratory to study the interplay between jets, black holes, and their environments during one of the Universe's most transformative epochs,” said Dr. Emmanuel Momjian, an astronomer at NSF's National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

“The alignment of J0410-0139's jet with our line of sight allows astronomers to peer directly into the heart of this cosmic powerhouse.”

“The existence of J0410-0139 at such an early time suggests that current radio surveys might uncover additional jetted quasars from the same era.”

“Understanding these objects will illuminate the role of jets in shaping galaxies and growing supermassive black holes in the early Universe.”

The results appear in two papers (paper #1 and paper #2) in the journal Nature Astronomy and the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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E. Bañados et al. A blazar in the epoch of reionization. Nat Astronpublished online December 17, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02431-4

Eduardo Bañados et al.2025. [C ii] Properties and Far-infrared Variability of az = 7 Blazar. ApJL 977, L46; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad823b

Source: www.sci.news

Physicists at CERN make groundbreaking discovery: Evidence of antihyperhelium-4 detected for the first time

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Physicists are Alice Collaboration. Evidence of antihyperhelium-4 has been seen for the first time at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Antihyperhelium-4 consists of two antiprotons, an antineutron, and an antilambda. New results are also the first evidence of the heaviest antimatter hypernuclear still at the LHC.

Illustration of the production of antihyperhelium-4 in a lead-lead collision. Image credit: AI-assisted J. Ditzel.

Collisions between heavy ions at the LHC created quark-gluon plasma, a hot, dense state of matter that is thought to have filled the universe about a millionth of a second after the Big Bang.

Heavy ion collisions also create conditions suitable for the production of atomic nuclei, exotic hypernuclei, and their antimatter counterparts, antinuclei and antihypernuclei.

Measuring these forms of matter is important for a variety of purposes, including helping to understand the formation of hadrons from quarks and gluons, the building blocks of plasma, and the matter-antimatter asymmetry seen in the modern universe.

Hypernuclei are exotic atomic nuclei formed by a mixture of protons, neutrons, and hyperons, the latter of which are unstable particles containing one or more strange types of quarks.

More than 70 years after their discovery in cosmic rays, hypernuclei continue to be a source of fascination for physicists. This is because hypernuclei are rarely found in nature and are difficult to create and study in the laboratory.

Collisions of heavy ions produce large numbers of hypernuclei, and until recently, the lightest hypernuclei, hypertriton (composed of protons, neutrons, and lambda), and its antimatter partner, antihypertriton, have been observed.

Following recent observations of antihyperhydrogen-4, ALICE physicists have detected antihyperhelium-4.

This result has a significance of 3.5 standard deviations and is also the first evidence of the heaviest antimatter hypernucleus ever at the LHC.

The ALICE measurements are based on lead-lead collision data taken in 2018 at an energy of 5.02 teraelectronvolts (TeV) for each colliding pair of nucleons (protons and neutrons).

The researchers examined data for the signals of hyperhydrogen-4, hyperhelium-4, and their antimatter partners using machine learning techniques that go beyond traditional hypernuclear search techniques.

Candidates for (anti)hyperhydrogen-4 were identified by looking for an (anti)helium-4 nucleus and a charged pion with which it decays; identified by. -Three atomic nuclei, an (anti)proton, and a charged pion.

In addition to finding evidence for antihyperhelium-4 with a significance of 3.5 standard deviations and evidence for antihyperhydrogen-4 with a significance of 4.5 standard deviations, the ALICE team found that the production yields of both hypernuclei and measured the mass.

“For both hypernuclei, the measured masses are consistent with current global average values,” the scientists said.

“The measured production yields were compared with predictions from a statistical hadronization model that adequately accounts for the formation of hadrons and nuclei in heavy ion collisions.”

“This comparison shows that the model's predictions closely match the data when both the excited hypernuclear state and the ground state are included in the prediction.”

“This result confirms that the statistical hadronization model can also adequately explain the production of hypernuclei, which are compact objects about 2 femtometers in size.”

The authors also determined the antiparticle-to-particle yield ratios for both hypernuclei and found that they agreed within experimental uncertainties.

“This agreement is consistent with ALICE's observation that matter and antimatter are produced equally at LHC energy and further strengthens ongoing research into the matter-antimatter imbalance in the Universe.” concluded.

Source: www.sci.news

Breakthrough: EHT Captures Highest-Resolution Image of Black Hole Ever Detected from Earth

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Astrophysicists from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration have conducted test observations that achieve the highest resolution ever obtained from Earth’s surface by detecting light emanating from the center of a distant galaxy at a frequency of about 345 GHz. When combined with existing images of the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87 and the Milky Way galaxy at a lower frequency of 230 GHz, these new results not only produce a 50% sharper picture of the black hole, but also a multi-color image of the region just outside the boundaries of these cosmic monsters.

