Astronomers utilizing the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have identified a supernova explosion linked to gamma-ray burst event GRB 250314A at a redshift of 7.3, occurring when the universe was merely 730 million years old. The previous record-holder for supernovae was observed when the universe reached 1.8 billion years. This discovery is detailed in two papers published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Webb identified the origin of the blinding flashes known as gamma-ray bursts. This particular gamma-ray burst exploded when the universe was merely 730 million years old. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / A. Levan, IMAPP / A. Pagan, STScI.
“Only Mr. Webb has directly demonstrated that this light is from a collapsing massive star,” stated Dr. Andrew Levan, an astronomer at Radboud University and the University of Warwick, and lead author of one of the papers.
“This observation suggests that we can utilize Webb to detect individual stars from a time when the universe was just 5% of its current age.”
Whereas gamma-ray bursts typically last from seconds to minutes, supernovae rapidly brighten over several weeks before slowly dimming.
In contrast, the supernova linked to GRB 250314A took months to brighten.
Because this explosion occurred so early in the universe’s history, its light continued to evolve as the universe expanded over billions of years.
As the light stretches, the duration for events to unfold also lengthens.
Webb’s observations were intentionally made three and a half months after the closure of the GRB 250314A event, as it was expected that the supernova would be at its brightest at this time.
“Webb provided the rapid and sensitive follow-up we so desperately needed,” remarked Dr. Benjamin Schneider, an astronomer at the Marseille Institute of Astrophysics.
Gamma-ray bursts are exceedingly rare. Bursts lasting only a few seconds may originate from the collision of two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole.
Longer bursts, like this one, which lasted around 10 seconds, are often linked to the explosions of massive stars.
On March 14, 2025, the SVOM mission—a joint Franco-Chinese telescope launched in 2024 designed to spot fleeting events—will detect gamma-ray bursts from extremely distant sources.
Within an hour and a half, NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory had pinpointed the X-ray source in the sky, facilitating follow-up observations to measure the distance of the web.
Eleven hours later, Nordic optical telescopes revealed the afterglow of the infrared gamma-ray burst, indicating that gamma rays may correspond to very distant objects.
Four hours later, ESO’s Very Large Telescope estimated that the object existed 730 million years after the Big Bang.
“Only a handful of gamma-ray bursts have been identified in the first billion years of the universe and merely a few in the last 50 years,” Levan noted.
“This remarkable event is exceedingly rare and thrilling.”
As this is the oldest and most distant supernova ever identified, researchers compared it to nearby modern supernovae, finding surprising similarities.
Why? Little is still understood about the early billion years of the universe.
Early stars likely lacked heavy elements, were massive, and had brief lifespans.
They also existed during the reionization era, when intergalactic gas was almost opaque to high-energy light.
“Dr. Webb has demonstrated that this supernova resembles modern supernovae very closely,” stated Professor Nial Tanvir from the University of Leicester.
“Webb’s findings indicate that this distant galaxy is akin to other galaxies of the same epoch,” commented Dr. Emeric Le Floch, an astronomer at CEA Paris-Saclay.
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AJ Levan et al. 2025. JWST reveals a supernova following a gamma-ray burst at z ≃ 7.3. A&A 704, L8; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202556581
B. Cordier et al. 2025. SVOM GRB 250314A at z ≃ 7.3: Exploding star in the reionization era. A&A 704, L7; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202556580
A supermassive black hole in the process of engulfing a massive star
California Institute of Technology/R. Hurt (IPAC)
Astronomers have made an astounding discovery of the brightest flare ever observed from a supermassive black hole. This flare was so intense that it can only be attributed to a tidal disruption event (TDE), where a colossal star was torn apart by a distant galaxy’s black hole, unleashing an extraordinary burst of energy that is still resonating.
Originating from an active galactic nucleus (AGN) — a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy consuming matter — this event is approximately 20 billion light-years from Earth, marking it as one of the most distant TDEs recorded. Notably, many TDEs remain undetected in AGNs due to the fluctuating brightness near these active black holes, which obscures the distinction between a TDE and other phenomena.
“For the last 60 years, we have understood AGNs to be highly volatile, but we lacked clarity about their variability,” explains Matthew Graham from the California Institute of Technology. “Currently, we are aware of millions of AGNs, yet their variability remains largely a mystery.” The event, dubbed “Superman” due to its remarkable brightness, holds the potential to unravel some of these cosmic enigmas.
Initially identified in 2018, astronomers speculated that Superman might merely be a bright explosion from a relatively nearby galaxy. It wasn’t until 2023 that subsequent observations unveiled its true distance and revealed that its brightness was significantly more intense than initially estimated.
This first flare enhanced AGN visibility to over 40 times greater and was 30 times more powerful than any other flare recorded from AGN. Graham and his research team concluded that the most plausible explanation is the disintegration of a massive star, possibly over 30 times the mass of the Sun.
All active supermassive black holes are surrounded by a region of infalling material known as an accretion disk. The matter density in this area is expected to yield substantial stars, although they have never been directly observed. “If our interpretation of this as a TDE is correct, it substantiates our hypothesis regarding the existence of these massive stars in such environments,” noted Graham.
“We once believed that active supermassive black holes simply housed gas disks that meandered about. However, this scenario is much more dynamic and active,” he adds. By examining the fading Superman, we may uncover a deeper understanding of its environment.
Moreover, it may lead to the establishment of a model for TDEs in AGNs, enhancing future detection efforts. “When a potential TDE is identified in an AGN, it remains uncertain whether it is merely an active galactic nucleus or if a true TDE is occurring, so having such unambiguous evidence is invaluable,” states Vivian Baldassare from Washington State University. “This will greatly aid in revealing future TDEs and understanding various AGN variability sources.”
A supermassive black hole has violently consumed a massive star, resulting in a cosmic explosion that shone as brightly as 10 trillion suns, according to a recent study.
This event, referred to as a black hole flare, is believed to be the largest and most remote ever detected.
“This is genuinely a one-in-a-million occurrence,” stated Matthew Graham, a research professor of astronomy at the California Institute of Technology and the lead author of the study published Tuesday in Nature Astronomy.
Graham indicated that based on the explosion’s intensity and duration, a black hole flare is likely the explanation, but further studies will be necessary to validate this conclusion.
While it is common for black holes to devour nearby stars, gas, dust, and other materials, such significant flare events are exceptionally rare, according to Graham.
“This enormous flare is far more energetic than anything we’ve encountered previously,” he remarked, noting that the explosion’s peak luminosity was 30 times that of any black hole flare documented so far.
Its extreme intensity is partly due to the massive size of the celestial objects involved. The star that came too close to the black hole is estimated to possess at least 30 times the mass of the Sun, while the supermassive black hole and its surrounding matter disk are estimated to be 500 million times more massive than the Sun.
Graham mentioned that these powerful explosions have persisted for more than seven years and are likely still ongoing.
The flare was initially detected in 2018 during a comprehensive sky survey using three ground-based telescopes. At the time, it was identified as a “particularly bright object,” but follow-up observations months later yielded little valuable data.
Consequently, black hole flares were mostly overlooked until 2023, when Graham and his team opted to revisit some intriguing findings from their earlier research. Astronomers have since managed to roughly ascertain the distance to this exceptionally bright object, and the results were astonishing.
“Suddenly, I thought, ‘Wow, this is actually quite far away,'” Graham explained. “And if it’s this far away and this bright, how much energy is it emitting? This is both unusual and intriguing.”
While the exact circumstances of the star’s demise remain unclear, Graham hypothesized that a cosmic collision might have nudged the star from its typical orbit around the black hole, leading to a close encounter.
This finding enhances our understanding of black hole behavior and evolution.
“Our perspective on supermassive black holes and their environments has dramatically transformed over the past five to ten years,” Graham stated. “We once pictured most galaxies in the universe with a supermassive black hole at the center, idly rumbling away. We now recognize it as a much more dynamic setting, and we are just beginning to explore its complexities.”
He noted that while the flares are gradually diminishing over time, they will remain detectable with ground-based telescopes for several more years.
