Intermediate-sized black hole found in the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy

Using data from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and other telescopes, astronomers have found evidence of an intermediate-mass black hole. IRS 13a dusty group of stars within the nuclear cluster of our Milky Way galaxy.

Intermediate-mass black holes can form in dense star clusters, either through the merger of stellar-mass black holes or the collapse of very massive stars. Image credit: Sci.News/Zdeněk Bardon/ESO.

Black holes are found in a wide range of masses, from stellar-mass objects with masses of 10 to 100 times that of the Sun, to objects at the centers of galaxies with masses over 100,000 times that of the Sun.

However, there are only a few intermediate-mass black hole candidates between 100 and 100,000 times the mass of the Sun.

“The IRS 13 cluster is located 0.1 light-years away from the centre of our galaxy,” said Dr Florian Peisker from the University of Cologne and his colleagues.

“I noticed that the stars in IRS 13 were moving in an unexpectedly orderly pattern.”

“They actually expected the stars to be randomly positioned.”

“Two conclusions can be drawn from this regular pattern,” they added.

“Meanwhile, IRS 13 appears to be interacting with Sagittarius A*, a black hole at the centre of the Milky Way that is four million times more massive than the Sun, which leads to the orderly motion of stars.”

“However, something else needs to be present inside the cluster to maintain the observed compact shape.”

Using data from the VLT, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), and NASA's Chandra X-ray Telescope, astronomers have found strong evidence that IRS 13 has a disk-like structure.

“Multi-wavelength observations suggest that the reason for IRS 13's compact shape could be an intermediate-mass black hole located at the center of the cluster,” the researchers said.

“We were able to observe characteristic x-rays and ionized gas rotating at hundreds of kilometers per second in the disk surrounding the suspected intermediate-mass black hole.”

“Another indication of the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole is the unusually high density of this cluster, which is higher than the density of any other cluster in our Milky Way galaxy.”

“IRS 13 appears to be an essential component in the growth of the central black hole, Sagittarius A*,” Dr Peisker said.

“This fascinating star cluster has continued to astonish the scientific community since its discovery almost 20 years ago. It was initially thought to be an unusually massive group of stars, but high-resolution data have now allowed us to confirm its component parts, with an intermediate-mass black hole at its center.”

of result Appears in Astrophysical Journal.

_____

Florian Peisker others2024. The evaporating massive embedded stellar cluster IRS 13 close to Sgr A*. II. Kinematic structure. ApJ 970, 74; doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad4098

Source: www.sci.news

Possible Discovery of Lunar Cave Entrance Deep Hole on the Moon

Proposed underground geometry of the Mare Tranquillitatis on the Moon

Wagner and Robinson

A network of caves may be hidden just beneath the Moon's surface, and researchers may have finally discovered an access point. These caves have long been predicted, but until now it has been difficult to prove their existence or find a way to directly explore them with future missions.

The Moon's surface is dotted with holes, or so-called skylights, which are openings in the ceilings of caves that are thought to have been formed by the collapse of ancient lava tubes – tunnels formed when lava flows beneath the solid crust. Leonardo Carrell Researchers from the University of Trento in Italy have discovered that the deepest part of these formations, the “The Pit of the Sea of ​​TranquilityThese images were taken by NASA's Lunar Rover in 2010.

By comparing their simulations with lava tubes on Earth, the researchers found that the Mare Tranquillitatis hole appears to open into a large cavern buried at least 400 feet (130 meters) underground. The cave appears to be about 150 feet (45 meters) wide and at least 100 feet (30 meters) long, but could be much larger.

Caves like these could offer a unique window into the evolution of the Moon, says Carell. “Analyzing rocks from lunar caves, which have not been altered by the harsh lunar environment, could provide important insights into key scientific questions, such as the timeline and duration of volcanic activity on the Moon and the actual composition of the Moon's mantle,” Carell says.

The same stone ceiling that protects the cave rocks from the intense radiation experienced on the surface could also provide valuable shielding for future human explorers on the Moon. “Unlike the surface of the Moon, where temperatures change dramatically between day and night, [the caves] “It has a stable internal temperature, and it's also a natural shield against radiation and impacts,” Carrell says.

The idea of ​​using natural caves like these as lunar base camps has long been popular, and future astronauts may one day call the Sea of ​​Tranquility home.

topic:

  • Moon/
  • Space Exploration

Source: www.newscientist.com

What lies on the other side of a black hole? (Speculation included)

One of the most astonishing scientific discoveries of the past decade is the abundance of black holes in the universe.

These black holes come in a range of sizes, from slightly larger than the Sun to billions of times more massive. They are detected through various methods, such as radio emissions from material falling into them, their impact on orbiting stars, gravitational waves from black hole mergers, and the unique distortions of light they create, like the “Einstein rings” seen in images of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Our universe is not flat but filled with holes like a sieve. The physical characteristics of black holes are accurately described by Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

Although Einstein’s theory aligns well with our current knowledge of black holes, it fails to address two crucial questions. First, what happens to matter once it crosses the event horizon of a black hole? Second, how does a black hole eventually disappear? Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking proposed that, over time, black holes shrink through a process called Hawking radiation, emitting high-temperature radiation until they become very small.

These unanswered questions are related to quantum aspects of space-time, specifically quantum gravity, for which we lack a comprehensive theory.

An attempt at an answer

Despite these challenges, there are evolving tentative theories that offer some insights into these mysteries. While these theories require further experimental support, they provide possible explanations for the fate of black holes.

One prominent theory in this realm is loop quantum gravity (LQG), a promising approach to understanding quantum space-time developed since the late 1980s. LQG proposes a novel scenario where black holes transition into white holes, where the interior evolves under quantum effects, causing a reversal of its collapse.

White holes, the hypothetical opposites of black holes, may hold the key to understanding the fate of evaporating black holes. These structures could potentially explain the enigmatic nature of dark matter, offering a compelling link between well-established principles of general relativity and quantum mechanics.

Same idea but in reverse

While the direct detection of white holes remains challenging due to their weak gravitational interactions, technological advancements may enable future observations. If dark matter indeed comprises remnants of evaporating black holes in the form of white holes, this hypothesis could shed light on the elusive nature of dark matter.

By reevaluating long-held assumptions about black holes and incorporating quantum gravity phenomena, we may uncover a more nuanced understanding of these cosmic phenomena. The evolving field of quantum gravity offers a fresh perspective on the dynamics of black holes and the potential existence of white holes as remnants of their evaporation.

Next steps

Exploring the implications of white holes and their possible role in dark matter formation requires further research and technological advancements. As we continue to refine our understanding of black holes and quantum gravity, we may unlock new insights into the fundamental nature of our universe.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Astronomers find intermediate-mass black hole in largest globular cluster in Milky Way

Using more than 500 images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have found evidence of a 20,000-solar-mass black hole at the center of Earth. Omega CentauriIt is a globular cluster located in the constellation Centaurus, 5,430 parsecs (17,710 light years) from the Sun.

Omega Centauri is about 10 times more massive than other large globular clusters. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Maximilian Häberle, MPIA.

Astronomers know that stellar-mass black holes (black holes with masses between 10 and 100 times that of the Sun) are the remnants of dying stars, and that supermassive black holes, with masses more than a million times that of the Sun, exist at the center of most galaxies.

But the universe is littered with what appear to be more mysterious types of black holes.

These intermediate-mass black holes, with masses between 100 and 10,000 times that of the Sun, are so difficult to measure that their very existence is sometimes debated.

Only a few intermediate-mass black hole candidates have been discovered so far.

Determining the black hole population is an important step towards understanding the formation of supermassive black holes in the early universe.

“Omega Centauri is a special example among globular clusters in the Milky Way,” said astronomer Maximilian Höberle of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and his colleagues.

“Omega Centauri is widely accepted to be the stripped core of an accreted dwarf galaxy due to its high mass, complex stellar population and kinematics.”

“These factors, combined with its proximity, make the planet a prime target in the search for intermediate-mass black holes.”

Omega Centauri is made up of about 10 million stars, making it about 10 times more massive than any other large globular cluster.

In the study, the authors measured the velocities of 1.4 million stars from images of the cluster taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Although most of these observations were intended for calibration of Hubble's instruments rather than for scientific use, they proved to be an ideal database for the team's research activities.

“We looked for fast-moving stars that are expected to be near concentrated masses such as black holes,” said astronomer Holger Baumgart of the University of Queensland.

“Identifying these stars was the smoking gun we needed to prove the existence of black holes, and we've done just that.”

“We found seven stars that shouldn't be there,” Dr Hebel said.

“They're moving so fast that they're likely to escape the herd and never come back.”

“The most likely explanation is that a very massive object is gravitationally tugging on these stars, keeping them near the center.”

