Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 12 YEARS AND 11 MONTHS.
ON 06/05/2024 MORE THAN 1.972.210
VISITORS FROM 134 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
14-12-2022
LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS AND VIDEOS
LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS AND VIDEOS
OCEAN VORTEX SWALLOWS FLEET OF SHIPS | The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters (Season 1)
The crew is on a mission to find evidence of Jingle’s fleet at the bottom of a mid-ocean sink hole. See more in this clip from Season 1, "Holes in the Ocean."
Watch new episodes of The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters, Tuesdays at 10/9c, and stay up to date on all of your favorite The HISTORY Channel shows at history.com/schedule.
Perseverance captures sound of a Martian dust devil
NASA's Perseverance rover captured audio of a Martian dust devil on September 21, 2021 using its SuperCam microphone. The dust devil traveled "directly over the Perseverance rover," according to Nature Communications paper authors Naomi Murdoch and colleagues.
Sunspot crackling with strong M flares - See them in 4K time-lapse
Sunspot AR3165 has erupted with several m-class solar flares in a span of a few hours. NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the fireworks in several wavelengths.
Credit:Space.com | footage courtesy: NASA/SDO/helioviewer.org | edited by Steve Spaleta
The eerie sound of Mars' 'dust devils': Recordings taken by NASA's Perseverance rover suggest whirlwinds reach over 387 FEET tall as they skim across the Red Planet
The eerie sound of Mars' 'dust devils': Recordings taken by NASA's Perseverance rover suggest whirlwinds reach over 387 FEET tall as they skim across the Red Planet
NASA's Perseverance rover has taken an audio recording of a dust devil on Mars
The whirlwind of grit was over 387 feet (118m) and blew at 25mph (40kph)
It provided scientists insight into the atmosphere and weather on the Red Planet
You can hear the blowing winds and sound of dust hitting the rover's exterior
Dust tornadoes over 387feet (118m) tall are skimming along the surface of Mars, scientists have found.
Known as 'dust devils', these whirlwinds swirl around at speeds of 25mph (40kph), blowing up grit and particles as they go.
NASA's Perseverance rover took the first ever audio recording of the phenomenon, which provides insight into the atmosphere and weather on the Red Planet.
This could help engineers as they design future Mars missions, as bombardment from the dust has implications on the hardware we send up.
Recording of a 'dust devil' on Mars. Two periods of the low frequency wind can be heard as the dust devil leading and trailing walls pass over the rover. Grains impacting the rover can also be heard.
Dust tornadoes over 387feet (118m) tall are skimming along the surface of Mars, scientists have found. Pictured: A 70-yard-wide Martian dust devil
This is a spectrogram of the microphone sound showing the wind noise, grain impacts and also the rover pump harmonic at 760 Hz. A large grain impact causes an acoustic echo at approximately 6kHz due to sound reflections from the base of the microphone
PERSEVERANCE ROVER COMES WITH 23 CAMERAS
There are 23 cameras mounted to the Perseverance rover including:
Nine engineering cameras, seven science cameras and seven for entry, descent and landing.
The engineering cameras give detailed information in colour about the terrain the rover has to cross.
They measure the ground for safe driving, check out the status of hardware and support sample gathering.
There are Hazcams for hazard detection and Navcams for navigation.
Science cameras record in more detail and can even capture 3D images.
The Mastcam-Zon a 2 metre arm has a zoom feature for focusing on distant objects and can film video.
The Supercam fires a laser at mineral targets beyond the reach of the rovers arm to analysed the chemical composition of the rock.
Perseverance landed in the Jezero Crater on Mars on 18 February 2021, after a nearly seven-month journey through space.
Since then, the car-sized robot has been searching for ancient biomarkers in the Martian clay, which could indicate if alien life ever existed there.
It is equipped with 23 cameras that help it navigate, assess its safety and collect visual data on near and distant objects.
One of those cameras is the 'Supercam' – a suite of tools located on Perseverance's 'head' that contains scientific instruments, cameras and a microphone.
Sensors on other landers and rovers have been able to pick up vibrations on Mars in the past, however this microphone is the first to ever grace its surface.
It records samples at nearly 100,000 times a second, which gives researchers a stronger sense of the environmental conditions on Mars.
'We can learn a lot more using sound than we can with some of the other tools,' said Dr Roger Wiens, the principal investigator of Perseverance's SuperCam.
Scientists at NASA and the National Higher French Institute of Aeronautics and Space have used the microphone to make the first ever recording of an extraterrestrial dust devil.
Dust devils are common on Mars, and indicate areas of atmospheric turbulence.
They lift dust into the atmosphere - an important step in the planet's dust cycle, which helps regulate its climate.
This particular one was about 82 feet (25 m) wide, which is about ten times wider than the rover itself.
Perseverance (pictured) landed in the Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18 2021, after a nearly seven-month journey through space
Dust devils (pictured) are common on Mars, and indicate areas of atmospheric turbulence. They lift dust into the atmosphere – an important step in the planet's dust cycle
Prior to this recording, data collected by Perseverance's other sensors showed that over a hundred of these tornadoes have passed over the rover since it landed.
However, since the microphone is only on for about three minutes every day, it wasn't until 27 September 2021 that the sound of a dust devil was picked up for the first time.
You can clearly hear the blowing winds, with a faint pattering of grains bouncing off the rover's exterior.
As well as the audio recording, Perseverance took air pressure readings and time-lapse photos during this encounter.
Dr Roger Wiens, the principal investigator of Perseverance's SuperCam, said that all this enabled the researchers to follow the dust devil.
He said: 'We could watch the pressure drop, listen to the wind, then have a little bit of silence that is the eye of the tiny storm, and then hear the wind again and watch the pressure rise.'
This figure shows the relative size of the dust devil with respect to the Perseverance rover. The dust devil diameter (white circles) is 25 m. The blue dashed arrow shows the dust devil trajectory direction. The rover Navigation camera (Navcam) field of view is indicated by the pale triangle. At t1, Perseverance is in the leading vortex wall. At t2, Perseverance is inside the eye of the vortex. At t3, Perseverance is in the tailing vortex wall. The orange arrows indicate the clockwise rotational direction of the vortex winds
These are images taken of the direct dust devil encounter by the rover’s Navigation Camera (Navcam). The images have been processed to show the quantity of dust. The colour scale ranges from lowest dust content (blue) to highest dust content (yellow)
WHAT IS A 'DUST DEVIL'?
Dust devils are small 'but vigorous' whirlwinds that pick up dust, sand and debris it picks up from the ground.
They range from 3 to 30 metres in diameter on Earth, with an average high of 200 metres. Some have reached up to a kilometer.
They form when hot air rises quickly through the cooler air above it. If conditions are right this can cause a spinning effect as the air rises.
Source: American Meteorological Society
The team analysed all the data Perseverance collected together, and their findings were published today in Nature Communications.
He said: 'The wind is fast, about 25 miles per hour, but about what you would see in a dust devil on Earth.
'The difference is that the air pressure on Mars is so much lower that the winds, while just as fast, push with about one per cent of the pressure the same speed of wind would have back on Earth.
'It's not a powerful wind, but clearly enough to loft particles of grit into the air to make a dust devil.'
This will come as a relief to future astronauts, who can be confident that they won't have to face gale force winds while exploring the planet.
The dust devils may also have blown off grit that settled on the solar panels of previous rovers, helping them to survive on Mars for longer than they otherwise would have.
The Spirit rover lasted for six years, and the Opportunity rover remained active for nearly 15 years.
Dr Wiens said: 'Those rover teams would see a slow decline in power over a number of days to weeks, then a jump. That was when wind cleared off the solar panels.'
This could explain why the InSight lander, which currently sits in the less windy Elysium Planitia, is winding down its mission after only four years.
Scientists at NASA and the National Higher French Institute of Aeronautics and Space have used Perseverance's microphone to make the first ever recording of an extraterrestrial dust devil. Pictured: A dust devil photographed by NASA's Curiosity Rover
Prior to this recording, data collected by Perseverance's other sensors showed that over a hundred of these tornadoes have passed over the rover since it landed. Pictured: Three dust devils photographed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
The researchers hope the microphone will be able to pick up the sound of dust devils that appear in different geological locations on Mars.
This will allow them to compare data from the different recordings to find out how the Martian landscape affects their properties.
'Just like Earth, there is different weather in different areas on Mars,' Dr Wiens added.
'Using all of our instruments and tools, especially the microphone, helps us get a concrete sense of what it would be like to be on Mars.'
NASA MARS 2020: PERSEVERANCE ROVER AND INGENUITY HELICOPTER ARE SEARCHING FOR LIFE ON THE RED PLANET
NASA's Mars 2020 mission was launched to search for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet in a bid to help scientists better understand how life evolved on Earth in the earliest years of the evolution of the solar system.
Named Perseverance, the main car-sized rover is exploring an ancient river delta within the Jezero Crater, which was once filled with a 1,600ft deep lake.
It is believed that the region hosted microbial life some 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago and the rover will examine soil samples to hunt for evidence of the life.
Nasa's Mars 2020 rover (artist's impression) is searching for signs of ancient life on Mars in a bid to help scientists better understand how life evolved on our own planet
The $2.5 billion (£1.95 billion) Mars 2020 spaceship launched on July 30 with the rover and helicopter inside - and landed successfully on February 18, 2021.
Perseverance landed inside the crater and will slowly collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth for further analysis.
