Scientists Discover Bizarre and Ancient Fossilized Forest – Futurism

Calling Dr. Seuss. Strange New World

In a picturesque corner of England, along dramatic sandstone cliffs, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Cardiff have uncovered a wondrous discovery: 390-million-year-old fossilized remains of the oldest forest ever found.

Tantalizingly, this forest is unlike anything you could see in today's natural environment. As detailed in a new paper in the Journal of Geological Study, the trees which look like giant 13-foot thistles are considered some of the first to appear in our planet's long history.

Another notable feature about these trees, known as Calamophyton,is that they had hollow trunks and were composed of smaller, multiple trunk-like strands ringing the hollow. The smaller trees would expand and eventually grow so thick and big that the entire structure would split apart.

"This was a pretty weird forest not like any forest you would see today, said Cambridge Earth Sciences professor and the paper's first author Neil Davies in a statement. "There wasnt any undergrowth to speak of and grass hadnt yet appeared, but there were lots of twigs dropped by these densely-packed trees, which had a big effect on the landscape."

Researchers found the ancient forest in South West England, specifically on the coast of Devon and Somerset counties. Fossilized remains includelogs, branches, stumps and other traces of these prototype trees.

The forest grew in the pivotal Devonian Period, approximately 359 to 419 million years ago, which was a remarkable time in Earth's history that saw the establishment of the first land animals and the first plants to reproduce by seeds.

The discovery adds further understanding to how the first forests shaped the land, the researchers explained. Shed branches from these trees helped build up sediment over the years and which in turn impacted the course of ancient rivers.

"The Devonian period fundamentally changed life on Earth," said Davies. "It also changed how water and land interacted with each other, since trees and other plants helped stabilize sediment through their root systems, but little is known about the very earliest forests."

More on fossils: Amazing Fossil Froze Dinosaur in Death Match With Prehistoric Monster

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Scientists Discover Bizarre and Ancient Fossilized Forest - Futurism

Scientists Intrigued by Water Planet Where Ocean Appears to Be Boiling – Futurism

Hot enough to cook an egg. Watery Depths

About 70 light years away from our solar system is a planet that may potentially be covered entirely with water. But before you start imagining oceans just like the ones here on Earth, astronomers at the University of Cambridge say the planet-wide sea could be as hot as a pot of boiling water.

The astronomers uncovered this planet after interpreting data they had picked up using the NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, subsequently publishing their findings in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

They trained their sights on the TOI-270 system, which consists of a red dwarf star orbited by three exoplanets. Of these three planets, they studied data from TOI-270 d, which scientists have described as a smaller version of Neptune due to its gaseous composition.

After crunching data, analysis of the atmosphere's chemical composition suggests it might instead be a "Hycean world" meaning a planet with a large ocean and hydrogen-rich atmosphere. And astonishingly, the scientists also calculated that its temperature could be as hot as 212 degrees Fahrenheit, the boiling point of water.

But the data is open to interpreation. Other scientists who have studied the same planet were quoted by The Guardian saying they think the planet has instead a rocky surface and is covered with a very dense atmosphere made up of super hot steam and hydrogen.

"The temperature in our view is too warm for water to be liquid," University of Montreal astrophysics professor Bjrn Benneke told The Guardian.

No matter the true nature of TOI-270 d, it's astonishing we're now able to pick up the chemical signatures of distant exoplanets.

Since humankind found the first detection of an exoplanet in 1992, the number of exoplanets we have found has grown to the thousands.

Maybe the real question: in that wealth of worlds, will we ever find a planet as hospitable as our own?

More on exoplanets: Astronomers Discover Potentially Habitable Planet

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Scientists Intrigued by Water Planet Where Ocean Appears to Be Boiling - Futurism

Astronauts may accidentally threaten Mars missions with their gut bacteria, scientists warn – Space.com

As space agencies plan for future crewed missions to Mars, with NASA hoping to have humans step foot on the Red Planet as soon as the 2030s, scientists warn that astronauts themselves could be carrying a threat to these missions.