“The only objects this massive are black holes, which have a mass at least 8,200 times that of the Sun.”

“This discovery is the most direct evidence to date for the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole at Omega Centauri,” said Dr Nadine Neumayer, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.

“This is extremely exciting because very few other black holes with similar masses are known.”

“The black hole at Omega Centauri may be the best example of an intermediate-mass black hole in our cosmic neighborhood.”

Team paper Published in the journal Nature.

_____

M. Heberle others2024. Stars moving at high speed around the intermediate-mass black hole at Omega Centauri. Nature 631, 285-288; Source: 10.1038/s41586-024-07511-z

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers observe the reawakening of a supermassive black hole

In December 2019, a little-known galaxy called SDSS 1335+0728, located 300 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, suddenly started glowing brighter than ever before. To understand why, astronomers used data from multiple space and ground-based observatories to track the changes in the galaxy's brightness. They concluded that they were witnessing the sudden awakening of the supermassive black hole at its center.

This artist's impression shows the black hole drawing in the surrounding gas, growing a disk of material that lights up the galaxy. Image credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser.

“Imagine observing a distant galaxy for years and it always seemed quiet and inactive,” said Dr Paula Sánchez Sáez, astronomer at ESO and the Millennium Astrophysics Institute.

“Suddenly, the brightness of its central core began to change dramatically, which is not a typical phenomenon we've seen before.”

This is what happened to SDSS 1335+0728, which has been classified as having an active galactic nucleus (AGN) after brightening dramatically in December 2019.

Galaxies can suddenly brighten due to events such as supernova explosions or tidal disruption, but these changes in brightness usually only last for a few tens or, at most, a few hundred days.

SDSS 1335+0728 continues to grow brighter, more than four years after it was first observed “lighting up.”

What's more, the changes detected in the galaxy are unlike anything seen before, suggesting alternative explanations to astronomers.

Dr Sáez and his colleagues sought to understand these brightness changes by combining archival data with new observations from several facilities, including the X-SHOOTER instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope.

Comparing data taken before and after December 2019, we found that SDSS 1335+0728 now emits much more light in ultraviolet, visible and infrared wavelengths, and the galaxy also began emitting X-rays in February 2024.

“This kind of action is unprecedented,” Dr. Saez said.

“The most concrete option to explain this phenomenon is that we are seeing the galactic core starting to show activity,” added Dr Lorena Hernández García, an astronomer at the Millennium Institute for Astrophysics and Valparaíso University.

“If this is the case, it would be the first time that we have observed the activation of a massive black hole in real time.”

“Supermassive black holes are normally dormant and cannot be seen directly,” said Dr Claudio Ricci, an astronomer at the Diego Portales University and the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University.

“In the case of SDSS 1335+0728, we were able to observe a massive black hole awakening and suddenly absorbing the surrounding gas, becoming extremely bright.”

“This process has never been observed before,” Dr. Garcia said.

“Previous studies have reported that dormant galaxies become active after a few years, but this is the first time that the process of black hole awakening itself has been observed in real time.”

“This could also happen to Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy, but we don't know how likely this is to happen.”

“Regardless of the nature of the fluctuations, SDSS 1335+0728 will provide valuable information about how black holes grow and evolve,” said Dr. Sáez.

“We hope that instruments like MUSE on the VLT and the upcoming MUSE on the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will hold the key to understanding why galaxies are brightening.”

of study Published in a journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

_____

P. Sanchez Aes others2024 SDSS1335+0728: The awakening of the universe about 1 billion years ago6 M_sun Black hole. A&Ain press; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202347957

Source: www.sci.news

Detecting Iron in the Accretion Disk Around the Supermassive Black Hole of NGC 4151: XRISM Observations

NGC 4151 is a spiral galaxy located approximately 62 million light-years away in the northern constellation Hanabi.

This artist's concept shows possible locations for iron revealed in NGC 4151's XRISM X-ray spectrum. Image credit: Conceptual Image Lab, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

The X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), a joint effort between JAXA and NASA, with extensive participation from ESA, launched from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center on September 6, 2023.

After beginning science operations in February 2024, the spacecraft focused on the supermassive black hole at the center of NGC 4151.

“XRISM's Resolve instrument captured a detailed spectrum of the region around the black hole,” said researcher Brian Williams, Ph.D., of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

“The peaks and valleys are like chemical fingerprints that tell us what elements are present and can reveal clues about the fate of matter that approaches a black hole.”

NGC 4151's supermassive black hole holds more than 20 million times the mass of the Sun.

This galaxy is also active, meaning its center is unusually bright and changeable.

Gas and dust swirling toward the black hole forms an accretion disk around it, heated by gravity and frictional forces, creating fluctuations.

Some of the material at the edge of the black hole forms twin jets of particles that shoot out from either side of the disk at nearly the speed of light.

A bulging donut-shaped cloud of material called a torus surrounds the accretion disk.

XRISM's Resolve instrument captured data from the center of NGC 4151. The resulting spectrum reveals the presence of iron with a peak around 6.5 keV and a dip around 7 keV, thousands of times more energetic than the light visible to our eyes. Image credits: JAXA / NASA / XRISM Resolve / CXC / CfA / Wang et al. / Isaac Newton Telescope Group, La Palma Island / Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope / NSF / NRAO / VLA.

“In fact, NGC 4151 is one of the closest known active galaxies,” Dr. Williams and his colleagues said.

“Other missions, such as NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, are conducting research to learn more about the interactions between black holes and their surroundings, allowing scientists to study galaxies. Find out how the supermassive black hole at the center of time grows throughout the universe.

“This galaxy is unusually bright in X-rays, making it an ideal early target for XRISM.”

“The NGC 4151 spectrum in Resolve shows a sharp peak at energies just below 6.5 keV, an iron emission line.”

Astronomers believe that much of the power in active galaxies comes from X-rays emanating from hot, blazing regions near black holes.

When the X-rays reflect off the cold gas inside the disk, the iron there fluoresces, producing a specific X-ray peak.

This allowed for a more accurate depiction of both the disk and the eruptive region much closer to the black hole.

“The spectrum also shows some dips around 7 keV,” the astronomers said.

“The iron present in the torus caused these dips as well, but due to absorption rather than emission of X-rays, because the material there is much cooler than in the disk.”

“All of this radiation is about 2,500 times more energetic than the light we can see with our eyes.”

“Iron is just one of the elements that XRISM can detect. The telescope can also detect sulfur, calcium, argon, and more, depending on the source.”

“Each one tells us something different about the cosmic phenomena that litter the X-ray sky.”

Source: www.sci.news

Unexpectedly large stellar-mass black hole spotted in close binary star system

Using data from ESA’s Gaia mission, astronomers discovered a nearby binary system of massive stars orbiting a dormant star-derived black hole over a period of 11.6 years. The black hole’s estimated mass (33 solar masses) is significantly larger than all known stellar-mass black holes in the Milky Way and within the mass range of extragalactic black holes detected by gravitational waves.

Locations of the first three black holes discovered in the Milky Way by ESA’s Gaia mission. Image credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC.

The binary star system in question is named Gaia BH3 and is located 1,926 light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquila.

Also known as Gaia DR3 4318465066420528000, LS II +14 13, and 2MASS J19391872+1455542, it consists of an old, very metal-poor giant star and a dormant stellar-mass black hole.

Gaia BH3 is the third dormant black hole discovered by ESA’s interstellar mapping satellite Gaia.

“This is the kind of discovery that only happens once in a research career,” said Dr. Pasquale Panuzzo, an astronomer at the CNRS and the Paris Observatory.

“So far, black holes this large have only been detected in distant galaxies by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, thanks to observations of gravitational waves.”

The average mass of the known stellar-origin black holes in our galaxy is about 10 times the mass of the Sun.

Astronomers face the pressing problem of explaining the origin of black holes as large as Gaia BH3.

Our current understanding of how massive stars evolve and die does not immediately explain how this type of black hole could be born.

Most theories predict that as massive stars age, a significant portion of their material is shed by powerful winds. Eventually, it will be partially blown into space when it explodes as a supernova.

The remainder of the core shrinks further, becoming either a neutron star or a black hole, depending on its mass.

It is extremely difficult to explain a core large enough to eventually become a black hole 30 times the mass of the Sun. But the clues to solving this mystery may lie very close to Gaia BH3.

The star, which orbits Gaia BH3 at about 16 times the distance between the Sun and Earth, is quite unusual and is an ancient giant that formed during the first two billion years after the Big Bang, when our galaxy began to form. It’s a star.

It belongs to the family of galactic stellar halos, which move in the opposite direction to the stars in the galactic disk.

Its orbit indicates that the star was probably part of a small galaxy, or globular cluster, that was swallowed up by the Milky Way more than 8 billion years ago.