A second mission will fly to the planet and return the samples, perhaps by the later 2020s in partnership with the European Space Agency.
This concept art shows the Mars 2020 rover landing on the red planet via NASA's 'sky-crane' system
A dust devil swirls across the landscape in Jezero Crater.
Asteroids Didn’t Create the Moon’s Largest Craters. Left-Over Planetesimals Did
The largest impact basin on the Moon is the South-Pole Aitken basin. It, and other impact basins, were created by planetesimals according to a new study.
Asteroids Didn’t Create the Moon’s Largest Craters. Left-Over Planetesimals Did
The Moon’s pock-marked surface tells the story of its history. It’s marked by over 9,000 impact craters, according to the International Astronomical Union (IAU.) The largest ones are called impact basins, not craters. According to a new study, asteroids didn’t create the basins; leftover planetesimals did.
A 2014 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera image showing two similarly sized craters in Mare Tranquillitatis. Both are about 500 meters in diameter. One is littered with boulders and the other is not. This boulder discrepancy is likely due to age differences between the two craters. Image width is about 2 kilometers. North points up.
The Giant Impact Hypothesis shows that the Moon was created when a Mars-sized protoplanet slammed into Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. The collision sent molten material into orbit around Earth. Some of that material fell to Earth, and some coalesced to become the Moon.
As the molten rock coalesced, the Moon experienced a phase called the Lunar Magma Ocean (LMO.) The Moon’s entire surface was molten during the LMO, and while astronomers do not doubt that massive objects collided with the Moon during that episode, there’s no record of them. Only once the Moon solidified could impacts leave a lasting mark.
This illustration shows the Lunar Magma Ocean and the first rocky crust on the Moon. Image Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Researchers try to understand the Moon by piecing together the history of lunar impacts, and the solidification of the LMO marks hour zero for the Moon’s impact record. Since the Moon is geologically inactive, every impactor that struck the Moon since hour zero left a mark that’s still there to this day.
Some of the Moon’s craters are so vast that they’re called impact basins, not craters. Basins are not only larger than craters, but they’re also more complex and tend to have a central peak ring rather than a single central peak. Features larger than 300 km are called lunar impact basins, and there are about 50 of them. The Moon’s largest impact basin is the South-Pole Aitken (SPA) basin, and it’s 2,494.5 kilometres (1,550 miles) in diameter. Texas could fit inside it.
This image shows the main impact basins on the Moon. The left shows the lunar near side, and the right shows the far side. Image Credit: LPI (Paul Spudis and David Kring)
A new study says the leftover terrestrial planetesimals formed these basins when they slammed into the Moon. The study is “Formation of Lunar Basins from Impacts of Leftover Planetesimals,” published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The lead author is David Nesvorný from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI.)
The impactors that created the basins played a huge role in the Moon’s history and controlled much of its geology. When they struck, they removed existing crust material from the innermost peak ring and thickened the crust between the inner peak ring and the outer rim crest. The Moon’s mare basalts, which the Apollo missions sampled, are mostly confined to the topographic depressions in the middle of the basins. The impacts also created faulting and other deformations over large regions of the lunar surface and excavated mantle material. This exposed mantle material holds clues to fundamental planetary formation and evolution processes.
Some impact basins are still referred to as lunar mares because of their appearance. Ancient humans thought the dark regions inside the basins were oceans. The basins became filled with basaltic lava not when they were initially formed but when other impactors struck the opposite side of the Moon from the basins and triggered volcanic activity. Mares cover about 16% of the lunar surface.
Mare Imbrium, or the Sea of Showers, is easily seen from Earth and is highlighted in this map of the Moon. It’s called a lunar mare because the Imbrium impact basin was covered in basaltic lava sometime in the past. The other large, dark spots are also basins created from asteroid impacts. Credit: NASA
When these basins form, the impact spreads ejecta far and wide, which helps researchers piece together the Moon’s history. A crater on top of the ejecta must be younger than the impact basin, and if a basin partially buries a crater, then the crater is older.
Previous research showed that asteroids from the main belt are responsible for these impact basins. “The basin-forming impactors were suspected to be asteroids released from an inner extension of the main belt (1.8–2.0 au),” the authors write. But in their paper, the authors say that most impactors were planetesimals. “Here, we show that most impactors were instead rocky planetesimals left behind at ~0.5–1.5 au after the terrestrial planet accretion.”
The Schrodinger impact basin is on the lunar far side. It’s a strong example of a peak-ring basin with a central peak ring rather than a single central peak. Schrodinger is an ancient basin formed around 3.8 to 3.9 billion years ago. Image Credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio (NASA SVS).
NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite captured this image of Pingualuit Crater on August 17, 2002. In it, water appears blue, and land appears in varying shades of beige. With a diameter of 2.14 miles (3.44 kilometers), Pingualuit Crater holds a lake about 876 feet (267 meters) deep.
More planetesimals collided with the Moon than show up in the record because planetesimals were more plentiful earlier in the Solar System’s history, and some would have struck during the Moon’s LMO phase. “… the first ~200 Myr of impacts are not recorded on the lunar surface,” the researchers explain.
The researchers created models to determine planetesimals’ role in forming the lunar basins. They based their models on previous research into terrestrial planet accretion that shows how planetesimals changed over time due to collisions with other objects. This is called collisional grinding, which eventually results in a uniform size distribution of planetesimals. They also relied on the dynamical modelling of asteroids and comets to see what role they played in lunar impacts.
This figure from the study shows early impacts of diameter d > 20 km planetesimals on the Moon. In the first billion years after the LMO solidified, leftover terrestrial planetesimals accounted for most impact basins. Over time, they were depleted from the Solar System, leaving only asteroids and comets as lunar impactors. Image Credit: David Nesvorný et al 2022 ApJL 941 L9
The authors’ work shows that asteroid impacts created the most impacts in the last 3.5 billion years. But before that, planetesimals did most of the damage. “The integrated history of lunar impacts shows that leftover planetesimals dominated the early impact flux (t < 1.1 Gyr or T > 3.5 Ga; T is measured looking backward from today).” Comets created some impact craters in the Solar System, but not many, compared to asteroids and planetesimals.
Their results also show that about 500 20km diameter planetesimals struck the Moon during its LMO phase. But those impacts left no lasting mark.
The prominent Imbrium basin is a bit of an outlier, according to this work. In their model, the planetesimal that created the Imbrium basin “occurs with a 15%–35% probability”, was greater than or equal to about 100 km in diameter, and struck about 3.92 billion years ago. The authors say it must have formed late because it only has two smaller basins overlying it.
The results are supported by impacts on Earth, too. But without impact craters to study, researchers rely on spherule beds. When impactors strike Earth, they create a plume of vaporized rock. The rock condenses into tiny sphere-shaped rocks called spherules that shower back onto the Earth. They form spherule beds embedded in rock. “Our model predicts ~20 d > 10 km impacts on the Earth for T = 2.5–3.5 Ga.,” the study says. “This is similar to the number of known spherule beds in the late Archean.”
In this time interval, both main-belt asteroids and leftover planetesimals struck Earth. But, they write, “Whereas the asteroid impacts were more uniformly spread over the late Archean, nearly all planetesimal impacts should have happened before 3 Ga.”
This figure from the study shows the number of 10km diameter or larger impactors that struck Earth. Leftover planetesimals accounted for most of the impacts for the first billion years following Earth’s magma ocean phase. The number of spherule beds on the Earth agrees with their model, according to the authors. The inset picture is the Monteville spherule layer in South Africa. Image Credit: David Nesvorný et al 2022 ApJL 941 L9. Inset Image Credit: Reimold & Koeberl 2014
Researchers are still studying the Moon’s craters and piecing together the Solar System’s history. While the IAU officially recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated, these numbers are likely to change. New research based on data from China’s Chang’E lunar orbiter puts the number of craters closer to 130,000. Other research puts the number even higher: two million craters larger than 1-2 km.
Whatever the eventual number, each crater is like a fossil. Earth lacks this fossil record, and piecing together the impact fossil record on the Moon not only reveals the Moon’s history; it reveals Earth’s.
We Have Ignition! Fusion Breakthrough Raises Hopes — and Questions
For the first time ever, physicists have set off a controlled nuclear fusion reaction that released more energy than what was put into the experiment.
The milestone laser shot took place on Dec. 5 at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The fact that there was a net energy gain qualified the shot, in technical terms, as ignition. “Reaching ignition in a controlled fusion experiment is an achievement that has come after more than 60 years of global research, development, engineering and experimentation,” said Jill Hruby, under secretary of energy for nuclear security and the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
However, officials acknowledged that it’s still likely to be decades before commercial fusion power becomes a reality. They said the most immediate impact of the breakthrough will be felt in the field of national security and the stewardship of America’s nuclear weapons stockpile.
If nuclear fusion power can be harnessed, that could open up a new era of cleaner, more abundant energy. One of the potential fuels for fusion is deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen that can be extracted from seawater.
Fusion takes advantage of the same reaction that lights up the sun. Unlike nuclear fission, which involves the decay of heavy radioactive elements, fusion smashes together lighter elements so forcefully that some of the mass of the fuel is converted into energy in line with Albert Einstein’s famous E=mc2 equation.
Researchers around the world have been working to maximize the efficiency of fusion reactions in the lab. The biggest project is the international ITER experiment in France, which will use a giant magnetic confinement device known as a tokamak. The National Ignition Facility uses a different approach, which focuses a blast from 192 high-powered lasers on a tiny capsule containing a deuterium-tritium target that’s smaller than a BB pellet.