This artist’s impression shows the locations of radio observatories on Earth that took part in the EHT Collaboration’s pilot experiment to produce the highest-resolution observations from the ground. Image courtesy of ESO/M. Kornmesser.

In 2019, the EHT Collaboration released images of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87, and in 2022, they released images of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

These images were obtained by linking multiple radio observatories around Earth, using a technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), to form a single “Earth-sized” virtual telescope.

To get higher resolution images, astronomers typically resort to larger telescopes, or greater distances between observatories acting as part of an interferometer.

But because the EHT was already the same size as Earth, a different approach was needed to increase the resolution of ground-based observations.

Another way to increase a telescope’s resolution is to observe shorter wavelengths of light, and that’s exactly what the EHT Collaboration is currently doing.

“The EHT has seen the first image of a black hole at 1.3 millimeter wavelengths, but the bright ring created by the black hole’s gravity bending light still appears blurry because we’ve reached the absolute limit of how sharp an image we can make,” said Dr Alexander Raymond, an astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“At 0.87mm, the images will be clearer and more detailed, which may reveal new properties, some previously predicted, but also some perhaps not.”

To demonstrate detection at 0.87 mm, EHT researchers carried out test observations of distant, bright galaxies at this wavelength.

Rather than using the entire EHT array, they used two smaller subarrays, including ALMA and the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX).

Other facilities that will be used include the IRAM Thirty Meter Telescope in Spain, the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) in France, and the Greenland Telescope and Submillimeter Array in Hawaii.

In this pilot experiment, scientists achieved measurements down to 19 microarcseconds, the highest resolution ever achieved from the Earth’s surface.

But it hasn’t yet been able to capture an image: Though it has robustly detected light from some distant galaxies, it hasn’t used enough antennas to be able to accurately reconstruct an image from the data.

This technical test opens up new avenues for studying black holes.

With the full array, the EHT can see details as small as 13 microarcseconds, the equivalent of seeing a bottle cap on the Moon from Earth.

This means that at 0.87mm we can obtain images with approximately 50% higher resolution than the previously published M87* and Sagittarius A* 1.3mm images.

What’s more, it may be possible to observe a black hole that is more distant, smaller and fainter than the two black holes imaged so far.

“Observing changes in the surrounding gas at different wavelengths will help us solve the mysteries of how black holes attract and accrete matter, and how they can launch powerful jets that travel across the Milky Way galaxy,” said Dr Shepard Doleman, EHT founding director and astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

This is the first time that VLBI technology has been used successfully at a wavelength of 0.87 mm.

“The detection of a VLBI signal at 0.87 mm is groundbreaking as it opens a new observational window into the study of supermassive black holes,” said Dr Thomas Krichbaum, astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy.

“In the future, the Spanish and French IRAM telescopes in combination with ALMA and APEX will allow us to image smaller and fainter radiation simultaneously at two wavelengths, 1.3 mm and 0.87 mm, which was previously possible.”

Team paper Published in Astronomical Journal.

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Alexander W. Raymond others2024. First Very Long Baseline Interferometry Detection at 870 μm. AJ 168, 130;doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad5bdb

This article is a version of a press release provided by ESO.

Source: www.sci.news

Helium leak detected and delays SpaceX Polaris launch

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A SpaceX spacecraft set to carry four civilians on a mission into space is facing a delay due to a helium leak, pushing the launch to later this week.

The crew includes billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Kidd, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. They were all geared up for a mission that would mark the first spacewalk by a civilian crew.

The mission, known as Polaris Dawn, was initially slated for an early Tuesday launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, SpaceX published a statement on X indicating that the helium leak discovery will likely push the launch to Wednesday at the earliest.

“Teams are currently investigating a ground-side helium leak in the quick-disconnect umbilical in detail,” the company reported. “Falcon and Dragon remain in good condition, with crews ready for their multi-day journey to low Earth orbit.”

The helium leak setback comes as a disappointment for SpaceX, which has been responsible for transporting NASA astronauts to the International Space Station since 2020. In 2021, SpaceX launched its first private citizen into orbit – a mission that was also funded and participated in by Isaacman to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The highlight of the upcoming mission, the spacewalk, is expected to occur on the third day. Two crew members will be tethered out of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, with all astronauts equipped in newly designed space suits as the capsule undergoes depressurization to create a vacuum.

Traditionally, only astronauts from government space agencies have ventured into space for tasks such as building or upgrading orbital space stations, satellite repairs, or scientific experiments.

The Crew Dragon capsule is set to reach an altitude of 870 miles above Earth’s surface – surpassing the orbital altitude of the International Space Station by three times. This height will allow the capsule to navigate through the inner region of the Van Allen radiation belts, a zone with high-energy radiation particles trapped in Earth’s magnetosphere.

The Polaris Dawn flight aims to study the effects of space radiation on astronauts and spacecraft, valuable research that could assist SpaceX in planning future missions to the Moon and Mars where astronauts will need to navigate both inside and outside of the Van Allen radiation belts.

