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Meet “Amaterasu”: Astronomers detect highest energy cosmic ray since 1991 https://buff.ly/3uzo3xK A groundbreaking discovery has been made by astronomers with the detection of the highest energy cosmic ray since 1991. Named "Amaterasu", this cosmic ray has provided valuable insights into the mysteries of our universe. Understanding the nature and origin of cosmic rays is crucial for unraveling the secrets of the universe. "Amaterasu" surpasses any cosmic ray observed in the past three decades, making its detection particularly significant. Advanced cosmic ray detectors have made this discovery possible, providing valuable information about cosmic ray flux, energy spectrum, and composition. The discovery of "Amaterasu" opens up new avenues for research in high-energy astrophysics, allowing scientists to delve deeper into the study of cosmic rays and explore the mechanisms that accelerate particles to extreme energies. This knowledge can have practical applications in improving spacecraft design and protecting astronauts from cosmic radiation during space missions. Overall, the detection of "Amaterasu" represents a significant milestone in our quest to understand the universe and highlights the importance of ongoing research in this field. #cosmicrays #astronomy #astrophysics #highenergyphysics #cosmicraydetection #universe #Amaterasu #space #particlephysics #research

🤯 Astronomers Crack the Cosmic Code: How Black Holes Become Insatiable Monsters Get ready to have your mind blown into a singularity, because a team of brilliant Penn State University astronomers has finally unraveled one of the universe's most perplexing enigmas: the growth of supermassive black holes. 🌌✨ In a groundbreaking study that's shaking up the cosmos, these cosmic sleuths have pieced together the most comprehensive model yet for how these gravitational leviathans pack on millions to billions of times the mass of our Sun. By ingeniously combining cutting-edge X-ray observations from space titans like Chandra, XMM-Newton, and eROSITA with jaw-dropping supercomputer simulations, the researchers have essentially created a cosmic time-lapse of black hole growth spanning a staggering 12 billion years. 🤯 From the universe's terrifyingly energetic infancy to the present day, this hybrid approach offers an unprecedented glimpse into the two main mechanisms fueling these celestial beasts' insatiable appetites: 1) Devouring cold gas and dust like a hungover frat bro at an all-you-can-eat buffet (a.k.a. accretion). 2) Violently merging with other supermassive black holes during epic galaxy collisions that would make the Milky Way blush. 💥 But here's the real showstopper: the data reveals that more massive galaxies essentially turbo-charged their black holes' growth through accretion, allowing these gravitational gluttons to pack on mass at a breakneck pace. And as if that wasn't mind-bending enough, the simulations suggest that while accretion kickstarted the process, mergers played a crucial role in recent cosmic history for the most massive black holes. Follow me for more amazing news and insights on emerging technologies and science 🤯✨ #Space #Astronomy #BlackHoles #Astrophysics #Cosmology https://lnkd.in/egiXtH7K

Astronomers Detect Sudden Awakening of Black Hole For First Time: Astronomers are observing the sudden awakening of a giant black hole in the constellation of Virgo. "Decades of observations found nothing remarkable about the distant galaxy in the constellation of Virgo, but that changed at the end of 2019 when astronomers noticed a dramatic surge in its luminosity that persists to this day," reports The Guardian. "Researchers now believe they are witnessing changes that have never been seen before, with the black hole at the galaxy's core putting on an extreme cosmic light show as vast amounts of material fall into it." From the report: The galaxy, which goes by the snappy codename SDSS1335+0728 and lies 300m light years away, was flagged to astronomers in December 2019 when an observatory in California called the Zwicky Transient Facility recorded a sudden rise in its brightness. The alert prompted a flurry of new observations and checks of archived measurements from ground- and space-based telescopes to understand more about the galaxy and its past behavior. The scientists discovered the galaxy had recently doubled in brightness in mid-infrared wavelengths, become four times brighter in the ultraviolet, and at least 10 times brighter in the X-ray range. What triggered the sudden brightening is unclear, but writing in Astronomy and Astrophysics, the researchers say the most likely explanation is the creation of an "active galactic nucleus" where a vast black hole at the centre of a galaxy starts actively consuming the material around it. Active galactic nuclei emit a broad spectrum of light as gas around the black hole heats up and glows, and surrounding dust particles absorb some wavelengths and re-radiate others. But it is not the only possibility. The team has not ruled out an exotic form of "tidal disruption event," a highly restrained phrase to describe a star that is ripped apart after straying too close to a black hole. Tidal disruption events tend to be brief affairs, brightening a galaxy for no more than a few hundred days, but more measurements are needed to rule out the process. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A spiral arm making the Radcliffe Wave dance. In 2020 was discovered in the Milky Way an enormous, wave-shaped chain of gaseous clouds giving birth to clusters of stars along one of its spiral arms, that was named the Radcliffe Wave. Now, researchers led by Ralf Konietzka at Harvard’s Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, using data from Gaia, have determined that the Radcliffe Wave has the shape of a wave, but it also moves like one. Its motion was determined observing the baby stars born in the gaseous clouds along its length. Taking into account that this structure has been detected in the closer spiral arm, it could be that in fact all spiral arms could have such a wave, and that galaxies in general could be more dynamic than previously thought. The findings have been published in Nature (20 February, 2024). https://lnkd.in/d3QxwSRC #physics #physicsnews #astrophysics #astronomy #RadcliffeWave #milkyway

