Latest news with #AtacamaLargeMillimeterArray
The Print
25-05-2025
- Science
- The Print
007 would drool. Chinese researchers invent contact lenses that let you see even with your eyes closed
Infrared is basically light whose wavelength is too high to be visible to the naked human eye, but some aids can help with it. A study on the wearable upconversion contact lenses that grant humans near-infrared spatiotemporal color vision was published in peer-reviewed journal Cell on 22 May, describing the findings. New Delhi: In a game-changing new invention, scientists in China have developed infrared vision contact lenses. Think spy or military movies where characters wear night vision goggles to be able to see in the dark, but better. These new contact lenses allow a person to see even with their eyes closed. Without visible light sources, like during the night, infrared vision helps a lot, but usually, to convert infrared light to visible light, you need a power source. Now, researchers have developed these lenses that don't even need a power source, and allow those using these lenses to see infrared light even when their eyes are closed because infrared light penetrates the eyelids too. Read more here. Also Read: A 1972 Soviet-era spacecraft never reached Venus. Stuck in space for 50 yrs, it's now crashing back down 11-bn year old cosmic 'joust' Scientists have observed an 11 billion-year-old cosmic fight between two galaxies using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile. Galaxies don't actually fight but these two have been observed by a group of international scientists as colliding into each other with such force and radiation that it almost seems like a fight or a 'joust'. A study in the peer-reviewed journal Nature describes how in this collision, one of the galaxies has a quasar, which is the core of a supermassive black hole that releases tons of radiation, and this quasar is directly attacking the other galaxy. Due to the powerful ALMA, which is a Very Large Telescope (VLT), scientists say that for the first time ever they have been able to observe how a quasar's radiation affects a galaxy. They noticed that this radiation is directly impacting star formation in the galaxy by disrupting the gas and dust clouds. The study is a step in the right direction as it is the first time ever that we've been able to observe such a galactic collision with such detailed analysis. Read more here. Can you swim without a brain? Next up is a study from Vienna's Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Vienna, and Tufts University and Harvard University in the US, where researchers are looking to understand whether swimming movements are possible in organisms without a brain or a central nervous system. Technically, even an amoeba, a single-celled organism with no brain and bones or muscles, can swim. But what causes this swimming motion? According to computer simulations run by the researchers, it happens because of something that resembles a neural network, even in organisms with no brain. Simply put, this simulation showed that small chemical and physical signals can help organisms move in a swimming motion, without the need for a sophisticated nervous system. Their findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature on 8 May. This simulation is useful, said the study, not just because it helps in understanding how organisms with no brains swim, but also because it can help program artificial nanobots for purposes like delivering medicine through the bloodstream. Read more here. Mouth-taping can have serious health risks Finally, keeping up with Instagram health influencers might have brought to light a new trend of mouth-taping being promoted by many people while sleeping. The idea is to put a piece of duct tape across one's mouth when asleep to prevent mouth breathing. Well, a Canadian paper in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One says the activity has no real health benefits and could even worsen some forms of sleep apnea in people. Sleep apnea is a disorder where people have trouble breathing or have shallow breathing during their sleep, and especially if people aren't aware of their sleep apnea, it could be really harmful for them to tape their mouth shut during the night since it will restrict their airflow. It could also lead to serious implications like heart disease. It's why the paper reiterates the age-old advice—health decisions need to be made based on scientific evidence, not social media fads. Read more here. (Edited by Amrtansh Arora) Also Read: Crystals offer glimpse into Mars' possibly habitable past & sunscreen was a saviour 40,000 yrs ago too
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists find a galaxy that defies conventional wisdom
Scientists have spotted a defiant galaxy. Located nearly 1 billion light-years from Earth, the galaxy 2MASX J23453268−0449256 is a spiral, like our home the Milky Way. Yet it does something galactic researchers only thought possible in much more massive elliptical galaxies, which form through mergers of galaxies: It hosts an enormous supermassive black hole that emits powerful jets of energy into space — the type that would wreak havoc and destabilize such a spiral galaxy. "This discovery upends conventional wisdom, as such powerful jets are almost exclusively found in elliptical galaxies, not spirals," Suraj Dhiwar, a researcher at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in India who coauthored the new study, told Mashable. The research was published in the peer-reviewed journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills. Spiral galaxies are often considered too delicate to support the kind of extreme black hole activity seen in this galactic system, Joydeep Bagchi, an astrophysicist at Christ University in India who led the research, told Mashable. But this galaxy maintains its well-ordered spiral structure in the face of extreme blasts of energized particles and radiation from a black hole billions of times the mass of the sun, as you can see in the Hubble Space Telescope imagery above and below. "This discovery upends conventional wisdom." Black holes themselves — so gravitationally powerful not even light can escape their