Analysis Of The Prevailing And Future Trends In The Global Food Botanicals Market – News Cast Report

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Global Food Botanicals Market: Overview

The demand within the global market for food botanicals has been rising on account of the evolved manufacturing techniques for multiple food products. Plant-based ingredients are extensively used across the food industry as edible plant products can add to the nutritional value of food items. Furthermore, the historic and cultural significance of several plant products has also brought food botanicals under the spotlight of attention. Food botanicals, in essence, are concentrated plant extract that are used to add fragrance, flavour, or colour to the food items. Food botanicals can also be used to increase the shelf life of products or to add key characteristics to the final food product. The medical served by botanicals have played a major role in enhancing the growth prospects of the globalfood botanicals market. Furthermore, the therapeutic action of certain types of botanicals has also led to an increased production of food botanicals in recent times. Owing to the aforementioned dynamics, the global food botanicals market is expected to attract voluminous investments in the years to come.

The global market for food botanicals may be segmented on the basis of the following parameters: application, source, form, end-user, and region. Amongst these segments, the segmentation based on the application of food botanicals shall help in understanding the key drivers of demand within this market.

A report added by Transparency Market Research (TMR) on the global food botanicals market encapsulates a range of factors that have aided the growth of this market in recent times. The report is fragmented into multiple sections, and some these sections address the regional and competitive dynamics of the global food botanicals market.

Global Food Botanicals Market: Trends and Opportunities

The popularity of food products made out of plant materials has been at the forefront of growth within the global market for food botanicals. Moreover, the demand for herbs and spices has been escalating at a skyrocketing pace, and this factor has also contributed towards the overall growth of the global food botanicals market. The cosmetics industry has reaped commendable revenues over the past decade, and several new personal-care products have come to the fore in recent times. Since food botanicals are used to add fragrance to cosmetic products, the demand within the global market for food botanicals is also projected to increase at a stellar rate. The use of food botanicals in the manufacture of food supplements is another factor that is prognosticated to propel demand within this market.

Global Food Botanicals Market: Market Potential

Plant-based protein is in great demand amongst vegetarians, and this factor is expected to create lucrative opportunities within the global market for food botanicals. The various types of food botanicals available in the market coupled with advancements in the global food industry shall bring in voluminous revenues into the global food botanicals market. On the flip side, certain groups of food botanicals can be toxic for the human body, and this factor has discouraged people from the use of plant-based products.

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Global Food Botanicals Market: Regional Outlook

The focus on herbal treatments for several diseases in India and China has given an impetus to the growth of the global market for food botanicals. Furthermore, the use of botanical products as food supplements in India has also created room for growth within the market for food botanicals in Asia Pacific.

Global Food Botanicals Market: Competitive Landscape

Some of the key players in the global food botanicals market are Himalaya Drug Company, Marfrig Group, Bio-Botanica Inc., Arcadian Organic and Natural Meat, and Kerry Group.

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Analysis Of The Prevailing And Future Trends In The Global Food Botanicals Market - News Cast Report

Black Holes Were Already Feasting Just 1.5 Billion Years After the Big Bang – Universe Today

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Thanks to the vastly improved capabilities of todays telescopes, astronomers have been probing deeper into the cosmos and further back in time. In so doing, they have been able to address some long-standing mysteries about how the Universe evolved since the Big Bang. One of these mysteries is how supermassive black holes (SMBHs), which play a crucial role in the evolution of galaxies, formed during the early Universe.

Using the ESOs Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, an international team of astronomers observed galaxies as they appeared about 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang (ca. 12.5 billion years ago). Surprisingly, they observed large reservoirs of cool hydrogen gas that could have provided a sufficient food source for SMBHs. These results could explain how SMBHs grew so fast during the period known as the Cosmic Dawn.

The team was led by Dr. Emanuele Paolo Farina of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA). He was joined by researchers from both the MPIA and MPA, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), UC Santa Barbara, the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, the Astrophysics and Space Science Observatory of Bologna, and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPEP).

For decades, astronomers have been studying SMBHs, which exist at the core of most galaxies and are identified by their Active Galatic Nuclei (AGN). These nuclei, which are also known as quasars, can emit more energy and light than the rest of the stars in the galaxy combined. To date, the most distant one observed is ULAS J1342+0928, which is located 13.1 billion light-years away.

Given that the first stars are estimated to have formed just 100,000 years after the Big Bang (ca. 13.8 billion years ago), this means that SMBHs had to have formed quickly from the first stars to die. Until now, though, astronomers had not found dust and gas in high enough quantities during the early Universe to explain this rapid growth.

In addition, previous observations conducted with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) revealed that early galaxies contained a lot of dust and gas, which fueled rapid star formation. These findings indicated that there would not have been much material left over to feed black holes, which only deepened the mystery of how they too grew so rapidly.

To address this, Farina and his colleagues relied on data gathered by the VLTs Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument to survey 31 quasars at a distance of around 12.5 billion light-years (thus observing what they looked like 12.5 billion years ago). This makes their survey one of the largest samples of quasars from this early period of the Universe. What they found were 12 extended and surprisingly dense hydrogen clouds.

These hydrogen clouds were identified by their characteristic glow in UV light. Given the distance and the effect of redshift (where the wavelength of light is stretched due to cosmic expansion), earthbound telescopes perceive the glow as red light. As Farina explained in an MPIA press release:

The most likely explanation for the shining gas is the mechanism of fluorescence. The hydrogen converts the energy-rich radiation of the quasar into light with a specific wavelength, which is noticeable by a glimmer.

The clouds of cool, dense hydrogen which were several billion times the mass of the Sun formed halos around the early galaxies that extended for 100,000 light-years from the central black holes. Ordinarily, detecting such clouds around quasars (which are intensely bright) is rather difficult. But thanks to the sensitivity of the MUSE instrument which Farina described as a game changer the team found them rather quickly.

As Alyssa Drake, a researcher with the MPIA who also contributed to the study, said:

With the current studies, we are only just beginning to investigate how the first supermassive black holes were able to develop so rapidly. But new instruments like MUSE and the future James Webb Space Telescope are helping us to solve these exciting puzzles.

The team found that these gas halos were tightly bound to the galaxies, providing the perfect food source to sustain both rapid star formation and the growth of supermassive black holes. These observations effectively resolve the mystery of how supermassive black holes could exist so early in the history of the Universe. As Farina summarizes it:

We are now able to demonstrate, for the first time, that primordial galaxies do have enough food in their environments to sustain both the growth of supermassive black holes and vigorous star formation. This adds a fundamental piece to the puzzle that astronomers are building to picture how cosmic structures formed more than 12 billion years ago.

In the future, astronomers will have even more sophisticated instruments with which to study galaxies and SMBHs in the early Universe, which should reveal even more details about ancient gas clouds. This includes the ESOs Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), as well as space-based telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The study that describes the teams findings appeared in the December 20th issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

Further Reading: ESO, MPIA, The Astrophysical Journal

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Giant Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy May Have a Friend – Livescience.com

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Do supermassive black holes have friends? The nature of galaxy formation suggests that the answer is yes, and in fact, pairs of supermassive black holes should be common in the universe.

I am an astrophysicist and am interested in a wide range of theoretical problems in astrophysics, from the formation of the very first galaxies to the gravitational interactions of black holes, stars and even planets. Black holes are intriguing systems, and supermassive black holes and the dense stellar environments that surround them represent one of the most extreme places in our universe.