This companion star contains almost no elements heavier than hydrogen or helium, indicating that the massive star that became Gaia BH3 may also have been extremely poor in heavy elements.

For the first time, the theory that the massive black holes observed in gravitational wave experiments were created by the collapse of primordial massive stars lacking heavy elements has been confirmed.

These early stars may have evolved differently from the massive stars we see in our galaxy today.

The composition of the companion star can also reveal the formation mechanism of this surprising binary system.

“We were surprised that the chemical composition of the companion star is similar to that seen in older, metal-poor stars in the Milky Way,” said Dr. Elisabetta Cuffo, an astronomer at the CNRS and the Paris Observatory.

“There is no evidence that this star was contaminated by material ejected from the supernova explosion of the massive star that became BH3.”

“This may suggest that the black hole acquired a mate from another star system for the first time after its birth.”

of the team paper be published in a magazine astronomy and astrophysics.

_____

P. Panuzzo other. (Gaia collaboration). 2024. Gaia astronomical measurements prior to release discovered a dormant black hole with the mass of 33 solar masses. A&A, in press. doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202449763

Source: www.sci.news

Discovery of a Remarkably Large Black Hole in Our Galaxy

This artist's impression shows the orbits of both a massive stellar black hole and its companion star

ESO/L. Calzada

Astronomers have discovered Gaia-BH3, the largest stellar black hole ever discovered. It has a mass 33 times that of the Sun and is dwarfed only by supermassive black holes and black holes formed by merging with other black holes.

At about 2000 light-years away, Gaia-BH3 is also the second closest black hole to Earth ever discovered. george seabroke Researchers at University College London used the Gaia Space Telescope to discover this stellar black hole, formed from a star that has reached the end of its life.

Because light cannot escape from a black hole, most black holes are discovered by looking for the glow of hot material orbiting around them and falling. However, BH3 is in a dormant state and does not phagocytize substances. Instead, researchers made their discovery by noticing the strange movement of a star that appeared to be orbiting a part of empty space.

The star itself is also unusual, being made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. Most stars contain at least some heavy elements, which formed in the cores of massive stars and were distributed throughout the universe by supernovae. However, the first generation of stars would have had very low amounts of heavy elements. The composition of BH3's partner star suggests that the massive star that eventually collapsed to form BH3 was also one of these primitive objects and evolved differently from the way massive stars do today. suggests that it is possible. This would explain how black holes became so huge. If it had evolved like a normal star, it would be difficult to explain its size.

The discovery of such a massive black hole was not a complete surprise. Experiments looking for gravitational waves (ripples in space-time caused by the motion of heavy objects) have found signs of them in other galaxies.

“These gravitational wave measurements should lead us to expect that such a black hole exists in our galaxy, but until now it hasn't,” Seabrook said. And this should be just the beginning, he says. “This star is very bright, so if you find a star this bright, you generally expect to find many fainter stars.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

New image exposes magnetic field surrounding Milky Way’s black hole

New and impressive images of the supermassive black hole located at the center of our galaxy show that its powerful magnetic field twists and rotates in a spiral pattern.

This is a never-before-seen view of Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A*), the massive black hole in the Milky Way galaxy that consumes nearby light and matter.

The images suggest similarities in structure between this black hole and the black hole in the galaxy M87. Although the black hole in M87, which was imaged for the first time, is over 1,000 times larger than Sagittarius A*, both exhibit strong, organized magnetic fields.

This pattern hints that many, if not all, black holes may share common traits, according to the scientists who published their findings in the Astrophysics Journal Letter on Wednesday.

“We’ve discovered that strong, orderly magnetic fields are crucial in how black holes interact with surrounding gas and matter,” said study co-leader and NASA Hubble Fellowship Program co-author, Einstein Fellow Sarah Isaun, as stated in a press release.

Isaun worked with an international team of astronomers known as the Event Horizon Telescope to conduct the research. This team comprises over 300 scientists from 80 institutions worldwide.

This same collaboration captured the first direct visual evidence of Sagittarius A* in 2022 and also studied the M87 galaxy, which is located approximately 53 million light-years away from Earth.

The magnetic field around the massive black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy, known as M87*, is believed to play a vital role in its extraordinary behavior. Black holes emit powerful jets of electrons and other subatomic particles into space at nearly the speed of light.

Although no such bursts of activity have been observed from Sagittarius A*, the similarities between the two black holes suggest that hidden jets may still be detected. Researchers suggest this possibility in the new images.


Source: www.nbcnews.com

The Event Horizon Telescope Detects a Twisted Magnetic Field Surrounding the Central Black Hole of the Milky Way

According to astronomers’ best models of black hole evolution, the magnetic field within the accretion disk must be strong enough to push the accreted plasma out into the surroundings. New results from Sagittarius A*, the 4.3 million solar mass black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and its much larger cousin M87* provide the first direct observational evidence supporting these models.

This image from the Event Horizon Telescope shows a polarized view of Sagittarius A*. The lines superimposed on this image show the direction of polarization associated with the magnetic field around the black hole’s shadow. Image credit: EHT Collaboration.

In 2022, EHT collaboration The first image of Sagittarius A*, about 27,000 light-years from Earth, has been released, showing that the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole looks very good despite being more than 1/1000th smaller and lighter in mass than M87. revealed that they are similar.

This led scientists to wonder if the two men had more in common than just their looks. To find out, they decided to study Sagittarius A* in polarized light.

Previous studies of the light surrounding M87* revealed that the magnetic field around the supermassive black hole causes powerful jets of matter to be ejected into the surrounding environment.

Based on this study, new EHT images reveal that the same may be true for Sagittarius A*.

“What we’re seeing now is a strong, twisted, organized magnetic field near the black hole at the center of the Milky Way,” said astronomers at the Harvard University & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. said Dr. Sarah Isaun.

“In addition to having a polarization structure that is strikingly similar to that seen in the much larger and more powerful M87* black hole, Sagittarius A* has a polarization structure that is strikingly similar to that seen in the much larger and more powerful M87* black hole. We found that strong, well-ordered magnetic fields are important for how they act.”

Light is a vibrating or moving electromagnetic wave that allows us to see objects. Light can oscillate in a particular direction, which scientists call polarization.

Polarized light is all around us, but to the human eye it is indistinguishable from “normal” light.

In the plasma around these black holes, particles swirling around magnetic field lines impart a polarization pattern perpendicular to the magnetic field.

This will allow astronomers to see in clearer detail what’s happening in the black hole region and map its magnetic field lines.

“By imaging polarized light from glowing gas near a black hole, we are directly inferring the structure and strength of the magnetic field that flows through the streams of gas and matter that the black hole feeds and ejects.” said Dr. Angelo Ricarte. Astronomer at Harvard University and the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

“Polarized light can tell us much more about astrophysics, the properties of the gas, and the mechanisms that occur when black holes feed.”

But imaging black holes under polarized light isn’t as easy as wearing polarized sunglasses. This is especially true for Sagittarius A*. Sagittarius A* changes so quickly that you can’t stand still and take a photo.

Imaging supermassive black holes requires sophisticated tools beyond those previously used to capture a more stable target, M87*.

“Sagittarius A*s are like enthusiastic toddlers,” said Avery Broderick, a professor at the University of Waterloo.

“For the first time, we see invisible structures that guide matter within a black hole’s disk, drive plasma to the event horizon, and help the plasma grow.”

“Sagittarius A* moves around while trying to photograph it, so it was difficult to even construct an unpolarized image,” said astronomer Dr. Jeffrey Bower of the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica in Taipei. Told.

“The first image is an average of multiple images from the movement of Sagittarius A*.”

“I was relieved that polarized imaging was also possible. Some models had too much scrambling and turbulence to build polarized images, but nature isn’t that cruel. did.”

Professor Maria Felicia de Laurentiis, University of Naples Federico II, said: “Using samples of two black holes with very different masses and host galaxies, we can determine what they agree on and what they do not agree on.” It’s important.

“Since both point us toward strong magnetic fields, this suggests that this may be a universal and perhaps fundamental feature of this type of system.”

“One similarity between these two black holes could be a jet. But while we imaged a very obvious black hole in M87*, we have yet to find one in Sagittarius A*. not.”

The results of this research are published in two papers (paper #1 & paper #2) in Astrophysics Journal Letter.

_____

Collaboration with Event Horizon Telescope. 2024. Horizon telescope results for the first Sagittarius A* event. VII. Polarization of the ring. APJL 964, L25; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad2df0

Collaboration with Event Horizon Telescope. 2024. Horizon telescope results for the first Sagittarius A* event. VIII. Physical interpretation of polarization rings. APJL 964, L26; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad2df1

Source: www.sci.news

Revealing the Magnetic Field Swirling Around Our Galaxy’s Black Hole through a New Perspective

Black hole Sagittarius A* seen in polarized light

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

This is a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy that we have never seen before. The image reveals a swirling magnetic field around Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), suggesting it may be producing jets of high-energy material that astronomers have not yet seen.