Polaris Dawn is just one of three spaceflights that Isaacman is co-sponsoring and organizing with SpaceX. Details regarding the cost of the mission and the objectives of the other upcoming missions remain undisclosed for now.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Monumental explosion detected on enigmatic lifeless star

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The night sky is a treasure trove of celestial wonders, and sometimes incredible events happen when no one is watching. Astronomers were thrilled when a satellite captured a rare explosion in space by chance, pointing in the right direction at the right time.

A massive eruption illuminated the galaxy known as M82, which is situated 12 million light-years away from Earth. Initially thought to be caused by a collision between two neutron stars, astronomers discovered that the explosion was actually the result of a superpowerful neutron star emitting an intense gamma-ray burst.

Neutron stars are the remnants of massive stars that exploded as supernovae, forming compact spheres with strong magnetic fields instead of collapsing into black holes.

The observed neutron star was identified as a magnetar due to its extremely powerful magnetic field, more than 10,000 times stronger than a typical neutron star. Magnetars are known to have the strongest magnetic fields in the universe and release energy through massive flares.

In November 2023, ESA’s INTEGRAL satellite accidentally detected an extragalactic flare which lasted only 10 seconds, triggering a gamma-ray burst alert that quickly reached astronomers worldwide.

Dr. Sandro Meleghetti, the lead author of the study published in the journal Nature, emphasized the significance of the burst coming from a nearby bright galaxy, and the subsequent observations failed to detect any visible light, X-ray, or gravitational wave signals.

This event confirmed the first magnetar flare outside the Milky Way, shedding light on the mysterious phenomena associated with these incredibly magnetic neutron stars.

Only three giant flares from galactic magnetars have been confirmed by scientists in the past 50 years, with the 2004 event being so powerful that it impacted Earth’s upper atmosphere akin to solar flares.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Cool brown dwarf emits methane detected by Webb

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Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope detected methane emissions from the. CWISEP J193518.59-154620.3 (W1935 for short) is an isolated brown dwarf star with a temperature of about 482 K. Their findings also suggest that W1935 could produce auroras similar to those seen on our planet, Jupiter, and Saturn.

Artist's impression of the brown dwarf W1935. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/L. Hustak, STScI.

W1935 is located about 47 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.

This brown dwarf was co-discovered by Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 citizen science volunteer Dan Caselden and NASA's CatWISE team.

W1935's mass is not well known, but it is probably in the range of 6 to 35 times the mass of Jupiter.

After observing numerous brown dwarfs observed by Webb, Dr. Jackie Faherty Researchers at the American Museum of Natural History found W1935 to be similar, with one notable exception. It was emitting methane, which had never been seen before in brown dwarfs.

“Methane gas is expected to be present in giant planets and brown dwarfs, but we typically see it absorbing light rather than absorbing it,” Faherty said.

“At first we were confused by what we were seeing, but eventually it turned into pure excitement when it was discovered.”

Computer modeling provided another surprise. W1935 may have a temperature inversion, a phenomenon in which the atmosphere becomes warmer as altitude increases.

Temperature inversions easily occur in planets orbiting stars, but brown dwarfs are isolated and have no obvious external heat source.

“We were pleasantly shocked when the model clearly predicted a temperature inversion,” said Dr Ben Burningham, an astronomer at the University of Hertfordshire.

“But we also needed to figure out where that extra upper atmosphere heat was coming from.”

To find out, astronomers turned to our solar system. In particular, they focused on the study of Jupiter and Saturn. Both show methane release and temperature inversions.

Since the aurora is likely the cause of this feature on the solar system's giants, the researchers speculated that they had discovered the same phenomenon in W1935.

Planetary scientists know that one of the main drivers of Jupiter and Saturn's auroras are high-energy particles from the sun that interact with the planets' magnetic fields and atmospheres, heating the upper layers.

This is also the reason for the aurora borealis we see on Earth. Auroras are most unusual near the poles, so they are commonly referred to as aurora borealis or southern lights.

However, W1935 does not have a host star, so solar wind cannot contribute to the explanation.

There's another fascinating reason why auroras occur in our solar system.

Both Jupiter and Saturn have active moons that occasionally eject material into space, interacting with the planets and enhancing the auroral footprints of those worlds.

Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system, spewing fountains of lava tens of miles high. Also, Saturn's moon Encereadus spews water vapor from geysers that freeze and boil as soon as they reach space.

Although more observations are needed, researchers speculate that one explanation for W1935's aurora may be an active moon that has yet to be discovered.

“Every time astronomers point an object at the Webb, new and surprising discoveries can occur,” Dr. Faherty said.

“When we started this project, we weren't concerned about methane emissions, but now that we know that methane emissions can exist and the explanations are very attractive, we're always paying attention. That's part of how science moves forward.”

a paper The survey results were published in a magazine Nature.