The supermassive black hole that lurks at the center of our galaxy, called Sgr A*, has a mass of about 4 million times that of our Sun. A black hole is a place in space where gravity is so strong that neither particles or light can escape from it. Surrounding Sgr A* is a dense cluster of stars. Precise measurements of the orbits of these stars allowed astronomers to confirm the existence of this supermassive black hole and to measure its mass. For more than 20 years, scientists have been monitoring the orbits of these stars around the supermassive black hole. Based on what we've seen, my colleagues and I show that if there is a friend there, it might be a second black hole nearby that is at least 100,000 times the mass of the Sun.

Almost every galaxy, including our Milky Way, has a supermassive black hole at its heart, with masses of millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun. Astronomers are still studying why the heart of galaxies often hosts a supermassive black hole. One popular idea connects to the possibility that supermassive holes have friends.

To understand this idea, we need to go back to when the universe was about 100 million years old, to the era of the very first galaxies. They were much smaller than today's galaxies, about 10,000 or more times less massive than the Milky Way. Within these early galaxies the very first stars that died created black holes, of about tens to thousand the mass of the Sun. These black holes sank to the center of gravity, the heart of their host galaxy. Since galaxies evolve by merging and colliding with one another, collisions between galaxies will result in supermassive black hole pairs the key part of this story. The black holes then collide and grow in size as well. A black hole that is more than a million times the mass of our son is considered supermassive.

If indeed the supermassive black hole has a friend revolving around it in close orbit, the center of the galaxy is locked in a complex dance. The partners' gravitational tugs will also exert its own pull on the nearby stars disturbing their orbits. The two supermassive black holes are orbiting each other, and at the same time, each is exerting its own pull on the stars around it.

The gravitational forces from the black holes pull on these stars and make them change their orbit; in other words, after one revolution around the supermassive black hole pair, a star will not go exactly back to the point at which it began.

Using our understanding of the gravitational interaction between the possible supermassive black hole pair and the surrounding stars, astronomers can predict what will happen to stars. Astrophysicists like my colleagues and me can compare our predictions to observations, and then can determine the possible orbits of stars and figure out whether the supermassive black hole has a companion that is exerting gravitational influence.

Using a well-studied star, called S0-2, which orbits the supermassive black hole that lies at the center of the galaxy every 16 years, we can already rule out the idea that there is a second supermassive black hole with mass above 100,000 times the mass of the Sun and farther than about 200 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth. If there was such a companion, then I and my colleagues would have detected its effects on the orbit of SO-2.

But that doesn't mean that a smaller companion black hole cannot still hide there. Such an object may not alter the orbit of SO-2 in a way we can easily measure.

Supermassive black holes have gotten a lot of attention lately. In particular, the recent image of such a giant at the center of the galaxy M87 opened a new window to understanding the physics behind black holes.

The proximity of the Milky Way's galactic center a mere 24,000 light-years away provides a unique laboratory for addressing issues in the fundamental physics of supermassive black holes. For example, astrophysicists like myself would like to understand their impact on the central regions of galaxies and their role in galaxy formation and evolution. The detection of a pair of supermassive black holes in the galactic center would indicate that the Milky Way merged with another, possibly small, galaxy at some time in the past.

That's not all that monitoring the surrounding stars can tell us. Measurements of the star S0-2 allowed scientists to carry out a unique test of Einstein's general theory of relativity. In May 2018, S0-2 zoomed past the supermassive black hole at a distance of only about 130 times the Earth's distance from the Sun. According to Einstein's theory, the wavelength of light emitted by the star should stretch as it climbs from the deep gravitational well of the supermassive black hole.

The stretching wavelength that Einstein predicted which makes the star appear redder was detected and proves that the theory of general relativity accurately describes the physics in this extreme gravitational zone. I am eagerly awaiting the second closest approach of S0-2, which will occur in about 16 years, because astrophysicists like myself will be able to test more of Einstein's predictions about general relativity, including the change of the orientation of the stars' elongated orbit. But if the supermassive black hole has a partner, this could alter the expected result.

Finally, if there are two massive black holes orbiting each other at the galactic center, as my team suggests is possible, they will emit gravitational waves. Since 2015, the LIGO-Virgo observatories have been detecting gravitational wave radiation from merging stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars. These groundbreaking detections have opened a new way for scientists to sense the universe.

Any waves emitted by our hypothetical black hole pair will be at low frequencies, too low for the LIGO-Virgo detectors to sense. But a planned space-based detector known as LISA may be able to detect these waves which will help astrophysicists figure out whether our galactic center black hole is alone or has a partner.

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This article was originally published atThe Conversation.The publication contributed the article to Live Science'sExpert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

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Astronomers Discovered a New Kind of Explosion That the Sun Can Do – Universe Today

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In the course of conducting solar astronomy, scientists have noticed that periodically, the Suns tangled magnetic field lines will snap and then realign. This process is known as magnetic reconnection, where the magnetic topology of a body is rearranged and magnetic energy is converted into kinetic energy, thermal energy, and particle acceleration.

However, while observing the Sun, a team of Indian astronomers recently witnessed something unprecedented a magnetic reconnection that was triggered by a nearby eruption. This observation has confirmed a decade-old theory about magnetic reconnections and external drivers, and could also lead to a revolution in our understanding of space weather and controlled fusion and plasma experiments.

The team responsible for the discovery was led by Abhishek Srivastava, a solar scientist from the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), and included astronomers from the University of South Bohemia, the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Peking University, Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, and the Armagh Observatory.

Using data from NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory, Srivastava and his colleagues observed a magnetic explosion unlike any other. It began in the upper reaches of the Suns atmosphere (the corona), where a large loop of material (aka. a prominence) was launched by an eruption from the Suns surface. This loop then began descending back to the surface, but then ran into a mass of entangled field lines, triggering a magnetic explosion.

As Abhishek Srivastava, a solar scientist from the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), explained:

This was the first observation of an external driver of magnetic reconnection. This could be very useful for understanding other systems. For example, Earths and planetary magnetospheres, other magnetized plasma sources, including experiments at laboratory scales where plasma is highly diffusive and very hard to control.

In previous cases, magnetic reconnections that were observed on both the Sun and around Earth had been spontaneous in nature. These occur only when conditions are just right in a particular region of the Sun, which includes a thin sheet of ionized gas (aka. plasma) that only conducts electric current but only weakly.

While the possibility of forced reconnections driven by explosions was first theorized 15 years ago, none had ever been seen directly. This type of reconnection can happen in a wider range of places where plasma sheets have even lower resistance to conducting electric current. However, it also requires an eruption to trigger it, which will squeeze the plasma and magnetic fields and cause them to reconnect.

Using the SDO, the team was able to study this plasma by examining the Sun at a wavelength that showed particles heated to between 1 2 million C (1.8 3.6 million F). This allowed them to observe and take images of a forced reconnection event in the solar corona for the first time in history. It began with the prominence in the corona falling back into the photosphere, where it ran into a mess of field lines and reconnected in a distinctive X-shape.

Magnetic reconnections offer a possible explanation for why the Suns corona is actually millions of degrees hotter than the lower atmosphere which has been an enduring mystery for astronomers. To address this, solar scientists have spent decades looking for a possible mechanism that could be responsible for driving this heat.

With this in mind, Srivastava and his team observed the plasma in multiple ultraviolet wavelengths to calculate its temperature after the reconnection event. The data showed that the prominence, which was cooler than the surrounding corona, became hotter after the reconnection event. This suggests that forced reconnection could be responsible for heating the corona locally.

While spontaneous reconnection could still be a contributing factor, forced reconnections appear to be a bigger one, capable of raising plasma temperatures faster, higher, and in a more controlled fashion. In the meantime, Srivastava and his colleagues will continue to look for more forced reconnection events in the hopes of better understanding the mechanics behind them and how often they might happen.