According to studies, the warm waters that fueled the storm’s rapid intensification are 500 to 700 times more likely to be influenced by climate change. This was highlighted by Daniel Guilford and his team at Climate Central, a non-profit based in the US.
“The figure of ‘500 to 700 times more likely’ is substantial,” Guilford noted. “This clearly indicates that the extreme temperatures witnessed around Melissa wouldn’t be possible without human-induced climate change.”
Tropical cyclones like Melissa derive their energy from warm ocean waters. When storms pass over warmer surfaces, more water vapor is generated. As this moist, warm air rises and cools, condensation occurs, releasing latent heat. This process generates energy that fuels tropical cyclones.
In the central Caribbean, where Melissa rapidly intensified into a Category 5 hurricane, sea surface temperatures were recorded at 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than typical for October. These elevated temperatures extend to significant depths, resulting in an abundance of thermal energy within the oceans.
As Melissa stirs the ocean, sea surface temperatures remain elevated, bringing deeper, warmer water to the surface. Conversely, if only a shallow warm layer exists, colder water rises, depleting the storm’s energy.
“Hurricane Melissa is shaping up to be a perfect storm. The warm ocean has been rapidly escalating in intensity recently, while its slow movement could lead to extensive rainfall as it makes landfall,” said Lianne Archer, a researcher at the University of Bristol in the UK. “These conditions are largely intensified by the additional heat present in the oceans and atmosphere driven by climate change.”
The combination of strong winds and heavy rainfall poses a severe threat to Jamaica. Reports indicate that three individuals have already lost their lives as preparations continue for the storm, anticipated to make landfall around 11 a.m. or 12 p.m. local time.
“This presents one of the most alarming scenarios,” commented Hannah Cloke, a researcher from the University of Reading in the UK. “The nation will bear deep and lasting scars from this storm, making recovery a challenging endeavor for impacted regions.”
Historical studies of past disasters indicate that such events can stifle economic growth for years. Though some economists speculate a quick recovery could spur growth, this notion has often proven to be unfounded.
The initial months of this year marked the highest incidence of weather and climate disasters on record in the United States, as revealed by a recent analysis from the nonprofit Climate Central.
This crucial information may have remained unknown to the general public. Earlier this spring, the Trump administration shut down the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s program that monitored weather patterns. This event resulted in damages exceeding $1 billion. Adam Smith, the researcher who spearheaded the analysis, left NOAA in response to this decision.
Following his departure, Climate Central, a research organization dedicated to studying climate change impacts, employed Smith to revamp a database with records dating back to 1980.
Their latest analysis indicates that 14 individual weather events caused damages exceeding $1 billion in the first half of 2025. The wildfires in Los Angeles during January represented the most expensive natural disaster thus far this year, incurring costs over $61 billion, making it the most destructive wildfire recorded.
These findings illustrate that the financial toll from weather and climate disasters continues to escalate as extreme weather events become more frequent and severe, while populations migrate to areas increasingly vulnerable to wildfires and floods.
The report serves as a testament to the shift towards nonprofit organizations taking over federal initiatives that traditionally monitored and measured the effects of climate change, particularly as the Trump administration moves to scale back climate science funding. President Trump labeled climate change as a “crook’s job,” and the administration has reduced funding for clean energy initiatives while stripping the Environmental Protection Agency of its ability to control greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming.
Jennifer Brady, a senior data analyst and research manager at Climate Central involved in the project, noted that the staff was profoundly affected by the discontinuation of NOAA’s extensive disaster database, prompting them to take action.
“This has always been one of our most valued datasets. It narrates diverse stories. It articulates the narrative of climate change as well as the implications of where individuals reside and how they live at risk,” Brady stated. “I am ready to take it home.”
Kim Doster, a spokesperson for NOAA, expressed appreciation that the $1 billion disaster product has secured funding from sources other than taxpayers.
“NOAA remains committed to upholding ethical, unbiased research and reallocating resources to products that comply with executive directives aimed at restoring high standards in science,” Doster conveyed via email.
This database has been a source of political contention. House Republicans raised concerns with NOAA officials in 2024 regarding allegations of “deceptive data.” Recently, Senate Democrats proposed legislation to obligate NOAA to publish and update this dataset biannually, claiming it helps lawmakers in disaster funding decisions. However, this bill is currently stalled in committee and faces bleak prospects in the Republican-majority Senate.
Last month, officials from the Trump administration informed NBC News that NOAA terminated the database project due to uncertainty in accurately estimating disaster costs. The official highlighted that the project would incur annual costs of around $300,000, require considerable staff effort, and yield “pure information at best, with no clear objective.”
“This data is frequently utilized to bolster the claim that climate change enhances the frequency, severity, and expense of disasters, neglecting other factors like increased development in flood-prone and weather-sensitive areas as well as the cyclical variations in climate across different regions,” the official remarked at the time.
Despite this, Brady contends that the database has always acknowledged the significance of population shifts and climate change in exacerbating disaster costs.
She noted that Climate Central’s study employs the same methodologies and data sources as the NOAA database, including claims from the National Flood Insurance Program, NOAA storm event data, private insurance claims, and more.
This analysis captures the “direct costs” of disasters, such as damage to infrastructure, buildings, and crops, while omitting other considerations like loss of life, health-related disaster expenses, and economic losses to “natural capital” such as forests and wetlands. All data has been adjusted for inflation.
A recent evaluation of the first half of 2025 suggests that this year is on track to become the deadliest recorded year, despite the absence of hurricanes making landfall in the continental United States.
In the previous year, NOAA reported that $27 billion in disaster costs totaled around $182.7 billion, marking the second-highest total of billion-dollar disasters in the report’s history, following the figures from 2023.
Climate Central is not alone in its efforts to reproduce the work previously undertaken by the federal government as the Trump administration cut back on climate science.
A collective of dismissed NOAA employees established climate.us, a nonprofit successor to climate.gov, the former federal site that offered data and analyses to help the general public grasp climate issues. The site went offline this summer.
Edited by Rebecca Lindsay climate.gov. Before her termination in February, along with other NOAA colleagues who co-founded the nonprofit, Lindsay stated they had raised about $160,000 with plans to host climate.gov, where they will share their archives and begin publishing new articles on climate change in the upcoming weeks.
“We are preserving this information to ensure that when people seek answers about climate status, they can find them,” Lindsey asserted.
Both the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society have announced intentions to publish a special collection of studies focused on climate change, particularly after the Trump administration informed volunteer scientists working on the National Climate Assessment that their services were no longer required.
The administration dismissed employees from the U.S. Global Change Research Program, responsible for organizing the National Climate Assessment and coordinating climate research initiatives across various federal offices.
Walter Robinson, from the American Weather Society’s publication committee, highlighted that the National Climate Assessment was “effectively stopped” due to the government’s decision, which he described as an “abandonment” of federal duty.
Though the new collection cannot replace comprehensive assessments, it aims to consolidate the latest scientific understanding on climate change impacts within the United States, he added. The research will be featured in numerous scientific journals on an ongoing basis.
“Individuals are stepping up,” Robinson remarked regarding his group’s endeavors. “As scientists, we do our utmost.”
With a modern twist, the nostalgic cassette tape may be resurging in the form of DNA. Previously used solely as a medium for information storage, researchers have now fused the concept with the style of 1980s cassette tapes, leading to the innovation termed DNA cassettes.
Xingyu Jiang and his colleagues at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Guangdong, China, crafted these cassettes by printing synthetic DNA molecules onto plastic tapes. “The sequences can be designed in such a manner that the order of DNA bases (A, T, C, G) conveys digital information just like binary code (0 or 1) in a computer,” he remarks. This allows for the storage of all forms of digital files, from text and images to audio and video.
A significant challenge of earlier DNA storage methods was accessing the data. To remedy this, the team implemented a series of barcodes on the tape to simplify searching. “It’s akin to locating a book in a library,” explains Jiang. “You first identify the shelf corresponding to the book and then locate the specific book on that shelf.”
The tape is also treated with a protective coating dubbed “crystal armor,” made from zeolite imidazolate, which ensures the integrity of the DNA. This allows the cassettes to retain data for centuries without degradation.
