Science

Kazuo Ishiguro’s heartbreaking dystopian novel of young love and organ donation has been superbly adapted for the stage

Kelly Weinersmith, co-author of A City on Mars, the latest pick for our New Scientist Book Club, and Cat Bohannon lay out the reasons why it might not be such a great idea to be pregnant on another planet

There is no evidence that advertisers use covert recordings of conversations to target people with adverts, an accusation widely denied by the industry, and yet this belief persists

Had laptop class doctors been willing to listen to doctors who worked on COVID units, they wouldn't have said so many absurd things.

The post Laptop Class Doctors Think Doctors Who Treat Patients Are Lazy, Dumb, Cowardly, Sheep first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Creatine is commonly associated with athletes and bodybuilders, but the popular supplement seems to have broad benefits on everything from ageing to brain function

A massive collision of galaxies sparked by one travelling at a scarcely-believable 2 million mph (3.2 million km/h) has been seen in unprecedented detail by one of Earth's most powerful telescopes. The dramatic impact was observed in Stephan's Quintet, a nearby galaxy group made up of five galaxies first sighted almost 150 years ago. It sparked an immensely powerful shock akin to a 'sonic boom from a jet fighter' -- the likes of which are among the most striking phenomena in the Universe.

Researchers have succeeded in building a quantum computer gate based on a double-transmon coupler (DTC), which had been proposed theoretically as a device that could significantly enhance the fidelity of quantum gates. Using this, they achieved a fidelity of 99.92 percent for a two-qubit device known as a CZ gate and 99.98 percent for a single-qubit gate.

Like a performer preparing for their big finale, a distant star is shedding its outer layers and preparing to explode as a supernova.

Astronomers have been observing the huge star, named WOH G64, since its discovery in the 1970s. It’s one of the largest known stars, and also one of the most luminous and massive red supergiants (RSGs). The star is surrounded by an envelope of expelled star-stuff, which could indicate it’s getting ready to explode.

WOH G64 isn’t in the Milky Way; it’s in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the Milky Way’s largest satellite galaxy. Getting these detailed image is quite a feat for the ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer. It’s also quite an accomplishment for the team of scientists behind the image.

They’ve published their images and the results of their observations of the star in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. Their research is titled “Imaging the innermost circumstellar environment of the red supergiant WOH G64 in the Large Magellanic Cloud.” The lead author is Keiichi Ohnaka, an astrophysicist from Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile.

“This star is one of the most extreme of its kind, and any drastic change may bring it closer to an explosive end.”

Jacco van Loon, study co-author, Keele Observatory

“Significant mass loss in the red supergiant (RSG) phase is of great importance for the evolution of massive stars before they end their life in a supernova (SN) explosion,” the researchers write in their paper. Understanding the progenitors to supernovae (SNe) is important because of the role they play in the Universe. These massive stars forge heavy elements through nucleosynthesis then spread them out into their surroundings when they explode. These heavy elements make rocky planets possible. SNe shockwaves can also compress gas in their vicinities, which can trigger the birth of new stars. Better images of stars approaching their explosive ends help astronomers understand them better.

“For the first time, we have succeeded in taking a zoomed-in image of a dying star in a galaxy outside our own Milky Way,” lead author Ohnaka said.

WOH G64 (WOH hereafter) is a whopping 160,000 light-years away. Even though the red supergiant is a behemoth that’s 2,000 times larger than the Sun, that’s an enormous distance. It’s all because of the VLTI and one of its newer instruments, called GRAVITY. It’s a powerful instrument that was installed on the VLTI in 2015.

When Ohnaka and his colleagues saw the images, they were buoyed with excitement. The images show a cocoon of dust surrounding the star, evidence that it’s convulsed and shed some of its outer layers.

“We discovered an egg-shaped cocoon closely surrounding the star,” said lead author Ohnaka. “We are excited because this may be related to the drastic ejection of material from the dying star before a supernova explosion.”