The NIF team has been trying to achieve ignition for years, but it’s been devilishly difficult to craft the target pellet and the geometry of the laser blast to produce the pressures and temperatures required for fusion. Mark Herrmann, program director for weapon physics and design at the Livermore Lab, compared the effort to a race between heating up the target and losing that heat due to tiny defects in the design.
“For many, many decades, we lost the race,” Herrmann said.
Thanks in part to machine learning tools, the design was improved over the past few months. At 1:03 a.m. PT Dec. 5, a laser shot put 2.05 megajoules of energy into the experiment — and got back 3.15 megajoules of neutron-producing fusion energy. “A gain of 1.5,” said Marv Adams, NNSA’s deputy administrator for defense programs.
Tammy Ma, who leads Livermore Lab’s Inertial Fusion Energy Institutional Initiative, said she “burst into tears” when she heard about the successful shot.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the achievement would “go down in the history books.”
“This milestone moves us one significant step closer to abundant carbon-free energy powering our society,” she said.
The wider fusion research community also hailed the breakthrough. “Today’s announcement shows the world that fusion is not science fiction: It will soon be a viable source of energy,” Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association, said in a news release. “There are still many steps between these experimental results and fusion power plants, but this is an important milestone for fusion.”
David Kirtley — the CEO of Helion Energy, a commercial fusion company based in Everett, Wash. — said achieving ignition is “a really big deal for fusion science.”
“Even though at the National Ignition Facility, they were not focused on commercial energy, at Helion we believe this paves the way for private business to now focus and turn up the speed on getting commercial energy to the grid,” Kirtley said.
In a 2017 video, Universe Today’s Fraser Cain delves into fusion research.
The researchers behind the experiment didn’t downplay the challenges. Although the laser shot itself registered a net energy gain, Livermore Lab director Kim Budil pointed out that the total electrical energy required “from the wall” to support the experiment was 300 megajoules — roughly 100 times the amount of fusion energy produced.
“Our calculation suggests that it’s possible with a laser system at scale to achieve hundreds of megajoules of yield, so there is a pathway to a target that produces enough yield,” Budil said. “But we’re very distant from that right now.”
Moreover, the National Ignition Facility is designed to do a laser shot only about once a day, but a power plant would have to produce energy continuously. (And for what it’s worth, one kilowatt-hour of energy is equivalent to 3.6 megajoules.)
“A few decades of research on the underlying technologies could put us in a position to build a power plant,” Budil said.
Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, cautioned against getting too excited about today’s announcement. “I’d be more excited about an announcement that U.S. is ending fossil fuel subsidies,” Mann said in a series of tweets. “That doesn’t mean it isn’t good news, but it does mean that it won’t play a significant role in decarbonizing our economy by 50% this decade, which is necessary to avert catastrophic >1.5C (3F) warming.”
Focusing on existing sources of renewable energy and improving technologies for energy storage, efficiency and conservation are more realistic strategies for dealing with the climate challenge over the next decade, Mann said.
In addition to advancing the cause of clean energy, ignition contributes to NNSA’s national security mission, Adams said.
“First, it will lead to laboratory experiments that help NNSA defense programs continue to maintain confidence in our deterrent without nuclear explosive testing,” Adams said. “Second, it underpins the credibility of our deterrent by demonstrating world-leading expertise in weapons-relevant technologies. That is, we know what we’re doing.”
Helion Energy’s Kirtley, who conducted research into plasma propulsion systems before turning his focus to commercial fusion power, said the breakthrough could have off-Earth implications as well.
“Interestingly, I think this is even more applicable for space propulsion applications of fusion than it is for commercial electricity generation,” he said. “The pulsed inertial method that the National Ignition Facility is doing is a high-gain ignition type of system for electricity generation. Helion is focused on really efficient small-scale generators, but in space, the inertial application at high gain and high energy yield is really one of the key goals.”
The large scale structure of the universe is dominated by vast empty regions known as cosmic voids. These voids appear as holes hundreds of millions of light years across in the distribution of galaxies. However, new research shows that many of them may surprisingly still be filled with dark matter.
At the very largest scales in our universe, galaxies are not scattered around randomly like salt thrown on a table. Instead they follow a pattern known as the cosmic web. This is the largest pattern found in nature. The cosmic web is made of galaxies the same way that your body is made of cells…if your cells were a million times smaller.
Filling up the entire observable universe and beyond, the cosmic web is made of a series of interlocking filaments, clusters, and walls. Sitting between all those structures are the vast empty regions called cosmic voids. At the smallest scales these voids are 20 million light years across.
Map of the nearest voids to the Milky Way galaxy. (image credit: Courtois et al.)
However, our observations of the large scale structure of the universe do not reveal the entire story. That’s because we can only see galaxies, which are a minority of all the mass in the universe. Most of the mass, somewhere around 80%, is made of dark matter, which is a mysterious form of matter that does not interact with light.
Scientists have been studying the nature of dark matter and the relationship between it and normal matter for decades using sophisticated computer simulations. Most recently, a team of researchers used simulations that represent the local volume of our universe to study the seven nearest voids to the Milky Way.
They found that while the giant gaps in galaxy distributions could be identified as voids, they were not always empty of dark matter. Indeed, half of them did not even have densities below the average density of the universe.
The astronomers were able to explain this result by the fact that not all voids are the same. Some voids appear as smaller pockets within a larger structure that is on average higher density than the rest of the universe. Other voids, typically the largest ones, expand to hundreds of millions of light-years across and take up a sizable chunk of the volume of the universe on their own.
The smaller voids that arise as pockets inside of larger structures are not fully empty of dark matter, while the largest ones are completely devoid of matter in their centers.
Understanding voids helps astronomers understand the overall structure and evolution of the universe. The researchers hope that by peering deeply into these abysses, we can also better understand the relationship between dark matter and normal manner.
James Webb detecteert meest afgelegen sterrenstelsel ooit
James Webb detecteert meest afgelegen sterrenstelsel ooit
Turen in onze kosmos is een fantastisch tijdverdrijf en met de nieuwe James Webb-ruimtetelescoop van NASA kunnen astronomen dat nu veel nauwkeuriger. De telescoop zou vorige week een zeer oud sterrenstelsels hebben ontdekt dat tot nu toe niet zichtbaar was. Het sterrenstelsel zou ‘slechts’ 350 miljoen jaar na de oerknal zijn ontstaan.
Astronomen zeiden donderdag dat dit recent ontdekte sterrenstelsel wel eens het meest afgelegen zou kunnen zijn dat ooit is waargenomen. Dat record stond hiervoor op een observatie van de Hubble-ruimtetelescoop. Dat sterrenstelsel vormde zich zo’n 400 miljoen jaar na het begin van het heelal.
Het licht dat we op de beelden van de James Webb-telescoop kunnen zien is zo’n 13,5 miljard jaar geleden vertrokken. “De kans is echter wel groot dat dit record binnenkort weer gebroken wordt”, vertelt onze wetenschapsexpert Martijn Peters. “De James Webb is nog maar 6 maanden operationeel, dus we gaan nog zeer veel ontdekken”.
Amerikaanse wetenschappers kondigen doorbraak aan in kernfusie
In de Verenigde Staten hebben wetenschappers een doorbraak bewerkstelligd op vlak van kernfusie. Bij een experiment is voor het eerst meer energie opgewekt dan er was gebruikt. Dat meldt het Amerikaanse ministerie van Energie.
Amerikaanse wetenschappers kondigen doorbraak aan in kernfusie: wat is kernfusie en wat is het voordeel?
Zo werkt het (infografiek via UKAEA):
"Doordat we isotopen van waterstofatomen (red. deuterium en tritium) gebruiken en we er zeer weinig nodig hebben voor een enorme hoeveelheid energie, is de brandstof quasi onuitputtelijk", legt de kernfysicus uit. Per kilogram brandstof zou zo in theorie 10 miljoen keer meer energie vrijkomen dan bij de verbranding van fossiele brandstoffen als kolen, olie of gas.
“Het experiment produceerde meer energie uit fusie dan de laserenergie die is gebruikt om de fusie aan te drijven”, aldus het Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), een federale onderzoeksinstelling in Livermore in Californië bij het ministerie van Energie. “Deze verwezenlijking is een grote wetenschappelijke doorbraak die tientallen jaren in de maak was.”
De Amerikaanse minister van Energie Jennifer Granholm prees de doorbraak als “baanbrekend, wereldverbeterend en levensreddend”.
Minder radioactief afval
Bij kernfusie worden in een reactor de kernen van verschillende atomen samengesmolten, het omgekeerde van kernsplijting. Deze techniek heeft een enorm potentieel als energiebron, omdat er grote hoeveelheden lichte kernen op Aarde aanwezig zijn, met name waterstof, waardoor de brandstof dus nagenoeg eindeloos voorradig is. Ander voordeel is dat er geen broeikasgassen vrijkomen en veel minder radioactief afval dan bij kernsplijting.
In theorie kan kernfusie een heel milieuvriendelijke bron van energie worden, maar om de atomen te laten samensmelten zijn intense lasers nodig, en die kosten energie.
Een onderdeel van het Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory voerde vorige week een test uit. Het kostte 2,05 megajoule aan energie om 3,15 megajoule te creëren, werd dinsdag bekendgemaakt. Netto is er nog wel verlies, want het kostte 300 megajoule om de lasers op te warmen zodat ze 2,05 megajoule aan energie konden afvuren.