This threat may very well live within their bodies.

New research using simulated Mars conditions such as the planet's lack of water, harsh ultraviolet radiation and exposure to toxic salts suggests four strains of bacteria that can be carried in the human gut may not only survive in Martian soil, or "regolith," but, under the right conditions, thrive.

Worryingly, these bacteria including Burkholderia cepacia,Klebsiella pneumoniae,Pseudomonas aeruginosa andSerratia marcescens have the potential to cause disease in humans. For instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that even though B. cepacia can cause wildly varying symptoms, exposure to the bacteria can result in serious respiratory infections and is already resistant to common antibiotics.

"We looked at four different bacterial species, which are associated with humans and had not really been investigated in a Mars-like environment," research team member and German Aerospace Center scientist, Tommaso Zaccaria, told Space.com. "We were able to see that these species of bacteria were able to survive, to an extent, in certain Mars conditions under desiccation [loss of moisture], UV radiation and in Mars' atmosphere."

Related: Life on Mars could have thrived near active volcanoes and an ancient mile-deep lake

The bacteria's survival surprised the team. Particularly, the researchers weren't expecting how the bacteria took to toxic Martian regolith, which was simulated here on Earth to represent global conditions on the Red Planet rather than a specific area of the planet.

"We thought that the regolith would actually have more of a toxic effect on the bacteria and that it would limit the growth in such a way," Zaccaria said. "We didn't think it would completely kill them all, but we thought it would be more limiting. Instead, it seemed regolith was supplementing the bacteria's growth."

The team also found that not only can the bacteria survive for several days, with P. aeruginosa lasting for a period of up to 21 days, but in certain conditions, they could prosper in Martian soil. These conditions included access to liquid water and protection from UV light exactly the conditions human habitats on Mars will have to establish for astronaut survival.

Zaccaria added that this means missions to Mars will have to take medical precautions, such as carrying extra antibiotics, to protect humans on the Red Planet from bacterial threats brought from home.

Despite the survival of the bacteria in Mars-like conditions, the dependence on very specific conditions to survive means it is unlikely that the organisms will colonize the Red Planet after being carried from Earth. "Growth would be very limited," Zaccaria assured.

That doesn't mean there isn't cause for concern, however.

"We still think it's quite important to protect Mars, and we want to highlight the fact that there should be some mission planning to take into account also these kinds of bacteria," Zaccaria said. "We don't want to contaminate Mars with human-related bacteria."

Currently, NASA rovers Curiosity and Perseverance are exploring ancient, dried lake beds on Mars to search for signs that simple life, like bacteria, could have once existed on the presently arid world.

This new research suggests, however, that if humans were to explore regions like this in person, they may carry unwanted bacteria with them and potentially cause contamination. This bacteria could also change under the conditions of Mars, making it hard to identify as having come from Earth. And this could result in some confusion that prevents us from determining whether signs of life discovered on Mars originated on the Red Planet or hitched a ride from our own home.

"If there would be some interesting astrobiological interest on a specific location of Mars, perhaps only easily sterilized robotic missions less contained with human bacteria should be allowed to go there," Zaccaria said. "This could involve classifying certain areas of Mars as regions like national parks that we have here on Earth."

Zaccaria added that, because the human immune system functions differently in the microgravity of space, he can't currently predict the precise effect the four studied bacteria would have on human health on Mars. This is an investigation that he and his colleagues at the German Aerospace Center will undertake in the future.

Additionally, the researchers will investigate how other bacteria deal with Mars-like conditions.

"Perhaps some bacteria would be more tolerant to the conditions on Mars, and they will resist for longer periods of time, or maybe they're less resistant," Zaccaria concluded. "It will be interesting to evaluate other types of bacteria which are human-associated, which do not necessarily cause disease, but can be transported by the human microbiome either on the skin or inside the human body, to Mars."

The team's research was published in January in the journal Astrobiology.