This photo was taken by a network of observatories around the world operating as a single giant telescope called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). In 2022, the first images of Sgr A* were produced, revealing light emanating from swirling hot plasma set against the dark background of a black hole's event horizon. There, light cannot escape the extreme gravity.

Now, EHT researchers Jiri Yunshi The researchers from University College London measured how this light is polarized, or the direction of the electromagnetic field, and showed the direction and strength of the magnetic field around Sgr A*.

This image is very similar to the magnetic field of M87*, the first black hole studied by EHT. Given that M87* is about 1,500 times more massive than Sgr A*, this suggests that supermassive black holes may have similar structures regardless of their size, Yunshi says.

The two black holes photographed by the Event Horizon Telescope are strikingly similar.

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

One major difference between M87* and the black holes in our galaxy is the absence of visible high-energy jets visible from Sgr A*. This lack has long puzzled astronomers, but the fact that Sgr A* has a magnetic field like M87* suggests that our galaxy's black hole may also have jets. It suggests.

“There are very interesting hints that there may be additional structures,” Yunshi says. “I think something very exciting could be happening at the center of the galaxy, and we need to track these results.”

This makes sense given other evidence for jets that may have existed long before the galaxy's history, such as Fermi bubbles, large balls of X-ray-producing plasma above and below the Milky Way. Masu.

In addition to revealing potential hidden jets, the properties of magnetic fields also solve other astrophysical mysteries, such as how particles like cosmic rays and neutrinos are accelerated to ultrahigh energies. This could help solve the problem, Yunshi said. “Magnetic fields are the basis of all of this. Anything that yields further insight into how black holes and magnetic fields interact is of just fundamental importance to astrophysics.”

Yunshi and his colleagues hope to use a larger telescope network and more advanced equipment to take more images of Sgr A*, which will help them understand the nature of the magnetic field and how it directs the jet. This will deepen your understanding of what is being generated. EHT plans to begin these observations in April, but processing the data could take several years.

References: Astrophysics Journal LetterDoi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad2df0 &DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad2df1

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Astronomers discover the heaviest supermassive black hole pair ever measured

Astronomers are gemini north telescope measured a binary supermassive black hole located within the elliptical galaxy B2 0402+379.

Artist's impression of the supermassive black hole binary in elliptical galaxy B2 0402+379. Image credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. daSilva / M. Zamani.

The pair of compact objects at the center of B2 0402+379 are the only supermassive black hole binaries ever resolved in enough detail that both objects can be seen separately.

It holds the record for the smallest distance ever directly measured – just 24 light years.

While this close separation portends a strong merger, further research reveals that the pair has been stuck at this distance for more than 3 billion years, raising questions. What is the holdup?

To better understand the dynamics of this system and its stalled merger, Stanford University professor Roger Romani and his colleagues turned to archival data from Gemini North. Gemini multi-object spectrometer (GMOS) This allowed them to determine the speed of stars near the black hole.

“The excellent sensitivity of GMOS allowed us to map the increasing velocity of stars as they approach the center of the galaxy. This allowed us to estimate the total mass of black holes present there.” Professor Romani said.

The authors estimate that the binary star's mass is a whopping 28 billion times that of the Sun, making the pair the most massive binary black hole ever measured.

This measurement not only provides valuable background on the formation of binary systems and the history of their host galaxies, but also confirms the long-held belief that the mass of supermassive binary black holes plays a key role in preventing potential mergers. This supports the theory.

“The data archive provided by the International Gemini Observatory holds a goldmine of untapped scientific discoveries,” said Dr. Martin Still, NSF program director for the International Gemini Observatory.

“Measuring the mass of this extreme supermassive binary black hole is an awe-inspiring example of the potential impact of new research exploring its rich archive.”

Understanding how this binary formed can help predict if and when it will merge. Also, some clues indicate that the pair formed through multiple galaxy mergers.

First, B2 0402+379 is a “fossil cluster,” meaning it is the result of an entire galaxy cluster's worth of stars and gas merging into a single giant galaxy.

Additionally, the presence of two supermassive black holes, coupled with their large combined mass, suggests that they resulted from the merger of multiple smaller black holes from multiple galaxies.

After galaxies merge, supermassive black holes do not collide head-on. Instead, they start slingshotting each other as they settle into a certain trajectory.

Each time a black hole passes, energy is transferred from it to the surrounding stars.

Losing their energy, the pair are dragged together, and gravitational radiation takes over, merging them just a few light years away.

This process has been observed directly in pairs of stellar-mass black holes, first documented by the detection of gravitational waves in 2015, but has never been observed in binaries of supermassive black holes.

With new knowledge about the system's extremely large mass, astronomers concluded that it would take a very large number of stars to slow down the binary enough to make its orbits so close together. .

In the process, the black hole seems to have blown away almost all the material around it, depleting the galaxy's center of stars and gas.

The merger of the two companies stalled in the final stages, as there was nothing left to further slow the companies' trajectory.

“Galaxies with lighter black hole pairs usually seem to have enough stars and mass to quickly merge the two,” Professor Romani said.

“The pair is so massive that we needed a lot of stars and gas to get the job done. But binaries scour the galaxy for such material, causing it to stagnate, making it impossible for our research to do so.” has been made accessible.”

It remains to be determined whether the pair will overcome stasis and eventually merge on a timescale of millions of years, or remain in orbit forever in limbo.

If they merged, the resulting gravitational waves would be 100 million times more powerful than those produced by the merger of stellar-mass black holes.

The pair could potentially conquer that final distance via another galactic merger. In that case, additional material, or potentially a third black hole, could be injected into the galaxy, slowing the pair's orbits enough for a merger.

However, given that B2 0402+379 is a fossil cluster, further galaxy mergers are unlikely.

“We're looking forward to tracking the core of B2 0402+379 to find out how much gas is present,” said Tirth Surti, an undergraduate at Stanford University.

“This should give us more insight into whether supermassive black holes may eventually merge or remain stuck as binaries.”

of result will appear in astrophysical journal.

_____

Tirth Surti other. 2024. Central kinematics and black hole mass of 4C+37.11. APJ 960, 110; doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad14fa

Source: www.sci.news

Webb uncovers incredible black hole in the ancient cosmos

Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers observed a very red quasar-like object. A2744-QSO1 Its color suggests that A2744-QSO1's black hole lies behind a thick veil of dust obscuring much of its light. The researchers also measured the black hole's mass (40 million solar masses) and found it to be much more massive compared to its host galaxy than what has been seen in more localized examples. . This discovery suggests that it may represent the missing link between black hole seeds and the first luminescent quasars.



A composite color image of A2744-QSO1. Image credit: Furutaku other, doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07184-8.

“We were very excited when Webb started transmitting its first data,” said Dr. Lukas Furtak, a postdoctoral researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

“As we were scanning the data coming in for the UNCOVER program, three very compact objects with red flowers stood out to us.”

“Because of its 'red dot' appearance, we immediately suspected it to be a quasar-like object.”

“Using a numerical lensing model we built for the Abell 2744 galaxy cluster, we found that the three red dots are multiples of the same background light source seen when the universe was just 700 million years old. “We determined that it must be an image of Adi Zitlin, also from Ben-Gurion University in the Negev.

“Analysis of the object's color shows that it is not a typical star-forming galaxy,” said Professor Rachel Bezanson, an astronomer at the University of Pittsburgh.

“This further supports the supermassive black hole hypothesis.”

“Together with its compact size, it became clear that this was probably a supermassive black hole, but it was still different from other quasars discovered earlier.”

The astronomers then analyzed the JWST/NIRSpec spectrum of A2744-QSO1.

“The spectrum was just shocking,” said Professor Ivo Rabe of Swinburne University of Technology.

“The spectrum obtained by combining the signals from the three images and the lens magnification corresponds to 1,700 hours that Webb observed the object without a lens, making it the deepest spectrum Webb obtained for a single object in the early universe. Masu.”

“Using the spectrum, we were able to not only confirm that this red compact object is a supermassive black hole and measure its precise redshift, but also estimate its mass based on the width of its emission line. We were able to get a solid estimate,” Dr. Furtak said.

“The gas orbits the black hole's gravitational field, achieving extremely high velocities not seen in other parts of the galaxy.”

“Due to the Doppler shift, the light emitted from the accreting material is redshifted on one side and blueshifted on the other side, depending on its velocity.”

“This makes the emission lines in the spectrum wider.”