Kernwapens
De primeur kan ook helpen bij het beheren van de Amerikaanse kernwapens. Ook die gebruiken kernfusie. Door atomen in een lab samen te laten smelten, is het mogelijk om zulke bommen te testen zonder ze daadwerkelijk tot ontploffing te hoeven brengen. Daarom geven de Verenigde Staten elk jaar miljarden dollars uit aan onderzoek naar kernfusie.
De weg is nog lang vooraleer de oplossing op industrieel en commercieel vlak haalbaar is. Volgens Kim Budil, directeur van LLNL, kan dat nog enkele decennia in beslag nemen. Volgens haar zijn er vooral technologische uitdagingen.
Dat er eerst enkele honderden megajoule aan energie moest worden geïnjecteerd, is de keerzijde van het succesverhaal. De energieopbrengst is uiteindelijk een fractie van de input, aldus Tony Roulstone van de Universiteit van Cambridge. Om elektriciteit op te wekken moet minstens tweemaal de hoeveelheid geïnvesteerde energie geproduceerd worden.
Volgens Justin Wark van de Universiteit van Oxford kan het LLNL dit resultaat maar één keer per dag bereiken. “Een fusiecentrale zou dat tien keer per seconde moeten doen.” Wel is de fysicus optimistisch. “De basiswetenschap is vrij goed begrepen en dat zou verdere investeringen moeten stimuleren.”
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Huge drop in UFO Reports Coming Into MUFON In Last 3 Months. UFO Sighting News.
Huge drop in UFO Reports Coming Into MUFON In Last 3 Months. UFO Sighting News.
Guys, this is really odd. I have noticed a huge drop in the last 3 months in UFO reports coming into MUFON. It use to be 30-50 per 24 hours, but now is closer to 3-12 per 24 hours. I am worried, because it began 3 months ago, when weather was warmer and people were outdoors more. Less sightings is concerning, because its like aliens have change game plans and getting us use to sightings little by little is being thrown out the window.
As if they came to the conclusion that it wont work, so...the big question is...what is the new plan aliens have that replaced the old one? Below is a screenshot which normally would be full for the last 24 hours, however it not covered three full days. Also reports coming onto Youtube and Twitter have slowed down dramatically. Something is up, something is about to happen soon.
3 glowing UFOs a couple blocks from the US capitol, Washington, D.C.
3 glowing UFOs a couple blocks from the US capitol, Washington, D.C.
This interesting UFO video of a three glowing orbs hovering in the sky above Washington, DC was filmed last week. What do you think about this sighting?
Witness report:
This was a remarkable sighting in person mannn , and Nooo it was not a lantern this object drew so much attention even people were pulling over cars to get out and record with us.
3 glowing UFOs a couple blocks from the US capitol, Washington, D.C.
3 glowing UFOs a couple blocks from the US capitol, Washington, D.C.
This interesting UFO video of a three glowing orbs hovering in the sky above Washington, DC was filmed last week. What do you think about this sighting?
Witness report:
This was a remarkable sighting in person mannn , and Nooo it was not a lantern this object drew so much attention even people were pulling over cars to get out and record with us.
Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind - Full Documentary - YouTube
Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind - Full Documentary - YouTube
“Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind” is a feature documentary presented by Dr. Steven Greer, the global authority on extraterrestrials who created the worldwide disclosure movement and routinely briefs presidents and heads of state on the ET phenomenon. His previous works, Sirius and Unacknowledged, broke crowdfunding records and ignited a grassroots movement.
In this film, Dr. Greer presents the most dangerous information that the architects of secrecy don’t want you to know: how forgotten spiritual knowledge holds the key to humans initiating contact with advanced ET civilizations.
The film features groundbreaking video and photographic evidence and supporting interviews from prominent figures such as Adam Curry of Princeton’s PEAR Lab; legendary civil rights attorney Daniel Sheehan; and Dr. Russell Targ, who headed the CIA’s top secret remote viewing program. Their message: For thousands of people, contact has begun. This is their story.
West Midlands Policeman is writing a book about UFO encounters
West Midlands Policeman is writing a book about UFO encounters
Cover of the first book
Roy Teague, an inspector from the West Midlands Police Federation, is working on a book about the strange sightings of flying objects by officers. Although he has never actually seen a UFO himself, he’s hoping to hear stories about them.
After gathering a lot of information about the phenomenon, he started working on the book. According to Mr. Teague, the response to his calls for witnesses has been overwhelming.
He’s hoping to collect stories about these sightings so that they can be saved for future generations. He’s also planning on treating everyone who provides him with the necessary anonymity.
After watching a documentary about the alleged sightings in the US, Mr. Teague started to wonder who the best witnesses are. He said that he was most interested in finding out the truth about the matter since he believes that people who are in professional occupations are more credible than others.
See Sierra Space's LIFE habitat burst in new ultimate pressure test
Sierra Space "successfully completed its second sub-scale Ultimate Burst Pressure (UBP) test" in Nov. 2022, according to statement released by the company. The space habitation system prototype exceeded NASA certification requirements.
Credit: Sierra Space
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Fusion energy breakthrough and national security implications explained
NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs Dr. Marvin “Marv” Adams, and LLNL Director Dr. Kim Budil explain the fusion energy breakthrough announced in Dec. 2022.
Credit: US Department of Energy
Something Happens to Earth Every 200 Million Years
Earthquakes of unprecedented magnitude will destroy our metropolises. New mountains will rise right in the middle of the skyscrapers! And the remains of the ravaged neighborhoods will be swallowed up by a mega glacier. But the dead silence won’t last long. Soon, a comet will appear in the sky and turn the remnants of civilization into lava and ash! Our planet has cycles of catastrophic events that sometimes stretch for millions of years, and therefore, they are very difficult to notice.
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The Moon Is Not What You Think It Is!
The moon is the earth's only natural satellite- that's probably how you have always seen the moon. But the moon is not what you think- these are the 15 mysterious recent discoveries that would make you see the moon for what it is
12 Most Mysterious Ancient Egypt Finds That Scare Scientists
Ancient Egypt has been studied more than perhaps any other culture and country in human history. Because of that, you’d like to believe that we know everything there is to know about them. That’s not the case. There are many ancient Egyptian mysteries that we’ve never gotten to the bottom of and might never get to the bottom of - and some of them scare scientists stiff!
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Scientists found giant black hole eating another one
A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can't escape it. But what if another black hole tries to eat it? Would it destroy it or would they two simply merge into a larger black hole? Astronomers have previously detected a black hole devouring neutron stars in a single bite. Let's see what happens if there appears another black hole on the way... Animation is created by Bright Side.
Massive, Unidentified Interstellar Objects 300 Miles Wide Detected By NASA
Massive, Unidentified Interstellar Objects 300 Miles Wide Detected By NASA. Astronomers have spent decades looking for objects from outside our own solar system. What would essentially be interstellar visitors from an alien star system. To no avail. But it is when all hope seems to be lost, that some of the most marvelous things happen. It was something like that for these astronomers. After decades of finding absolutely nothing, something completely unexpected happened. Two objects arrived, at once.
Ancient Environmental DNA Reveals Thriving 2-Million-Year-Old Life on Greenland
Ancient Environmental DNA Reveals Thriving 2-Million-Year-Old Life on Greenland
A “breakthrough” has been made in understanding the history of our planet. Studying ancient environmental DNA a team of researchers has now tracked and mapped the evolution of biological communities that existed some two million-years-ago (Mya).
Until now, the scientific understanding of Earth’s ancient biological lifeforms was greatly built on the oldest environmental DNA available, which was taken from a woolly mammoth that roamed in the Siberian tundra around 1 Mya. But a team of researchers has now sampled and interpreted DNA from sedimentary clay and quartz deposits taken from the permafrost of Greenland that dates back to around 2 million Mya.
Based on this new study of ancient environmental DNA, the team of researchers has presented a detailed picture of life in a 2-million-year-old (Myo) environment, describing it as “far removed from the icy shores of the Arctic Circle.” But more importantly, they think their new techniques and methodology might soon shine light on the ancient origins of humans .
A two-million- year-old trunk from a larch tree still stuck in the permafrost within the coastal deposits. The tree was carried to the sea by the rivers that eroded the former forested landscape.
A new paper published in the journal Nature explores an ancient ecosystem through the results of an analysis of “the oldest ancient environmental DNA recovered to date,” anywhere. The samples were all taken in the north of Greenland, and the study reveals the animal and plant species that roamed these northern territories approximately two Mya.
Author of the new paper, Geneticist Eske Willerslev of the University of Cambridge in the UK and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, says the new research opens “a new chapter spanning 1 million extra years of history.” And as a result of this new study scientists can now “look directly at the DNA of a past ecosystem that far back in time" added Eske.
Prof. Eske Willerslev and a colleague sample sediments for environmental DNA in Greenland.
(Courtesy of NOVA, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios & Handful of Films/ Nature)
Revolutionary Steps in Environmental DNA Analysis
The ancient environmental DNA was identified in samples taken at the Kap København Formation, located in Peary Land, North Greenland. Often described as a ‘polar desert’ this region is renowned for its rare fossils dating back to the Neogene period beginning 23.03 million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period 2.58 Mya.