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Astronauts may accidentally threaten Mars missions with their gut bacteria, scientists warn - Space.com

Why This Brain-Hacking Technology Will Turn Us All Into Cyborgs – The Daily Beast

It felt like magic: As I moved my head and eyes across the computer screen, the cursor moved with me. My goal was to click on pictures of targets on the display. Once the cursor reached a target, I would blink causing it to click on the targetas if it were reading my mind.

Of course, thats essentially what was happening. The headband I was wearing picked on my brain, eye, and facial signals. This data was fed through an AI-software that translated it into commands for the cursor. This allowed me to control what was on the screen, even though I didnt have a mouse or a trackpad. I didnt need them. My mind was doing all of the work.

The brain, eye, and face are great generators of electricity, Naeem Kemeilipoor, the founder of brain-computer interface (BCI) startup AAVAA, told The Daily Beast at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show. Our sensors pick up the signals, and using AI we can interpret them.

The headband is just one of AAVAAs products that promises to bring non-invasive BCIs to the consumer market. Their other devices include AR glasses, headphones, and earbuds that all essentially accomplish the same function: reading your brain and facial signals to allow you to control your devices.

While BCI technology has largely remained in the research labs of universities and medical institutions, startups like AAVAA are looking for ways to put them in the handsor, rather, on the headsof everyday people. These products go beyond what we typically expect of our smart devices, seamlessly integrating our brain with technology around us. They also offer a lot of hope and promise for people with disabilities or limited mobilityallowing them to interact with and control their computers, smartphones, and even wheelchairs.

However, BCIs also blur the lines between the tech around us and our very minds. Though they can be helpful for people with disabilities, their widespread use and adoption raises questions and concerns about privacy, security, and even a users very personhood. Allowing a device to read our brain signals throws open the doors to these ethical considerations so, as they steadily become more popular, they could become more dangerous as well.

AAVAAs BCI devices on a table at CES 2024. AAVAA is looking for ways to put them in the handsor, rather, on the headsof everyday people.

BCIs loomed large all throughout CES 2024and for good reason. Beyond being able to control your devices, wearables that could read brain signals also promised to provide greater insights into users health, wellness, and productivity habits.

There were also a number of devices targeted at improving sleep quality such as the Frenz Brainband. The headband measures users brainwaves, heart rate, and breathing (among other metrics) to provide AI-curated sounds and music to help them fall asleep.

Every day is different and so every day your brain will be different, a Frenz spokesperson told The Daily Beast. Today, your brain might feel like white noise or nature sounds. Tomorrow, you might want binaural beats. Based on your brains reactions to your audio content, we know whats best for you.

To produce the noises, the headband used bone conduction, which converts audio data into vibrations on the skull that travel to the inner ear producing sound. Though it was difficult to hear clearly on the crowded show floor of CES, the headband managed to produce soothing beats as I wore them in a demo.

When you fall asleep, the audio automatically fades out, the spokesperson said. The headband keeps tracking all night, and if you wake up, you can press a button on the side to start the sounds to put you back to sleep.

However, not all BCIs are quite as helpful as they might appear. For example, there was MW75 Neuro, a pair of headphones from Master and Dynamic that purports to read your brains electroencephalogram (EEG) signals to provide insights on your level of focus. If you become distracted or your focus wanes for whatever reason, it alerts you so you can maintain productivity.

Sure, this might seem helpful if youre a student looking to squeeze in some more quality study time or a writer trying to hit a deadline on a story, but its also a stark and grim example of late-stage capitalism and a culture obsessed with work and productivity. While this technology is relatively new, its not difficult to imagine a future where these headphones are more commonplace andpotentiallyrequired by workplaces.

When most people think about BCIs, they typically think of brain-chip startups like Synchron and Neuralink. However, these technologies require users to undergo invasive surgeries in order to implant the technology. Non-invasive BCIs from the likes of AAVAA, on the other hand, require just a headband or headphones.

Thats what makes them so promising, Kemeilipoor explained. No longer would it be limited to only those users who really need it like those with disability issues. Any user can pop on the headband and start scrolling on their computer or turning their lamps and appliances on and off.