While classic cassette tapes can hold around 12 songs per side, the new 100-meter DNA cassette can house over 3 billion pieces of music comprising 10 megabytes of songs. This results in an astounding total data storage capacity of 36 petabytes, comparable to a 36,000 terabyte hard drive.
However, Jiankai Li warns that if one were to place the new tape into an old-school Walkman, it wouldn’t produce sound. “Our tapes contain DNA molecules,” he notes. “It’s similar to trying to play a photograph on a record player—the formats simply don’t align.”
Designated FRB 20250316A, this event, referred to as rbfloat (the brightest radio flash recorded to date), took place in the outer region of the nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 4141.
Infrared image of Galaxy NGC 4141 featuring the rapid wireless burst FRB 20250316A. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/CFA/Blanchard et al. / P. Edmonds.
The Fast Radio Burst (FRB) is a brief yet intense explosion of radio waves, primarily originating from distances beyond our galaxy.
The first FRB was detected in 2007, but an earlier observation was made six years ago in archival data from the Magellan Cloud Pulsar Survey.
These bursts last only a millisecond, hinting at the peculiar distributed pattern of radio pulsars.
They emit as much energy in a millisecond as the Sun releases over 10,000 years, yet the underlying cause remains a mystery.
Some theories propose that the characteristics of these bursts align with technologies of advanced civilizations, potentially arising from magnetized neutron stars or black holes interacting with surrounding gas.
The FRB 20250316A event was discovered on March 16, 2025. Located in the constellation Major Ursa, NGC 4141 is about 130 million light-years away.
Detection was accomplished using the Chime Outgar Array, where Canadian radio telescopes saw upgrades enabling precise FRB localization.
“With the Chime Outrigger, we’ve finally managed to capture these fleeting cosmic signals in real-time. We can narrow them down to specific stellar environments and individual galaxies,” noted one researcher.
Subsequently, Dr. Cook and her team employed the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to seek infrared signals from the same location.
“This was a unique opportunity to direct Webb’s powerful infrared capabilities toward the FRB’s position,” said Dr. Peter Blanchard, an astronomer at Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics.
“We were rewarded with remarkable results, revealing a faint source of infrared light very close to where the radio burst took place.”
“This could be the first object linked to an FRB found in another galaxy,” he added.
The infrared data from Webb indicated an object named NIR-1, likely a giant red star or possibly a giant middle-aged star.
A red giant is a sun-like star nearing the end of its life, expanding and becoming brighter, while the other possibilities are larger than the Sun.
Although these stars may not directly generate the FRB, they could possess invisible companions, such as neutron stars, that strip material from the red giants and massive stars. This mass transfer process might have triggered the FRB.
The advantages of a relatively close and precise location, coupled with sharp Webb images, permit the clearest observation of individual stars located near the FRB.
“Numerous theories have been proposed to explain FRBs, but up until now, there has been no data to test most of these ideas,” stated Professor Ed Berger from the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
“Isolating individual stars near the FRB is a significant improvement over previous searches, and we’re beginning to understand the stellar systems that could produce these powerful bursts.”
However, the red giant or massive star might not be connected to the FRB, prompting researchers to explore a larger area for further clues.
They discovered that the FRB was situated near a small cluster of young massive stars.
Given this positioning, they theorized that the giant stars in the cluster may collapse and form magnetars, leading to the FRB.
Magnetars are too dim to be directly seen in Webb’s observations.
The team examined various other potential explanations for the FRB, including objects from dense clusters of older stars and more giant stars.
These alternatives were deemed unlikely as they were brighter than the faint stars they observed.
“Regardless of whether the connection to the stars is real or not, we’ve learned a great deal about the origins of these bursts,” said Dr. Blanchard.
“If the double star system isn’t the solution, our findings imply that isolated magnetars could be responsible for the FRB.”
Another possible explanation for the infrared signals is that they may be reflected light from flares associated with the objects that triggered the radio bursts, potentially from magnetars. If this is the case, the infrared rays might diminish over time.
The team suggests more observations with Webb to search for such variations.
“We have taken a novel approach to unraveling the mystery of FRBs using Webb’s precise imaging, focusing on the exact position of the emitted FRBs,” Professor Berger remarked.
“We cannot predict when and where the next FRB will emerge, so we must be prepared to deploy Webb promptly when the moment arises.”
The team’s research paper was published in Astrophysics Journal Letters.
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Peter K. Blanchard et al. 2025. apjl 989, L49; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ADF29F
Shanghai endured prolonged extreme heat and humidity in 2024
Reuters/Nicoco Chan
The planet faced an unprecedented number of perilous hot and humid days in 2024, as climate change heightened global humidity levels to new extremes.
The worldwide average of humid heat days exceeded the 1991-2020 baseline, reaching 35.6 days last year—a rise of over 9.5 days compared to the previous high recorded in 2023. Climate Report 2024 Status as published by the American Weather Society.
During hot and humid weather, cooling becomes challenging as moist air hinders the body’s ability to cool itself through sweating. This makes such conditions exceptionally hazardous for human health. Kate Willett, who contributed to the report at the UK Met Office, states, “Your body starts to really struggle to offload the heat, so it’s really dangerous.”
Meteorologists track “wet bulb temperature” to assess heat and humidity. This involves utilizing a wet cloth on a thermometer bulb to illustrate the cooling effect of evaporation. High humidity diminishes the evaporation’s cooling effect, causing wet bulb temperatures to approach those of dry air.
As global temperatures rise, the atmosphere can retain more moisture, leading to not only stronger rainfall and storms but also heightened humidity levels. Willett notes that 2024 is “exceptionally” humid and ranks just behind 2023 in moisture content.
Certain regions, including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and East China, have experienced extreme temperatures of 31°C (88°F) over short periods, with wet bulb temperatures surpassing 84°F multiple times, as indicated in the report. At such levels, prolonged exposure is deemed extremely hazardous and potentially fatal to human health.
Historically, scientists have considered a wet bulb temperature of 35°C as the survival threshold, beyond which individuals cannot endure outdoor conditions for more than a few hours without dire consequences. However, recent research published in 2022 suggests that the actual limit may be significantly lower, around 31°C. “Over 30°C is where your body really struggles,” Willett explains.
The twin detectors of the NSF’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have made a groundbreaking discovery by detecting the highest composite mass recorded to date and the merger of two black holes. This event, identified as GW231123 and discovered on November 23, 2023, produced a final black hole with a mass over 225 times that of the Sun.
GW231123 An infographic detailing the merger of black holes. Image credits: Simona J. Miller/Caltech.
LIGO made history in 2015 with the first direct detection of gravitational waves, the ripples in spacetime.
In that instance, the waves were generated by the merger of black holes, culminating in a black hole with a mass 62 times that of our Sun.
The signal was simultaneously detected by LIGO’s twin detectors located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington.
Since then, the LIGO team has collaborated with partners from Italy’s Virgo detectors and Japan’s KAGRA to create the LVK collaboration.
These detectors have collectively observed over 200 black hole mergers during their fourth observational run since starting in 2015.
Previously, the largest black hole merger recorded was in 2021 during the event GW190521, which had a total mass of 140 times that of the Sun.
During the GW231123 event, a black hole with a mass of 225 was formed by merging two black holes, one approximately 100 times and the other 140 times the mass of the Sun.
This discovery places it in a rare category known as intermediate mass black holes, which are heavier than those resulting from star collapses but significantly lighter than the supermassive black holes found at the centers of galaxies.
In addition to their substantial mass, these merged black holes exhibited rapid rotation.
“This is the largest black hole binary we’ve observed in gravitational waves and poses a significant challenge to our understanding of black hole formation,” stated Dr. Mark Hannam, an astrophysicist at Cardiff University and a member of the LVK collaboration.
“The existence of such a large black hole defies standard stellar evolution models.”
“One potential explanation is that the two black holes in this binary could have formed from the merger of smaller black holes.”
“This observation highlights how gravitational waves uniquely uncover the fundamental and exotic properties of black holes throughout the universe,” remarked Dr. Dave Reitze, executive director of LIGO at Caltech.