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JK Faherty other. 2024. Methane emission from cool brown dwarfs. Nature 628, 511-514; doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07190-w

Source: www.sci.news

Oxygen and carbon ions detected in Venus’s magnetosphere by BepiColombo

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In August 2021, ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft bound for Mercury Performed a second flyby of Venus, providing short-term observations of its guided magnetosphere. The spacecraft detected cold oxygen and carbon ions at a distance of about six planet radii, in an area of ​​the magnetosphere that has never been explored before.

Schematic illustration of planetary material escaping through the sides of Venus's magnetic sheath. The red line and arrow indicate the observation region and direction of BepiColombo as the ions escape (C+,oh+,H+) was observed. Image credit: Thibaut Roger / Europlanet 2024 RI / Hadid other.

Venus was similar to Earth in many ways during its formation, including the presence of large amounts of liquid water.

However, Venus eventually underwent a divergent evolution, leading to major differences between the two planets.

Unlike Earth, Venus is currently a very dry planet with no inherent magnetic field.

The continuous influence of the solar wind on the atmospheres of both planets results in significant atmospheric losses.

Venus' atmosphere is primarily composed of carbon dioxide and small amounts of nitrogen and other trace species, and is affected by interactions with the solar wind, leading to significant ion fluxes.

“This is the first time that positively charged carbon ions have been observed to be ejected from Venus's atmosphere,” said Dr. Lina Hadid, a researcher at the Plasma Physics Institute and CNRS.

“These are heavy ions that typically move slowly, so we're still trying to understand the mechanism.”

“An electrostatic 'wind' may be moving them away from Earth, or they may be accelerated by centrifugal action.”

“Unlike Earth, Venus does not generate an intrinsic magnetic field at its core.”

“Nevertheless, interactions between charged particles emitted by the sun (solar wind) and charged particles in Venus' upper atmosphere create a weak, comet-shaped 'induced magnetosphere' around the planet. ”

“Around the magnetosphere there is a region called the 'magnetic sheath' where the solar wind is slowed down and heated.”

On August 10, 2021, BepiColombo passed Venus to slow down and adjust its course towards its final destination, Mercury.

The probe soared up the long tail of the planet's magnetic sheath, emerging from the nose of the magnetic region closest to the sun.

Over a 90-minute observation period, BepiColombo's mass spectrometer (MSA) and mercury ion analyzer (MIA) will measure the number and mass of charged particles encountered, and detect chemical and Captured information about physical processes. magneto sheath.

“Characterizing the loss of heavy ions on Venus and understanding the escape mechanisms will help us understand how Venus's atmosphere evolved,” said Dr. Dominique Delcourt, principal investigator at MSA and researcher at the Plasma Physics Institute. “This is critical to understanding how water is lost.” .

“This result shows a unique result from measurements made during a flyby of a planet, in which the spacecraft may pass through areas that are generally inaccessible to orbiting spacecraft. '' said Dr. Nicolas Andre, a researcher at the Astrophysical and Planetary Institute.

of study It was published in the magazine natural astronomy.

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LZ Hadid other. BepiColombo's observations of cold oxygen and carbon ions on the side of Venus' induced magnetosphere. Nat Astron, published online on April 12, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02247-2

Source: www.sci.news

Avian Influenza Detected in Chickens at Texas Factory, America’s Largest Raw Egg Producer Reports

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The largest producer of raw eggs in the nation has announced a temporary halt in production at its Texas factory on Tuesday due to avian influenza. The virus has been found in chickens, and authorities have reported cases at a poultry facility in Michigan as well.

Calmaine Foods, headquartered in Ridgeland, Mississippi, has euthanized about 1.6 million hens and 337,000 hens, or roughly 3.6% of its flock, after avian influenza cases were discovered at its Palmer facility in Texas. The company stated that it has been sanctioned in Texas County.

The plant is situated on the Texas-New Mexico border in the Texas Panhandle, about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southwest of Amarillo and 370 miles (595 kilometers) northwest of Dallas. CalMaine reported that most of its eggs are sold in the Southwest, Southeast, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.

The statement from the company mentioned, “We are collaborating closely with federal, state, and local authorities, as well as key industry organizations, to minimize the risk of further outbreaks and manage the response effectively.”

“Calmaine Foods is taking steps to ensure production from other facilities to mitigate any disruptions for customers,” the statement added.

The company clarified that there is no identified risk of avian influenza associated with eggs currently in the market, and no recalls have been issued for eggs.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, properly processed and cooked eggs are safe for consumption. The department confirmed.

A day after the announcement by Cal-Maine, state health officials revealed that one person had been diagnosed with bird flu after potential exposure to an infected cow, but the risk to the public remains low. Federal health officials stated that the human case in Texas is the first documented instance globally of someone contracting this strain of bird flu from a mammal.