Notwithstanding, because ‘vertebrate’ fossils are rare in the Arctic researchers have always struggled to obtain samples that reveal new data about ancient biological communities. Eske explains that all previous research suggested that around 2–3 Mya the Kap København Formation region had experienced a much warmer climate with “temperatures 11–19 °C warmer than today.” But the new research was constructed around extracted and sequenced DNA “from 41 organic-rich sediment samples taken from 5 different sites within the Kap København Formation.”
Newly thawed moss from the permafrost coastal deposits. The moss originates from erosion of the river that cut through the landscape at Kap København some two million years ago.
Geologist Kurt Kjær of the University of Copenhagen explains that most of the samples were taken many years ago during other research projects. It wasn't until “a new generation of DNA extraction and sequencing equipment was developed” that extremely small and damaged fragments of DNA in the sediment samples could be analysed enabling the new “map a 2-million-year-old ecosystem."
The new model of the Greenland polar region some 2 Mya shows an ancient ecosystem thriving with fern and fauna. An open boreal forest was filled with “a mixed vegetation of poplar, birch and thuja trees, as well as a variety of Arctic and boreal shrubs and herbs.” Furthermore, mitochondrial DNA allowed the researchers to build a picture of the wildlife from the ground up.
On a microscopic scale, DNA was identified from microorganisms and fungi and the ancient world was populated by ants and fleas. On the other end of the spectrum giant mastodons roamed among reindeer, rodents and geese, and until this study it was thought that mastodons did not range as far north as Greenland. Then, in areas that were once ancient seas, the scientists recovered DNA from the Atlantic horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus).
Questing Ancient Origins
In conclusion, the authors suggest their data points towards “Earth's future in the face of a changing climate.” What they mean here is that they now have insights into the ability of different species to adapt to the changing environments resulting from temperature increases. Geogeneticist Mikkel Pederson of the University of Copenhagen said the new found information suggests that given time, “more species can evolve and adapt to wildly varying temperatures than previously thought.”
In the opening sentence this new research was described as a “breakthrough.” Why so? Now that ancient environmental DNA has been extracted from clay and quartz samples, and successfully analysed, the new technique might now be turned towards deposits from other locations around the world. Willerslev said “the possibilities are endless" and that if the new method was applied in Africa scientists might soon be gathering “ground-breaking information about the origin of the first humans and their ancestors."
Top image: Reconstruction of Kap København formation two-million years ago in a time where the temperature was significantly warmer than northernmost Greenland today.
James Webb detecteert meest afgelegen sterrenstelsel ooit
James Webb detecteert meest afgelegen sterrenstelsel ooit
Turen in onze kosmos is een fantastisch tijdverdrijf en met de nieuwe James Webb-ruimtetelescoop van NASA kunnen astronomen dat nu veel nauwkeuriger. De telescoop zou vorige week een zeer oud sterrenstelsels hebben ontdekt dat tot nu toe niet zichtbaar was. Het sterrenstelsel zou ‘slechts’ 350 miljoen jaar na de oerknal zijn ontstaan.
Astronomen zeiden donderdag dat dit recent ontdekte sterrenstelsel wel eens het meest afgelegen zou kunnen zijn dat ooit is waargenomen. Dat record stond hiervoor op een observatie van de Hubble-ruimtetelescoop. Dat sterrenstelsel vormde zich zo’n 400 miljoen jaar na het begin van het heelal.
Het licht dat we op de beelden van de James Webb-telescoop kunnen zien is zo’n 13,5 miljard jaar geleden vertrokken. “De kans is echter wel groot dat dit record binnenkort weer gebroken wordt”, vertelt onze wetenschapsexpert Martijn Peters. “De James Webb is nog maar 6 maanden operationeel, dus we gaan nog zeer veel ontdekken”.
One person who had a great deal of involvement in the investigation ofthe Men in Black enigma was the late Brad Steiger. Before his death in 2018, Steiger provided me with the following statement on his experiences with the MIB, which demonstrate the sheer, sinister nature of the black-suited creatures. Steiger said: “After more than 50 years of research in the UFO and paranormal fields, I have come to the conclusion that many of the mysteries that bedevil us are products of a reflexive phenomenon. This reflexive action does not usually occur in the more mundane pursuits of architecture, industry, mining, agriculture and the like, but once one begins actively to pursue Ufology or psychical research, one runs the risk of entering a surreal world in which the usual physical laws do not apply."
Brad continued: “In the case of the mythos of the Men in Black, I suggest that that eerie enigma may have begun with the machinations of a human agency assigned to investigate the actions of the more high profile investigators of the phenomenon and the more convincing witness of UFO activity with the goals of learning more about the growing interest in a worldwide phenomena. Somehow along the way, this activity of the human surveillance of other humans caught the interest of a nonhuman, paraphysical agency that has for centuries pursued goals that remain elusive, even sinister, to the individuals whom they visit. Whether motivated by a bizarre sense of humor, an essentially malicious nature, or a desire to learn how much some humans know about their eternal secrets, the Others began knocking on the doors of those who had witnessed or who had investigated UFO activity."
(Nick Redfern) M.I.B. phenomena: Brad Steiger was an expert
Brad more to say to me: “Some of my experiences with the MIB seem most certainly the product of human surveillance that in most instances was conducted with awkward fallibility. Once in the golden era of MIB activity in the late 1960s while speaking to a fellow researcher on the telephone, our conversation was interrupted by a metallic-sounding voice chanting: ‘Ho, ho, UFO!’ Because it seemed that this got a rise out of us, this merry chant was repeated on a number of telephone calls with other investigators. A friend who had been doing a great deal of research on my behalf told of the time when he was anticipating a visit from me. He picked up the telephone to make a call on his private line, only to hear the following bit of very sinister conversation:
“‘Has Steiger arrived in town yet?’
“‘Not yet.’
“‘What motel will he be staying in?’
“‘The [correct name of the motel in which I had made reservations].’
“‘Don’t worry. Everything is set.’"
“At this point my friend broke in and asked who the hell was on his private line. There was a stunned silence, a click, then the steady buzzing that indicates a clear line. I had my own experience with the awkward telephone spies when I checked into a hotel and found that the bell man had missed one of my suitcases - the most important one with the slides for my lecture. I picked up the receiver to hear a man’s voice inquire: ‘When is he supposed to check in?’ “‘He is already in his room,’ I said in reply, though I knew the query wasn’t asked of me. “‘Oh, shit!’ was the profound response, followed by two rapid hang-ups." This, too: “Other experiences with the MIB are not so easy to place in either the Human or Non-Human category. A friend of mine was traveling in England before starting on an around-the-world junket with a layover in Vietnam to visit his son in the armed forces. He was walking near a railway station in London when he noticed three men dressed completely in black staring at him. When my friend returned their collective stare, they approached him and asked him which train they should take for such-and-such a city. My friend calmly pointed out that he was a tourist, and it made a good deal more sense for them to ask at the information booth just a few feet away."
Brad also told me: “My friend turned on his heel and walked away from the odd trio, but a glance over his shoulder told him that they were still standing there staring at him, unmindful of checking with the information booth. Suddenly ill at ease, my friend hailed a taxi and went directly to his hotel. When he got to his room, an uncomfortable sensation prickled the back of his neck and he glanced out his window. On the street corner, looking up at his room, were the three men. Baffled, he tried to push the incident from his mind. “A day or so later, though, he was confronted by one of the men who told him straight out: ‘You are a friend of Brad Steiger. Tell him we shall visit him by Christmas.’ My friend had only a peripheral knowledge of the UFO can of worms, but he returned to his hotel room and wrote me a long letter with the above details. Not long after I had received his letter, I visited a friend in another city and told him about the bizarre experience my correspondent had encountered in London. ‘Humph!’ Jim snorted over the lunch we were sharing. ‘If those monkeys come to see you this Christmas, send ‘em down to talk to me. I'd love to get one of those characters in my hands. I would solve this man-in-black mystery you've been telling me about!’"
And we're no nearer the end: “I laughed and warned him that he had better be careful or he might get his wish. “I had not returned from my trip by more than a few minutes when the telephone rang. It was Jim calling. Wondering if I might have left something at his place of business, I was informed that I had indeed left a most peculiar something behind me. Jim told me that I had no sooner started my homeward journey than he was told that a gentleman wished to see him. A secretary ushered a man of average height into Jim's office. But my friend said that his visitor was the thinnest human being he had ever seen. “‘He was cadaverous, Brad,’ Jim told me. ‘He looked like those World War II photographs of someone in a concentration camp. But he seemed alert enough, and so involved in his quest that he ignored my proffered hand of greeting. In fact, I tried to push shaking his hand, but he refused to touch me. ‘I hear you want to be the head of UFO’s in Iowa,’ he said quickly. ‘He took out a wallet, flipped it open, then shut, before I could see any identification. I can’t really recall anything else he said, because it was all so damned nonsensical. Soon he was gone, and I was still sitting there dumbfounded.
(Nick Redfern) Beware of the Men in Black
“‘I jumped to my feet, though, when I heard his car starting. I got a good look at his automobile and I wrote down its license number. I can't tell you what make of car it was. It looked like a combination of three or four different makes and models, but it didn't really look like anything I had ever seen before. And the license number didn't check. The Highway Patrol said there was no such Iowa plate registered. A friend in another branch of state government, who owed me a favor, said the plate wasn't registered to any government agency, either.’ “The cases above are baffling, but in the following cases I suspect a human agency involved in a strange campaign that was conducted regarding Steiger imposters who spoke at various conferences around the United States. On occasions the imposters allegedly conducted themselves very well, thus making the whole enterprise of Counterfeit Steigers a seemingly futile project. On other occasions, the imposter’s assignment was quite obviously to taint my reputation.