Researchers announced this week the discovery of GW231123, which will be discussed at the 24th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravity (GR24) and the 16th Edoardo Amaldi Meeting on Gravitational Waves, held jointly at the Gr-Amaldi Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.
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LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration. GW231123: The largest black hole binary detected by gravitational waves. Gr-Amaldi 2025
New records for black holes have transformed our understanding of the universe’s most extreme entities.
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) began its groundbreaking detection of gravitational waves—ripples in the fabric of spacetime—ten years ago, unveiling nearly 100 black hole collisions. On November 23, 2023, Rigo announced receiving a signal described as “an extraordinary interpretation that defies explanation.” According to Sophie Binnie from the California Institute of Technology, her team ultimately concluded that it corresponded to the largest black hole merger ever recorded.
One of the merging black holes was approximately 100 times the mass of the sun, while the other neared 140 solar masses. Previous records featured black holes that were almost half as massive, primarily due to earlier mergers. Team member Mark Hannam from Cardiff University, UK, emphasized that these black holes were not only immense but also spinning at such high speeds that they challenged mathematical models of the universe regarding their formation.
According to Hannam, the masses of these black holes exceed those typically formed from the collapse of aging stars, suggesting they likely resulted from earlier mergers between smaller black holes. “It’s possible that multiple mergers have occurred,” he notes.
“A decade ago, we were astonished to find black holes around 30 solar masses. Now, we observe black holes over 100 solar masses,” adds Davide Gerosa from the University of Bicocca in Milan, Italy. He mentions that gravitational wave signals from these large, quickly rotating black holes are shorter and consequently more challenging to detect. Binnie presented her findings at the Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves in Glasgow, England, on July 14.
Both Hannam and Binnie emphasize that future observations of similarly remarkable mergers are essential to further decipher these new signals, including unraveling the origins of black holes. As upgrades progress, LIGO is expected to detect more cosmic record-breakers. Yet, in May, the Trump administration proposed halving resources at the facility, which, in Hannam’s opinion, could render capturing new signals exceedingly difficult.
Vegavis Iaai was an ancient relative of ducks and geese, but it dived for fish like graves and runes
Mark Whitton
The 69 million-year-old skull found in Antarctica is identified as a relative of geese and ducks, making it the oldest known modern bird.
It belongs to the first identified species named 20 years ago Vegavis Iaai, He lived alongside the last dinosaurs in the late Cretaceous period. However, only fragments of the skull had been discovered previously, so scientists were unable to agree on what kind of bird it was, or whether it was a non-vian dinosaur like a bird instead.
The fossil skull was discovered in 2011 on Vega Island off the coast of Antarctic Peninsula. However, it was enveloped in such a fierce rock that the excavator had to scrape away the surrounding stones for hundreds of hours before scanning to reveal details about its interior.
Patrick O'Connor At Ohio University, which worked on the analysis, it says that two almost perfect skull features occur only in modern birds. First, the upper beak is made up of bones, which are primarily called the anterior axis, and the size of the second bone, the maxilla, is significantly reduced, contributing only to a small portion of the bone-palate.
Second, in modern birds, the forebrain is huge compared to the rest of the brain. Like pre-modern birds and dinosaurs of nearby birds Velociraptorthese areas are proportionally much smaller.
meanwhile Vegavis According to O'Connor, it has the ability to clearly mark it as being in the same group of waterfowls as ducks and geese. The bird's beak shape, jaw muscle tissue and hind legs suggest that they were very specialized in diving into the pursuit of fish.
“Perhaps you can easily mistake it for modern graves and runes. This is only related to ducks and each other,” he says.
Jacqueline Nguyen The Australian Museum in Sydney says that this ancient species has been the subject of many debate among bird evolutionary scientists, but new research will help resolve the debate.
“together, [the evidence] It suggests that Vegavis It looks completely different from the duck and geese parents, and this could have been an “evolutionary experiment” in the early history of this group of birds.” says.
Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory has been recording atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations since 1958.
Fred Espenak/Science Photo Library
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels measured by Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory weather station increased by 3.58 parts per million in 2024, the largest increase since records began in 1958.
‘We’re still going in the wrong direction,’ climate scientists say Richard Betts At the Met Office, the UK’s weather bureau.
Part of this record increase is due to carbon dioxide emissions from human activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation, which reached an all-time high in 2024. Added to this were numerous wildfires caused by record global warming driven by climate change. Long-term warming plus El Niño weather patterns.
Betts predicted that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations measured at Mauna Loa would rise by 2.26 parts per million (ppm) this year, with a margin of error of 0.56 ppm either way. This is significantly lower than the 2024 record, but it would exceed the last possible pathway to limiting the rise in global surface temperatures to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
“You can think of this as another nail in the 1.5°C coffin,” Betts says. “Now that’s highly unlikely.”
Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is the most important indicator when it comes to climate change, as increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is the main driver of short- and long-term warming. The first continuous measurements of CO2 levels were taken at Mauna Loa.
“Because this station has the longest observation record and is located far from major anthropogenic and natural sources of CO2 emissions and sinks, it is often used to represent changes in global CO2 concentrations. It will be done.” Richard Engelen At the EU’s Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service.
However, observations from satellites have made it possible to directly measure the global average atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. According to CAMS, it rose by 2.9 ppm in 2024. Although this is not a record, it is one of the largest increases since satellite observations began.
“The reasons for this large increase require further investigation, but are likely a combination of a recovery in emissions in much of the world after the coronavirus pandemic and interannual fluctuations in natural carbon sinks.” says Engelen. Carbon sinks refer to marine and terrestrial ecosystems that absorb about half of the carbon dioxide emitted by humans.
It has long been predicted that as the Earth warms, this excess CO2 will become less absorbed. “The concern is whether this is the beginning of that,” Betts said. “We don’t know.”
At Mauna Loa, carbon dioxide increases will be higher than global average levels in 2024 due to the large number of wildfires in the Northern Hemisphere, Betts said. CO2 plumes from sources such as wildfires take time to mix evenly into the world’s atmosphere. “Fire emissions in the Northern Hemisphere were particularly high last year,” he says.
Although it is now certain that global warming will exceed the 1.5°C threshold, Betts believes it is still the right goal to set that goal. “The Paris Agreement is carefully worded to seek to limit global warming to 1.5%. We recognized from the beginning that this would be difficult,” he says. “The idea was to set this stretch goal to motivate action, and I actually think it was successful. It galvanized action.”
July marked the 14th consecutive month of record-high global temperatures, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The agency predicts that this year is likely to be the hottest or near the hottest on record, with a 77 percent chance of being the hottest and nearly 100 percent chance of being among the top five hottest years. Karin Gleason, from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, reported that record temperatures were observed across nearly a fifth of the world’s land area in July.
Record temperatures were recorded in Europe, Africa, and Asia, making July their warmest month on record. North America experienced the second warmest July. The planet experienced its hottest July on record for two consecutive days, leading to heat warnings in the southwestern U.S. and triple-digit temperatures in Central California, where the Park Fire became the fourth-largest wildfire in state history.
NOAA predicts that most of the continental U.S. will experience above-normal temperatures in September, with the exception of coastal California and parts of the Pacific Northwest. Researchers attribute the extreme temperatures to the burning of fossil fuels and the continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The recent temperatures are also influenced by the natural weather pattern El Niño.
El Niño’s influence is expected to weaken, potentially making way for La Niña, which could develop in September, October, and November. La Niña is associated with cooler global temperatures, but it could also intensify hurricanes in the Atlantic. It may lead to wetter winters in the Pacific Northwest and drier conditions in the Southwest, potentially causing recurrent droughts.
The Copernicus project, which combines real-world observations with computer modeling, reported that July was the second-hottest on record. US and European scientists agree that this July’s temperatures were comparable to those of 2023 in terms of heat. Despite slight differences in data and methodologies, the consistency in global data sets suggests that the planet is approaching record levels of heat.
After 15 months of record-high sea surface temperatures, NOAA noted a slight easing in levels. Sea surface temperatures are still trending about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit above average, although below the record set in 2023.
According to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, Sunday was the hottest day on record.