In Michigan, avian influenza was detected at a commercial poultry facility in Ionia County by the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, as reported by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Ionia County is approximately 100 miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Detroit.

The department confirmed the disease on Monday following laboratory tests, marking the fourth instance since 2022 that the illness was identified at a commercial site in Michigan.

Department spokesperson Jennifer Holton stated on Tuesday that state regulations prohibit the disclosure of poultry types at the facilities. The facility is under quarantine, but no disruptions to the state’s supply chain are anticipated, according to Holton.

Dairy cows in Texas and Kansas reported Federal agriculture officials subsequently confirmed the infection in a Michigan dairy herd that had recently acquired cattle from Texas. An Idaho dairy herd was also added to the list after federal agriculture officials confirmed the presence of avian influenza, according to a USDA press release on Tuesday.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Aurora-like radio emissions detected above sunspots by solar astronomers

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Astronomers using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array have observed long-lasting aurora-like radio bursts above sunspots. This discovery could help us better understand the behavior of our own star, as well as distant stars that emit similar radio emissions.

excellent other. We discovered radio bursts above sunspots that are similar to the radio emissions from the aurora borealis on Earth. The pink and purple stripes in this figure represent radio wave radiation, with high frequency radio signals near the sunspots, pink being high frequency and purple being low frequency radio signals. The thin lines represent the magnetic field lines above the sunspot. Sunspots are dark areas at the bottom of the sun. Image credit: Sijie Yu, New Jersey Institute of Technology.

“This sunspot's radio emission represents the first detection of its kind,” said Dr. Shijie Yu, an astronomer at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

“Such radio bursts were detected about 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) above sunspots (relatively cool, dark, magnetically active regions of the Sun) that had previously been observed only on planets and other stars. It was done.”

On other planets like Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, auroras sparkle in the night sky when solar particles get caught up in the planet's magnetic field and are pulled toward the poles where the magnetic field lines converge.

As the particles accelerate toward the poles, they generate powerful radio emissions at frequencies around a few hundred kilohertz that collide with atoms in the atmosphere and emit light as auroras.

The research team's analysis shows that radio bursts on sunspots likely occur in a similar way, when high-energy electrons are captured and accelerated by magnetic fields converging on sunspots. It suggests.

However, unlike Earth's aurora borealis, the radio bursts from sunspots occur at much higher frequencies, from hundreds of thousands of kilohertz to approximately one million kilohertz.

“This is a direct result of the sunspot's magnetic field being thousands of times stronger than Earth's magnetic field,” Yu says.

Similar radio emissions have been previously observed from several types of low-mass stars.

This discovery raises the possibility that auroral-like radio emissions originate from large spots on these stars, in addition to previously proposed polar auroras.

“This discovery excites us as it challenges existing concepts of solar radio phenomena and opens new avenues for exploring magnetic activity both in the Sun and in distant star systems. ” said Dr. Yu.

“NASA's ever-growing heliophysics fleet is well suited to continue investigating the source regions of these radio bursts,” said NASA Goddard Space Flight Center heliophysicist and solar radio researcher. said Dr. Nachimthuk Gopalswamy.

“For example, the Solar Dynamics Observatory continuously monitors the active regions of the Sun, which could be causing this phenomenon.”

In the meantime, the authors plan to review other solar radio bursts to see if any resemble the aurora-like radio bursts they discovered.

“We aim to determine whether some previously recorded solar outbursts may be examples of this newly identified emission,” Dr. Yu said.

of findings appear in the diary natural astronomy.

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S.Yu other. 2024. Long-lasting aurora-like radio emission detected over a sunspot. Nat Astron 8, 50-59; doi: 10.1038/s41550-023-02122-6

Source: www.sci.news

Google to reveal oil and gas methane leak detected from space

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Google and the Environmental Defense Fund on Wednesday announced a partnership to uncover the sources of climate-warming emissions from oil and gas operations that will be detected from space by a new satellite.

MethaneSAT is scheduled to launch next month and is one of several satellites being deployed to monitor methane emissions around the world to identify the main sources of the invisible but powerful greenhouse gas. There is one. The partnership is led by EDF, the New Zealand Space Agency, Harvard University and others.

Data from the satellite will be available later this year, and Google Cloud will provide the computing power to process the information.

Google also announced that it will use artificial intelligence to map oil and gas infrastructure by identifying components such as oil tanks. MethaneSAT emissions data is overlaid with Google Maps to help you understand which types of oil and gas equipment are most likely to leak.

This information will be made available through Google Earth Engine, a geospatial analytics platform, later this year. Earth Engine is free to researchers, nonprofit organizations, and news organizations.

The satellite image above shows a map of points, correctly identified as oil well pads. Google used satellite and aerial imagery to apply AI to detect infrastructure components. Well pads are shown in yellow, oil pump jacks in red, and storage tanks in blue.
Google

“For energy companies, researchers, and the public sector, it's generally helpful to predict methane emissions in the most sensitive components,” Yael Maguire, Google's vice president of geographic sustainability, said on a call with reporters. “We believe this information is extremely valuable for mitigation efforts.”