These results could also lead to additional solar research to see if eruption events like flares and coronal mass ejections could also cause forced reconnection. Since these eruptions are the driving force behind space weather, which can wreak havoc on satellites and electronic infrastructure here on Earth, further research into forced reconnection could help lead to better predictive models

These, in turn, would allow for early warnings and preemptive measures to be taken in the event of a flare or ejection. Understanding how magnetic reconnection can be forced by an external driver could also lead to breakthroughs in the lab. This is particularly true of fusion experiments, where scientists are working to figure out how to control streams of super-heated plasma.

Credit: NASA, The Astrophysical Journal

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Astronomers Discovered a New Kind of Explosion That the Sun Can Do - Universe Today

Astronomers Map the Surface of a Pulsar – Universe Today

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When stars exhaust their supply of fuel, they collapse under their own weight and explode, blowing off their outer layers in an event known as a supernova. In some cases, these events leave behind neutron stars, the smallest and densest of stellar objects (with the exception of certain theoretical stars) that sometimes spin rapidly. Pulsars, a class of neutron star, can spin up to several hundred times per second.

One such object, designated J0030+0451 (J0030), is located about 1,100 light-years from Earth in the Pisces constellation. Recently, scientists using NASAs Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) were able to measure the pulsars size and mass. In the process, they also managed to locate the various hot spots on its surface, effectively creating the first map of a neutron star.

Since 2017, NICER has been conducting observations from the International Space Station (ISS) for the purpose of creating of learning what goes on inside a neutron star. In addition to providing high-precision measurements of neutron stars and other super-dense objects, the data it collects will also be used to create an X-ray map of the cosmos and to test pulsars as a possible navigation beacon.

As Paul Hertz, the director of NASAs astrophysics division, said in a recent NASA press release:

From its perch on the space station, NICER is revolutionizing our understanding of pulsars. Pulsars were discovered more than 50 years ago as beacons of stars that have collapsed into dense cores, behaving unlike anything we see on Earth. With NICER we can probe the nature of these dense remnants in ways that seemed impossible until now.

For decades, scientists have been studying pulsars in the hopes of getting a better understanding of their inner workings. According to the simplest model, pulsars have incredibly powerful magnetic fields shaped like a dipole magnet. Combined with the pulsars rotation, this causes particles from its surface to be focused into tight beams emitted from the poles. This creates a strong strobing effect that resembles a lighthouse to observers.

This effect leads to variations in the pulsars brightness (in the X-ray wavelength), which astronomers have observed in the past. At the same time, astronomers have also observed hotspots on the surface of pulsars, which are the result of their magnetic fields ripping particles from the surface and accreting them around the poles. While the entire surface glows brightly in X-rays, these hot spots glow brighter.

However, the new NICER studies of J0030 (a millisecond pulsar that revolves 205 times per second) showed that pulsars arent that simple. Using NICER data obtained from July 2017 to December 2018, two groups of scientists mapped out the hotspots on J0030 and came to similar conclusions about its mass and size.

The first team was led by Thomas Riley and his supervisor Anna Watts, a doctoral student in computational astrophysics and a professor of astrophysics (respectively) at the University of Amsterdam. To recreate the X-ray signals they observed, Riley and his colleagues conducted simulations of overlapping circles of different sizes and temperatures using the Dutch national supercomputer Cartesius.

In addition to determining that J0030 is around 1.3 Solar masses and 25.4 km (15.8 mi) wide, they identified two hot spots one small and circular, the other long and crescent-shaped. The second team, led by astronomy professor Cole Miller of the University of Maryland, conducted similar simulations using UMDs Deepthought2 supercomputer.

They found that J0030 is 1.4 Solar masses, measures 26 km (16.2 mi) wide, and came up with two solutions for hotspots. In the first, they identified two possible hotspots, one of which has two ovals that closely matches the results of Rileys team. In the second, they found a possible third hotspot located around the pulsars southern rotational pole.

As Riley explained, these results revealed a great deal about J0030 and other pulsars:

When we first started working on J0030, our understanding of how to simulate pulsars was incomplete, and it still is. But thanks to NICERs detailed data, open-source tools, high-performance computers and great teamwork, we now have a framework for developing more realistic models of these objects.

As predicted by Einsteins General Theory of Relativity, a pulsar is so dense that its gravity warps the very fabric of space-time around it. The effect is so pronounced that light coming from the side facing away from the observer is bent and redirected towards them. This makes the star look bigger than it really is and means that hot spots dont disappear entirely when they rotate away from the observer.

Thanks to NICERs precision, which is about 20 times that of previous instruments, astronomers are able to measure the arrival of each X-ray from a pulsar to better than a hundred nanoseconds. From Earth, the two teams had a clear view of J0030s northern hemisphere and expected to find one hotspot there. Instead, they identified up to three, all of which were located in the southern hemisphere.

As Miller explained, these observations would not have been possible without NICERs precision:

NICERs unparalleled X-ray measurements allowed us to make the most precise and reliable calculations of a pulsars size to date, with an uncertainty of less than 10%. The whole NICER team has made an important contribution to fundamental physics that is impossible to probe in terrestrial laboratories.

This constitutes the first case of astronomers mapping out the surface of a pulsar, and the results indicate that their magnetic fields are more complicated than the traditional dipole model would suggest. While scientists have yet to determine why J0030s spots are arranged and shaped the way they are, these findings indicate that these answers could be within reach.

Even more impressive is the fact that two teams arrived at similar findings independently of one another. As Zaven Arzoumanian, the NICER science lead at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, expressed:

Its remarkable, and also very reassuring, that the two teams achieved such similar sizes, masses and hot spot patterns for J0030 using different modeling approaches. It tells us NICER is on the right path to help us answer an enduring question in astrophysics: What form does matter take in the ultra-dense cores of neutron stars?

As part of the Astrophysics Mission of Opportunity element of NASAs Explorers program, NICERs main scientific objective is to precisely measure the size and mass of several pulsars. This information will yield valuable clues as to what transpires within their interiors, where matter is compressed to densities that are impossible to simulate in laboratories here on Earth.

This information will also help advance astronomers understanding of black holes and other super-dense objects. The analysis of the NICER observations of J0030 has already led to a series of papers that are featured in a focus issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Be sure to check out this video that explains the researchers findings as well, courtesy of the NASA Goddard:

Further Reading: NASA

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Astronomers Map the Surface of a Pulsar - Universe Today

Scientists Spot Ancient Star Burst in Milky Way’s Heart in Stunning New Image – Space.com

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Astronomers gazing into the heart of the Milky Way have discovered new clues about our galaxy's dramatic past.

Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) array in Chile's Atacama Desert, astronomers created a high-resolution image of our galaxy's center. The new observations revealed a burst of new star formation in the Milky Way's early years that was so intense, it led to more than 100,000 supernovas, or exploding stars.

"Our unprecedented survey of a large part of the Galactic centre has given us detailed insights into the formation process of stars in this region of the Milky Way," Rainer Schdel, a researcher with the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA) in Granada, Spain, who led the observations, said in a statement.

Video: See the Milky Way's Central Region in Incredible VLT ViewRelated: Our Milky Way Galaxy's Core Revealed (Photos)

An image of the central region of the Milky Way galaxy as seen by the HAWK-I instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope.

An annotated version of the image highlights different features in the central region of the Milky Way.

"Contrary to what had been accepted up to now, we found that the formation of stars has not been continuous," Francisco Nogueras-Lara, who led two new studies based on these observations of the Milky Way central region at IAA, said in the same statement.