But this measurement brought yet another surprise. The black hole's mass appears to be disproportionately large compared to the mass of its host galaxy.

“All the light in that galaxy would have to fit within a small region about the size of a modern star cluster,” said Dr. Jenny Green, an astronomer at Princeton University.

“The source's gravitational lensing magnification provided an exquisite constraint on size.”

“Even if you pack all possible stars into such a small region, the black hole will end up being at least 1% of the total mass of the system.”

“In fact, it has now been discovered that several other supermassive black holes in the early Universe exhibit similar behavior, which provides insight into the growth of black holes and host galaxies, and the interactions between them. This provides some interesting insights, but this is not well understood.”

Astronomers do not know whether such supermassive black holes grow from the remains of stars, for example, or perhaps from material that collapsed directly into black holes in the early universe.

“In some ways, this is an astrophysical chicken-and-egg problem,” says Professor Zitlin.

“Currently we don't know whether galaxies or black holes formed first, how big the first black holes were, and how they grew.”

“Recently, many more such 'little red dots' and other active galactic nuclei have been detected in the Webb, so we hope to have a better idea soon.”

of the team result appear in the diary Nature.

_____

LJ Furutak other. High black hole-to-host mass ratio in the lensed AGN of the early Universe. Nature, published online on February 14, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07184-8

Source: www.sci.news

Scientists observe massive outburst from supermassive black hole in far-off galaxy cluster

Some of the gas erupts from the supermassive black hole located at the center of galaxy cluster SDSS J1531+3414 (abbreviated SDSS J1531) until it reaches a temperature high enough to form numerous star clusters. Cooled down.

Multi-wavelength image of the massive galaxy cluster SDSS J1531+3414.Image credits: NASA / CXC / SAO / Omorui other. / STScI / Tremblay other. / Astron / Loafers / NASA / CXC / SAO / N. Walk.

SDSS J1531 is a huge galaxy cluster containing hundreds of individual galaxies and a huge reservoir of hot gas and dark matter.

At the center of SDSS J1531, two of the cluster's largest galaxies collide with each other.

Surrounding these merging giants are 19 large star clusters called superclusters, arranged in an “S” shape similar to beads on a string.

Dr. Osase Omoruyi and colleagues at Harvard University and the Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics are using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the LOFAR radio network, and other telescopes to discover how this chain of unusual star clusters formed. I found out what happened.

The discovery of evidence of an ancient mega-eruption in SDSS J1531 provided important clues.

The eruption may have occurred when a supermassive black hole at the center of one of the large galaxies produced a very powerful jet.

As the jet traveled through space, it pulled surrounding hot gas away from the black hole, creating a huge cavity.

“We're already observing this system as it existed 4 billion years ago, when the Earth was just forming,” Omoruyi said.

“This ancient cavity is a fossil of the black hole's influence on its host galaxy and its surroundings, and tells us about important events that occurred almost 200 million years ago in the history of this star cluster.”

Evidence for the cavity comes from bright X-ray emission “wings” seen on Chandra that track dense gas near the center of SDSS J1531.

These wings form the edges of the cavity, and the less dense gas between them is part of the cavity.

LOFAR shows radio waves from the remains of the jet's energetic particles filling a huge cavity.

Taken together, these data provide convincing evidence for an ancient great explosion.

Astronomers also discovered cold and warm gas near the cavity's opening, detected by the Atacama Large Millimeter and Submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Gemini North Telescope, respectively.

They argue that some of the hot gas pushed out of the black hole eventually cooled down to cold, warm gas.

They believe that the tidal effects of the two galaxies merging compressed the gas along a curved path, forming the star cluster in a “string-bead” pattern.

“We reconstructed the sequence of events that may have occurred within this cluster over a wide range of distances and times,” said Dr. Grant Tremblay, also of Harvard University and the Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

“It started when a black hole, just one light-year in diameter, formed a cavity about 500,000 light-years wide.”

“This single event triggered the formation of young star clusters almost 200 million years later, each several thousand light-years in diameter.”

Although the authors only looked at the radio waves and cavity from one jet, black holes typically fire two jets in opposite directions.

They also observed radio emissions further out from the galaxy that could be the remains of a second jet, but it was unrelated to the detected cavity.

They speculate that radio and X-ray signals from other eruptions may have diminished to the point where they could no longer be detected.

“We believe the evidence for this large-scale eruption is strong, but further observations from Chandra and LOFAR will confirm the case,” Dr. Omoruyi said.

“We hope to learn more about the origins of the cavities we have already detected and find the cavities we expect to find on the other side of the black hole.”

a paper Regarding the survey results, astrophysical journal.

_____

Omase Omorui other. 2024. A “string bead” star formation associated with one of the most powerful she-AGN outbursts observed in the Cool Core Galaxy Cluster. APJ, in press. arXiv: 2312.06762

Source: www.sci.news

The Sun-Fueled Black Hole: Potential to Shine as the Brightest Object in the Universe

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Researchers have identified a quasar with a black hole at its center that may be the most luminous object in the universe. This quasar is growing at an incredible rate, capable of consuming an amount equivalent to the sun in a single day.

The record-breaking quasar shines 500 trillion times brighter than the sun. Scientists reported in the journal Nature Astronomy that the black hole fueling this quasar is more than 17 billion times more massive than the sun.

Despite appearing as mere dots in images, scientists believe quasars to be formidable entities.

The disk of luminous gas and other material orbiting a quasar’s black hole is akin to a cosmic hurricane.

“This quasar is the most violent place in the universe as we know it,” said lead author Christian Wolff of the Australian National University.

The object, known as J0529-4351, was initially discovered by the European Southern Observatory in 1980 and misclassified as a star. It was not confirmed to be a quasar until last year, after telescope observations in Australia and the Atacama Desert in Chile.

“What’s interesting about this quasar is that it’s hiding in plain sight and was previously misclassified as a star,” said Priyamvada Natarajan of Yale University.

Further analysis revealed that the quasar consumes the equivalent of 370 suns a year, or one sun a day, and the black hole at its center has a mass between 17 billion and 19 billion times that of the sun. More observations are needed to understand its growth rate.

Quasars are located 12 billion light years away and have existed since the beginning of the universe. One light year is 5.8 trillion miles.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Largest black hole energizes the most luminous entity in the cosmos

Artist's impression of record-breaking quasar J0529-4351

ESO/M.Kornmesser

A quasar 500 trillion times brighter than the Sun has earned the title of the brightest known object in the universe. It appears to be powered by a supermassive black hole that devours a sun-sized mass every day.

Quasars are the centers of galaxies where gas and dust falling into a supermassive black hole emit energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. christian wolff Researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra will discover a new object called J0529-4351 in 2022 by scouring data from the Gaia Space Telescope and looking for extremely bright objects outside the Milky Way that have been mistaken for stars. The brightest quasar was discovered for the first time.

Follow-up observations from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile revealed that it is the brightest object in the universe as we know it.

Wolf and his colleagues used an instrument on the VLT called a spectrometer to analyze the light coming from J0529-4351 and calculate how much was produced by the black hole's swirling disk of gas and matter, called the accretion disk. did. This revealed that J0529-4351 is the fastest growing black hole in the universe, swallowing about 413 solar masses per year, or more than one sun per day.

Using the spectra of these lights, the researchers calculated that the mass of the black hole was between 5 billion and 50 billion solar masses.

Wolf and his colleagues also discovered the brightest quasar to date in 2018, about half as bright as J0529-4351. Wolf believes this new discovery is likely to account for most of the observable sky and remain the record holder for some time. Now, thanks to extensive star catalogs like those created by Gaia, they can be studied in great detail. “This is the largest unicorn we've ever found with the longest horn on its head. I don't think this record will ever be surpassed,” Wolf says.

The quasar's accretion disk appears to be the widest ever known, measuring 7 light-years in diameter. It says this provides a rare opportunity to directly image a black hole and precisely measure its mass. Christine Dunn At Durham University, UK. “This is large enough and bright enough that it can be solved with current equipment,” he says Done. “That means we can more directly measure the mass of this monster black hole. I was very excited about that.”

VLT is currently upgrading its spectroscopic equipment as part of the Gravity+ project, which should allow it to resolve the characteristics of J0529-4351 in detail. This means different parts of a quasar's accretion disk can be distinguished and better understood, but it could take several years, Dunn said.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

New Study Reveals the Superfast Spin of the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole

Sagittarius A*, the 4.3 million solar mass black hole at the center of the Milky Way, spins so fast that space-time around it is warped into the shape of a soccer ball, according to an analysis. Data collected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and NSF's Carl G. Jansky Very Large Array.



daily other. Sagittarius A* was found to be rotating at 60% of its maximum rotational speed, which is set by matter that cannot travel faster than the speed of light. This image shows Sagittarius A* in X-ray light from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Wisconsin / Bai other.