The launch comes as governments crack down on short-lived sources of greenhouse gases and more than 50 major state-owned and independent oil and gas operators, from ExxonMobil to Saudi Aramco, pledge to reduce methane leakage to near zero at the COP28 climate change summit. This was done amid a promise to reduce the number of By the end of this decade.

The United States is one of the largest emitters of methane and has proposed enforcement measures to stop leaks from oil and gas operations. A new rule by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will allow the public to report large methane leaks to federal regulators if they have access to methane detection technology.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Oldest black hole detected by Webb

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NASA/ESA/CSA Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a small, active galaxy within GN-z11, an extremely bright galaxy that existed just 420 million years after the Big Bang, more than 13 billion years ago. detected a black hole. The existence of this multi-million solar mass black hole in the early universe challenges current assumptions about how black holes form and grow.

GN-z11, shown in the inset, was 13.4 billion years ago, just 400 million years after the Big Bang. Image credits: NASA / ESA / P. Oesch, Yale University / G. Brammer, STScI / P. van Dokkum, Yale University / G. Illingworth, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Astronomers believe that supermassive black holes found at the centers of galaxies like the Milky Way have grown to their current size over billions of years.

But the size of this newly discovered black hole suggests that black holes may form in another way. That means black holes could be “born big,” or eat matter five times faster than previously thought.

According to the Standard Model, supermassive black holes form from the remains of dead stars, which can collapse to form black holes about 100 times the mass of the Sun.

If this newly detected black hole grows as expected, it will take about a billion years to grow to its observed size.

However, when this black hole was detected, the universe was less than 1 billion years old.

Dr Roberto Maiolino, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge, said: “Since the last time such a massive black hole has been observed was in the very early days of the universe, we need to consider other ways in which black holes could form.'' Ta.

“Very early galaxies were so rich in gas that they would have been a buffet for black holes.”

Like all black holes, GN-z11's young black hole is accreting matter from its host galaxy to fuel its growth.

But it turns out that this ancient black hole gulped down matter much more energetically than its later cousins.

GN-z11 is a compact galaxy, about 100 times smaller than the Milky Way, but a black hole may be having a negative impact on its development.

When a black hole consumes too much gas, it pushes it away like a super-fast wind.

This “wind” could stop the star formation process and slowly kill the galaxy, but it would also kill the black hole itself, because it would also cut off its source of “food.”

“This is a new era. The huge leap in sensitivity, especially in the infrared, is like upgrading from Galileo's telescope to a modern telescope overnight,” Dr. Maiorino said.

“Before Mr. Webb came online, I thought the universe beyond what the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope could see might not be all that interesting.”

“But that wasn't the case at all. The universe is very generous with what it shows us, and this is just the beginning.”

“Webb's sensitivity means that even older black holes may be discovered in the coming months or years,” he added.

“We hope to use Webb's future observations to find smaller 'seeds' of black holes. We hope to find out the different ways in which black holes form – do they start out large? “It may help us understand the different ways black holes can form, such as whether they grow rapidly or whether they grow quickly.”

a paper The survey results were published in a magazine Nature.

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R. Maiolino other. A small, active black hole that existed in the early universe. Nature, published online on January 17, 2023. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07052-5

Source: www.sci.news

Unprecedentedly fast radio burst detected in a galaxy group at extreme distance

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A fast radio burst phenomenon called FRB 20220610A flashed in an unlikely location: a collection of at least seven galaxies that existed when the universe was only 5 billion years old. Most fast radio bursts to date have been found in isolated galaxies.

This Hubble image shows the host galaxy of the extremely powerful fast radio burst FRB 20220610A. Image credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/Alexa Gordon, Northwestern University.

FRB 20220610A was first detected by the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope in Western Australia on June 10, 2022.

ESO's Very Large Telescope confirmed that the FRB came from a distant place. The Fed was four times more energetic than its closer counterpart.

“We needed Hubble's acuity and sensitivity to pinpoint the source of the FRB,” said Northwestern University astronomer Alexa Gordon.

“Without Hubble's images, it will remain a mystery whether this arose from a monolithic galaxy or some kind of interacting system.”

“It's these kinds of environments, these strange environments, that are driving us to a deeper understanding of the Fed's mysteries.”

Hubble's sharp images suggest that FRB 20220610A arose in an environment where up to seven galaxies could be on a potential path to a merger, which is also very significant.

“We're ultimately trying to answer the question: What causes this? What are their ancestry and their origin?” said Wen-Fai Fung, an astronomer at Northwestern University. Ta.

“Hubble observations provide an incredible view of the surprising types of environments that give rise to these mysterious events.”

Although hundreds of FRBs have been detected, their ancestry is unknown. One of the leading candidates is magnetars.