One of the studies, which was published today (Dec. 16) in the journal Nature Astronomy, found that about 80% of the stars in the core of the Milky Way formed between 8 billion and 13.5 billion years ago. For comparison, scientists believe that the Milky Way galaxy is about 13.6 billion years old.

"This initial period of star formation was followed by about six billion years during which very few stars were born," ESO officials said in the statement. "This was brought to an end by an intense burst of star formation around one billion years ago when, over a period of less than 100 million years, stars with a combined mass possibly as high as a few tens of million suns formed in this central region."

Video: Milky Way Galaxy's Central Region - Very Large Telescope Zoom-In

"The conditions in the studied region during this burst of activity must have resembled those in 'starburst' galaxies, which form stars at rates of more than 100 solar masses per year," said Nogueras-Lara, who is now based at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany.

Researchers captured these images using an instrument on VLT called HAWK-I, a wide-field imager that observes the sky in near-infrared wavelengths, which allows it to "see" through dense clouds of interstellar dust and gas. The HAWK-I instrument allowed researchers to capture this stunning new view of the Milky Way, which was first published in October in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Scientists Spot Ancient Star Burst in Milky Way's Heart in Stunning New Image - Space.com

A Life Unfinished: Stephen Hawkings Estate Just Revealed The Genius Astrophysicist Died With Only 91% Completion For The Witcher 3 – The Onion

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When Stephen Hawking passed away almost three years ago, he left behind a legacy of revolutionary thinking in astrophysics and a life story that would inspire pretty much anyone. But according to a recent statement from the Stephen Hawking Foundation, theres one way the geniuss legacy was also sadly incomplete: He passed away with a mere 91% completion rating for CD Projekt Reds The Witcher 3.

For Stephen Hawkings admirers, knowing the inspirational figure came up short in the 2013 RPG classic seeking out some Places of Power and rare Gwent cards goes to show that even great geniuses struggle to finish everything before their time is up.

Now, none of this is to understate the scope of what Hawking did in his lifetime: Its an incredible accomplishment just to get this far in The Witcher 3 when most novice gamers simply push through the games main story arcs while brushing aside the majority of Witcher contracts and side missions. In fact, whats most tragic about all of this is realizing that the author of Brief History Of Time finished both the Of Swords and Dumpling and Master Armourers side quests without ever uncovering most of the games Bear Armor diagrams.

Its heartbreaking to imagine how unfulfilled Hawking must have felt as he took his final breath knowing full well that there was a small corner of the Skellige Islands mountainside that he hadnt yet explored. It was probably a small solace to know that he had overcome debilitating ALS to inspire millions worldwide while transforming astrophysics with his prediction that black holes emit radiation, especially given that his place in history would forever be haunted by that 9% of The Witcher 3s rich world that he had failed to fully explore.

In a press statement, Hawkings estate stressed that the famous physicist had been committed to maxing out Geralt during his life, spending hours every night in his Cambridge study and often prioritizing game sessions over family responsibilities and research into black-body radiation. In fact, in the months leading up to his death, Hawking apparently became obsessed with finding a way to retry the failed Cave of Dreams quest, unwilling to accept that this one misstep on his Death March difficulty playthrough would forever cost him completion perfection.

Its sad to say, but many gamers will no doubt question what they ever found inspiring about Hawkings life story now that they know he came up short in parts of the Novigrad fistfight circuit.

Thankfully, the late science icons foundation appears to be taking these concerns seriously and has already announced plans to spend $3.5 million setting up a charitable foundation to help kids around the world attain a 100% rating in CD Projekt Reds upcoming Cyberpunk 2077. Heres hoping that means no one will ever have to experience the searing disappointment Stephen Hawking must have felt at the end of his life.

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A Life Unfinished: Stephen Hawkings Estate Just Revealed The Genius Astrophysicist Died With Only 91% Completion For The Witcher 3 - The Onion

Black Holes’ Breakfast at the Cosmic Dawn Revealed by VLT [Video] – SciTechDaily

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This illustration depicts a gas halo surrounding a quasar in the early Universe. The quasar, in orange, has two powerful jets and a supermassive black hole at its center, which is surrounded by a dusty disc. The gas halo of glowing hydrogen gas is represented in blue.A team of astronomers surveyed 31 distant quasars, seeing them as they were more than 12.5 billion years ago, at a time when the Universe was still an infant, only about 870 million years old. They found that 12 quasars were surrounded by enormous gas reservoirs: halos of cool, dense hydrogen gas extending 100 000 light-years from the central black holes and with billions of times the mass of the Sun. These gas stashes provide the perfect food source to sustain the growth of supermassive black holes in the early Universe.Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Astronomers using ESOs Very Large Telescope have observed reservoirs of cool gas around some of the earliest galaxies in the Universe. These gas halos are the perfect food for supermassive black holes at the center of these galaxies, which are now seen as they were over 12.5 billion years ago. This food storage might explain how these cosmic monsters grew so fast during a period in the Universes history known as the Cosmic Dawn.

We are now able to demonstrate, for the first time, that primordial galaxies do have enough food in their environments to sustain both the growth of supermassive black holes and vigorous star formation, says Emanuele Paolo Farina, of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, who led the research published today in The Astrophysical Journal. This adds a fundamental piece to the puzzle that astronomers are building to picture how cosmic structures formed more than 12 billion years ago.

Astronomers have wondered how supermassive black holes were able to grow so large so early on in the history of the Universe. The presence of these early monsters, with masses several billion times the mass of our Sun, is a big mystery, says Farina, who is also affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching bei Mnchen. It means that the first black holes, which might have formed from the collapse of the first stars, must have grown very fast. But, until now, astronomers had not spotted black hole food gas and dust in large enough quantities to explain this rapid growth.

To complicate matters further, previous observations with ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, revealed a lot of dust and gas in these early galaxies that fuelled rapid star formation. These ALMA observations suggested that there could be little left over to feed a black hole.

To solve this mystery, Farina and his colleagues used the MUSE instrument on ESOs Very Large Telescope (VLT) in the Chilean Atacama Desert to study quasars extremely bright objects powered by supermassive black holes which lie at the center of massive galaxies. The study surveyed 31 quasars that are seen as they were more than 12.5 billion years ago, at a time when the Universe was still an infant, only about 870 million years old. This is one of the largest samples of quasars from this early on in the history of the Universe to be surveyed.

This image shows one of the gas halos newly observed with the MUSE instrument on ESOs Very Large Telescope superimposed to an older image of a galaxy merger obtained with ALMA. The large-scale halo of hydrogen gas is shown in blue, while the ALMA data is shown in orange.The halo is bound to the galaxy, which contains a quasar at its center. The faint, glowing hydrogen gas in the halo provides the perfect food source for the supermassive black hole at the center of the quasar.The objects in this image are located at redshift 6.2, meaning they are being seen as they were 12.8 billion years ago. While quasars are bright, the gas reservoirs around them are much harder to observe. But MUSE could detect the faint glow of the hydrogen gas in the halos, allowing astronomers to finally reveal the food stashes that power supermassive black holes in the early Universe.Credit: ESO/Farina et al.; ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Decarli et al.

The astronomers found that 12 quasars were surrounded by enormous gas reservoirs: halos of cool, dense hydrogen gas extending 100,000 light years from the central black holes and with billions of times the mass of the Sun. The team, from Germany, the US, Italy and Chile, also found that these gas halos were tightly bound to the galaxies, providing the perfect food source to sustain both the growth of supermassive black holes and vigorous star formation.