Astronomers Detect Sudden Awakening of Black Hole For First Time: Astronomers are observing the sudden awakening of a giant black hole in the constellation of Virgo. "Decades of observations found nothing remarkable about the distant galaxy in the constellation of Virgo, but that changed at the end of 2019 when astronomers noticed a dramatic surge in its luminosity that persists to this day," reports The Guardian. "Researchers now believe they are witnessing changes that have never been seen before, with the black hole at the galaxy's core putting on an extreme cosmic light show as vast amounts of material fall into it." From the report: The galaxy, which goes by the snappy codename SDSS1335+0728 and lies 300m light years away, was flagged to astronomers in December 2019 when an observatory in California called the Zwicky Transient Facility recorded a sudden rise in its brightness. The alert prompted a flurry of new observations and checks of archived measurements from ground- and space-based telescopes to understand more about the galaxy and its past behavior. The scientists discovered the galaxy had recently doubled in brightness in mid-infrared wavelengths, become four times brighter in the ultraviolet, and at least 10 times brighter in the X-ray range. What triggered the sudden brightening is unclear, but writing in Astronomy and Astrophysics, the researchers say the most likely explanation is the creation of an "active galactic nucleus" where a vast black hole at the centre of a galaxy starts actively consuming the material around it. Active galactic nuclei emit a broad spectrum of light as gas around the black hole heats up and glows, and surrounding dust particles absorb some wavelengths and re-radiate others. But it is not the only possibility. The team has not ruled out an exotic form of "tidal disruption event," a highly restrained phrase to describe a star that is ripped apart after straying too close to a black hole. Tidal disruption events tend to be brief affairs, brightening a galaxy for no more than a few hundred days, but more measurements are needed to rule out the process. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Observing the first dust storm generated by a Type 1a supernova. Researchers led by Wang Lingzhi from the South America Center for Astronomy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have observed for the first time how a Type 1a supernova can produce cosmic dust storms. The researchers monitored supernova SN 2018evt for over three years using both space-based and ground-based facilities. Among the former were the Spitzer Space Telescope and NEOWISE missions, and among the later, the Las Cumbres Observatory's global network of telescopes, and other facilities in China, South America, and Australia. During the monitoring, they noticed that its light began to dim precipitously in the optical wavelengths, and then started glowing brighter in infrared light. This was a telltale sign that dust was being created in the circumstellar gas after it cooled following the supernova shock wave passing through it. The findings have been published in Nature Astronomy (9 February, 2024). https://lnkd.in/dJkfpAXx #physics #physicsnews #astrophysics #astronomy #supernovae #supernova #sn2018evt

Through the Looking Glass: Astronomers Unveil Strong Magnetic Fields Spiraling at the Edge of Milky Way’s Central Black Hole March 27, 2024 A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has uncovered strong and organized magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Seen in polarized light for the first time, this new view of the monster lurking at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy has revealed a magnetic field structure strikingly similar to that of the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy, suggesting that strong magnetic fields may be common to all black holes. This similarity also hints toward a hidden jet in Sgr A*. The results were published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Scientists unveiled the first image of Sgr A*— which is approximately 27,000 light-years away from Earth— in 2022, revealing that while the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole is more than a thousand times smaller and less massive than M87’s, it looks remarkably similar. This made scientists wonder whether the two shared common traits outside of their looks. To find out, the team decided to study Sgr A* in polarized light. Previous studies of light around M87* revealed that the magnetic fields around the black hole giant allowed it to launch powerful jets of material back into the surrounding environment.