They have magnetic fields so strong that if a magnetar were to be located halfway between the Earth and the Moon, it would erase the magnetic stripes on everyone's credit cards around the world.

Even worse, if the astronaut traveled within a few hundred miles of the magnetar, they would effectively be dissolved, as every atom in their body would be destroyed.

Possible mechanisms include some kind of shocking starquake, or an explosion triggered when the magnetar's twisted magnetic field lines break and recombine.

A similar phenomenon occurs on the Sun, causing solar flares, but the magnetar's magnetic field is a trillion times more powerful than the Sun's magnetosphere.

This snap can cause a flash of the FRB or create a shock wave that incinerates the surrounding dust and heats the gas to create a plasma.

There can be several types of magnetars. In some cases, it could be an explosive object orbiting a black hole surrounded by a disk of matter.

Another option is a pair of orbiting neutron stars whose magnetospheres interact periodically to create cavities in which eruptions can occur.

Magnetars are estimated to be active for about 10,000 years before becoming permanent, and are expected to be discovered in areas where violent storms of star formation occur. However, this does not seem to be the case for all magnetars.

In the near future, the sensitivity of FRB experiments will improve and FRBs will be detected at unprecedented rates at these distances.

“We need to continue to find more of these FRBs in different types of environments, both near and far,” Dr. Gordon said.

Astronomers announced that findings in AAS243243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

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alexa gordon other. 2024. Revealing the environment of the most distant FRB with the Hubble Space Telescope. AAS243summary #3679

Source: www.sci.news

Unusual ‘Sad Trombone’ Effect Detected in Radio Burst from Space

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allen telescope array

Seth Szostak/SETI Institute

Short, powerful bursts of radio waves from space are becoming increasingly bizarre. Astronomers discovered 35 of these bursts from a single object with a pattern unlike anything seen before.

sophia sheikh Researchers at California's SETI Institute and colleagues observed the object, a fast radio burst (FRB) called FRB 20220912A, during 541 hours of observation with the Allen Telescope Array in California. In each of this burst from his Fed, they discovered a phenomenon called “sad trombone”…

Source: www.newscientist.com

Unknown source of ultra-high energy extraterrestrial particle detected by telescope array

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An artist’s illustration of an extremely high-energy cosmic ray, named the “Amaterasu particle,” observed by the surface detector array of the Telescope Array experiment.Credit: Osaka Metropolitan University/L-INSIGHT, Kyoto University/Ryuunosuke Takeshige

A groundbreaking detection of extremely high-energy cosmic rays by a telescope array experiment points to a void in the universe and casts doubt on current theories about the origin and high-energy physics of cosmic rays. It raises questions about its source.

Discovery of an exceptional extraterrestrial particle

Researchers involved in the telescope array experiment announced that they had detected cosmic rays with unusual energy. This particle originates outside our galaxy and has an incredible energy level of more than 240 exaelectronvolts (EeV). Despite this remarkable discovery, its exact source remains elusive, as its direction of arrival does not point to any known celestial body.

The mystery of ultra-high energy cosmic rays

Cosmic rays are subatomic charged particles that come from space, and ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are a rare and extremely powerful type. These UHECRs have energies in excess of 1 EeV, which is about a million times the energy reached by man-made particle accelerators. These are thought to originate from the most energetic phenomena in the universe, such as black holes, gamma-ray bursts, and active galactic nuclei. However, its exact physics and acceleration mechanisms are still not fully understood. These high-energy cosmic rays occur infrequently, estimated at less than one particle per square kilometer per century, making their detection a rare event and requiring instruments with large collection areas. .

An artist’s illustration of ultra-high energy cosmic ray astronomy, which elucidates highly energetic phenomena as opposed to weak cosmic rays that are affected by electromagnetic fields.Credit: Osaka Metropolitan University/Kyoto University/Ryuunosuke Takeshige

A unique discovery of telescope arrays

The Telescope Array (TA) experiment, a large-scale surface detector array in Utah with an effective detection area of ​​700 square kilometers, successfully detected UHECR on May 27, 2021 at a breakthrough energy of approximately 244 EeV.

Given the very high energy of this particle, it should experience only a relatively small deflection by the foreground magnetic field, and therefore its direction of arrival should be expected to be more closely correlated with its source. Researchers point out that there is. However, our results show that the direction of arrival does not indicate an obvious source galaxy or other known objects that could be potential sources of UHECRs.