Black holes have two fundamental properties: mass (weight) and spin (rotational speed).

Determining either of these two values ​​can tell astrophysicists a lot about black holes and their behavior.

Dr. Ruth Daly of Pennsylvania State University and colleagues applied a new method using X-ray and radio data to predict Sagittarius A*'s rotation rate based on how matter moves toward or away from the black hole. Decided.

They discovered that Sagittarius A* rotates at an angular velocity (rotations per second). Its angular velocity is about 60% of its maximum possible value, a limit set by the inability of matter to travel faster than the speed of light.

In the past, different astronomers have used different techniques to estimate the rate of rotation of Sagittarius A*, ranging from not rotating at all to rotating at near maximum speed, with mixed results.

“Our research may help answer the question of how fast our galaxy's supermassive black holes rotate,” said Dr. Daly.

“Our results show that Sagittarius A* is rotating very rapidly, which is interesting and has far-reaching implications.”

A rotating black hole pulls space-time and nearby matter into its surroundings as it rotates. Spacetime around a rotating black hole is also crushed.

If you look down at a black hole from above and follow the barrel of the jet it produces, spacetime is circular.

However, if you look at a rotating black hole from the side, spacetime looks like a soccer ball. The faster the spin, the flatter the football.

The spin of a black hole acts as an important source of energy. When a supermassive black hole rotates, its spin energy can be extracted to produce a parallel outflow, a thin beam of matter such as a jet, but this requires at least some material near the black hole. must exist.

Because of the limited fuel surrounding Sagittarius A*, the black hole has been relatively quiet for the last several thousand years, with a relatively weak jet stream.

But new research shows that this could change as the amount of material increases near Sagittarius A*.

“A collimated jet powered by a galaxy's rotating central black hole could have a significant impact on the galaxy's entire gas supply,” said Michigan State University astronomer Megan Donahue. “This also influences the rate and uniformity with which stars form.”

“Fermi bubbles seen in X-rays and gamma rays around the Milky Way's black hole indicate that the black hole was probably active in the past. Measuring the black hole's rotation is important in this scenario. It's a test.”

To determine Sagittarius A*'s spin, astronomers looked at the black hole's spin and its mass, the nature of the matter near the black hole, and its outflow properties.

The parallel outflow produces radio waves, and the disk of gas surrounding the black hole is responsible for emitting X-rays.

Using this method, the researchers combined data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and NSF's Carl G. Jansky Very Large Array with independent estimates of the black hole's mass from other telescopes. to limit the rotation of the black hole.

“Sagittarius A* offers a special perspective because it is the closest supermassive black hole to us,” said Dr. Anand Lu, an astronomer at McGill University.

“Although it is quiet now, our research shows that in the future it will have an incredibly powerful impact on the matter around it.”

“It could happen in a thousand or million years, or it could happen in our lifetime.”

of study Published in Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Notices.

_____

Ruth A. Daly et al. 2024. New black hole spin values ​​for Sagittarius A* obtained using the outflow method. MNRAS 527 (1): 428-436; doi: 10.1093/mnras/stad3228

Source: www.sci.news

XMM-Newton discovers ultrafast black hole wind in Markarian 817

Markarian 817 is the Seyfert 1 galaxy located 430 million light-years away in the constellation Draco. Also known as Mrk 817 or QSO J1436+5847, it hosts an active supermassive black hole of 81 million solar masses.


This artist's impression shows super-fast winds blowing from the center of the galaxy Markarian 817. These winds travel at millions of kilometers per hour and remove interstellar gas from vast regions of space. Without this gas, galaxies cannot form new stars, and the black holes at the galaxies' centers have little left to eat. The inset shows what is happening at the center of the galaxy. A supermassive black hole draws in gas from its surroundings to form a hot, brightly lit accretion disk (orange). The wind (white) is caused by a magnetic field within the disk, which causes particles to fly in all directions at incredibly high speeds. These winds effectively block the X-rays (blue) emitted by the extremely hot plasma surrounding the black hole, called the corona.Zack other. Using his X-ray telescope XMM-Newton at ESA, he captured Markarian 817 blowing out super-fast winds. This wind, which lasts for about a year, will have a major impact on star formation in the galaxy. The fact that black holes at the centers of galaxies exhibited fairly average activity levels before generating winds suggests that supervelocity black hole winds are much more common than previously thought. doing. In other words, black holes and their host galaxies strongly influence each other's evolution. Image credit: ESA / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

At the center of every large galaxy is a supermassive black hole whose enormous gravitational pull pulls in gas from its surroundings.

As the gas spirals inward, it collects in a flat accretion disk around the black hole, where it heats up and glows.

Over time, the gas closest to the black hole passes the point of no return and gets swallowed up.

But black holes consume only a portion of the gas that swirls toward them.

While surrounding the black hole, some matter is bounced back into space, much like a messy toddler spilling everything on his plate.

In a more dramatic episode, a black hole turns the entire table upside down. The gas in the accretion disk is thrown off in all directions at such high velocities that it wipes out the surrounding interstellar gas.

This not only deprives the black hole of food, but also means that new stars cannot form over large areas and the structure of the galaxy changes.

Until now, this ultrafast black hole wind had only been detected as coming from a very bright accretion disk at the limit of its ability to pull in matter.

At this time, ESA's XMM-Newton spacecraft detected superfast winds in Markarian 817, a decidedly average galaxy that could be described as “just having a snack.”

“With the fans on the highest setting, we would expect very fast winds,” said Dr. Miranda Zak, an astronomer at the University of Michigan.

“In the galaxy we studied called Markarian 817, the fans were turned on at a lower power setting, but still produced incredibly energetic winds.”

“It is very rare to observe ultrafast winds, and even rarer to detect winds with enough energy to change the properties of the host galaxy.”

“The fact that Markarian 817 produced these winds for about a year, even though it was not particularly active, suggests that the black hole may have changed the shape of its host galaxy much more than previously thought. “This suggests that there is a sex,” said Roman astronomer Elias Cammun. Tre University.

Active galactic nuclei emit high-energy light, including X-rays. Markarian 817 stood out to astronomers because it was extremely quiet.

“The X-ray signal was so weak that I knew I was doing something wrong,” Zak said.

Follow-up observations using ESA's XMM Newton revealed what was actually happening. The superfast winds from the accretion disk acted like a shroud, blocking the X-rays emitted from the black hole's immediate surroundings.

These measurements were supported by observations made with NASA's NuSTAR telescope.

Detailed analysis of X-ray measurements revealed that Markarian 817's center did not send out a single puff of gas, but instead created a gust of wind storm over a wide area of ​​the accretion disk.

The winds lasted for hundreds of days and consisted of at least three distinct components, each traveling at a few percent of the speed of light.

This solves an unsolved puzzle in understanding how black holes and their surrounding galaxies interact with each other.

Many galaxies, including the Milky Way, appear to have large regions around their centers where few new stars form.

This could be explained by black hole winds sweeping away star-forming gas, but this works only if the winds are fast enough, persist long enough, and are produced by black holes at typical activity levels. limited to cases where

“One of the many unresolved problems in black hole research is the problem of achieving detection through long-term observations over many hours to capture important events,” said Dr. Norbert Schartel, a scientist on the XMM-Newton project. says.

“This highlights the paramount importance of the XMM-Newton mission into the future.”

“No other mission can achieve that combination of high sensitivity and the ability to make long, uninterrupted observations.”

a paper Regarding the survey results, Astrophysics Journal Letter.

_____

Miranda K. Zackother. 2024. Seyfert 1.2 Markarian 817 Hidden Sub-Eddington Feedback Intense Feedback.APJL 962, L1; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad1407

Source: www.sci.news

New Insights from a 45,000-year-old Bone Hole into the Lives of our Earliest Ancestors

In a cave beneath a medieval German castle, researchers have discovered a bone pit that is said to reveal the secrets of early humans.

The remains, buried in layers of soil in a collapsed cave, contained genetic material from cave bears and hyenas, as well as the bones of 13 early humans who died about 45,000 years ago.

The discovery, described in three papers published Thursday in the journals Nature and Nature Ecology & Evolution, suggests that early humans may have traveled further north earlier than scientists realized. It shows that they went on an adventure, they were able to make spear-shaped tools, and then humans were able to make spear-shaped tools. A means to thrive in temperatures much colder than today’s climate.

These discoveries, perhaps made through the development of new DNA techniques, are reshaping the way scientists understand the time when humans and Neanderthals roamed the European continent.

Fragments of human bones excavated from a cave in Ranis, Germany.
From Tim Schuler, Springer Nature

The discovery could bring scientists closer to understanding why Neanderthals ultimately became extinct and what role humans played in their demise.