The Daily Beasts intrepid reporter Tony Ho Tran wears AAVAAs headband, which promises to bring non-invasive BCIs to the consumer market.

Its out of the box, he explained. Weve done the training [for the BCI] and now it works. Thats the beauty of what we do. It works right out of the boxand it works for everyone.

However, the fact that it can work for everyone is a top concern for ethical experts. Technology like this creates a minefield of potential privacy issues. After all, these companies may potentially have completely unfettered access to data from our literal brains. This is information that can be bought, sold, and used against consumers in an unprecedented way.

One comprehensive review published in 2017 in the journal BMC Medical Ethics pointed out that privacy is a major concern for potential users for this reason. BCI devices could reveal a variety of information, ranging from truthfulness, to psychological traits and mental states, to attitudes toward other people, creating potential issues such as workplace discrimination based on neural signals, the authors wrote.

To their credit, Kemeilipoor was adamant that AAVAA would and does not have access to individual brain signal data. But the concerns are still there, especially since there are notable examples of tech companies misusing user data. For example, Facebook has been sued multiple times for millions of dollars for storing users biometric data without their knowledge or consent. (Theyre certainly not the only company doing this either.)

These issues arent going to go awayand theyll be further exacerbated by the infusion of technology and the human brain. This is a phenomenon that also brings up concerns about personhood as well. At what point, exactly, does the human end and the computer begin once you are able to essentially control devices as an extension of yourself like your arms or legs?

The questionis it a tool or is it myself?takes on an ethical valence when researchers ask whether BCI users will become cyborgs, the authors wrote. They later added that some ethical experts worry that being more robotic makes one less human.

Yet, the benefits are undeniableespecially for those for whom BCIs could give more autonomy and mobility. Youre no longer limited by what you can do with your hands. Now, you can control the things around you simply by looking in a certain direction or moving your face in a specific way. It doesnt matter if youre in a wheelchair or completely paralyzed. Your mind is the limit.

This type of technology is like the internet of humans, Kemeilipoor said. This is the FitBit of the future. Not only are you able to monitor all your biometrics, it also allows you to control your devicesand its coming to market very soon.

Its promising. Its scary. And its also inevitable. The biggest challenge that we all must face is thatas these devices become more popular and we gradually give over our minds and bodies to technologywe dont lose what makes us human in the first place.

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Why This Brain-Hacking Technology Will Turn Us All Into Cyborgs - The Daily Beast

Scientists tested 10 meals to find the perfect food for space travel – Livescience.com

Maintaining a balanced diet can be hard enough on Earth, but it's even more difficult in space especially when you're talking about long-haul missions. Although space-based agriculture has made strides in recent years, growing fresh crops in space is no easy feat, and each bit of food or water stored in a spacecraft adds mass, thus weighing down the vessel during its journey out of orbit.

Scientists recently studied possible nutrient-dense meals fit for long-term space travel, such as potential Mars missions, that both satisfy astronauts' nutritional needs and taste better than existing alternatives. They tested 10 dishes to see which would be the optimal meal for male astronauts; they plan to specifically study meals for female astronauts in the future. The best meal would help space travelers get the calories and variety of nutrients they need during their odysseys and use crops that could be grown in space with minimal water.

Ultimately, the best space meal turned out to be a hearty kale salad, according to their study, published Dec. 13 in the journal ACS Food Science & Technology.

"These assessments are essential steps toward feasibility in long-term human space missions, for example, to Mars," the authors wrote.

Space travelers have different nutritional requirements than people on Earth do. That's because astronauts face unique stressors, including the vibration, noise, weightlessness, cosmic radiation and drastic temperature changes inherent to spaceflight. Research suggests that a male astronaut needs to consume around 2.6 pounds (1.2 kilograms) of food per day to maintain their body weight and energy levels. That diet should include more than double the carbohydrates and proteins than a typical person on Earth would require.