The global average temperature reached 17.09 degrees Celsius (62.76 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the previous record set in July last year.
Last month was the hottest June on record worldwide.
Sunday is The hottest day on record According to data from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, on Earth:
The global average temperature reached 17.09 degrees Celsius (about 62.76 degrees Fahrenheit), slightly surpassing the previous record of 17.08 degrees Celsius recorded on July 6, 2023.
“We are now in truly uncharted territory and there is no doubt that new records will be broken in the coming months and years as the climate continues to warm,” Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement.
So far, both July this year and July 2023 have been much warmer than the 1991 to 2020 average, according to Copernicus data. Before last year, the hottest day on record was August 12, 2016, when the average temperature reached 16.8 degrees.
Last week, a heatwave that hit southern and central Europe reportedly sparked wildfires in southern Italy, forcing the Greek Ministry of Culture to close the Acropolis for several hours. Associated Press.
In the United States, High temperature warning Six states, including Arizona, California and Montana, enacted special heat stroke laws on Tuesday. Officials believe more than 300 people have died from heat stroke in Maricopa County, Arizona, so far this year.
Last month was the hottest June on record globally, breaking records for the 13th consecutive month of record high temperatures. Copernicus Service Monitoring.
“As it gets hotter, we're going to have to significantly recalibrate how we live our lives,” said Bharat Venkat, director of the UCLA Thermal Lab, which studies the effects of rising temperatures.
As a more personal example, Venkat said he took his dog for a walk at a local mall this summer because the sidewalk was “really hot and I was worried his paws would get burned.”
He stressed that at a larger, more severe level, “many of these adverse effects overlap with existing social inequalities.”
People with underlying medical conditions are more susceptible to heatstroke. People who work outdoors, like delivery people or farmers, face a bigger problem. Certain structures, like prisons and food trucks, retain more heat, making them especially hot for people inside.
Global average temperatures typically peak between late June and early August because this is the hottest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, which contains most of the world's land mass and population.
In the Southern Hemisphere, average temperatures are also rising due to melting Antarctic sea ice, the Copernicus Service reported.
This year has been particularly warm because of an El Niño weather pattern, said Bob Henson, a meteorologist and climate writer at Yale University's Climate Connections.
La Niña is Estimated Arrival There should be a moderate cooling effect over the next few months.
But overall temperatures will continue to rise and records will continue to be broken, Henson said.
LAS VEGAS — Some parts of Arizona, Nevada, and Texas have just had their hottest June on record, with scorching temperatures breaking several long-established records.
This record-breaking heat foreshadows another extremely hot summer for the U.S. and globally, raising concerns for the upcoming weeks and months as July and August are typically the hottest months of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
In Phoenix, the average temperature was 97 degrees Fahrenheit, marking it as the hottest June in the city’s over 100-year history. As reported by the National Weather Service.
Last month, the temperature was nearly two degrees higher than the previous record set in June 2021. Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport noted 14 days with temperatures surpassing 110 degrees in June, according to the weather service.
The scorching heat has already claimed 13 lives due to heatstroke in Maricopa County so far this year, which encompasses Phoenix and many surrounding areas, with 162 more deaths under investigation. According to the county public health department.
Last year, a record 645 people died from heatstroke in Maricopa County amidst unusually hot weather for the region. Phoenix reported temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for 31 consecutive days last summer, surpassing the previous record of 18 days set in 1974.
July has already begun with challenges, as 110 million people across 21 states are under heat warnings or advisories heading into the Independence Day holiday.
The heatwaves were felt across the Southwest last month.
In neighboring Las Vegas, Nevada, the city recorded its highest-ever temperature in June.
“June 2024 was historically the hottest in Las Vegas,” stated the National Weather Service’s field office. According to a post on X from last Sunday. The previous record was set 8 years ago in 2016.
Triple-digit temperatures were recorded nearly every day last month, with an average temperature of 94.6 degrees in June, seven degrees above usual and 1.8 degrees higher than the previous record, as per the National Weather Service.
The heat persisted, with an average high temperature of 106.2 degrees Fahrenheit and an average low of 83 degrees Fahrenheit, providing little relief during the night.
Climate change is anticipated to bring more frequent heatwaves. Studies indicate that as the planet warms, heatwaves will become more common, prolonged, and intense.
The National Weather Service noted that it’s not just the new milestone that stands out. “What’s even more striking is how much it surpassed the previous record,” the statement said, highlighting the 1.2-degree difference between the average June high temperature and the previous record.
West Texas also saw scorching temperatures in June, with El Paso experiencing its hottest June on record, breaking a record from 30 years ago. According to the National Weather Service.
The average temperature in El Paso reached 89.4 degrees, surpassing the previous record set in 1994 by 0.4 degrees.
Extreme heat warnings and advisories are in place for various states along the West Coast and parts of the South, including Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and Florida.
Astronomers have discovered a pair of merging quasars observed just 900 million years after the Big Bang. Not only is this the most distant pair of merging quasars ever found, but it’s also the first pair identified during a period in the history of the universe known as the “cosmic dawn.”
This image taken with the Subaru Telescope’s HyperSupreme-Cam shows a pair of quasars in the process of merging, HSC J121503.42-014858.7 (C1) and HSC J121503.55-014859.3 (C2). Image courtesy NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / TA Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF NOIRLab / D. de Martin, NSF NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NSF NOIRLab.
The dawn of the universe lasted from about 50 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
During this period the first stars and galaxies began to appear and the dark universe was filled with light for the first time.
The appearance of the first stars and galaxies marked the beginning of a new era in the formation of the universe, known as the Reionization Epoch.
The epoch of reionization that occurred during the cosmic dawn was a period of cosmic transition.
About 400 million years after the Big Bang, ultraviolet light from the first stars, galaxies, and quasars spread throughout the universe, interacting with intergalactic matter and beginning a process called ionization, which stripped electrons from the universe’s primordial hydrogen atoms.
The reionization epoch is a crucial period in the history of the universe, marking the end of the cosmic dark ages and sowing the seeds of the large structures we observe in the local universe today.
To understand exactly what role quasars played during the reionization period, astronomers are interested in discovering and studying quasars that existed during this earlier, distant era.
“The statistical properties of quasars during the reionization stage can tell us a lot, including the progress and origin of reionization, the formation of supermassive black holes at the dawn of the universe, and the earliest evolution of the quasars’ host galaxies,” said Dr Yoshiki Matsuoka, an astronomer at Ehime University.
About 300 quasars have been discovered during the reionization period, but none have been found in pairs.
But as Dr. Matsuoka and his team were reviewing images taken with the Subaru Telescope’s HyperSupreme-Cam, a faint red spot caught their eye.
“While screening images for potential quasars, we noticed two similar, very red sources next to each other. This discovery was pure coincidence,” Dr Matsuoka said.
The distant quasar candidates are contaminated by many other sources, including foreground stars and galaxies and gravitational lensing, so the authors were unsure whether they were quasar pairs.
To confirm the nature of these objects, named HSC J121503.42-014858.7 and HSC J121503.55-014859.3, the team carried out follow-up spectroscopic measurements using the Faint Object Camera and Spectrograph (FOCAS) on the Subaru Telescope and the Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph (GNIRS) on the Gemini North Telescope.
The spectra obtained by GNIRS resolved the light emitted by the source into its constituent wavelengths and were crucial for characterizing the properties of the quasar pair and its host galaxy.
“GNIRS observations have shown that quasars are too faint to be detected in near-infrared light, even with the largest ground-based telescopes,” said Dr Matsuoka.
This allowed astronomers to deduce that some of the light detected in the visible wavelength range comes not from the quasar itself, but from ongoing star formation in its host galaxy.
The two black holes were also found to be enormous, with masses 100 million times that of the Sun.
This, combined with the presence of a bridge of gas extending between the two quasars, suggests that the two quasars and their host galaxies are undergoing a major merger.
“The existence of merging quasars during the reionization period has long been predicted, but this has now been confirmed for the first time,” said Dr Matsuoka.