The research was possible thanks to the superb sensitivity of MUSE, the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, on ESOs VLT, which Farina says was a game changer in the study of quasars. In a matter of a few hours per target, we were able to delve into the surroundings of the most massive and voracious black holes present in the young Universe, he adds. While quasars are bright, the gas reservoirs around them are much harder to observe. But MUSE could detect the faint glow of the hydrogen gas in the halos, allowing astronomers to finally reveal the food stashes that power supermassive black holes in the early Universe.

In the future, ESOs Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will help scientists reveal even more details about galaxies and supermassive black holes in the first couple of billion years after the Big Bang. With the power of the ELT, we will be able to delve even deeper into the early Universe to find many more such gas nebulae, Farina concludes.This research is presented in a paper to appear in The Astrophysical Journal.

The team is composed of Emanuele Paolo Farina (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy [MPIA], Heidelberg, Germany and Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics [MPA], Garching bei Mnchen, Germany), Fabrizio Arrigoni-Battaia (MPA), Tiago Costa (MPA), Fabian Walter (MPIA), Joseph F. Hennawi (MPIA and Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, US [UCSB Physics]), Anna-Christina Eilers (MPIA), Alyssa B. Drake (MPIA), Roberto Decarli (Astrophysics and Space Science Observatory of Bologna, Italian National Institute for Astrophysics [INAF], Bologna, Italy), Thales A. Gutcke (MPA), Chiara Mazzucchelli (European Southern Observatory, Vitacura, Chile), Marcel Neeleman (MPIA), Iskren Georgiev (MPIA), Eduardo Baados (MPIA), Frederick B. Davies (UCSB Physics), Xiaohui Fan (Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, US [Steward]), Masafusa Onoue (MPIA), Jan-Torge Schindler (MPIA), Bram P. Venemans (MPIA), Feige Wang (UCSB Physics), Jinyi Yang (Steward), Sebastian Rabien (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching bei Mnchen, Germany), and Lorenzo Busoni (INAF-Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, Florence, Italy).

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Black Holes' Breakfast at the Cosmic Dawn Revealed by VLT [Video] - SciTechDaily

Is the decade really over at the end of 2019? – WPIX 11 New York

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With 2020 fast approaching, and as happens with any year that ends in "0," people around the world are planning to celebrate the New Year with extra gusto.

News outlets are publishing end of decade retrospectives. Magazines and podcasts are compiling the best songs, movies, and TV shows of the decade. Dads across the country are preparing a joke they've waited 10 years to use.

But is it all premature?

In recent weeks, a vocal minority of people on social media have argued that the new decade doesn't start in 2020 but in 2021. And according to the New York Times, they might be right.

The Times reports that in 1999, Geoff Chester, an astronomer and a public affairs officer at the Naval Observatory, stated that the new millennium began in 2001. Chester explained that the Observatory uses a modified Julian date to tell time, and the calendar states that new decades begin on years ending in "1."

That stems from the work of a monk named Dionysius Exiguus, who in 525 devised the A.D. system to record the number of years since Jesus was born. Because Exiguus began his calendar with the birth of Jesus at year 1, it followed that all new decades began with years ending in "1."

The Naval Observatory's master clock keeps precise time for the Department of Defense. It also governors the times for satellites and all Apple products, including iPhones. So obviously, the Observatory's ruling has plenty of clout.

But it's not quite that simple. Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, a curator in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History, told the Times that it's simply a consensus to recognize decades from years that end in "0" to years that end in "9." In fact, citing popular opinion, Merriam-Webster dictionary says the new decade does, in fact, begin in 2020.

So, go ahead and celebrate the end of the new decade on Dec. 31. Just don't expect to win any online arguments.

Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.

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Astrophysicists Create the First-Ever Surface Map of a Pulsar Using Data from NASAs NICER Telescope on the ISS – Outer Places

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Scientists using data from NASA's NICER telescope onboard the ISS have created the first-ever surface map of a pulsar, according to reports from Space.Com.

"Thanks to NICER's detailed data, open-source tools, high-performance computers and great teamwork, we now have a framework for developing more realistic models of these objects," said Thomas Riley, a doctoral student in computational astrophysics who led one of the research teams.

A pulsar is a type of neutron star that emits bursts or pulses of radiation. At the same time, the pulsar itself is spinning like a top. These stars also have strong magnetic fields channel jets of superaccelerated radioactive particles through the stars' north and south poles, which creates the bursts of light we use to find them. They are a sort of radio wave strobe light, if you will. These pulses don't last very long: a couple of seconds, max and sometimes the magnetic field doesn't line up with the rotational axis, so we can't always see this light. According to NASA, another way to think about pulsars is like a lighthouse beam: you can only see the light when it is pointing directly at you.

The NICER telescope (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) was installed on the ISS in June 2017 to monitor and collect data on neutron stars. Incredibly, it is also being used to test pulsars as potential navigation beacons for deep space missions. NASA astronomers were studying pulsar J0030+0451 in the constellation Pisces about 1,100 light-years away. From the NICER data, scientists were able to map the star's size and shape while mapping the shape and location of million-degree "hot spots" on the star's surface.

Neutron stars are the densest visible structure in our universe. They are the white-hot core that remains after a star one to three times the mass of our sun collapses on itself with enough force to crush most protons and electrons into neutrons. Larger stars will collapse into a black hole that's how dense neutron stars are. They're the equivalent of compressing 500,000 planet Earths into an area roughly the size of Manhattan. The only thing denser than a neutron star (that we know of) is the uncharted abyss of a black hole.

Paul Hertz, the astrophysics division director at theNASA Headquarters in Washington, said, "From its perch on the space station, NICER is revolutionizing our understanding of pulsarsPulsars were discovered more than 50 years ago as beacons of stars that have collapsed into dense cores, behaving unlike anything we see on Earth. With NICER we can probe the nature of these dense remnants in ways that seemed impossible until now."

You can read a collection of papers on this study that have been published online in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, and see the map in NASA Goddard's video below!

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Astrophysicists Create the First-Ever Surface Map of a Pulsar Using Data from NASAs NICER Telescope on the ISS - Outer Places

A spotters guide to the Milky Ways most badly behaved stars – New Scientist

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There are around a hundred billion stars in the Milky Way, and most are rather humdrum but the oddballs are so strange that they challenge our understanding of physics

By Stuart Clark

WITH hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy alone, you would expect a few oddballs and you would be right. Stars do follow a more or less set life path, determined by their mass. But we are increasingly finding that the details of those lives can diverge more than we ever imagined. In some cases, we are discovering stellar characteristics and habits so outlandish that they challenge our understanding of physics.

From a cannibalistic star to one that makes impossible elements and another that refuses to die, here is our introduction to some of the strangest stars in the universe.

Our galaxy is leaking stars. That is the only conclusion astronomers have been able to draw from the discovery of a few dozen stars travelling so fast that not even the gravity of the Milky Way can hold on to them. The record holder is S5-HVS1, which clocks in at 1700 kilometres per second so fast that it has already broken out into the lonely reaches of intergalactic space. But how has an enormous ball of gas accelerated to such a speed?

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When Warren Brown at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics identified the first hypervelocity star in 2005, it appeared to have come from the centre of the galaxy. That pointed the finger at the supermassive black hole there. Browns calculations showed that if a pair of stars passed close enough, the black hole would snatch hold of one of them and shoot the other off into space.

The plot thickened

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Frontier and centre | ANU Science, Health & Medicine – Science at ANU

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Image caption: Professor David McClelland, Professor Susan Scott, Dr Robert Ward and Dr Bram Slagmolen, from the ANU Research School of Physics with the TorPeDO, A low-frequency gravitational force sensor.