grasp — produce no radiation or light. But galactic material can rapidly spin around black holes, forming a vibrant "accretion disk" that radiates light. And sometimes material falling into a black hole can be rerouted into two giant jets, firing in opposite directions out into the universe. The Milky Way (bottom) compared to the larger galaxy 2MASX J23453268-0449256. Credit: Bagchi and Ray et al / Hubble Space Telescope The cosmic quandary of the expansive spiral galaxy 2MASX J23453268−0449256 calls for more telescopic investigation, the researchers emphasize. "It forces us to rethink how galaxies evolve, and how supermassive black holes grow in them and shape their environments," Dhiwar explained. So far, observations gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array reveal that the galaxy doesn't only have an orderly, tranquil spiral appearance. It also maintains a bright nuclear bar-shaped mass of stars near its core (as many spiral galaxies do) and an undisturbed outer stellar ring — home to some vigorous star formation. Imagery from a radio telescope show two colossal jets shooting out from the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy 2MASX J23453268−0449256. Credit: Bagchi and Ray et al / Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope The unusual circumstance of galaxy 2MASX J23453268−0449256 also has relevance to our galaxy. While the central supermassive black hole in the Milky Way, called Sagittarius A*, is much smaller and currently dormant, it could (one far-off day) awake. A mighty gas cloud or small dwarf galaxy could accrete around the black hole, providing the fuel needed for powerful jets of radiation to blast through our galaxy. These rapidly moving particles could pose a danger to planets. "If such jets were to form and be directed toward our solar system, they could potentially strip away planetary atmospheres, increase radiation exposure, and even trigger a mass extinction event on Earth," Bagchi said. Life on Earth has indeed thrived over eons, and eventually bounced back following mass extinctions. But might another, stoked by our massive black hole, be in the cards? Grasping how such active black holes behave in spiral galaxies can help us not just grasp the fate of our galaxy, but others. "Ultimately, this study brings us one step closer to unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos, reminding us that the universe still holds surprises beyond our imagination," Dhiwar said.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'Very rare' black hole energy jet discovered tearing through a spiral galaxy shaped like our own
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Nearly a billion light-years away, a massive spiral galaxy is screaming into the void. The behemoth, nicknamed J2345-0449, is a giant radio galaxy, or "super spiral" galaxy roughly three times the size of the Milky Way. Like our own spiral galaxy, it harbors a supermassive black hole at its center. But unlike the Milky Way's center, J2345-0449's supermassive black hole emits powerful radio jets — streams of fast-moving charged particles that emit radio waves — stretching more than 5 million light-years long. Though scientists don't yet know what fuels the radio jets, a new study, published March 20 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, hints at how giant spiral galaxies could form. Such strong radio jets are "very rare for spiral galaxies," Patrick Ogle, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science. "In general, they can have weak radio jets, but these powerful radio jets typically come from massive elliptical galaxies. The thought behind that is that to power these really big jets requires a very massive black hole, and one that's probably also spinning. So most spiral galaxies don't have massive enough black holes in the centers to create big jets like this." Related: Supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way is approaching the cosmic speed limit, dragging space-time along with it Data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array suggest that the radio jets currently prevent stars from forming near the galaxy's center. That's likely because the jets heat up nearby gases so much that they can't collapse into new stars — or push them out of the galaxy entirely. Though both J2345-0449 and the Milky Way are spiral galaxies, it's unlikely that we'll observe these powerful jets in our galactic hometown. "This galaxy is so different from the Milky Way," Ogle said. "It's a lot bigger, and the black hole is a lot more massive." Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, is likely too small to produce radio jets as powerful as the ones observed in J2345-0449, Ogle told Live Science. Still, studying these rare galaxies could help scientists understand how the growth of supermassive black holes and of their host galaxies are related. Based on the shape of the group of stars at the center of the galaxy, it's possible that this black hole and its massive host galaxy have grown together in relative isolation, rather than gaining their mass from galaxy mergers. RELATED STORIES —Could the secret of supermassive black holes lie in ultralight dark matter? —Supermassive black holes in 'little red dot' galaxies are 1,000 times larger than they should be, and astronomers don't know why —Supermassive black hole spotted 12.9 billion light-years from Earth — and it's shooting a beam of energy right at us In the future, detailed studies of the galaxy's supermassive black hole could also explain what powers its massive radio jets. "The extreme rarity of such galaxies implies that whatever physical process had created such huge radio jets in J2345-0449 must be very difficult to realize and maintain for long periods of time in most other spiral/disc galaxies," the researchers wrote in the study. "Understanding these rare galaxies could provide vital clues about the unseen forces governing the universe," study co-author Shankar Ray, an astrophysicist at Christ University, Bangalore, said in a statement. "Ultimately, this study brings us one step closer to unravelling the mysteries of the cosmos, reminding us that the universe still holds surprises beyond our imagination."