This discovery paper In Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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Yoshiki Matsuoka others2024. Discovery of twin quasars merging at z = 6.05. Apu JL 965, L4; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad35c7
Astronomers NIR Specs The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (Near-Infrared Spectrometer) instrument Obtained Spectrum of the record-breaking galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0, observed just 290 million years after the Big Bang. Redshift It’s about 14, a measure of how much the galaxy’s light has been stretched by the expansion of the universe.
This infrared image from Webb’s NIRCam shows the record-breaking galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / B. Robertson, UC Santa Cruz / B. Johnson, CfA / S. Tacchella, Cambridge / P. Cargile, CfA.
The galaxy is much brighter than expected, with a resolved radius of 260 parsecs (848 light years).
The discovery proves that luminous galaxies were already in existence 300 million years after the Big Bang, and that they are more common than expected before Webb.
“The Webb instrument is designed to discover and understand the oldest galaxies, and in its first year of observing as part of JADES, it has found hundreds of candidate galaxies spanning the first 650 million years after the Big Bang,” said Dr. Stefano Carniani of the École Normale Supérieure in Pisa, Italy, and Dr. Kevin Hainline of the University of Arizona, Tucson.
“Early in 2023, we discovered a galaxy in our data with strong evidence of being at a redshift greater than 14. This was very exciting, but some properties of its source made us wary.”
“The source was incredibly bright, something not expected in such a distant galaxy, and it was so close to another galaxy that the two appeared to be part of a single, larger object.”
“When Webb observed the source again in October 2023 as part of the JADES Origins Field, NIR Cam (Near-infrared camera) filters further supported the high-redshift hypothesis.”
“We knew we needed a spectrum, because anything we learn would be of immense scientific importance, either as a new milestone in Webb’s study of the early universe or as a mysterious outlier in a middle-aged galaxy.”
“In January 2024, NIRSpec observed JADES-GS-z14-0 for almost 10 hours, and when the spectrum was first processed, there was unequivocal evidence that the galaxy is indeed at redshift 14.32, breaking the previous record for the most distant galaxy, JADES-GS-z13-0.”
“Seeing this spectrum was very exciting for the whole team, given that its source remained a mystery.”
“This discovery was not just a new distance record for our team. The most important thing about JADES-GS-z14-0 is that it shows that at this distance, this galaxy must be intrinsically very luminous.”
“The images show that the source is more than 1,600 light-years in diameter, proving that the light we are seeing is coming primarily from young stars, and not from the vicinity of a growing supermassive black hole.”
“This much starlight suggests that the galaxy’s mass is hundreds of millions of times that of the Sun!”
“This raises the question: How could nature create such a bright, massive and large galaxy in less than 300 million years?”
“The data reveal other important aspects of this remarkable galaxy,” the astronomers said.
“We found that the galaxy’s color is not inherently blue, which indicates that even at its very earliest stages, some of its light is being reddened by dust.”
They also confirmed that JADES-GS-z14-0 was detected at Webb’s longer wavelengths. Milli (mid-infrared observation instrument), a remarkable achievement considering its distance.
MIRI’s observations cover wavelengths of light emitted in the visible range that are redshifted and cannot be seen by Webb’s near-infrared instrument.
According to the analysis, the brightness of the source suggested by the MIRI observations exceeds that estimated from measurements by other Webb instruments, indicating the presence of strong ionized gas emission in the galaxy in the form of bright emission lines from hydrogen and oxygen.
The presence of oxygen so early in the galaxy’s life was surprising, suggesting that several generations of very massive stars had already died before the galaxy was observed.
“Taken together, all these observations show that JADES-GS-z14-0 is different from the types of galaxy predicted to exist in the early universe by theoretical models and computer simulations,” the researchers said.
“Given the observed luminosity of a source, we can predict how it will grow over cosmic time. So far, we have not found a suitable analogue among the hundreds of other galaxies we have observed at high redshifts in our survey.”
“Because the region of sky we searched to find JADES-GS-z14-0 is relatively small, its discovery has a significant impact on the predicted number of luminous galaxies seen in the early universe, as discussed in a separate, concurrent JADES study.”
“Webb’s observations will enable astronomers to discover many more such luminous galaxies over the next decade, and perhaps sooner.”
“We’re excited to see the incredible diversity of galaxies present in Cosmic Dawn!”
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Stefano Carniani others2024. A shining cosmic dawn: spectroscopic confirmation of two luminous galaxies at z ∼ 14. arXiv:2405.18485
A long exposure photo showing the trajectory of asteroid 2024 BX1 just before impact. Changes in brightness are caused by the asteroid’s rotation
L. Buzzi, Schiaparelli Observatory, Italy (MPC 204)
The asteroid that entered Earth’s atmosphere this year was spinning at a rate of 2.6 seconds per rotation, faster than any known asteroid.
The object, known as 2024 BX1, was likely less than one meter wide and entered Earth’s atmosphere on January 21. It disintegrated over Berlin, Germany. Some debris survived the fireball and was retrieved. This is a rare instance of a monitored asteroid fall, where the incoming rock was detected before impact, in this case, just three hours prior to impact.
Maxime Devogele and his team at the European Space Agency’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Center in Italy captured images of the asteroid before impact. Despite traveling at around 50,000 kilometers per hour, the elongated shape of the asteroid made changes in brightness due to rotation quite noticeable in these images.
These changes in brightness corresponded to a rotation time of 2.588 seconds, equivalent to approximately 30,000 rotations per day. “This is the fastest rotation we have observed to date,” Devogele remarked.
Asteroids rotate for various reasons, including early-life collisions. In general, a space rock larger than one kilometer cannot rotate more than once every 2.2 hours, as it would disintegrate. However, smaller asteroids like 2024 BX1 are more resilient and can withstand much faster rotations. “They have internal strength, allowing them to rotate at higher speeds,” Devogele explained.
Measuring the rotation of such objects could be beneficial for planetary defense, providing insights into the durability of small asteroids and their likelihood of surviving passage through Earth’s atmosphere. “If you have hard snow, it will react differently than if you have snow with no internal strength,” Devogele stated.
of new mapThis quasar, called Quaia, contains about 1,295,502 quasars from across the visible universe and could help astronomers better understand the properties of dark matter.
story fisher other. This is an all-sky quasar catalog that samples the largest comoving volume of any existing spectroscopic quasar sample.Image credit: Story Fisher other., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad1328.
Quasars are powered by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies and can be hundreds of times brighter than entire galaxies.
When the black hole's gravity kicks up nearby gas, the process creates a very bright disk, and sometimes a jet of light, that can be observed with telescopes.
The galaxies that quasars live in are hidden in huge clouds of invisible dark matter.
The distribution of dark matter gives insight into how much dark matter is present in the universe and how strongly clustered it is.
Astronomers compare these measurements across cosmic time to test current models about the composition and evolution of the universe.
Quasars are so bright that astronomers use them to map dark matter in the distant universe and fill in a timeline of how the universe evolved.
For example, scientists are already comparing the new quasar map to the Cosmic Microwave Background, the oldest snapshot of light in the universe.
As this light travels to us, it is bent by an intervening web of dark matter (the same web drawn by quasars), and by comparing the two, scientists can determine how matter changes over time. You can measure how strongly it clumps together.
“The new quasar catalog differs from all previous catalogs in that it provides the largest volumetric three-dimensional map in the history of the universe,” said David, an astronomer at the Center for Computational Astrophysics at the Flatiron Institute in New York.・Professor Hogg said. University.
“This is not the catalog with the most quasars or the highest quality quasar measurements, but it is the catalog with the largest total volume of the universe mapped.”
Professor Hogg and his colleagues constructed the Quasar map using data from the third data release of ESA's Gaia mission, which includes 6.6 million quasar candidates, as well as data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Explorer and Sloan Digital Sky Survey. did.
By combining the datasets, contaminants such as stars and galaxies were removed from Gaia's original dataset and the distance to the quasar was determined more precisely.
“We were able to measure how matter clustered in the early universe with as much precision as those from major international research projects. Data as a 'bonus' from the Milky Way This is quite remarkable considering that we got . We are focusing on the Gaia project,” said Dr. Kate Storey-Fisher, a postdoctoral researcher at the International Physics Center Donostia.