Fast forward to the present and the gravitational-wave observatories in the United States and Italy have detected the mergers of two black holes, the collision of two neutron stars and possibly also a black hole eating a neutron star. Neutron stars and black holes are thesuper-dense remains of dead stars.

We were quite astonished by the first successful detection of gravitational waves on the evening of 14 September 2015, which was from two big black holes smashing into each other 1.3 billion light years away, McClelland says.

Scott says the first detection was beyond exciting. All thoughts about Australia gaining yet another Prime

Minister in the previous hour vanished and instead my mind was racing with the wonderful and immense opportunities for discovery that lay ahead, she says.

The three founders of the project, from the US, won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics on behalf of the international team for this ground-breaking work.

Being part of a Nobel Prize-winning discovery is the highlight of my career, McClelland says.

I am so fortunate to be supported by an outstanding team at ANU, including long termers Bram Slagmolen, Robert Ward and Dan Shaddock.

The speed with which the Nobel Prize was awarded is testament to the enormity of the discovery in the physics world, Scott says.

Soon after the Nobel Prize was awarded, the international collaboration detected two neutron stars smashing together, which brought some light to their work and opened up a new scientific field where gravitational- wave physicists and astronomers could work together.

The LIGO detectors were recently taken offline for upgrades to improve their range and precision.

Instruments called quantum squeezers, designed at ANU, were installed on the LIGO detectors. The squeezers dampen quantum noise that can drown out weak gravitational-wave signals. This and other upgrades have improved the sensing capabilities of the detectors.

In this new dawn for space discovery, ANU will establish a centre next year to formally bring together gravitational-wave scientists with astronomers, to ensure the Universitys leading role in gravitational astrophysics both nationally and internationally into the future. The ANU SkyMapper telescope, with a wide field of view and capability to scan large areas of the southern sky quickly, will play an important role in the emerging field of gravitational-wave astronomy.

The new ANU Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics (CGA), bridging the ANU Research School of Physics and the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, will play a vital role in finding more violent events in the Universe.

We expect to detect gravitational waves from lots more cataclysmic events including those weve never detected before such as nearby exploding stars and neutron stars spinning rapidly in space, which produce much fainter signals, Scott says.

McClelland also expects some surprising discoveries in the future.

The most important discoveries may well be objects on the warped side of the Universe we never knew existed, he says.

This story originally appeared in ANU Reporter.

Main image credit: Carl Knox, OzGrav ARC Centre of Excellence

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2019 brought us the first image of a black hole. A movie may be next – Science News

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Black holes are notoriouslybashful beasts. The supermassive monsters that dwell at the centers of galaxiesweigh millions to billions of times the mass of the sun and control the fatesof everything in their vicinity, including light. Despite such outsizeinfluence over their home galaxies, black holes never show their faces.

Until now.After more than a decade of work, results from the Event Horizon Telescope, orEHT, stunned the world this year with the first direct image of a black holesevent horizon, the region beyond which not even light can escape.

To make this remarkable image, scientists cobbled together a massive telescope by connecting seven observatories around the world to create a tool effectively the size of Earth (SN: 4/27/19, p. 7). The result: a picture of the round silhouette of a black hole against the ringlike backdrop of its brightly glowing accretion disk, the gas and other material drawn in by the black holes voracious gravitational appetite.

Almost immediately, that image shored up Einsteins general theory of relativity, weighed in on the best way to measure a black holes mass (SN Online: 4/22/19) and provided evidence that event horizons are real. Now the EHT team is digging into what else the telescopes vast amount of data can reveal, in the hopes of cracking more black hole mysteries.

This is justthe beginning of this kind of new era of observing event horizons, says KazuAkiyama, an EHT team member and astrophysicist at the MIT Haystack Observatoryin Westford, Mass.

The initial black hole snapshot, unveiled in April, focused on a distant galaxy, M87 (SN: 4/27/19, p. 6). At roughly 6.5 billion solar masses, M87s black hole is 1,000 times as massive as EHTs other target, the black hole in the center of the Milky Way. That black hole, Sagittarius A*, also known as Sgr A*, weighs about 4 million times the mass of the sun.

Being moremassive made M87s giant an easier subject. Gases swirling around that blackhole were more sluggish and changed brightness less often and less dramaticallythan those moving more nimbly around Sgr A*.

M87 was sittingstill for its portrait, says EHT team member Andrew Chael, an astrophysicistat Princeton University. Sgr A* is like a cheetah running across the frame.

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In datacollected during a week in April 2017, Sgr A* changed its appearance over thecourse of a few minutes. So while M87s black hole lent itself to a singlestill image, for Sgr A*, we may need to construct a movie, Akiyama says.

The simplestway to make a movie would be to break up one nights observations intosegments, make an image from each segment and string them together, says EHTteam member Katie Bouman, a data scientist at Caltech. But theres not enoughinformation in even the smallest segment to produce a reliable image. Youreconstruct nonsense, she says.

Instead, the team is working on techniques to fill in gaps and carry information about the black holes appearance forward in time. We assume that although the source is evolving, its not evolving randomly there is some continuity in how the gas is moving around the black hole, Bouman says. By stitching together a movie that plays smoothly, she and colleagues hope to understand the black holes structure.

Getting a good look at Sgr A*s event horizon will give physicists one of the best tests yet of general relativity, says physicist Feryal zel of the University of Arizona in Tucson. The century-old theory predicts how the mass of a black hole warps spacetime (SN: 10/17/15, p. 16). General relativity also makes precise predictions for the size of the bright ring and dark silhouette for black holes of a given mass.

M87s blackhole was too far away for astronomers to know precisely its mass beforecapturing the image. But Sgr A*s mass is well known, thanks to decades ofmeasurements of stars orbiting the Milky Ways black hole. Capturing Sgr A*simage would be a clean test of some of the things we want to look at, zelsays. The ring and the shadow, it either is the size you expect or its not.Thats an incredible opportunity for us.

A movie ofM87s black hole may be in the works, too. Our observations provided goodevidence that M87 is actually changing [within] the timescale of a week,Akiyama says. Studying how the black hole changes could reveal details of howit rotates, spinning magnetized plasma around it like a dancers skirt.

Among othertreasures waiting in already collected data is the polarization of lightemitted from the bright ring of M87s black hole. This measure of theorientation of light waves wiggling up and down, left and right, or at anangle lets scientists determine the arrangement of strong magnetic fieldsnear the black hole. Those magnetic fields are thought to control how the blackhole accretes matter.

Thearrangement tells you how the black hole eats, says astrophysicist and EHT teammember Michael Johnson of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics inCambridge, Mass. Black holes are known for their hearty appetites, but actuallyits extremely difficult to fall into a black hole, he says. An orbiting bitof matter will just keep orbiting forever unless some friction or viscosity inthe environment drags it toward the black hole.

Physicists think magnetic fields are what make the environment around black holes viscous. In 2015, Johnson and colleagues published EHT observations of the polarization around Sgr A*, which showed tangled magnetic fields close to the black hole and more organized fields farther away. But those observations came from just four telescopes.

We have thisbeautiful theory of why black holes can eat, but weve never seen evidence forit, Johnson says. So if EHT can see these magnetic fields, we might have ourfirst glimpse into this accretion process.

Polarizationcould also help explain one mysterious feature of M87: It launches a bright,energetic jet that extends light-years into space. Magnetic fields that gettwisted around the black hole as it spins are important for launching the jet,physicists think, but the details are murky.

If we couldsee this polarization, we might be able to see these processes directly themagnetic fields and the jet and how theyre connected to the black hole,Johnson says.