This artist’s reconstruction shows the star’s main features. The star is surrounded by an egg-shaped dust cocoon, with a wider ring or torus of dust. Astronomers are less certain about the shape and size of the outer ring, which requires more observations for clarity. Image Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Ohnaka and his colleagues have been observing WOH for a long time, but had to wait for better instruments to get a closer look.

Among other things, they noticed that the star has become dimmer over the last decade.

Gerd Weigelt is an astronomy professor at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and a co-author of the research. “We have found that the star has been experiencing a significant change in the last 10 years, providing us with a rare opportunity to witness a star’s life in real time,” Weigelt said. In their final life stages, red supergiants like WOH G64 shed their outer layers of gas and dust in a process that can last thousands of years.

Jacco van Loon, the director of the Keele Observatory at Keele University in the UK has been observing WOH since the 1990s. “This star is one of the most extreme of its kind, and any drastic change may bring it closer to an explosive end,” Keele said.

With the more limited data available in the past, Ohnaka modelled what the dust environment might look like. Those models and observations predicted a different shape than the GRAVITY images reveal.

The images show an elongated, compact emission region in near-infrared (NIR) surrounding the star. This suggests that hot new dust has formed near the star, which helps obscure the star itself. The star’s NIR continuum has shifted in the last decade, which also supports the new dust hypothesis. Earlier images from before 2003 show more hydrogen absorption than recent images.

Other observations of RSG stars also show that their circumstellar environments aren’t spherical. For example, dust surrounding the remnant of SN1987A is also not spherical. Astrophysicists think that this dust was shed by SN1987A’s progenitor star before it evolved into a blue supergiant and exploded.

The elongated, cocoon shape of the emissions has two potential explanations. “The elongated emission may be due to a bipolar outflow along the axis of the dust torus,” the authors explain. “Alternatively, the elongation may be caused by the interaction with an unseen companion.”

This reconstructed GRAVITY image of WOH G64 is from the research and clearly shows the elongated, cocoon shape. Image Credit: Ohnaka et al. 2024.

The non-spherical structures are common, and researchers want to understand this phenomenon better. “Given the high multiplicity rate among massive stars, the asymmetric, enhanced mass loss in the RSG phase, which can be driven by binary interaction, is essential not only for better understanding the evolution of massive stars but also for interpreting early-phase SN spectra,” the authors explain.

Unfortunately, observing WOH is becoming more difficult. The dust is obscuring the star. “The formation of new hot dust also means that the central star is now more obscured than the epochs before 2009,” the authors explain, and if the star keeps shedding material, the star will become dimmer.

But new instruments might help. GRAVITY’s successor, GRAVITY+ is being rolled out incrementally and will be completed in 2026.

“Similar follow-up observations with ESO instruments will be important for understanding what is going on in the star,” concluded Ohnaka.

WOH G64 is getting ready to explode, but that doesn’t mean it’s imminent in terms of human lifespans. Nobody alive today will witness the explosion. However, in stellar terms, the star’s death could be imminent.

Maybe our distant descendants, if we have any, will witness it.

The post The First Close-Up Picture of Star Outside the Milky Way appeared first on Universe Today.

Researchers study the importance of enunciation when using speech-to-text software in medical situations.

Scientists have presented work examining the circumstances surrounding the whale deaths off the coast of New Jersey in the winter of 2022-23, which prompted concern that survey work in the area somehow contributed to their deaths. The Marine Mammal Commission has stated there is no evidence linking the whales' deaths to wind energy development; many of them died from collisions with ships. Researchers, however, are concerned that the increased presence of survey ships in and around New Jersey waters may have exacerbated the situation.

Scientists have presented results on the acoustic characteristics of a physical model of the Parasaurolophus' crest. They created a physical setup made of tubes to represent a mathematical model that will allow researchers to discover what was happening acoustically inside the crest. The physical model, inspired by resonance chambers, was suspended by cotton threads and excited by a small speaker, and a microphone was used to collect frequency data.