Related: NASA reveals first image of 'space tomatoes' that went missing on the ISS for 8 months, and they're gross

With this in mind, the team assessed a variety of nutrient-dense ingredients using a statistical model, which also measured the foods' capability of being grown in space or stored for a long time in a spacecraft. This model yielded 10 "space dishes"; four were vegetarian, and six were made with plants and meat.

Compared with plants, meat options typically provide a higher concentration of certain key nutrients, such as protein and vitamin B12. However, the storage of animal products "requires a large space for long-term space missions," making them tough ingredients to regularly include in an astronaut's diet, the study's authors wrote. (In addition, there aren't yet efficient methods for growing lab-grown meat, although the field is advancing.)

The team couldn't include baked goods like bread, because crumbs can float around in microgravity and damage equipment in the spacecraft.

Crops, on the other hand, could be grown during space travel. Considering all of these factors, the researchers' models determined that the optimal dish to meet astronauts' nutritional needs while being feasible for space travel is a vegetarian salad made with soybeans, poppy seeds, barley, kale, peanuts, sweet potato and sunflower seeds but notably, no salad dressing.

"I think their choice was very well done," Kathleen Carter, a nutritional researcher at Central State University in Ohio who was not involved in the study, told Live Science. "I think that as we start extending our time in space, we're going to have to go to more plant-based. We're going to have to be able to grow our own resources."

Beyond nutritional value, the researchers studied another factor in the ideal astronaut meal: taste. They fed four volunteers the optimized space salad and recorded their feedback on its palatability. Overall, the results were positive, with one volunteer saying they "enjoyed the sweet taste of the potatoes and freshness crunch."

However, the researchers flagged some key limitations with this meal option.

While some plants, including Chinese cabbage and tomatoes, have been cultivated in space in recent decades, there still isn't a reliable and efficient cultivation system to maximize output in this environment, they noted in the study. Additionally, the optimized salad is still missing some of the vitamins and minerals an astronaut would need each day, though these could be provided through supplements, the authors wrote.

Future studies should also consider the cultural and individual dietary requirements of each astronaut, Carter said. Their space menu would need to accomodate any allergies, personal preferences or dietary restrictions, she added.

"Different cultures are going to want different types of foods," Carter said. "Making sure that food looks good, that it tastes good [and] that it's something that they really want to eat, in addition to being very nutrient dense, is going to be very important."

The researchers plan to use their models to design meals for female astronauts and to incorporate more crops into its algorithm, according to a statement.

Ever wonder why some people build muscle more easily than others or why freckles come out in the sun? Send us your questions about how the human body works to community@livescience.com with the subject line "Health Desk Q," and you may see your question answered on the website!

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Nazi-Looted Painting Returned to Collector’s Heir | Smart News – Smithsonian Magazine

The painting is attributed toDutch artist Cornelis van Haarlem. Kaye Spiegler

A painting stolen by a high-ranking Nazi official during World War II has been returned to the original owners heir, reports the Observers Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly.

The official in question is Hermann Gring, who held many powerful positions in the Nazi party. According to ARTnews Angelica Villa, Gring acquired the artworkalong with some 1,100 other piecesfrom the collection of Dutch-Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker in Amsterdam in 1940.

Some of the looted pieces were eventually returned to the Dutch government, which gave 200 paintings to Goudstikkers family in 2006 after a lengthy legal battle. Many of the works, however, are still missing.

Art historians think the newly returned artwork, titled Adam and Eve, was painted by Dutch artist Cornelis van Haarlem in the 16th century. It recently resurfaced when a private collector tried to donate it to the Muse Rolin, an art museum in Autun, France.

When Agathe Mathiaut-Legros, the museums curator, and Axelle Goupy, her assistant, inspected the piece, they discovered a label bearing Goudstikkers name, reports Meriem Souissi of the French newspaper Le Journal de Sane-et-Loire. They began researching the paintings provenance and determined it was one of the works stolen from Goudstikkers collection during World War II.

The museum then notified Marei von Saher, Goudstikkers daughter-in-law and only living heir, to let her know about the discovery. The New York law firm Kaye Spiegler helped facilitate the return.