“On a unfortunate number of occasions," Brad said, "I received letters complaining of my outrageous and insulting behavior while speaking at a conference. There were claims that I had openly berated my audience, calling them stupid for accepting the very premise of UFOs. A close friend happened to arrive on the scene after one pseudo-Steiger had departed and tried his best to assure the sponsors of the event that the rowdy, disrespectful speaker could not have been the real Brad. In his letter, my friend warned me that he had visited a number of lecture halls where the imposter had damned his audiences. “Someone seems out to damage your reputation,” he advised. In a most bizarre twist, dozens of men and women have approached me at various lectures and seminars, congratulating me about the manner in which I bested Dr. Carl Sagan in debate. The event allegedly occurred after a lecture when I happened to bump into the great scientist in a restaurant. The eatery, according to the witnesses, was crowded with those who had attended the seminar, and they egged on a debate between myself and Dr. Sagan. I mopped up the floor with him, countering his every argument against the reality of UFOs."" Now, things get really odd. Brad said:
“The truth is that I never met Dr. Sagan, therefore, neither had I ever debated him. But from coast to coast, there are those who claim to have witnessed my triumphal bout. I think of Doppelgangers. Even more individuals claim to have been in the audience when I delivered a rousing message from the Space Brothers in Seattle. Regardless of how often I deny that I was not in Seattle at that time and have never channeled the Space Brothers, those who were at that event are puzzled why I would deny my eloquence. It is true, that I have met and interviewed men and women who do claim to speak on behalf of Extraterrestrial Intelligences, but in retrospect, I found such a privilege to carry with it many possible negative experiences. I think of the reminiscences that I have shared with an Iowa farm family about those weird and wild MIB days. UFOs had become a part of this family’s life several years before one of its male members became a ‘channel’ for an entity who claimed to be from another world. The invisible telepathic being began communicating with the family because they had been ‘selected before they had been born’ to assist him in doing ‘His’ work and in protecting Earth from another group of intelligences who sought to enslave mankind."
Brad expanded on all of this: “The communicating entity led the various members of the family circle on a number of ‘assignments’ designed to save the Earth and to serve the benign entity and his kind. But always, the entity warned them, there was the enemy group with its men in black, seeking whom they might devour. The family, who became ‘flying saucer missionaries,’ saw mysterious fellow passengers board airplanes with them--then disappear somewhere in mid-flight. Automobiles appeared out of nowhere to follow and harass them. A man claiming to be from a state educational division called at the high school and talked for over an hour with one of the teenaged girl members of the family. The only questions he asked had to do with whether or not she would be able to recognize a spy. When suspicious adult members of the beleaguered family checked with school administrators, they were informed that they had no knowledge of such a man nor of such a division within the state educational system. [Interestingly, I have now met with a number of adults who claimed such an experience with an MIB who claimed to be a representative from the state educational division who took them out of class for a ‘test.’"
(Nick Redfern) Strangers in the night
“The girl who had been interrogated by the unidentified man also developed into a “channel” for the communicating entity, and soon several members of the family were practicing automatic writing. And, finally: “UFO’s swooped low overhead at night. Eerie lights were seen to dance about in the fields. Invisible entities snatched keys from their resting places and jangled them about the room, terrifying the children. Unseen hands lifted a mattress on which one couple lay sleeping, under which were some ‘secret’ papers that the principal communicating entity had dictated. Their farm work was being ignored. Their lives had become a living nightmare in which every stranger was suspect, every sound in the night that of an invader, every strange coincidence imbued with desperate and weighty significance. “At last the full realization that they had been deceived - that they had been led into a silly game - jolted them into determined action, and they resumed meaningful living, becoming a quite prosperous farm family. Although some of their past experiences seemed foolish in retrospect, they had to agree that they had learned valuable lessons from their strange companions.
“Now days whenever I review those days of encounters with the men in black, I am led to think of the mythological figure common to all cultures and known generically to ethnologists as the Trickster. The Trickster plays pranks upon mankind, but often at the same time he is instructing them or transforming aspects of the world for the benefit of his human charges. Most cultures view the Trickster as a primordial being who came into existence soon after the creation of the world. A number of Amerindian tribes referred to their Trickster figure as 'Old Man,' because they saw him as someone who was ageless, as old as time. The Trickster is usually viewed as a supernatural being with the ability to change his shape at will. Although basically wily, he may behave in a very stupid, childish manner at times, and may often end up as the one who is tricked. The Trickster lies, cheats, and steals without compunction. He seems often to be the very essence of amoral animalism. The Trickster figure is often credited with bringing death and pain into the world; yet, in some recitations, his own son was the first to die as a result. Perhaps one day we will learn the positive aspect of the MIB, the Trickster, the UFOnaut. As strange as it may seem, the MIB may merely be attempting to teach in their own strange ways the knowledge, or awareness, of powers that today exist only in our dreams of the future.” A fascinating piece of material provided to me, thanks to Brad Steiger.
Black Holes Shouldn’t be Able to Merge, but Dozens of Mergers Have Been Detected. How Do They Do It?
Who knows what lurks in the hearts of some globular clusters? Astronomers using a collection of gravitational wave observatories found evidence of collections of smaller black holes dancing together as binaries in the hearts of globulars. What’s more, they’ve detected an increased number of gravitational wave events when some of these stellar-mass black holes crashed together.
The globular cluster NGC 6397 contains many stellar-mass black holes among its 400,000+ stars. It orbits the Milky Way at a distance of about 8,000 light-years from Earth. It has undergone core collapse, with a tightly packed core. Not only does that core contain stars, but also white dwarfs and neutron stars, indicating the aging stellar population. Image courtesy NASA/ESA/STScI.
Stellar-mass Black Holes in a Crowded Environment
Black holes are notoriously tricky objects. The stellar-mass types form when supermassive stars die and collapse on themselves. Typically, they shouldn’t be able to merge easily. Once black holes get fairly close together in binary pairs, they can settle into fairly stable orbits with each other. The situation changes, however, if they’re dancing together in a crowded environment. That actually describes globular clusters to a T. Those stellar agglomerations contain tens of thousands or even millions of stars packed together. Those stars are tightly gravitationally bound together, which creates a gravity “gradient” from the outside into the core. As aging supermassive stars in a globular die, some end up as stellar-mass black holes. Eventually, they sink to the core of the cluster. That’s called “mass segregation”. Eventually, they create a sort of “invisible dark core”.
Black holes in binary pairs in the cluster are most likely to merge. They get a little help from their neighbors along the way. Any nearby massive objects can remove orbital energy from the binary pair. Astronomers call these “dynamical interactions”. The loss of energy pushes them close together and affects the shape of the orbit to make it more elongated. That takes the black hole pair out of the stable orbit they’ve enjoyed.
If this is actually what’s happening, then the black holes pass closer and closer together under the effect of the gravitational interaction. Eventually, a merger occurs. That sets off gravitational waves that we can detect here on Earth. When two black holes are in such an elongated orbit, their gravitational wave signal has characteristic “fingerprints”. Those are clues that can be studied for clues to where the two objects met.
Learning from Black Hole Mergers in Globulars
A team of researchers led by Dr. Isobel Romero-Shaw (formerly of Monash University, now based at the University of Cambridge), with Professors Paul Lasky and Eric Thrane of Monash University, are working together to study those orbital shapes of the black hole binaries just before they merge. They find that some of the binaries observed by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration (a cooperative between three gravitational wave observatories) likely to have those elongated orbits. That indicates that the binaries collided in their densely populated star cluster core. These findings also indicate that a large chunk of the observed binary black hole collisions — at least 35% — could have been forged in such star clusters.
“I like to think of black hole binaries like dance partners”, said Dr. Romero-Shaw. “When a pair of black holes evolve together in isolation, they’re like a couple performing a slow waltz alone in the ballroom. It’s very controlled and careful; beautiful, but nothing unexpected. Contrasting to that is the carnival-style atmosphere inside a star cluster, where you might get lots of different dances happening simultaneously; big and small dance groups, freestyle, and lots of surprises!”
There are a lot of these collisional dances to study. Since 2015, at least 85 pairs of black holes have crashed into each other and been detected by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration. Based on this finding, astronomers in the consortium know these cosmic collisions happen pretty often. The next steps are to observe as many of these as possible, particularly with ever-improving instrumentation. As detector sensitivity improves, researchers should sense these gravitational wave events frequently—perhaps daily. The big question remains, however, what kicks off the final merger event? That’s what the teams are hoping to find out as they observe more of them in the hearts of globular clusters.
About the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration
Gravitational wave research into these kinds of mergers requires worldwide cooperation. That’s because multiple gravitational wave detectors can make it easier for verified events to be studied. The twin LIGO observatories in the United States work together with the Virgo facility in Italy and the KAGRA observatory in Japan. They carry out joint observations and analysis of resulting data and have worked together since 2010. The research team now expects to sense more mergers of binaries in globular clusters during the next LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run, which begins in 2023.
Webb Completes its First “Deep Field” With Nine Days of Observing Time. What did it Find?
This image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope highlights the region of study by the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). This area is in and around the Hubble Space Telescope’s Ultra Deep Field.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and M. Zamani (ESA/Webb).