Engineered proteins are critical industrial and medical applications, ranging from vaccine development to making crops or food proteins more resilient. Scientists can engineer proteins to improve upon nature, but such experiments are time- and labor-intensive. Researchers have developed an AI-based protein design tool known as EVOLVEPro, which is already showing promise for several applications and could be used to help solve other medical challenges.

Researchers have found a new way to improve a key element of thermophotovoltaic systems, which convert heat into electricity via light. Engineers designed a thermal emitter that can deliver high efficiencies within practical design parameters.

Researchers have found a new way to improve a key element of thermophotovoltaic systems, which convert heat into electricity via light. Engineers designed a thermal emitter that can deliver high efficiencies within practical design parameters.

Chloramine is used as a disinfectant in drinking water systems from the US to Australia. Research now shows it breaks down into a compound that may have negative health impacts

For a little over a month now, the Earth has been joined by a new ‘mini-moon.’ The object is an asteroid that has been temporarily accompanying Earth on its journey around the Sun. By 25th November it will have departed but before then, astronomers across the world have been turning their telescopes to study it. A new paper of 2024 PT5 reveals its basaltic nature – similar to volcanic rocks on Earth – with a composition that makes it similar to lunar material. There have been many close encounters to Earth allowing many of its secrets to be unveiled.

The Moon is perhaps one of the most well known astronomical objects. It’s Earth’s only permanent natural satellite and has been in orbit since early in the planet’s history. It lies approximately 384,400 kilometres away and has played a crucial part in stabilising are axial tilt and regulating the climate and seasons. In addition to the Moon we are occasionally joined by asteroids that briefly orbit around the Earth before continuing their journey through the Solar System. 

The partial lunar eclipse from October 2023 as seen from Oxfordshire UK. Credit: Mary McIntyre FRAS.

2024 PT5 is a small asteroid that has served as a temporary “mini-moon” for Earth, orbiting near the planet for about six weeks. Analysis has revealed that the asteroid spins rapidly, completing one full rotation in under an hour and measures no more than 15 metres across. While it will leave Earth’s vicinity in just a few days, its brief presence has offered valuable insight and data on the properties of near-Earth objects.

Space agencies like NASA and ESA are both exploring commercial space operations to support the growing global space economy. Exploring and mining asteroids is an activity that is well suited to this endeavour. Asteroids like 2024 PT5 which is in close proximity to Earth is well suited to this. The paper that has been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics and was authored by R. de la Fuente Marcos and a team of Spanish astronomers.

The asteroid Dimorphos was captured by NASA’s DART mission just two seconds before the spacecraft struck its surface on Sept. 26, 2022. Observations of the asteroid before and after impact suggest it is a loosely packed “rubble pile” object. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

The study focussed attention on changes to the short-term orbital properties and used N-body simulations (a technique to simulate a dynamic system under other physical forces such as the force of gravity.) They also explored the spectral class of the asteroid from reflectance spectra analysis obtained with the OSIRIS spectrograph and assessed its rotational properties.

The team confirmed that 2024 PT5 is a natural object (thankfully) that has a spectra which is consisted with the so called Sv-type asteroid, similar to breccia found in the Lunar mare. Assessment of its rotational properties revealed it is completing one rotation in less than an hour. They could not rule out whether the asteroid was tumbling in an erratic fashion, further analysis is needed. Finally through astrometric observations the team concluded that the orbits of 2024 PT5 and 2022 NX1 (another near Earth asteroid which is just 10 metres across) are very similar. 

Both ESA and NASA now consider a cost-effective strategy for NEO missions essential with a focus on small body science and planetary defence. The approach includes reusing and active missions and identifying accessible objects like 2022 NX1 and 2024 PT5 using ground-based observatories.  

Source : Basaltic mini-moon: Characterizing 2024 PT5 with the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias and the Two-meter Twin Telescope

The post Here’s What We Know About Earth’s Temporary Mini-Moon appeared first on Universe Today.

