Latest from Ammon
Ammon
18 hours ago
- Health
- Ammon
Australian man dies after contracting the first NSW case of bat lyssavirus
Ammon News - A man from northern New South Wales has died after contracting the state's first recorded case of Australian bat lyssavirus, a close relative of the rabies virus. The man, in his 50s, was bitten by a bat 'several' months ago and received treatment at the time, NSW Health said. On Thursday, the department confirmed the man had died and urged the community to avoid touching or handling bats. The Guardian
Ammon
18 hours ago
- Business
- Ammon
Meeting to discuss licensing, operation of Amman Civil Airport
Ammon News - Minister of Transport Wissam Tahtamouni chaired a meeting on Thursday with the Chairman of the Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission (CARC) Haitham Misto, Director General of Jordan Airports Company Mohammad Jaloudi, and several stakeholders from relevant entities to discuss the latest developments related to the licensing and operation of Amman Civil Airport. During the meeting, Tahtamouni reviewed a detailed report on recent achievements and the remaining technical and regulatory requirements. About 70 percent of the requirements have been completed, paving the way to prepare tender documents for developing and operating the airport within a set timeline to ensure completion to the highest standards. She emphasized that the Amman Civil Airport project is a top priority, as it is a vital initiative that supports the aviation sector and strengthens Jordan's position as a regional hub for transport and logistics services. She stressed the importance of continuing efforts to finalize all necessary technical and administrative requirements to license and operate the airport efficiently. Tahtamouni added that upgrading the airport is an important step to support domestic and international air traffic and stimulate tourism and economic investments. She affirmed that the project is moving forward in full coordination with all concerned parties to ensure implementation according to the approved plan. Petra
Ammon
19 hours ago
- Sport
- Ammon
National team player Mardi joins UAE's Dibba Club
Ammon News - The UAE's Dibba Football Club announced the signing of national football team player Mahmoud Mardi on loan from Al-Hussein Irbid. The club's official social media account posted: "Welcome to our new player, Mahmoud Mardi."
Ammon
19 hours ago
- Science
- Ammon
Astronomers get picture of aftermath of a star's double detonation
Ammon News - The explosion of a star, called a supernova, is an immensely violent event. It usually involves a star more than eight times the mass of our sun that exhausts its nuclear fuel and undergoes a core collapse, triggering a single powerful explosion. But a rarer kind of supernova involves a different type of star - a stellar ember called a white dwarf - and a double detonation. Researchers have obtained photographic evidence of this type of supernova for the first time, using the European Southern Observatory's Chile-based Very Large Telescope. The back-to-back explosions obliterated a white dwarf that had a mass roughly equal to the sun and was located about 160,000 light‑years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Dorado in a galaxy near the Milky Way called the Large Magellanic Cloud. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). The image shows the scene of the explosion roughly 300 years after it occurred, with two concentric shells of the element calcium moving outward. This type of explosion, called a Type Ia supernova, would have involved the interaction between a white dwarf and a closely orbiting companion star - either another white dwarf or an unusual star rich in helium - in what is called a binary system. The primary white dwarf through its gravitational pull would begin to siphon helium from its companion. The helium on the white dwarf's surface at some point would become so hot and dense that it would detonate, producing a shockwave that would compress and ignite the star's underlying core and trigger a second detonation. "Nothing remains. The white dwarf is completely disrupted," said Priyam Das, a doctoral student in astrophysics at the University of New South Wales Canberra in Australia, lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Astronomy, opens new tab. "The time delay between the two detonations is essentially set by the time it takes the helium detonation to travel from one pole of the star all the way around to the other. It's only about two seconds," said astrophysicist and study co-author Ivo Seitenzahl, a visiting scientist at the Australian National University in Canberra. In the more common type of supernova, a remnant of the massive exploded star is left behind in the form of a dense neutron star or a black hole. The researchers used the Very Large Telescope's Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, or MUSE, instrument to map the distribution of different chemical elements in the supernova aftermath. Calcium is seen in blue in the image - an outer ring caused by the first detonation and an inner ring by the second. These two calcium shells represent "the perfect smoking-gun evidence of the double-detonation mechanism," Das said. "We can call this forensic astronomy - my made-up term - since we are studying the dead remains of stars to understand what caused the death," Das said. Stars with up to eight times the mass of our sun appear destined to become a white dwarf. They eventually burn up all the hydrogen they use as fuel. Gravity then causes them to collapse and blow off their outer layers in a "red giant" stage, eventually leaving behind a compact core - the white dwarf. The vast majority of these do not explode as supernovas. While scientists knew of the existence of Type Ia supernovas, there had been no clear visual evidence of such a double detonation until now. Type Ia supernovas are important in terms of celestial chemistry in that they forge heavier elements such as calcium, sulfur and iron. "This is essential for understanding galactic chemical evolution including the building blocks of planets and life," Das said. A shell of sulfur also was seen in the new observations of the supernova aftermath. Iron is a crucial part of Earth's planetary composition and, of course, a component of human red blood cells. In addition to its scientific importance, the image offers aesthetic value. "It's beautiful," Seitenzahl said. "We are seeing the birth process of elements in the death of a star. The Big Bang only made hydrogen and helium and lithium. Here we see how calcium, sulfur or iron are made and dispersed back into the host galaxy, a cosmic cycle of matter." Reuters
Ammon
19 hours ago
- Business
- Ammon
Microsoft is laying off as many as 9,000 employees
Ammon News - Microsoft confirmed that it's laying off as many as 9,100 employees, or about 4 percent of its workforce, in yet another round of cuts this year, reports The Seattle Times. Employees in Microsoft's Xbox division, known as Microsoft Gaming, are being hit hard by these layoffs, although exact numbers and divisions are not yet known. Xbox leader Phil Spencer said in a message to the team, 'To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft's lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness.' Bloomberg reports that the now Microsoft-owned King division that makes Candy Crush is cutting about 10 percent of employees, or 200 people, while other units, like ZeniMax, have also confirmed they are cutting jobs. Microsoft is also laying off more than 70 people at its Forza Motorsport studio, Turn 10, as well as cancelling its Perfect Dark and Everwild games. The studio behind Perfect Dark, The Initiative, is also closing down as part of these layoffs. These major layoffs come less than two months after Microsoft announced it was cutting more than 6,000 employees, followed by an additional 305 reductions in early June. Microsoft employees have faced a series of layoffs over the past year, including a round of performance-based cuts that have seriously hit morale, according to multiple Microsoft employees I've spoken to. The Verge