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
A recipe for baby stars: Just add fluffy molecular clouds
To understand how the universe was formed and how we got here, ancient stars are some of the best objects to study — yet astronomers know surprisingly little about the conditions in which they were formed. Dominant cosmological theories posit that stars are formed in molecular clouds that are sufficiently large and dense that it has the conditions necessary to create new stars. These same experts have been uncertain, however, about some of the specifics of those conditions. What is it really like in those interstellar nurseries known as molecular clouds? According to a recent study in The Astrophysical Journal, some of the molecular clouds out of which stars are formed can be captured by an adjective one does not often associate with stars: fluffy. Scientists at Japan's Kyushu University learned this, in collaboration with researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University, by studying the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way located roughly 20,000 lightyears from Earth. Because the SMC contains approximately twenty percent of the heavy elements of the Milky Way, it is believed to closely resemble the cosmic environment of the early universe from 10 billion years ago. That is why astronomers used the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) radio telescope in Chile, which is powerful enough to capture higher-resolution images of the SMC. 'Our study was motivated by a fundamental question: how did star formation occur in the early universe?' Dr. Kazuki Tokuda, an Earth and planetary sciences professor at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, told Salon. 'We sought to understand the formation and evolution of stellar nurseries — molecular clouds where stars are born — under conditions similar to those billions of years ago,' Tokuda added. 'Typically, studying ancient star-forming regions requires observing galaxies that are tens of billions of light years away.' Next the scientists assembled a dataset covering 17 distinct molecular clouds associated with massive young stellar objects. While coordinating this data from multiple programs can be challenging, Tokuda explained that it also presented 'a unique opportunity.' 'We focused on aspects of these datasets that had not yet been fully explored, and this approach not only tested our ability to integrate diverse observations but also revealed intriguing details about the evolution of star-forming regions in the SMC,' Tokuda said. This is where the 'fluffiness' factor comes into play. Tokuda and the other scientists wanted to understand if filaments, or threadlike fibers, form during star formation, as this reveals key details about their density and overall composition. In the paper the researchers concluded that 'even if filaments form during star formation, their steep structures may become less prominent and transit to a lower-temperature state.' Even though prior observation of the Milky Way showed these filaments were present in molecular clouds which became sites for star formation, Alma's SMC studies demonstrate that stars can also form in fluffier conditions. 'Recent observations of our own Milky Way have increasingly highlighted the importance of filamentary molecular clouds as the primary sites of star formation,' Tokuda said. 'However, more diffuse, fluffy molecular clouds have not received as much attention over the past decade.' Although these structures are lighter than the molecular clouds with filamentary structures, they are still quite similar in other crucial aspects.'The environment, such as an adequate supply of heavy elements, is crucial for maintaining a filamentary structure and may play an important role in the formation of planetary systems,' Tokuda said in the study's accompanying press statement. 'In the future, it will be important to compare our results with observations of molecular clouds in heavy-element-rich environments, including the Milky Way galaxy. Such studies should provide new insights into the formation and temporal evolution of molecular clouds and the universe.' The researchers determined that stars can be formed in a diverse range of structures, but that there are 'systematic differences in the physical properties of filamentary and non-filamentary clouds. The former tend to have smaller velocity dispersions relative to their column densities and exhibit higher temperatures.' Additionally filamentary clouds tend to have faster velocities and at an increasing width relative to their columns' density, 'consistent with the relationship observed in the [Large Magellanic Cloud],' a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way. Finally, they added that 'the high temperatures observed in the filaments suggest that they likely preserve the heated conditions related to their cloud formation. In addition, [young stellar objects] with proto-stellar outflows have been found in some filamentary clouds.' When their research into the SMC is synthesized with the growing body of knowledge about other galaxies, Tokuda told Salon that he hopes one day astronomers will be able 'to deepen our understanding of how molecular clouds form and evolve under different conditions.' Dr. Avi Loeb, a Harvard University astronomer, told Salon that the paper illuminates a previously mysterious story involving the history of the universe. 'The data indicates that the youngest stars form in filaments of gas,' Loeb said. 'Subsequently the gas cools and fragments into later generations of stars in less filamentary structures. This behavior is not shared in star forming environments that are more enriched in heavy elements.' He added, 'The new behavior sheds new light on what star formation in the early universe, before the primordial gas was enriched with heavy elements.'