Despite decades of study, black holes are still one of the most puzzling objects in the Universe. As we know from Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, the gravitational force of these stellar remnants alters the curvature of spacetime around them. This causes gas, dust, and even photons (light) in their vicinity to fall inwards and form disks that slowly accrete onto their faces, never to be seen again. However, astronomers have also noted that they can produce powerful jets that accelerate charged particles to close to the speed of light (aka. relativistic jets).

These jets lead to powerful gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which have been observed with black holes that have powerful magnetic fields. However, where these magnetic fields come from has remained a mystery to astrophysicists for some time. According to new research led by scientists from the Flatiron Institute, the source of these fields may have finally been revealed. Based on a series of simulations they conducted that modeled the life cycle of stars from birth to collapse, they found that black holes inherit their magnetic fields from the parent stars themselves.

The research was led by Ore Gottlieb, a Research Fellow from the Theoretical High Energy Astrophysics (THEA) group at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA) and Columbia University’s Astrophysics Laboratory. He was joined by colleagues from the CCA and CAL and researchers from the University of Arizona, the Steward Observatory, and Princeton University. The paper that details their findings was published on November 18th in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Infographic explaining how black holes inherit their magnetism. Credit: Lucy Reading-Ikkanda / Simons Foundation

Black holes form from the collapse of proto-neutron stars, which are essentially what remains after massive stars have blown off their outer layers in a supernova explosion. While there have been a few theories about where black holes get their magnetism, none could account for the power of black hole jets or GRBs. Through their simulations, the team initially planned to study outflows from black holes, including the jets that produce GRBs. However, as Gottlieb’s explained in a Simons Foundation press release, the team ran into a problem with the models:

“We were not sure how to model the behavior of these magnetic fields during the collapse of the neutron star to the black hole. So, this was a question that I started to think about for the first time. What had been thought to be the case is that the magnetic fields of collapsing stars are collapsing into the black hole. During this collapse, these magnetic field lines are made stronger as they are compressed, so the density of the magnetic fields become higher.”

The only problem with this theory is that the strong magnetic fields of neutron stars cause them to lose angular momentum (their rotation). Without this, the gas, plasma, and dust surrounding newly formed black holes will not form an accretion disk around them. This, in turn, would prevent black holes from producing the jets and gamma-ray bursts that astronomers have observed. This suggests that previous simulations of collapsing neutron stars didn’t provide a complete picture. Said Gottlieb:

“It appears to be mutually exclusive. You need two things for jets to form: a strong magnetic field and an accretion disk. But a magnetic field acquired by such compression won’t form an accretion disk, and if you reduce the magnetism to the point where the disk can form, then it’s not strong enough to produce the jets. Past simulations have only considered isolated neutron stars and isolated black holes, where all magnetism is lost during the collapse. However, we found that these neutron stars have accretion disks of their own, just like black holes. And so, the idea is that maybe an accretion disk can save the magnetic field of the neutron star. This way, a black hole will form with the same magnetic field lines that threaded the neutron star.”

3D rendering of a rapidly spinning black hole’s accretion disk and a resulting black hole-powered jet. Credit: Ore Gottlieb et al. (2024)

The team ran calculations for neutron stars collapsing to form black holes and found that, in most cases, the timescale for black hole disk formation is often shorter than that of the black hole losing its magnetism. In short, before a newly formed black hole swallows a proto-neutron star’s magnetic field, its magnetic field lines become anchored in the neutron star’s surrounding disk passes to the black hole. As Gottlieb characterized it:

“So the disk enables the black hole to inherit a magnetic field from its mother, the neutron star. What we are seeing is that as this black hole forms, the proto-neutron star’s surrounding disk will essentially pin its magnetic lines to the black hole. It’s very exciting to finally understand this fundamental property of black holes and how they power gamma ray bursts — the most luminous explosions in the universe.”