“It's very exciting to see this catalog spurring so much new science.”
“Researchers around the world use quasar maps to measure everything from variations in the initial density that seeds the cosmic web, to the distribution of voids in the universe, to the movement of our solar system through space. ”
Astronomers have created a map showing where dust, stars, and other nuisances are expected to obstruct the view of certain quasars. This is important in interpreting quasar maps.
“This catalog of quasars is a great example of how productive astronomy projects can be,” Professor Hogg said.
“Gaia was designed to measure stars in our galaxy, but it also discovered millions of quasars, giving us a map of the entire universe.”
Taylor Swift performed in Melbourne earlier this year.
Graham Denholm/TAS24/TAS Copyright Management Getty Images
A rogue artificial intelligence obsessed with Taylor Swift could replace all recorded music with artificially generated cover versions of her, researchers say. History tells us that this American singer-songwriter for elise to paperback authorThere is no evidence left that Ludwig van Beethoven or the Beatles ever existed.
nick collins at Durham University, UK. mick grierson Professors at the University of the Arts London have issued an unusual warning in a paper that says humans should think about ways to resist “now, rather than when it is too late.”
Thankfully, the risk of AI Swiftpocalypse is low. Collins said the idea is a thought experiment aimed at encouraging researchers to develop ways to protect all types of data, including music, literature, scientific research, and historical records, from being corrupted by AI. I am.
The pair lay out a future scenario in which we rely on a few centralized data stores, such as Spotify and Apple for music. AI could infiltrate these stores and corrupt, delete, or alter the data inside. This can be dramatic and obvious, or it can be gradual and unnoticeable. “It's very likely that within a few thousand years there will be at least some corruption and some conflict over the truth of music in audio recordings,” Collins says.
To make their point clear and show how AI can already manipulate the data it has access to, researchers used current AI models to create Taylor Swift songs, including Queen songs. did. bohemian rhapsodyFrank Sinatra's I've Got You Under My Skin and the beach boys Isn't it wonderful?. They calculate that producing these “Taylor's versions” of all recorded music currently requires 1.67 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, costing him more than $266 million. However, this is an amount that Swift herself can afford.
Collins says that while digital and physical backups can leave us complacent about the safety and permanence of our data, AI with the right incentives and capabilities can access everything we record. It states that it may be damaged. “No matter how much we try to preserve human culture, unpredictable threats may emerge in the future,” he says.
However, not all experts are convinced that AI is such a serious threat. sandra wachter Oxford University researchers have shown that AI can cause great harm by replicating sexist and racist biases in humans, but Collins and Grierson said He said that such a feat would never be possible.
“I don't think there's a serious problem with AI waking up and setting its own goals, having its own motivations, and taking actions to achieve those goals,” she says. “I think that's a nonsense argument, and I don't think it's realistic. It's like asking me what I would do if aliens landed on this planet tomorrow. I think it's unlikely. I think so.”
Carissa VelisResearchers, also at the University of Oxford, said that decisive action against AI is needed, but not a dramatic “kill switch” to stop malicious models from progressing. Instead, it should be a careful system of checks and balances to ensure the safety of AI models.
“This argument seems to assume that there is a malicious AI that somehow has its own desires and becomes so powerful that we want to stop it,” she says. . “And that seems so implausible and so ridiculous to me.”
The real problem is that we will integrate AI into many aspects of our lives and become completely dependent on it, even though it is likely not apocalyptic in nature. , which she believes raises issues such as racism and sexist prejudice that are still very harmful. Or they are simply making up facts that sound plausible.
“The more you leave it [AI] The more embedded it is in a product, the harder it is to turn it off. Not because this malicious thing has become powerful enough to take over, but because we've become dependent on it and it's very costly to stop it even when it's not working well,” Bellis said. says Mr.
Taylor Swift did not respond to a request for comment.
Impression of Stenopterygius quadrissis, a type of ichthyosaur
Dotted Zebra / Alamy Stock Photo
Prehistoric Earth was home to monsters. They included a 2.5 meter long millipede, a flying reptile with an 11 meter wingspan, and a snake weighing more than a ton. But common sense says that if you're looking for the biggest animal of all time, there's no need to go back in time. Blue whales are known for reach 30 meters The length and weight reach 199 tons. In more than 500 million years of animal evolution, even the largest dinosaurs have no equal.
Conventional wisdom may be wrong. The fossil record may hide animals that were even larger than blue whales. For decades, evidence has trickled in that truly gigantic superpredators swam the oceans 200 million to 250 million years ago. Now, a series of discoveries and reanalyses of previous findings have dramatically supported this claim.
The impact is far-reaching. We don't know exactly what this giant animal looked like, and it doesn't even have a name. But we are beginning to understand how such gigantic creatures were able to feed themselves in prehistoric oceans. If confirmed to be larger than a blue whale, it would indicate that we may have significantly underestimated how large toothed carnivores can grow. More than that, the discovery that such a Leviathan emerged so soon after the most devastating mass extinction in Earth's history suggests that we may need to rethink the factors driving evolution on such a grand scale. ing.
When dinosaurs ruled the land, several groups of marine reptiles also ruled.
Earth can be visualized as a chaotic mass of rocky tectonic plates floating on a sea of molten metal. These plates are constantly moving and rubbing against each other, releasing massive amounts of energy that result in earthquakes. So, what is the largest earthquake ever recorded?
It is estimated that around 20,000 earthquakes occur worldwide each year, averaging about 55 earthquakes per day. Of these, approximately 16 are categorized as major (magnitude 7 or higher) annually.
Most earthquakes take place under the sea, posing a significant threat due to the potential of triggering massive tsunamis upon hitting the land after an undersea earthquake.
The Richter scale was introduced in the 1930s to standardize earthquake magnitude measurements, making it easier to compare sizes. However, the scale had its limitations. Since then, the moment magnitude (Mw) scale has been used to rank the top 10 earthquakes.
Similar to the Richter scale, the moment magnitude scale is logarithmic, meaning that with each integer increase on the scale, the earthquake becomes 10 times more powerful. For instance, a 9 Mw earthquake is 6 magnitude levels stronger than a 1,000Mw earthquake.
Here are the top 10 largest earthquakes ever recorded:
10 – Indian Ocean, 2012
A security guard walks through damaged buildings the day after a major earthquake struck the west coast of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on April 11, 2012. A tsunami watch for the Indian Ocean was lifted hours after two major earthquakes struck off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island. People run away from the coast in fear. Image credit: Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images
The Aceh province of Indonesia, known for seismic activity, experienced a massive 8.6 Mw earthquake on April 11, 2012. The earthquake, which occurred 610km off the coast of Banda Aceh, was followed quickly by an 8.2 Mw earthquake. While the earthquakes caused mass panic and coastal evacuations, physical damage was minimal, and the feared tsunami did not materialize.
This seismic event was the largest instance of a sideslip earthquake in recorded history, characterized by horizontal movement of the crust along two plates rather than vertical motion. Such earthquakes are less likely to trigger significant tsunamis compared to vertical strike-slip faults.
9 – Aleutian Islands, USA, 1946
Main Street in Hilo, Hawaii, USA, is damaged beyond recognition after a tidal surge on April 1, 1946. Image courtesy of Getty
In the North Pacific Ocean, the Aleutian Islands experienced an 8.6 Mw earthquake in April 1946, triggering a widespread tsunami that caused extensive damage. This tsunami, traveling at 800km/h, reached the Hawaiian Islands in just five hours, resulting in 159 deaths and significant destruction.
Due to the earthquake’s magnitude and location, the wave height on Unimak Island, near the epicenter, reached 42 meters. The earthquake also generated a tsunami in Antarctica, over 15,500 km away.
8 – Assam, India, 1950
A damaged bridge can be seen in this image. Photographed on August 25, 1950 in Assam, India, shortly after the earthquake. Image credit: Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
The most powerful earthquake ever recorded on land struck between India’s Assam state and Tibet in 1950. This earthquake, measuring 8.6 Mw, resulted from the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
The earthquake triggered massive landslides in Tibet, causing entire villages to slide into the river and be swept away. In India, 70 villages were destroyed due to landslides and natural dam collapses, resulting in an estimated 4,800 fatalities.