John Hawkes, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies ancient human relatives but was not involved in the study, said the study shows that as Neanderthals neared their demise, different human cultures He said this helps solidify the theory that these spots were developing.

“These groups are doing research. They’re going to go to new places. They live there for a while. They have different lifestyles,” he said of early humans. “They feel comfortable moving into areas where Neanderthals were.”

These discoveries were only possible because previous researchers left no stone unturned. Archaeologists in the 1920s and 1930s previously excavated the Ilsenhöhle Cave beneath Ranis Castle in the Thuringia region of Germany. The castle was built over the cave long before any excavations took place.

That’s when scientists were unable to drill into critical layers of the cave, which collapsed after hitting rock more than five feet thick.

In 2016, researchers returned with updated drilling techniques and new forms of analysis. About 24 feet below the surface, they discovered a layer containing leaf tips (like the tip of a spear) and human bone fragments.

The discovery of human bone fragments led researchers to dig deep into material excavated nearly 90 years ago, where they discovered additional skeletal fragments.


Source: www.nbcnews.com

Recent Discovery of Messier 87 Black Hole Supports Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity

In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration resolved the central black hole of the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M 87), known as M87*, the first-ever event horizon-scale black hole. I reported the image. . In a new paper, astronomers present new images of M87* from data collected by the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Greenland Telescope, and several other instruments within the EHT. doing. These new images show the shadow of his M87* as predicted by general relativity. Interestingly, the peak brightness of the ring is shifted by about 30 degrees compared to the first image. This is consistent with the theoretical understanding of fluctuations due to turbulent matter around a black hole.



The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration has released new images of M87* from observations taken in April 2018, one year after the first observations in April 2017. The new observations reveal a familiar bright luminescent ring, the same size as the one originally observed. The brightest part of the ring has moved about 30 degrees to the 5 o'clock position compared to the 2017 image. Image credit: EHT Collaboration.

“A fundamental requirement of science is to be able to reproduce results,” says Dr. Keiichi Asada, an astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica.

“The confirmation of the ring in a completely new data set is a major milestone for our collaboration and a strong indication that we are observing the shadow of a black hole and the matter orbiting around it. .”

An image of M87* taken in 2018 is strikingly similar to what astronomers saw in 2017.

They see bright rings of the same size, with a dark central area and one side of the ring brighter than the other.

Because M87*'s mass and distance do not increase appreciably over a human lifetime, general relativity predicts that the diameter of the ring will remain the same from year to year.

The diameter stability measured in the 2017-2018 images strongly supports the conclusion that M87* is well described by general relativity.

“One of the remarkable properties of a black hole is that its radius strongly depends on only one quantity: its mass,” said Dr. Nitika Yadrapalli-Yurku, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“M87* is not a material that gains mass rapidly, so according to general relativity, its radius will change little throughout human history. We see our data confirm this prediction. That's very interesting.”

Although the size of the black hole's shadow did not change between 2017 and 2018, the location of the brightest region around the ring changed significantly.

The bright area rotated about 30 degrees counterclockwise and settled in the lower right part of the ring, at about the 5 o'clock position.

Historical observations of M87* with less sensitive arrays and a small number of telescopes also show that the shadow structure changes from year to year, but with low precision.

Although the 2018 EHT array cannot yet observe jets emerging from M87*, the black hole's axis of rotation predicted from the location of the brightest region around the ring is more consistent with the axis of jets seen at other wavelengths. Masu.

“The biggest change is that the brightness peak has moved around the ring, which is actually the first time in 2019 that “This is what we predicted when we announced the results.”

“According to general relativity, the size of the ring should remain approximately constant, but radiation from the turbulent and messy accretion disk around the black hole causes the brightest parts of the ring to move toward a common center. It wobbles around you.”

“The amount of wobble observed over time can be used to test theories about the magnetic field and plasma environment around the black hole.”

of new results appear in the diary astronomy and astrophysics.

_____

Collaboration with Event Horizon Telescope. 2024. The persistent shadow of M 87's supermassive black hole. I. Observation, Calibration, Imaging, and Analysis. A&A 681, A79; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202347932

Source: www.sci.news

Potential Discovery of the Lightest Black Hole Ever Seen: A Mysterious Object

Artist's impression of a pulsar orbiting a black hole – one possible interpretation of the mysterious binary star system

Daniel Hutseller (artsource.nl)

Some 40,000 light-years away, a strange object could be either the heaviest neutron star or the lightest black hole ever seen, and it resides in a mysterious celestial void that astronomers have never directly observed. .

Neutron stars form when a star runs out of fuel and collapses due to gravity, creating a shock wave called a supernova and leaving behind an extremely dense core. Astrophysical calculations show that these nuclei must remain below a certain mass, about 2.2 times the mass of the Sun, or they will collapse further to form a black hole.

However, black holes have only been observed to have a mass more than five times that of the sun, leaving a gap in scale between neutron stars and black holes. Gravitational-wave observatories have observed several dense objects in this gap, but astronomers have never discovered them with conventional telescopes.

now, Ewan Barr Researchers at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy discovered an object with 2.5 times the mass of the Sun by observing pulsars orbiting around it. A pulsar is a neutron star that emits pulses of light at regular millisecond intervals due to a strong magnetic field.

As predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, pulsars emit light with great regularity, but very large nearby objects can distort these rhythms. Dr. Barr and his team were able to calculate the mass of the pulsar's partner by observing the pulsar's pulses for more than a year using his MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.

“What we've discovered in this binary system appears to go beyond that [upper limit for neutron star mass]This suggests that there is some new physics going on here and that this is either a new type of star, or simply a black hole, the lightest stellar-mass black hole yet discovered. “There will be,” Barr said.

Pulsars are located in globular clusters, which are dense regions of stars and some rare objects that can pass close to each other. These unusual interactions could explain the mysterious object, Barr said.

If it's a black hole, researchers will be able to test theories of gravity that weren't possible before. “A pulsar is just a ridiculously accurate measuring device in orbit around a black hole, but it's not going anywhere. It's going to be around for the next billion years,” Barr says. “So this is an incredibly stable and natural test bed for investigating the physics of black holes.”

“If it's a neutron star, it would be more massive than any neutron star we've ever seen,” he says. Christine Dunn At Durham University, UK. “This actually tells us about the ultimate density that a star can support before it collapses under its own gravity and becomes a black hole. We need to understand the physics of matter at such extreme densities. I don't know what the limits are.”

Barr and his team plan to observe the pulsar with other telescopes over the next few years, looking for clues about what the object is. If it were a black hole, we would see the pulsar's orbit change over time, as the black hole dragged through spacetime around it, much like a ship dragging a small boat behind it. Or if it's a neutron star, more sensitive instruments might be able to detect the light.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Oldest black hole detected by Webb

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.

_____

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

Detailed Image of Black Hole Unveiled in New Fiery Donut Visualization

The image on the right is the latest and best image of a black hole.

EHT collaboration

Thanks to an update to the world’s first black hole image taken a year later, we now have the most detailed observation of a black hole to date.

In 2019, researchers released an image of the supermassive black hole known as M87*, located 55 million light-years away at the center of galaxy M87. The image, the world’s first glimpse of a black hole, was taken during the first observations in 2017 by a network of radio astronomical observatories around the world called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).

Now, the EHT collaboration has released tracking images of M87* taken during 2018 observations using additional telescopes in Greenland.

As the name suggests, these objects do not emit light, so the light in the image does not come out of the black hole. What we see instead is the silhouette of a black hole at the center of a mass of hot material, pulled inward by its powerful gravity.

“This image tells us that the black hole’s shadow is permanent and still exists,” says the EHT scientist. Eduardo Ross. “You can see that the ring is a beautiful circle. It’s very circular, not an oval or anything. We also see an enhancement on the south side in this ring, which is what we expected.”

This enhancement, visible as a slightly bright glow under the slightly displaced shadow of M87*, is due to the distortion of space-time associated with the black hole’s rotation (as explained by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity). This is due to

The additional telescopes have slightly increased the resolution of the images, greatly increasing the amount of data that can be cross-referenced with observations from other telescopes. However, less than ideal weather made viewing conditions difficult. This means the resolution is not as high as theoretically expected, Ross says.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Researchers Develop Large Quantum Vortex to Replicate Black Hole Properties

Researchers created tornado-like vortices in superfluid helium

Yoshigin/Shutterstock

Giant quantum vortices could allow researchers to study black holes. This vortex is a special form of liquid helium vortex that exhibits quantum effects. The result has some properties similar to a black hole and acts as a kind of simulator.