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
A recipe for baby stars: Just add fluffy molecular clouds
To understand how the universe was formed and how we got here, ancient stars are some of the best objects to study — yet astronomers know surprisingly little about the conditions in which they were formed. Dominant cosmological theories posit that stars are formed in molecular clouds that are sufficiently large and dense that it has the conditions necessary to create new stars. These same experts have been uncertain, however, about some of the specifics of those conditions. What is it really like in those interstellar nurseries known as molecular clouds? According to a recent study in The Astrophysical Journal, some of the molecular clouds out of which stars are formed can be captured by an adjective one does not often associate with stars: fluffy. Scientists at Japan's Kyushu University learned this, in collaboration with researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University, by studying the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way located roughly 20,000 lightyears from Earth. Because the SMC contains approximately twenty percent of the heavy elements of the Milky Way, it is believed to closely resemble the cosmic environment of the early universe from 10 billion years ago. That is why astronomers used the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) radio telescope in Chile, which is powerful enough to capture higher-resolution images of the SMC. 'Our study was motivated by a fundamental question: how did star formation occur in the early universe?' Dr. Kazuki Tokuda, an Earth and planetary sciences professor at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, told Salon. 'We sought to understand the formation and evolution of stellar nurseries — molecular clouds where stars are born — under conditions similar to those billions of years ago,' Tokuda added. 'Typically, studying ancient star-forming regions requires observing galaxies that are tens of billions of light years away.' Next the scientists assembled a dataset covering 17 distinct molecular clouds associated with massive young stellar objects. While coordinating this data from multiple programs can be challenging, Tokuda explained that it also presented 'a unique opportunity.' 'We focused on aspects of these datasets that had not yet been fully explored, and this approach not only tested our ability to integrate diverse observations but also revealed intriguing details about the evolution of star-forming regions in the SMC,' Tokuda said. This is where the 'fluffiness' factor comes into play. Tokuda and the other scientists wanted to understand if filaments, or threadlike fibers, form during star formation, as this reveals key details about their density and overall composition. In the paper the researchers concluded that 'even if filaments form during star formation, their steep structures may become less prominent and transit to a lower-temperature state.' Even though prior observation of the Milky Way showed these filaments were present in molecular clouds which became sites for star formation, Alma's SMC studies demonstrate that stars can also form in fluffier conditions. 'Recent observations of our own Milky Way have increasingly highlighted the importance of filamentary molecular clouds as the primary sites of star formation,' Tokuda said. 'However, more diffuse, fluffy molecular clouds have not received as much attention over the past decade.' Although these structures are lighter than the molecular clouds with filamentary structures, they are still quite similar in other crucial aspects.'The environment, such as an adequate supply of heavy elements, is crucial for maintaining a filamentary structure and may play an important role in the formation of planetary systems,' Tokuda said in the study's accompanying press statement. 'In the future, it will be important to compare our results with observations of molecular clouds in heavy-element-rich environments, including the Milky Way galaxy. Such studies should provide new insights into the formation and temporal evolution of molecular clouds and the universe.' The researchers determined that stars can be formed in a diverse range of structures, but that there are 'systematic differences in the physical properties of filamentary and non-filamentary clouds. The former tend to have smaller velocity dispersions relative to their column densities and exhibit higher temperatures.' Additionally filamentary clouds tend to have faster velocities and at an increasing width relative to their columns' density, 'consistent with the relationship observed in the [Large Magellanic Cloud],' a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way. Finally, they added that 'the high temperatures observed in the filaments suggest that they likely preserve the heated conditions related to their cloud formation. In addition, [young stellar objects] with proto-stellar outflows have been found in some filamentary clouds.' When their research into the SMC is synthesized with the growing body of knowledge about other galaxies, Tokuda told Salon that he hopes one day astronomers will be able 'to deepen our understanding of how molecular clouds form and evolve under different conditions.' Dr. Avi Loeb, a Harvard University astronomer, told Salon that the paper illuminates a previously mysterious story involving the history of the universe. 'The data indicates that the youngest stars form in filaments of gas,' Loeb said. 'Subsequently the gas cools and fragments into later generations of stars in less filamentary structures. This behavior is not shared in star forming environments that are more enriched in heavy elements.' He added, 'The new behavior sheds new light on what star formation in the early universe, before the primordial gas was enriched with heavy elements.'