EHT will fire up again in April 2020, this time with 11 observatories, including Kitt Peak in Arizona and NOEMA in the French Alps. Further in the future, EHT scientists are considering sending a telescope to space. Extending EHT into Earths orbit would alleviate worries about weather on the ground ruining observations and would help make even sharper images of even more black holes.

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2019 brought us the first image of a black hole. A movie may be next - Science News

Space news highlights of 2019 | Swinburne news – Swinburne University of Technology

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The Universe is constantly expanding, which certainly gives humanity a reason to question, investigate and explore far beyond Earths orbit.

In no particular order, Dr Rebecca Allen and PhD candidate Sara Webb from Swinburnes Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing compiled this list of the best in space news from 2019.

On 20 July 1969, the words Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind echoed across television sets broadcasting the Apollo 11 Moon landing to 600 million people across the world.

Fifty years later, in 2019, NASA marked the anniversary by streaming footage of the launch online to a new generation of stargazers and aspiring astronauts.

The agency held a "Man on the Moon" parade, projected a life-sized Saturn V rocket on the Washington Monument and unveiled astronaut Neil Armstrong's spacesuit.

The announcement of the Artemis mission also proposed to land the first woman and the next man on the Moonby 2024, and explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.

On 10 April, a team of international astronomers revealed the first image of a black hole.

The picture was taken over five days of observations in April 2017, using eight telescopes around the world - a collaboration known as the Event Horizon Telescope.

It depicts bright gas swirling around a supermassive black hole at the centre of M87, a galaxy about 54-million light-years away.

On 1 January, NASAs New Horizons spacecraft returned the sharpest possible images of 486958 Arrokath, an object located in a region at the outer edges of our solar system known as the Kuiper belt.

Also known as Ultima Thule, a Latin term for the most distant place beyond the borders of the known world, it is the farthest object explored so far.

On 3 July, astronomers and tourists alike scattered across the Atacama Desert in Chile to view the total solar eclipse, a moment where the moon completely blocks out the sun.

The path of total darkness spread from Chile to Argentina, with just two and a half minutes for observers to catch the ring of fire.

In September, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed a prototype for the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy Rocket, both designed to carry crew and cargo to Earths orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.

While the prototype is still in testing stages, Starship is predicted to carry up to 100 people and be completely reusable after each mission.

In October, astronomers accidentally discovered the footprints of a monster galaxy in the early Universe that had never been seen before.

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), a collection of 66 radio telescopes high in the Chilean mountains, researchers noticed a faint emission of light in sensitive observations.

The researchers estimate that the signal came from so far away that it took 12.5 billion years to reach Earth, therefore giving us a view of the Universe in its infancy.

Study co-author, Swinburnes Professor Ivo Labb, says the monster galaxy is forming new stars at 100 times the rate of our Milky Way.

NASAs Mars rover, Opportunity, reached its final resting place on the red planet in February.

The rover was active from June 2004, travelling more than 45 kilometres across the dusty surface and returning more than 200,000 images. It also exceeded its 90-day life expectancy 60-fold.

Opportunity stopped communicating after a severe dust storm blanketed its location in 2018. It remained unresponsive despite more than a thousand commands to restore contact until 13 February.

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Space news highlights of 2019 | Swinburne news - Swinburne University of Technology

Aliens: Mysterious blinking lights in the sky may be a sign of other life – EconoTimes

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For decades, people have wondered whether there are life forms existing beyond Earth or not. But the question may have been answered by astronomers upon their recent discovery.

Express reports that astronomers are currently trying to determine what the strange blinking lights from space are in case they would become evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial spaceships or structures. The scientists noticed the vanishing and reappearing lights in the sky, and as of now they believe that the lights might be coming from natural, if somewhat extreme, astrophysical sources but they have yet to come to a conclusive answer.

If this is proven to be true, then it might pave the way for a new field of astrophysics. The researchers even noted that their findings could potentially mean from going past traditional measures of astrophysics to the further searches of extraterrestrial life and or advanced technology coming from the extraterrestrial life outside the planet. The researchers analyzed old images of similar phenomena dating back to the 1950s, including military catalog sky images and compared them to modern findings, looking out for indicators such as stars that supposedly disappeared from the Milky Way.

According to Stockholm University professor and member of the Instituto Astrofisica de Canarias Beatriz Villaroel, discovering a star that appears out of nowhere would certainly include new astrophysics beyond the one we know of today.

It also bears noting that stars that are dying out turn into white dwarves or explode in a process called a supernova. With this in mind, the blinking lights from the sky could mean a few things: a failed supernova, natural astrophysical phenomena, or evidence of extraterrestrial life.

Moving along with blinking lights, Space previously reported that the unusual flashing lights are also measured as Fast Radio Bursts or FRBs by astronomers. So far, scientists have only been able to document 20, but as the recent report may suggest, there are more. These lights are supposedly coming from galaxies that are billions of light-years away from our planet. However, the cause of these lights appearing has yet to be determined.

It is possible that the lights could be coming from an alien transmitter, indicating advanced technology built by aliens.

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Core Plus Aerospace Gives Me the Experiences and Skills to Succeed – Renton Reporter

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I am a person who learns by doing. My mom had a dream that I would work at Boeing, but given the challenges I faced in elementary and middle school, it seemed far-fetched. Then I got to Renton High School and my world opened up when I learned about Core Plus Aerospace, a hands-on learning, manufacturing curriculum.

Core Plus Aerospace students learn real-world skills in manufacturing. The two-year curriculum developed with industry leaders like Boeing, gives students the opportunity to take classes and gain hands-on experience while exploring potential careers with real job opportunities after high school.

I learned about Core Plus Aerospace when I was a freshman and always kept it in the back of my mind as a possibility. As a junior, I signed up for the class. Throughout the program, I learned that I could be self-sufficient and a leader. Now, as a senior, I help new students learn skills like how to use tools safely. I appreciate that the curriculum teaches manufacturing skills that Ill use in my career after high school, but also life skills. Communication, project management and work ethic are skills I use in activities like yearbook and wrestling now and will help me in my future. Core Plus Aerospace provides me the opportunity to learn in a way that makes sense for me and Im thriving. It also helps students discover different career paths.

My Core Plus Aerospace teacher encouraged every eligible student to apply for the Boeing internship. I was one of the lucky ones selected. I spent five weeks working at the Boeing facility in Renton, learning from and shadowing Boeing trainers. I broadened my mechanical and electrical skills and gained real work experience. Throughout the internship, I worked with Jenelle Dalit, Boeings internship coordinator. Like me, she is a Pacific Islander. Seeing someone who has the same ethnic background working at Boeing encouraged me. The instructors were also supportive and treated me as an equal. They taught me to be a professional and gave me advice on how to work with people and advance in my career.

After high school I plan to apply to be an electrical installer at Boeing. One day I want to be an aviation maintenance technician. My ultimate goal is to take care of my mom and sister, who support me and my dreams.

Core Plus Aerospace and the Boeing internship put me on a pathway to accomplish my career and life goals. I encourage students to take advantage of opportunities like the Boeing internship. I also hope more schools will offer Core Plus Aerospace, so more students learn the real-world skills that will give them a clear advantage in any pathway they choose after high school.

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Leidos To Buy Dynetics For $1.65 Billion To Form New Aerospace Titan – International Business Times

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KEY POINTS

It looks like the aerospace industry might have a new titan on its hands as Leidos is acquiring Dynetics for $1.65 billion.

The announcement on Tuesday (Dec. 17)confirms that Dynetics will become owned entirely by Leidos, which is based in Virginia. The acquisition comes as the company is seeking a more significant presence in hypersonic space solutions,autonomy and sensors.