Webb Completes its First “Deep Field” With Nine Days of Observing Time. What did it Find?
About 13 billion years ago, the stars in the Universe’s earliest galaxies sent photons out into space. Some of those photons ended their epic journey on the James Webb Space Telescope’s gold-plated, beryllium mirrors in the last few months. The JWST gathered these primordial photons over several days to create its first “Deep Field” image.
One of the JWST’s primary objectives is to study the Universe’s first galaxies. The results will help astrophysicists piece together the Universe’s history and how galaxies evolved. These early galaxies are extremely faint, but JWST was built to find them.
“So many questions about galaxies have been waiting for the transformative opportunity of Webb, and we’re thrilled to be able to play a part in revealing this story.”
Sandro Tacchella, astronomer, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Many things in nature masquerade as something else. Only after scientists apply their skills do we approach the truth. Early thinkers thought that everything in the Universe revolved around Earth, placing humanity at the center of everything, a confounding misapprehension that still befuddles humankind to this day. Eventually, we figured it out, thanks to Copernicus and those that followed. Natural features on Mars looked like canals built by a Martian civilization, getting everyone excited and even fooling some scientists. Eventually, better telescopes revealed the truth. There are endless examples of this.
Younger galaxies can masquerade as ancient galaxies, a problem that has plagued our attempts to understand the evolution of galaxies. The early Universe was almost entirely made of two lightest, simplest elements, hydrogen and helium. As a result, the stars that comprise the earliest galaxies are made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. They have “low metallicity” in astronomical jargon.
Confusingly, some younger galaxies also have low metallicity. They should have much more than just hydrogen and helium in them because so many stars lived and died before these galaxies formed. And stars are what forge heavier elements, sending them out into space when they die to be taken up by the next generation of stars.
But the JWST isn’t easily fooled.
Illustration of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The JWST’s gold-plated beryllium mirrors and fine instruments let it distinguish young galaxies from older galaxies. Credits: NASA
The JWST can more precisely dissect the light from these galaxies than any of its predecessors. It needs to be kept ultra-cold to observe infrared light in such detail, which is why it sits way out in space, sheltered by a massive sun shield. The JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) were both brought to bear on this latest observing effort, and the teams operating each instrument collaborated closely to achieve these results.
“It was crucial to prove that these galaxies do, indeed, inhabit the early universe. It’s very possible for closer galaxies to masquerade as very distant galaxies,” said astronomer Emma Curtis-Lake from the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.“Seeing the spectrum revealed as we hoped, confirming these galaxies as being at the true edge of our view, some further away than Hubble could see! It is a tremendously exciting achievement for the mission.”
The Hubble Space Telescope introduced us to Deep Field observations. When astronomers pointed the Hubble at a patch of sky that appeared empty and let it gather photons for more than 11 days in 2003 and 2004, it revealed something extraordinary. What was masquerading as empty space was full of galaxies. Its Ultra-Deep Field image found almost 10,000 galaxies in a tiny patch of dark sky, and astronomers think that about 800 of the faintest, reddest ones are some of the Universe’s primordial galaxies.
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is seen in ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI)
But we needed a more powerful telescope with better instruments to study them.
NIRCam and NIRSpec were built to find these early galaxies, and they’re succeeding. The team behind both instruments got together before the telescope was completed and launched to develop JADES, the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey. JADES will give astronomers an unprecedented, deep and detailed look at the Universe’s earliest galaxies. “These results are the culmination of why the NIRCam and NIRSpec teams joined together to execute this observing program,”shared co-author Marcia Rieke, NIRCam principal investigator from the University of Arizona in Tucson.
The JWST’s ability to distinguish ancient galaxies is based on the Lyman break. The Lyman break is related to how neutral gas absorbs light in the star-forming regions of distant galaxies. The more distant a galaxy is, the more red-shifted its light is. This light stretching puts the Lyman break at a different position in spectrometric observations. The JWST can spot the Lyman break with its keen infrared capabilities.
This image from the JADES survey shows how the JWST can find the Lyman break. Higher redshift galaxies are the oldest galaxies, and the Lyman break appears at a different place in spectrometry depending on a galaxy’s age. This is how the JWST can distinguish the Universe’s earliest galaxies from younger galaxies in a way that the Hubble couldn’t. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), Leah Hustak (STScI), Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), S. Tacchella (Cambridge), E. Curtis-Lake (UOH), S. Carniani (Scuola Normale Superiore), JADES Collaboration
The JWST captured its Deep Field in the same region of the sky the Hubble captured its Ultra-Deep Field. Telescopes have been studying this region for about 20 years, creating a complete data set across the electromagnetic spectrum. The Webb’s observations build on this archive, adding the deepest, most light-sensitive observations yet.
The JWST’s field is 15 times larger than the Hubble’s and is deeper and sharper. The NIRCam image is only the size a human appears when viewed from a mile away, but it contains over 100,000 galaxies. Because of the JWST’s power, astronomers can be certain that some of them are the earliest galaxies to form in the Universe.
“For the first time, we have discovered galaxies only 350 million years after the big bang, and we can be absolutely confident of their fantastic distances,” shared co-author Brant Robertson from the University of California Santa Cruz, a member of the NIRCam science team.“To find these early galaxies in such stunningly beautiful images is a special experience.”
The team used the telescope’s NIRSpec instrument to examine the light from 250 of the faintest galaxies in the image over the course of 28 hours. The spectra presented precise measurements of each of the galaxies’ redshifts, revealing the properties of the stars and gas in each one.
“These are by far the faintest infrared spectra ever taken,” said astronomer and co-author Stefano Carniani from Scuola Normale Superiore in Italy. “They reveal what we hoped to see: a precise measurement of the cutoff wavelength of light due to the scattering of intergalactic hydrogen.”
Out of over 100,000 galaxies in the JWST Deep Field, researchers zeroed in on four of them. All four have redshifts greater than 10, with two having redshifts of 13. Redshift tells astronomers how long light has taken to reach us (but not how far away something is because the Universe is expanding.) A redshift value of 10 means the light has been travelling for 13.184 billion years. The light from redshift 13 galaxies was among the first light to be sent out into the Universe after the Big Bang.
Those are the galaxies astronomers were hoping to spot with the JWST, and that’s what the telescope is doing. These galaxies illuminated the Cosmic Dawn and are critical to understanding how galaxies form and evolve. “Galaxies forming at these times may be the seeds of the much more massive and mature galaxies in the local Universe,” Curtis-Lake and co-authors explain in their paper.
An artist’s representation of what the first stars to light up the universe might have looked like in the Cosmic Dawn. Image Credit: NASA/WMAP Science Team
The Cosmic Dawn represents a gap in our understanding of the Universe, and attempts to fill in that gap rely on a number of assumptions about gas temperature and other factors. But with its precise instruments, astronomers hope the JWST can fill the gap with data.
“It is hard to understand galaxies without understanding the initial periods of their development. Much as with humans, so much of what happens later depends on the impact of these early generations of stars,” said astronomer and co-author Sandro Tacchella from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. “So many questions about galaxies have been waiting for the transformative opportunity of Webb, and we’re thrilled to be able to play a part in revealing this story.“
In their paper, Curtis-Lake and her co-authors acknowledge this milestone in cosmology. “We conclude by emphasizing that this is clearly a milestone result for the JWST mission, pushing the spectroscopic frontier to a markedly earlier epoch of galaxy formation,” they write.
The JWST is only at the beginning of its mission, and finding these Lyman dropouts in ancient galaxies is a critical step. “In addition to providing clear detections of the Lyman dropouts as high as z = 13.2, these JADES observations also show the power of spectroscopy to probe the physics of these galaxies and the IGM,”write Curtis-Lake and her co-authors.
“Truly, this is just a starting point for the mission.”
Scientists unlock secrets of 'burping’ supermassive black holes that are surrounded by mysterious radio bubbles by using West Virginia’s Green Bank Telescope
Scientists unlock secrets of 'burping’ supermassive black holes that are surrounded by mysterious radio bubbles by using West Virginia’s Green Bank Telescope
Scientists have a new understanding about supermassive black holes thanks to data gathered by West Virginia's Green Bank Telescope
A team of astronomers used a telescope to image galaxy cluster MS0735 in a way that distorts the cosmic microwave background
Supermassive black holes are located deep within the center of galaxies in areas where temperatures run up to 50 million degrees Celsius
'We’re looking at one of the most energetic outbursts ever seen from a supermassive black hole,' Jack Orlowski-Scherer, the study's lead author, said
Scientists have a new understanding about supermassive black holes thanks to data gathered by the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia.
Supermassive black holes are located deep within the center of galaxies in areas where temperatures run up to 50 million degrees Celsius. The black hole will sometimes reheat the gas surrounding it in violent bursts - 'burps' - from its center.
These gas jets carve out immense cavities within the hot cluster, which then pushes hot gas farther from the center and replaces it with radio-emitting bubbles. If they can learn more about what’s left behind filling in these cavities, scientists can begin to understand what made them in the first place.
'We’re looking at one of the most energetic outbursts ever seen from a supermassive black hole,' Jack Orlowski-Scherer, lead author on this publication and a research fellow at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, said in a statement. 'This is what happens when you feed a black hole and it violently burps out a giant amount of energy.'
Observations by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory show the enormous cavities (circled in grey) excavated by the powerful radio jets (green contours) expelled from the black hole at the center of galaxy cluster MS0735
In a new paper published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics that analyzes the galaxy cluster MS0735, a team of astronomers used an instrument known as MUSTANG-2 on the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia to image the cluster in a unique way that distorts the cosmic microwave background.