The tragedy claimed around 1,500 lives in India and 3,300 in Tibet.
7 – Mouse Island, USA, 1965
Black volcanic sand on Kiska Island, part of the Rat Islands, Alaska, USA. Image credit: Alamy
The Rat Islands, part of the volcanic Aleutian Islands chain, experienced an earthquake in 1965 that triggered a tsunami over 10 meters high on Siemia Island, 304 kilometers away. Remarkably, the resulting tsunami still reached Hawaii, 4,200 km away, generating 1-meter waves despite its remote epicenter.
Fortunately, the damages and casualties were limited due to the sparse population in the affected areas.
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6 – Chile, 2010
Soldiers stand guard as firefighters put out a fire at a supermarket in Concepción, Chile, on March 1, 2010, three days after the devastating earthquake that rocked the country. Image credit: Claudio Santana/AFP/Getty Images
On February 27, 2010, a powerful 8.8 Mw earthquake struck the coast of central Chile, near Concepción. Lasting around three minutes, the quake’s impact was felt as far as Sao Paulo, Brazil, 4,620 kilometers away.
The city of Concepción, known for its earthquake history, endured severe damage. In 1939, 1953, and 1960, previous earthquakes caused significant destruction and loss of lives. The 2010 earthquake resulted in tsunami warnings being issued to 53 countries due to its large magnitude and ocean floor rupture.
5 – Severoklisk, Russia, 1952
The site of the town of Severo Kurilsk before it was destroyed by the tsunami in 1952. The site of the modern town, rebuilt at a higher level, is not visible in this 2006 image. Image credit: Victor Morozov/Wikipedia
In 1952, Severokilsk, a volcanic archipelago in Russia’s Kuril Islands located 1,300 km northeast of Japan, experienced a massive earthquake. This earthquake triggered an 18-meter high tsunami that devastated the region, claiming nearly half of the small town’s population.
Residents, forewarned by the earthquake, sought safety on higher ground but returned after the initial wave passed. Tragically, a second wave struck as people returned home, resulting in numerous casualties.
The town was subsequently rebuilt on higher ground following the catastrophe. To date, this remains the largest earthquake documented in Russia.
4 – Tohoku, Japan, 2011
This photo taken on March 11, 2011 shows a tsunami hitting the coast of Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture. Image credit: Teiji Tomizawa/Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images
On March 11, 2011, Japan witnessed the largest earthquake ever recorded in the country near Tohoku. The earthquake, with a magnitude of 9.0, had its epicenter about 72 kilometers off the northeast coast of Honshu, resulting in significant movement of the Earth’s axis and land shift.
The ensuing tsunami, a devastating consequence of the earthquake, swept away entire communities and breached previously established defenses. Tsunami waves exceeding 40 meters hit certain coastal areas, overwhelming earlier sea wall predictions.
Additionally, the earthquake triggered a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant due to infrastructure damages caused by the tsunami. The resulting meltdown led to the release of nuclear material into the atmosphere.
The earthquake claimed over 22,000 lives, underscoring its catastrophic impact.
3 – Sumatra, Indonesia, 2004
The overview shows how Meurabo, Indonesia was submerged under water on December 28, 2004, after an earthquake and tidal wave hit Aceh province on December 26, 2004. Image credit: HO/AFP/Getty Images
An enormous 9.1 Mw earthquake, affecting a 1,300km stretch of the Sumatra trench, rocked the region on December 26, 2004. This subduction earthquake occurred over centuries as the Burmese microplate slid under the Indian plate, unleashing massive destruction and spawning a devastating tsunami.
Rising more than 20 meters, the ocean floor shift generated a tsunami exceeding 30 meters in height. The deadly waves swept through coastal areas in 14 nations, resulting in an estimated 228,000 fatalities, with Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand bearing the brunt of the disaster.
This is the most potent earthquake ever documented in Asia and a defining natural calamity of the 21st century.
2 – Alaska, USA, 1964
Earthquake damage on 4th Avenue in Anchorage, Alaska, USA on March 27, 1964. Image courtesy: UPI/Getty Images
Alaska, USA, experienced a powerful earthquake in 1964, rupturing 1,000 km of the Pacific and North American plates at once. Lasting nearly five minutes, the earthquake impacted vast areas of North America, with Anchorage suffering severe damage due to inadequate earthquake-proof structures and infrastructure.
The earthquake, the second-strongest recorded in history, significantly influenced North American geology.
1 – Valdivia, Chile, 1960
The remains of Valdivia after a devastating earthquake struck the city on May 22, 1960. The earthquake caused high waves and a volcanic eruption. Image credit: Alamy
In 1960, the most massive earthquake on record struck near Valdivia, Chile, with a magnitude of 9.5. This event, one of the deadliest earthquakes in history, resulted in around 5,700 deaths.
Occurring around 3:00 PM local time, the earthquake lasted approximately 10 minutes, causing considerable land subsidence along Chile’s coast, landslides, and road blockages.
Moreover, the tsunami triggered by the earthquake caused extensive coastal devastation.
Chileans had been forewarned by a series of powerful foreshocks, enabling them to prepare for the impending disaster, likely contributing to the relatively fewer casualties.
Iojima is itself a volcano, located on the edge of the massive underwater Akahoya volcanic caldera.
Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images
The largest volcanic eruption in current geological time occurred underwater off the southern coast of Japan about 7,300 years ago. This explosion produced more than three times as much material as the eruption of Mount Tambora, the largest known modern eruption. Mount Tambora exploded in Indonesia in 1815, causing dramatic climate changes that led to the “Year Without a Summer” in 1816.
The new record holder, the Kikai Akahoya eruption, originated from a submerged caldera in an area off Japan's Kyushu island.
The devastating impact this eruption had on humans living on nearby islands has been recorded by geologists and archaeologists, and analysis of volcanic ash deposits has shown that this eruption was the most recent geological event that began 11,700 years ago. It was shown to be one of the largest eruptions of the Holocene era. .
However, the origin and scale of the explosion were unclear because of the difficulty in accessing the submarine caldera, the crater formed after the volcanic eruption, and the volcanic deposits on the ocean floor.
now, Nobukazu Sema Professors at Japan's Kobe University calculated that the Kikai-Akahoya eruption produced far more rock and ash underwater than previously thought, about 70 cubic kilometers. Combining this with previous estimates from volcanic rocks deposited over Japan, the total amount of material pumped out of the volcano equates to more than 300 cubic kilometers of material. This is twice the amount of water in Lake Tahoe in the western United States. “It was huge, more than we expected,” Seema says.
However, it is still far behind the huge eruption of Indonesia's Toba supervolcano, which released more than 2,500 cubic kilometers of magma about 74,000 years ago.
To assess Kikai Akahoya, Seema and his colleagues conducted seismic surveys and mapped the underwater area around the caldera, about 200 meters below the surface. This allowed them to see layers of material around the volcano, but they could not tell which ones were due to the eruption itself.
The researchers used remote-controlled drilling robots to collect sediment from the ocean floor, take core samples from the underlying rock, and identify layers containing characteristic volcanic glass. This data allowed us to isolate the volcanic layers from seismic surveys and calculate the total amount of material produced by the volcano.
“We know that very large, caldera-forming eruptions like this are rare, but we also know that there have been many more of these events in the geological past, and we have found evidence for them. ” he says. David Pyle at Oxford University.
The main reason it took so long for the scale of the eruption to be determined is because calderas deep under the sea are difficult to locate and measure, he said.
It still remains in the Kikai Akahoya caldera. big magma chamber It's below. If this explodes, there could be another eruption, but it's unclear how big it will be because it depends on the size of the magma chamber, Seema said. He says the chance of an eruption is small, but his team is working on measuring the dome more precisely to better understand the risks.
Creating better models to predict future eruptions by combining historical information from past eruptions, such as the Kikai-Akahoya eruption, with research from recent underwater eruptions, such as the 2022 Hunga-Tonga eruption. Pyle says it could help.
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