The identity of the donors has not been revealed. According to the law firm, they did not know the piece had been looted.

The museum really acted in the way that you want museums to be acting; they flagged it, they contacted the family, they were doing the right thing to resolve this in a fair and correct way, says Yal Weitz, an attorney who worked on the case, to the Observer. They handled it in a way that we hope other museums will going forward.

Roughly 800 pieces looted from Goudstikkers collection still have not been returned to the family, though a few have made their way back in recent years. In 2022, the German city of Trier returned a painting called Ice Skating, created by Dutch artist Adam van Breen during the 17th century.

Still, not all Von Sahers efforts to retrieve the familys stolen paintings have been successful. For example, a San Francisco court ruled in 2018 that the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, could keep two looted 16th-century paintings created by Lucas Cranach the Elder. In 2019, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.

Last month, the Muse Rolin held a ceremony to mark the return of Adam and Eve.

I am deeply appreciative of the efforts that led to the recovery of this piece of our familys history, says Von Saher in a statement from Kaye Spiegler. It is so gratifying to see justice achieved and have this painting returned to its rightful owners.

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Nazi-Looted Painting Returned to Collector's Heir | Smart News - Smithsonian Magazine

Anti-Cancer Pill Shows Promising Results in Human Experiment

A cancer-combating pill called divarasib could be a breakthrough in treating a specific form of bowel cancer.

In its latest round of early human trials, a drug called divarasib has shown promising results in treating a specific form of bowel cancer, outshining existing alternatives.

In a new study published in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Australia found that when divarasib is combined with another cancer treatment called cetuximab, 62 percent of patients with tumors caused by a mutation in the KRAS gene experienced a positive outcome, which means that their tumors were either completely eradicated or reduced in size.

When used on its own, previous research found the pill yields a still impressive 35.9 percent positive response rate, notes NewAtlas, and is overall 20 times more effective than other treatments that also target the same cancer.

Despite the promising results, it's a very targeted drug that will only be effective for a small proportion of colon cancer patients. The mutation, KRAS G12C, affects a protein that controls cell division and occurs only in four percent of colon or rectal (colorectal) cancer cases, according to the researchers.

However, because KRAS G12C cancer is commonly tested for and has such a poor prognosis, doctors could quickly identify the patients that would benefit from divarasib, providing immediate — and potentially life-saving — relief.

"The median progression-free survival for patients in the study" — the amount of time during or after the treatment they were able to live without the cancer getting worse — "was just over eight months and the treatment was well tolerated with manageable side effects," said study lead author Jayesh Desai, a medical oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center, in a statement.

"While this is not a head-to-head trial, the response rates are better than what we have seen with other treatments that work on the KRAS G12C mutation pathway," he added, referring to trials that directly compare different therapies.

Existing treatments for KRAS G12C bowel cancer such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy provided only modest results. Their main drawback is that they're non-selective, targeting the whole body rather than homing in on the deadly tumors — a problem that divarasib seemingly promises to circumvent.

"We are very hopeful that this combination of divarasib with cetuximab will translate into better outcomes for our colorectal cancer patients," Desai said.

More on cancer: Scientists Intrigued by Clever Trick That Makes Cancer Cells Self-Destruct

The post Anti-Cancer Pill Shows Promising Results in Human Experiment appeared first on Futurism.

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Anti-Cancer Pill Shows Promising Results in Human Experiment

NASA’s IXPE Marks Two Years of Groundbreaking X-ray Astronomy – NASA

On Dec. 9, astronomers and physicists will commemorate two years of landmark X-ray science by NASAs IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission.

IXPE is the joint NASA-Italian Space Agency mission to study polarized X-ray light. Polarization is a characteristic of light that can help reveal information about where that light came from, such as the geometry and inner workings of the ultra-powerful energy sources from which it emanates.