The cosmic microwave background was emitted 380,000 years after the Big Bang and is considered to be the afterglow of our universe's birth 13.8 billion years ago.
These new findings reinforce previous discoveries that at least a portion of the pressure support in the cavities is due to non-thermal sources, such as other types of particles, cosmic rays and turbulence, and potentially a small contribution from magnetic fields.
Unlike previous research, new imaging produced by the GBT considers the possibility that the pressure support within the bubbles could be more nuanced than previously thought, mixing both thermal and non-thermal components.
'With the power of MUSTANG-2, we are able to see into these cavities and start to determine precisely what they are filled with, and why they don’t collapse under pressure,' explains Tony Mroczkowski, an astronomer with the European Southern Observatory who was part of this new research.
The researchers also used existing X-ray observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, in addition to the radio observations.
'We knew this was an exciting system when we studied the radio core and lobes at low frequencies, but we are only now beginning to see the full picture,' says co-author Tracy Clarke, an astronomer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and VLITE Project Scientist who co-authored a previous radio study of this system.
Future observations across multiple frequencies can establish more precisely the nature of how exotic the black hole eruption is.
'We knew this was an exciting system when we studied the radio core and lobes at low frequencies, but we are only now beginning to see the full picture,' says co-author Tracy Clarke, an astronomer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and VLITE Project Scientist who co-authored a previous radio study of this system
WHAT'S INSIDE A BLACK HOLE?
Black holes are strange objects in the universe that get their name from the fact that nothing can escape their gravity, not even light.
If you venture too close and cross the so-called event horizon, the point from which no light can escape, you will also be trapped or destroyed.
For small black holes, you would never survive such a close approach anyway.
The tidal forces close to the event horizon are enough to stretch any matter until it's just a string of atoms, in a process physicists call 'spaghettification'.
But for large black holes, like the supermassive objects at the cores of galaxies like the Milky Way, which weigh tens of millions if not billions of times the mass of a star, crossing the event horizon would be uneventful.
Because it should be possible to survive the transition from our world to the black hole world, physicists and mathematicians have long wondered what that world would look like.
They have turned to Einstein's equations of general relativity to predict the world inside a black hole.
These equations work well until an observer reaches the centre or singularity, where, in theoretical calculations, the curvature of space-time becomes infinite.
A Black Hole has been Burping for 100 Million Years
Black holes are gluttonous behemoths that lurk in the center of galaxies. Almost everybody knows that nothing can escape them, not even light. So when anything made of simple matter gets too close, whether a planet, a star or a gas cloud, it’s doomed.
But the black hole doesn’t eat it at once. It plays with its food like a fussy kid. Sometimes, it spews out light.
When the black hole is not only at the center of a galaxy but the center of a cluster of galaxies, these burps and jets carve massive cavities out of the hot gas at the center of the cluster called radio bubbles.
Astronomy and astrophysics are all about light. Almost everything we know about distant objects in space, including black holes, comes from observing light. (Gravitational waves are the exception.)
The light astronomers see when they observe a black hole is coming from the environment in the vicinity of the black hole, not from the black hole itself. The behemoth’s strong gravity means that anything that gets too close is like a puppet on a string, and the black hole is the puppet master.
In a new study, a team of researchers using the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT) examined a supermassive black hole (SMBH) burping out mysterious radio bubbles.
“This is what happens when you feed a black hole, and it violently burps out a giant amount of energy.”
Jack Orlowski-Scherer, lead author, McGill University.
The study is “GBT/MUSTANG-2 9“ resolution imaging of the SZ effect in MS0735.6+7421,” and it was published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. The lead author is Jack Orlowski-Scherer, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania at the time the study was done. “This is what happens when you feed a black hole, and it violently burps out a giant amount of energy,” he said in a press release.
Supermassive black holes reside in the center of large galaxies like the Milky Way. They’re found in every large galaxy, including the galaxies at the heart of galaxy clusters. The heart of a galaxy cluster is an extreme environment. The plasma there is scorching, up to 50 million degrees Celsius (90 million F.)
That plasma radiates x-rays, and over time that dissipates the heat. The plasma cools down, allowing stars to form. It’s sort of like the Universe’s situation after the Big Bang. Only after things cooled down could stars form.
Sometimes a black hole will reheat the surrounding gas preventing stars from forming. That’s called black hole feedback, and it happens when black holes emit jets of heated material from their centers. The jets are enormously powerful, pushing away the hot x-ray-emitting gas in the galaxy cluster’s center, creating vast radio bubbles.
This graphic from the Space Science Telescope Institute team describes the black hole feedback loop. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)
While that description makes the process sound straightforward, it’s not. It takes enormous energy to move that much gas, and astrophysicists want to know where all of that energy comes from. In this study, the researchers probed the radio bubbles for clues to the energy source.
The Green Bank Telescope is a fully steerable radio telescope—the world’s largest—located in West Virginia. Its collecting area is 100 meters in diameter. The MUSTANG-2 receiver is a type of camera called a continuum receiver that operates across multiple channels.
The team aimed the instrument at the galaxy cluster MS0735. It’s about 2.6 billion light years away and is known for having an enormously massive black hole in its center. The jets coming from the black hole in the center are one of the most powerful active galactic nucleus eruptions ever recorded. The eruption has been going on for over 100 million years and has released as much energy as hundreds of millions of gamma-ray bursts.
“We’re looking at one of the most energetic outbursts ever seen from a supermassive black hole,” said lead author Orlowski-Scherer.
The jets are the likely culprits behind the radio bubbles, but exactly how they work is unknown. Somehow, they provide the heat that prevents star formation. “Jets are the main drivers of ICM (Intra-Cluster Medium) reheating, although the exact mechanism is not clear yet,” the authors explain in their paper. “It is known that the jets, as traced by their synchrotron emission, often terminate in radio lobes that are coincident with depressions (cavities) in the X-ray emission.”
These jets are what carved out the radio bubbles, and the team studied them for clues to how it all plays out.
The region is difficult to observe, but the team used MUSTANG-2’s power to peer into the bubbles. They took advantage of a phenomenon called the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect. The SZ effect is a subtle distortion of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB,) sometimes called the echo from the Big Bang. It’s relic radiation from the moment the Universe began over 13 billion years ago. The SZ effect registers as a slight thermal pressure at 90 GigaHertz, where MUSTANG-2 can sense it. 90 GHz is in the millimetre band because radio waves in this band have wavelengths from one to ten millimetres.
Observations by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (left image) and by GBO’s MUSTANG-2 instrument (right image) clearly show the enormous cavities (highlighted with gray circles) excavated by the powerful radio jets (green contours) expelled from the black hole at the center of galaxy cluster MS0735. The green contours in both images are from observations performed by the Naval Research Laboratory’s VLA Low-band Ionosphere and Transient Experiment (VLITE) back end used on the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO) Very Large Array (VLA). Image Credit: Orlowski-Scherer et al. 2022.
“With the power of MUSTANG-2, we are able to see into these cavities and start to determine precisely what they are filled with and why they don’t collapse under pressure,” said Tony Mroczkowski. Mroczkowski is an astronomer with the European Southern Observatory who was part of this new research.
This study isn’t the first time astrophysicists have studied these radio bubbles. Those efforts showed that the pressure inside these bubbles wasn’t entirely thermal. They pointed to relativistic particles, cosmic rays, and turbulence as causes, as well as a small contribution from magnetic fields. “Broadly, the support mechanisms can be broken down into two categories: thermal and non-thermal,” the team explains in their paper.
But the observations in this new study are the deepest high-fidelity SZ observations yet of the inside of the bubbles. That’s important because the SZ effect can distinguish thermal pressure causes from non-thermal pressure and relativistic electron causes. This study’s results show more nuance in the cause of the cavities, including thermal and non-thermal sources.
“We knew this was an exciting system when we studied the radio core and lobes at low frequencies, but we are only now beginning to see the full picture,” explains co-author Tracy Clarke. Clarke’s an astronomer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and VLITE Project Scientist who co-authored a previous radio study of this system.
The Milky Way has its own pair of bubbles, most likely caused by outbursts from Sgr. A*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. While Sgr. A* may have produced jets in the past that carved out the bubbles, it emits no jets today. From end to end, the Milky Way’s gamma-ray bubbles extend 50,000 light-years, or roughly half of the galaxy’s diameter, as shown in this illustration. Image Credit: NASA
Galaxy clusters are important because they’re the endpoints of structure formation in the Universe. They grow continuously through mergers and accretion. Theory and calculations show that some of their energy is not yet thermalized, meaning it comes from turbulence and bulk motion. Researchers want to know how much of a cluster’s pressure support is not thermal because that helps them understand how the gas in the intra-cluster medium reaches equilibrium. That’s called virialization, and it leads to star formation.
It all relates to the problem of black hole feedback, which prevents stars from forming. Studies like this one that uses the GBT/MUSTANG-2 receiver across multiple frequencies can start to untangle this complex environment by determining how thermal and non-thermal pressures support the radio bubbles. Scientists would like a clearer understanding of how turbulence, magnetic fields, and even cosmic rays support these bubbles.
“This work will help us better understand the physics of galaxy clusters and the cooling flow feedback problem that has vexed many of us for some time,” added Orlowski-Scherer.
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