This discovery resolves the long-standing mystery of where black holes get their magnetic fields. It also presents astronomers with new opportunities to study relativistic jets and gamma-ray bursts, one of the most powerful phenomena in the Universe. If confirmed, these results suggest that forming an early accretion disk is the only thing needed for powerful jets to emerge. Gottlieb and his team are excited to test this theory with future observations.

Further Reading: Simons Foundation, Astrophysical Journal Letters

The post New Study Suggests Black Holes Get their “Hair” from their Mothers appeared first on Universe Today.

74 million kilometres is a huge distance from which to observe something. But 74 million km isn’t such a big deal when the object is the Sun.

That’s how far away from the Sun the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter was when it captured these new images.

The Solar Orbiter was launched in 2020 to investigate the Sun. It’s studying the mechanism behind the Sun’s solar wind, the complex dynamics of its magnetic field, and eruptions like solar flares and coronal mass ejections. That’s just a sampling of its science goals.

One item on the mission’s long list of objectives is high-resolution images of the Sun’s surface. For that, the spacecraft carries different imagers that operate in different wavelengths. This allows the spacecraft to almost peel back the Sun’s layers and uncover relationships between them.

The ESA has released four new images of the Sun, each one giving us a different look at our star: visible light, magnetic, plasma, and UV. These images were captured with the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI-German contribution) and Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI-Belgian contribution) instruments in March 2023. Each image is a composite of 25 images, all captured on the same day. They’re the highest resolution images of the Sun ever taken.

The images are remarkable for their detail. This image shows sunspots, regions that are darker and cooler than their surroundings. They appear where magnetic field lines are concentrated. The magnetic flux inhibits convection. Image Credit: ESA

According to Daniel Müller, Solar Orbiter’s Project Scientist, the Sun’s magnetic field is key to understanding the star.

“The Sun’s magnetic field is key to understanding the dynamic nature of our home star from the smallest to the largest scales. These new high-resolution maps from Solar Orbiter’s PHI instrument show the beauty of the Sun’s surface magnetic field and flows in great detail. At the same time, they are crucial for inferring the magnetic field in the Sun’s hot corona, which our EUI instrument is imaging,” Müller said.

This magnetic map of the Sun from the Solar Orbiter shows how magnetic field lines and sunspots are correlated. Image Credit: ESA.

The Solar Orbiter’s PHI instrument also gives us a map of how plasma is moving around on the Sun’s surface. Blue regions are moving toward the Orbiter, while red regions are moving away.

The map of plasma movement clearly reflects the rotation of the Sun, with blue regions moving toward the orbiter and red regions moving away. However, it also shows how material is disoriented around the sunspots. Image Credit: ESA

The ultraviolet image of the Sun from the Solar Orbiter’s EUI instrument is probably the most visually stunning. It shows what’s happening above the photosphere, where glowing plasma extends out from sunspots. The plasma is superheated and follows the same magnetic lines that encourage the sunspots.

The Sun’s superheated plasma follow magnetic field lines and extends beyond the photosphere in the same regions the sunspots occur. Image Credit: ESA

The Solar Orbiter’s images are truly extraordinary. It’s easy to lose yourself in them, and to wonder about Life, the Universe, Nature, Evolution, How Everything Came to Be, and your own mortality in the face of it all.

Go ahead and lose yourself in these images for a while. The economy won’t grind to halt if you take a few moments. Image Credit: ESA

Now, back to your cubicle.

The post Gaze at New Pictures of the Sun from Solar Orbiter appeared first on Universe Today.

Arthropods belong to an evolutionary branch – the ecdysozoa – that contains about half of all animal species, and the earliest fossil evidence of the group dates back 550 million years

Archaeology studies the human past through the excavation of things people made and used thousands of years ago -- from architecture to objects like pottery bowls and animal bones from meals. Although many excavation projects create digital 3D models of what they uncover, archaeologists need new ways to meaningfully use those data. Some projects share 3D models with the public as tourism and teaching tools -- one may have recently seen 3D displays at museums. However, archaeologists themselves have not yet taken full advantage of these models in their own fieldwork and research. That is about to change.