Instead, its direction of arrival points to a cavity in the large-scale structure of the universe, a region where galaxies are almost absent. Scientists believe this indicates a much larger magnetic deflection than predicted by galactic magnetic field models, an unidentified source in the local extragalactic neighborhood, or an incomplete understanding of the high-energy particle physics involved. This suggests that there is a possibility that

For more information on this discovery, see:

Reference: “Extremely high-energy cosmic rays observed by surface detector arrays”*†, RU Abbasi, MG Allen, R. Arimura, JW Belz, DR Bergman, SA Blake, BK Shin, IJ Buckland, BG Cheon, Tetsuya Fujii, Kazuya Fujisue, Kazuya Fujita, Masaki Fukushima, GD Furlich, ZR Gerber, N. Globus, Kazuto Hibino, Tatsuya Higuchi, Kazuya Honda, Daisho Ikeda, Hiroshi Ito, Akira Iwasaki, S. Jeong, HM Jeong, CH Jui, K. Kadota, F. Kakimoto, OE Kalashev, K. Kasahara, K. Kawata, I. Kharuk, E. Kido, SW Kim, HB Kim, JH Kim, JH Kim, I. Komae, Y. Kubota, MY Kuznetsov, KH Lee, BK Rubsandrjiev, JP Lundquist, JN Matthews, S. Nagataki, T. nakamara, A. Nakazawa, T. Nonaka, S. Ogio, M. Ono, H. Oshima, IH Park. , M. Potts, S. Pushilkov, JR Remington, DC Rodriguez, C. Lott, GI Rubtsov, D. Liu, H. Sagawa, N. Sakaki, T. Sako, N. Sakurai, H. Shin, JD Smith, P Sokolsky, BT Stokes, TS Stroman, K. Takahashi, M. Takeda, A. Takeda, Y. Tameda, S. Thomas, GB Thomson, PG Tyniakov, I. Tkachev, T. Tomita, SV Troitsky, Y. Tsunesada, S. Udo, FR Urban, T. Wong, K. Yamazaki, Y. Yuma, YV Zeser, Z. Zunder, November 23, 2023. science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abo5095

Source: scitechdaily.com

Hydrogen Cyanide Detected in Enceladus’ Plume by Planetary Researchers

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Using data from NASA’s Cassini mission, planetary scientists have detected several compounds critical to the habitability of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus, including hydrogen cyanide, acetylene, propylene, and ethane. . These compounds may support living microbial communities or drive complex organic syntheses leading to the origin of life.

Diagram of Enceladus’ plume activity.Image credit: Peter other., doi: 10.1038/s41550-023-02160-0.

“Our study provides further evidence that Enceladus hosts some of the most important molecules for both producing the building blocks of life and sustaining life through metabolic reactions,” said Harvard University Ph.D. said Jonah Peter, a student in the program.

“Not only does Enceladus appear to meet the basic requirements for habitability, but we are also wondering how complex biomolecules are formed there and what kinds of chemical pathways are involved. I got an idea about it.”

“The discovery of hydrogen cyanide was particularly exciting because it is the starting point for most theories about the origin of life.”

As we know, life requires building blocks such as amino acids, and hydrogen cyanide is one of the most important and versatile molecules required for the formation of amino acids.

Peter and his colleagues refer to hydrogen cyanide as the Swiss Army knife of amino acid precursors because its molecules stack up in different ways.

“The more we tested alternative models and tried to poke holes in the results, the stronger the evidence became,” Peter said.

“Ultimately, it became clear that there was no way to match the plume composition without including hydrogen cyanide.”

Saturn’s moon Enceladus with plumes. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / Kevin M. Gill.

In 2017, planetary scientists discovered evidence of chemistry on Enceladus that could help sustain life in the ocean, if it exists.

The combination of carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen in the plume suggested methanogenesis, a metabolic process that produces methane.

This process is widespread on Earth and may have been important for the origin of life on Earth.

Peter and his co-authors found evidence for additional energetic chemical sources that are far more powerful and diverse than methane production.

They discovered a series of oxidized organic compounds, showing scientists that Enceladus’ underground ocean potentially has many chemical pathways to support life. That’s because oxidation promotes the release of chemical energy.

“If methane production is like a small clock battery in terms of energy, then our findings suggest that Enceladus’ ocean could provide large amounts of energy for any life that might exist. This suggests that we may be able to provide something similar to car batteries,” said Dr. Kevin Hand, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Unlike previous studies that used laboratory experiments and geochemical modeling to recreate the conditions Cassini found on Enceladus, the authors relied on detailed statistical analysis.

They examined data collected by Cassini’s ion and neutral mass spectrometers, which study the gas, ions, and ice grains around Saturn.

By quantifying the amount of information contained in the data, the authors were able to uncover subtle differences in how well different compounds explain the Cassini signal.

“There are a lot of potential puzzle pieces that can be put together when trying to reconcile observed data,” Peter said.

“We used mathematics and statistical modeling to identify the combination of puzzle pieces that best matched the plume’s composition and made the most of the data without over-interpreting the limited data set.”

of findings It was published in the magazine natural astronomy.

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JS Peter other. Detection of HCN and diverse redox chemistries in Enceladus plumes. Nat Astron, published online on December 14, 2023. doi: 10.1038/s41550-023-02160-0

Source: www.sci.news