In the region around a black hole, the laws of gravity and quantum mechanics interact, producing effects that cannot be observed elsewhere in the universe. This makes these regions particularly important to study. “There are interesting physics happening around black holes, but many of them are out of our reach,” he says. Silke Weinfurtner at the University of Nottingham, UK. “Thus, we can use these quantum simulators to investigate phenomena that occur around black holes.”

To build the quantum simulator, Weinfurtner and his colleagues used superfluid helium, which flows at a very low viscosity, 500 times lower than water. Because it moves without friction, this form of helium exhibits unusual quantum effects and is known as a quantum fluid. The researchers filled a tank with helium with a rotating propeller at the bottom. As the propeller rotated, a tornado-like vortex was generated in the fluid.

“Similar vortices have been created in physical systems other than superfluid helium, but their strength is generally at least several orders of magnitude weaker,” he says. Patrick Svanchara, is also enrolled at the University of Nottingham and is part of the team. The strength and size of the vortex are critical to producing an interaction significant enough to observe between the vortex and the remaining fluid in the tank.

The vortices in this work were a few millimeters in diameter, much larger than other stable vortices created to date. quantum fluid In the past. In quantum liquids, rotation only occurs in tiny “packets” called quanta, which are essentially tiny vortices, so creating such large vortices is difficult. Many of them tend to become unstable when clustered, but the experimental setup here allows the researchers to combine about 40,000 rotating quanta to form what is called a giant quantum vortex. It's done.

“This is an experimental masterpiece,” he says Jeff Steinhauer He received his PhD from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, a pioneer in laboratory simulations of black holes. “They took a very well-established, old, classic technology called superfluid helium and did something really new with it, significantly increasing their technical capabilities compared to what had been done in the past. .”

The researchers observed how small waves in the fluid interacted with vortices. This process mimics the way the universe's cosmic field interacts with a rotating black hole. They discovered hints of a black hole phenomenon called ringdown mode. This phenomenon occurs after two black holes combine and the resulting single black hole is shaken by the residual energy of the combination.

Now that it has been established that this type of vortex exhibits behavior similar to that seen in black holes, researchers plan to use quantum vortices to study more elusive phenomena. “This is an excellent starting point for investigating some black hole physics processes, seeking new insights and potentially discovering hidden treasures along the way,” Weinfurtner says. .

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

China to Begin Ultra-Deep Hole Drilling in 2023 for Oil Exploration

May 2023, Shendi Take 1 drilling site in Xinjiang, China

Xinhua/Shutterstock

This year, China National Petroleum Corporation began drilling what will be China’s deepest hole and one of the deepest in the world in the northwestern province of Xinjiang.

Ann announcement In May, China’s state news agency Xinhua said the project would drill more than 11,000 meters into billion-year-old geological formations in the remote Taklamakan Desert, calling it an “unprecedented opportunity to study regions deep beneath the earth’s surface.” It was reported.

The continuation of the project…

Source: www.newscientist.com

Astrophysicist from Princeton solves the enigma of black hole jets and galactic ‘lightsabers’

Princeton researchers have found that the M87* black hole emits energy outward, contributing to the formation of a giant jet. This discovery challenges traditional views about black holes and may be further tested with advanced telescopes. This new understanding opens up new avenues in comprehending black hole dynamics, though the source of the jet’s power is not definitively explained. This research was conducted with the support of the Princeton Gravity Initiative, a Taplin Fellowship, the National Science Foundation (grant 2307888), and a Simons Foundation Investigator Award.

The findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal on November 14, 2023. The research was spearheaded by Princeton astrophysicists including Andrew Chael, Alexandru Lupsasca, George N. Wong, and Eliot Quataert. With origins in Einstein’s theory of relativity, the researchers made intricate observations involving the black hole and its magnetic field to decipher the direction of energy flow. The researchers found that energy near the event horizon of black hole M87* is pushing outward rather than inward. They also verified the prediction that black holes lose rotational energy.

The researchers have concluded that while it is very likely that the black hole is powering the jet, it cannot be proven conclusively. Furthermore, the team has not conclusively shown that the black hole’s rotation “really powers the extragalactic jet.” Though the energy levels shown in their model were consistent with what a jet would require, they could not rule out the possibility that the jet could be powered by spinning plasma outside the black hole. Nevertheless, it is expected that the next generationEvent Horizon Telescope will further explore and confirm these findings.

The research team was also awarded the 2024 New Horizons Prize in Physics from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation for their black hole research. The research was also supported by a Taplin Fellowship, the National Science Foundation, a Simons Foundation Investigator Award as well as by the Princeton Gravity Initiative.

Source: scitechdaily.com

Newly Discovered Black Hole Found in New Zealand Restroom

black hole butt

Roger Sharp added another item to his summary of feedback about black holes that can be found on surface maps of our planet (October 7).visitors to Nelson’s Mai Tai Esplanade ReserveNew Zealanders may feel relieved after entering a Blackhole public toilet.

Feedback points out that installing a toilet in an astrophysical black hole would eliminate the need for some expensive parts of modern waste treatment facilities, particularly sewage piping systems and septic tanks.

insert a needle into the patient

How far is it okay to insert a needle a little too deeply into someone’s abdomen? 365 surgeons from 58 European countries gave their opinion on this topic. Their thoughts, desires, and perhaps even dreams are distilled into a study called “.Relevance of Veres needle overshoot reductionBy researchers from the Netherlands and Malta.

These are the needles used to inflate the patient before performing the internal looking and subsequent cutting and manipulation tasks that are the highlight of most laparoscopic surgeries. A special type of needle called a Veres needle has long been the standard device for puncturing and injecting air into people who enter a shop for repairs. This performs much the same function as a simple type of needle used to inflate a soccer ball.

This study investigates the desire and need for a new and better Veress needle design.

The researchers said that surgeons “felt it was important to have a firm grip on the needle shaft, as most respondents held the needle rather than the grip.” The reason is that some surgeons try to stabilize their hands by touching the abdominal wall with their fingers during insertion, and the grip is too far from the abdominal wall. The data also shows that the maximum overshoot should be limited to 0 to 10 mm. ”

Almost every professional activity has a specific tolerance for error. Publication of this paper will make the public more aware of professionals’ general tolerance for overinsertion of injection needles in laparoscopic surgery patients.

goaf gangue

Unfamiliar scientific terminology can be fun, especially when the words are mined from depths that are unfamiliar to most people.

The same goes for gangue and goaf. He came across the feedback while reading a report by Zhanshan Shi of China’s Liaoning University of Technology and colleagues.Simulation test study on filling flow law of gangue slurry in goaf”.

Goaf is the waste that accumulates during mining. Gangue is a seemingly worthless portion of ore extracted from a mine. Goaf necessarily has gangue.

There are also mysteries. The report states that “there is little research on flow rules for gangue slurries in the Goahu sedimentary rock mass.”

This report is a reminder that there is always something yet to be unearthed, even if it is just information.

wooden board

In the vast forest of nominative determinism of people whose names are hilarious and almost eerily related to work, a few trees, namely the names of some people, are particularly suited to the purpose. One is Marlin E. Plank, who served as a forest products research technician at his Pacific Northwest Research Station in Portland, Oregon. He spent much of his professional life estimating how much commercially useful wood could be obtained from certain types of trees.

Stewart Harrison told Feedback of his joy upon discovering Planck’s 1982 paper.Harvesting wood from ponderosa pines in western Montana”.

A trip through the library found more plankitudes, including a plank on a log.Estimating the volume of small-diameter logs of ponderosa pine and lodgepole pine”.

Planck’s most sophisticated log paper may be the one he co-authored with Floyd Johnson in 1975 called .Empirical log rules for Douglas fir in western Oregon and western Washington”. This describes a better way, a low-key and practical way to estimate how much wood you will get if a tree is plank-harvested.

Plank and Johnson said: “The traditional procedure for estimating timber aggregates is based on theoretical log rules, defect deductions, and overrun factors. This procedure is indirect, subjective, and complex. It is also clearly inaccurate. Theory A better procedure is described that is based on actual wood recovery rather than the wood recovery above.”

Planck passed away in 2014. The Planck memorial website says:To plant a tree in your memory, visit the Sympathy Store.”.

Blindfold measures

Greg Rubin squints at a fellow computer security expert who warns that information on a video screen can be extracted from the reflections of video chatters’ glasses (October 28).

he says: “This is what my community has.” is known about For many years. I also sometimes comment on the reflections I see during video calls. Personally, I recommend using simple defense strategies for long and boring conference calls. Close your eyes and take a nap. ”

Mark Abrahams hosted the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and co-founded the magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Previously, he was working on unusual uses of computers.his website is impossible.com.

Have a story for feedback?

You can email your article to Feedback at feedback@newscientist.com. Please enter your home address. This week’s and past feedback can be found on our website.

Source: www.newscientist.com