Launched Dec. 9, 2021, IXPE orbits Earth some 340 miles high, studying X-ray emissions from powerful cosmic phenomena thousands to billions of light-years from Earth, including quasars, blazars, remnants of supernova explosions such as neutron stars, and high-energy particle streams spewing from the vicinity of black holes at nearly the speed of light.

Adding X-ray polarization to our arsenal of radio, infrared, and optical polarization is a game changer, said Alan Marscher, a Boston University astronomer who leads a research group that uses IXPEs findings to analyze supermassive black holes.

Were all familiar with X-rays as a diagnostic medical tool for humans. Here were using them in a different way, but they are again revealing information that is otherwise hidden from us, said Stanford University researcher Josephine Wong, who co-authored findings in October based on IXPE studies of the pulsar wind nebula MSH 15-52, some 16,000 light-years from Earth.

Martin Weisskopf, the astrophysicist who led the development of IXPE and served as its principal investigator until his retirement from NASA in spring 2022, agreed.

Martin Weisskopf

Retired IXPE Principal Investigator

Scientists have long understood, for example, the fundamentals of blazars such as Markarian 501 and Markarian 421. A blazar is a massive black hole feeding off material swirling around it in a disk, creating powerful jets of high-speed cosmic particles which rush away in two directions perpendicular to the disk. But how are those particles accelerated to such high energies? IXPE data published in November 2022 in the journal Nature identified the culprit at Markarian 501 as a shock wave within the jet.

This is a 40-year-old mystery that weve solved, said Yannis Liodakis, a NASA Postdoctoral Program researcher at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. We finally had all of the pieces of the puzzle, and the picture they made was clear.

IXPE also conducted unprecedented studies of three supernova remnants Cassiopeia A, Tycho, and SN 1006 helping scientists further their understanding of the origin and processes of the magnetic fields surrounding these phenomena.

IXPE is even shedding new light on fundamental mechanisms of our own galaxy. According to studies IXPE conducted in early 2022, Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, woke up about 200 years ago to devour gas and other cosmic detritus, triggering an intense, short-lived X-ray flare. By combining data from IXPE, Chandra, and the European Space Agencys XMM-Newton mission, researchers determined the event occurred around the start of the 19th century.

We know change can happen to active galaxies and supermassive black holes on a human timescale, said IXPE project scientist Steve Ehlert at NASA Marshall. IXPE is helping us better understand the timescale on which the black hole at the center of our galaxy is changing. Were eager to observe it further to determine which changes are typical and which are unique.

IXPE has also supported observations of unanticipated cosmic events such as the brightest pulse of intense radiation ever recorded, which abruptly swept through our solar system in October 2022.

The pulse stemmed from a powerful gamma-ray burst likely to occur no more than once in 10,000 years, researchers said. Backing up data from NASAs Fermi Space Telescope and other imagers, IXPE helped determine how the powerful emission was organized and confirmed that Earth imagers viewed the jet almost directly head-on.

Perhaps most exciting to space scientists is how IXPE data is upending conventional wisdom about various classes of high-energy sources.

So many of the polarized X-ray results weve seen over the past two years were a big surprise, tossing theoretical models right out the window, Ehlert said.

Steve Ehlert

IXPE Project Scientist

That excitement continues to build among IXPE partners around the world. In June, the mission was formally extended for 20 months beyond its initial two-year flight, meaning IXPE will continue to observe high-energy X-ray emissions across the cosmos through at least September 2025.

The new year also will mark the start of the IXPE General Observer Program, which invites astrophysicists and other space scientists around the world to propose and take part in studies using the IXPE telescope. Beginning in February 2024, as much as 80% of IXPEs time will be made available to the broader scientific community.

About the IXPE Mission

IXPE is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. IXPE is led by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. Ball Aerospace, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, manages spacecraft operations together with the University of Colorados Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder.

Elizabeth LandauNASA Headquarters elizabeth.r.landau@nasa.gov 202-358-0845

Jonathan Deal NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center 256-544-0034 jonathan.e.deal@nasa.gov

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NASA's IXPE Marks Two Years of Groundbreaking X-ray Astronomy - NASA