"Exploring the Mysteries of the Universe: Recent Discoveries in Astrophysics" Dark Matter and Dark Energy: Investigate the latest findings regarding these elusive components that make up the majority of the universe's mass and energy. Black Hole Revelations: Explore groundbreaking discoveries shedding light on the nature of black holes, including their formation, behavior, and interactions with surrounding matter. Gravitational Waves: Delve into the revolutionary field of gravitational wave astronomy and its role in unveiling cosmic phenomena such as merging black holes and neutron stars. Exoplanet Exploration: Learn about recent advancements in exoplanet research, including the discovery of potentially habitable worlds and the search for signs of extraterrestrial life. Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation: Discover how studies of the universe's oldest light are providing insights into its early evolution and structure. Multimessenger Astronomy: Explore the integration of different observational techniques, such as traditional telescopes and neutrino detectors, to study cosmic events like supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. Galactic Dynamics: Investigate recent observations and simulations revealing the intricate dynamics of galaxies, including their formation, evolution, and interactions. High-Energy Astrophysics: Learn about recent breakthroughs in understanding cosmic phenomena such as active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, and cosmic rays. Cosmic Evolution: Examine the latest theories and observations elucidating the evolutionary history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies and structures. Future Frontiers: Explore emerging areas of astrophysical research, from the study of gravitational lensing and dark energy surveys to the search for elusive phenomena like primordial black holes and cosmic strings. #talentserve

📃Scientific paper: On Cepheid distances in the $H_0$ measurement Abstract: Classical Cepheids were the first stellar standard candles and have played a crucial role for astronomical distance measurements ever since the discovery of the Leavitt law (period-luminosity relation). Enormous improvements in distance accuracy have been achieved since Hertzsprung's first application of Leavitt's law to measure the distance to the Small Magellanic Cloud in 1913, notably in very recent years thanks to a large data set of highly accurate space astrometry from the ESA mission Gaia. Complemented by homogeneous space photometry, Cepheids enable the most accurate distance estimates to galaxies hosting type-Ia supernovae up to approximately 70 Mpc distant. Here, I review the history of Cepheid distance measurements, open questions on the side of stellar astrophysics, and recent studies seeking to quantify and mitigate systematics with a view to further improve the accuracy on the Hubble constant. For example, the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope will enhance precision due to 4x lower sensitivity to source blending in crowded regions and greater sensitivity in dust-insensitive infrared bands. Future 30m-class telescopes could in principle further improve Cepheid distance measurements towards the Hubble flow, if technical challenges related to a continuously evolving instrument can be overcome. ;Comment: 20 pages plus references. Finalized in early October 2023. To appear as a chapter in the Book "The Hubble Constant Tension", edited by E. Di ... Continued on ES/IODE ➡️ https://etcse.fr/eB6Yl ------- If you find this interesting, feel free to follow, comment and share. We need your help to enhance our visibility, so that our platform continues to serve you.

Observing the Omega How do the ELT (Extremely Large Telescope) and VLT (Very Large Telescope help us understand the Stars, Creation, and the Universe? The ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) during observations. In this picture, taken from the VLT platform looking north-northwest at twilight, the four 8.2-meter Unit Telescopes (UTs) are visible. From left to right, Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, and Yepun are the Mapuche names for the VLT's giant telescopes. In front of the UTs are the four 1.8-meter Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs), entirely dedicated to interferometry, a technique that allows astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than with individual telescopes. The configuration of the ATs can be changed by moving them across the platform between 30 different observing positions. One of these positions is in the foreground, covered by a hexagonal pad. A reddish laser beam is being launched from UT4 (Yepun) to create an artificial star at an altitude of 90 km in the Earth´s mesosphere. This Laser Guide Star (LGS) is part of the Adaptive Optics system, which allows astronomers to remove the effects of atmospheric turbulence, producing images almost as sharp as if the telescope were in space. The bluish compact group of stars visible to the right of the laser beam is the Pleiades open cluster. That artificial star creation by the VLT 90km high in our atmosphere allowed us to see the actual creation in action: " A black hole exploded or overspun into a Star." From darkness came light. From nothing Life was created. I am amazed at how science is proving the Ancient Texts were right! Not Mythology. But our Universe and Creation's History. Stay tuned for the last part at the beginning. And yes, The beginning shall be like the End. and the End like the Beginning. Next, understanding the Alpha, the beginning at CERN, and how what we see in the sky, the infinite or the Universe, is replicated in the minuscule particles. Within our atoms exist mini black holes, vortexes, and the life energy that comes and goes. This applies to technology because we use and recycle everything around us in a universal spin or loop we are continuously evolving, creating and learning, if only we could take our trash out? The trash are the impure particles in this cycle of life. At one point the Universe, a brightest sun goes dim and that is when the garbage is taken out, it is burned by fire, and that is the rebirth of a star being created out of that dark hole. So, in Technology, the trash is the redundant data, the past knowledge. The corporation has over 500 apps running continuously to manage its operations. We have been layering technology solutions and apps like a hoarder. When we need to lighten the load and see the light, be light. Empty but Full. AI is a medicine that allows under certain conditions like Self-control and Ethical behavior regeneration. David Gilden Reuven Cohen Alisée de Tonnac #intelligence #astronomy #technology #AI #Blockchain