The merger of the two companies also allows space weapons to be considered. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021. It was unanimously supported by the boardsof directors from both companies. There is very little public information about Dynetics as they are a privately held company.

What the public should know is that space solutions and hypersonic comprise about 25% of Dynetics revenue. It is also public information that they are building the universal stage adapter for NASA's space launch system and that they provide structural qualification testing for the United Launch Alliance. Dynetics is also providing support technology and solutions for Maxar Technologies.

1024px-Leidos_logo_2013 Photo: Wikimedia

So they bring quite a bit of innovation and technology as well as money to the table as the space program in the U.S.heats back up. A report by SpaceNews indicates that they are also building the power and propulsion element of NASA's Lunar Gateway Space Station.

Most of the time, when two companies come together, there is fear of layoffs and clash of corporate structure and culture.However, it appears that both of these companies feel that their technologies are complimentary.

Leidos has expressed hope that all 2,300 Dynetics employees will also make the transition that would bring the total headcount for both companies to 36,300 people, which is pretty substantial. It is not very often that the corporate culture between two entities is synergistic.

Leidos is designing space sensors to track hypersonic weapons, which is a vast market in the military world. That part of the aerospace market has heated up recently as the United States and other world powers are developing new hypersonic weapons. As these weapons are being developed, the ability to track and defend against them must also be developed.

Jim Reagan, Leidos chief financial officer, said space programs are an area where Dynetics offers the most synergies with Leidos.The engineering and high-end technology opportunities that we see there are going to spring from the technological capabilities that Dynetics brings to us."

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Leidos To Buy Dynetics For $1.65 Billion To Form New Aerospace Titan - International Business Times

Global Aerospace Foams Market Analysis, Trends & Industry Forecast to 2028 – ResearchAndMarkets.com – Business Wire

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Global Aerospace Foams Market Analysis & Trends - Industry Forecast to 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Aerospace Foams Market is poised to grow strong during the forecast period 2018 to 2028.

Some of the prominent trends that the market is witnessing include increasing R&D in aerospace foam types, rise in governmental investment in military aircrafts, and renewable feedstock for manufacturing green PU foams.

This industry report analyzes the market estimates and forecasts of all the given segments on global as well as regional levels presented in the research scope. The study provides historical market data for 2015, 2016 revenue estimations are presented for 2017 and forecasts from 2018 till 2028.

The study focuses on market trends, leading players, supply chain trends, technological innovations, key developments, and future strategies. With comprehensive market assessment across the major geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Latin America and Rest of the world the report is a valuable asset for the existing players, new entrants and the future investors.

Report Highlights:

Key Topics Covered:

1 Market Outline

1.1 Research Methodology

1.2 Market Trends

1.3 Regulatory Factors

1.4 Product Analysis

1.5 End User Analysis

1.6 Strategic Benchmarking

1.7 Opportunity Analysis

2 Executive Summary

3 Market Overview

3.1 Current Trends

3.1.1 Increasing R&D in Aerospace Foam Types

3.1.2 Rise in Governmental Investment in Military Aircrafts

3.1.3 Renewable Feedstock for Manufacturing Green PU Foams

3.1.4 Growth Opportunities/Investment Opportunities

3.2 Drivers

3.3 Constraints

3.4 Industry Attractiveness

4 Aerospace Foams Market, By Material

4.1 Polyethylene (PE) Foam

4.2 Cross-Linked polyethylene

4.3 Polyurethane (PU) Foam

4.4 Reticulated Polyurethane

4.5 Metal Foam

4.6 Melamine Foam

4.7 Polyimide Foam

4.8 Silicone Foam

4.9 Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Foam

4.10 Ceramic Foam

4.11 Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Foam

4.12 Polycarbonate Foam

4.13 Phenolic Foam

4.14 Specialty High Performance Foams

4.14.1 Polyetherimide (PEI) Foams

4.14.2 Polymethacrylimide (PMI) Foams

4.14.3 Polysulfone (PSU) Based Foams

4.14.4 Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) Based Foams

4.14.5 Polyethersulfone (PES) Based Foams

4.14.6 Polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) Based Foams

4.15 Other Materials

5 Aerospace Foams Market, By Foam Type

5.1 Flexible Foam

5.2 Rigid Foam

6 Aerospace Foams Market, By Application

6.1 Flight Deck Pads

6.2 Aircraft Seats

6.2.1 9g Seating

6.2.2 16g Seating

6.3 Cabin Walls and Ceilings

6.4 Aircraft Floor Carpets

6.5 Overhead Stow Bins

6.6 Service-Class Dividers

6.7 Interior

6.8 Aeros Structure

6.9 Other Applications

6.10 Galleys and Lavatories

6.11 Aircraft Prototypes

7 Aerospace Foams Market, By End User

7.1 General Aviation

7.2 Helicopters

7.3 Regional Aircraft

7.4 Military Aircraft

7.4.1 Non- Combat

7.4.2 Combat

7.4.3 Rescue

7.4.4 Refueling Air Crafts

7.5 Experimental Aircrafts

7.6 Commercial Aircraft

7.6.1 Air Charter

7.6.2 Commercial Business Aviation

7.6.3 Air Taxi

7.6.4 Cargo

8 Aerospace Foams Market, By Geography

8.1 North America

8.1.1 US

8.1.2 Canada

8.1.3 Mexico

8.2 Europe

8.2.1 Germany

8.2.2 U.K

8.2.3 Italy

8.2.4 France

8.2.5 Spain

8.2.6 Rest of Europe

8.3 Asia Pacific

8.3.1 China

8.3.2 Japan

8.3.3 India

8.3.4 Australia

8.3.5 New Zealand

8.3.6 Rest of Asia Pacific

8.4 Middle East

8.4.1 Saudi Arabia

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Global Aerospace Foams Market Analysis, Trends & Industry Forecast to 2028 - ResearchAndMarkets.com - Business Wire

Air University Aerospace and Aviation Campus opens in Kamra – Daily Times

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In a landmark event in the history of PAF, the inauguration ceremony of Air University Aerospace and Aviation Campus was held at Aviation City Kamra.

Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood was the chief guest on the occasion. Chief of Air StaffAir Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan was also present on the occasion. Adviser to Prime Minister for Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam along with former air chiefs, high ranking defence and civil officers and heads of various academic institutions attended the ceremony. Vice Chancellor Air University Air Vice Marshal (r) Faaiz Amirin his welcome address highlighted the salient features of the campus.

Lauding the heroic deeds of PAF, the chief guest said PAF is the pride of Pakistan which has not only served and defended the nation with great valor but also significantly contributed in nation building through its excellent educational institutes and training centers. He appreciated the earnest efforts of PAF leadership in establishing a state of the art Aviation and Aerospace Campus in Attock and hoped that the mega project will play a pivotal role in uplift of the area and progress of the country. He further said the Ministry of Education and Professional Training will fully support Air University Kamra Campus as well as Multan Campus through the Higher Education Commission.

Highlighting the significance of Aerospace and Aviation Campus, the air chief said that establishment of the campus in close proximity of Aviation Research Innovation & Development (AVRID), Aviation Design Institute (AVDI) and a Comprehensive Certification Agency has transformed it into a National Aerospace Science and Technology Park. This strategic initiative will play a pivotal role in providing desired impetus to the self-reliance programmes and promotion of research and development in the field of aviation, he said. The institution has the potential to attract a large number of international scholars and students, thus enhancing Pakistans image and economic progress, he added.

Earlier, the chief guest unveiled the plaque of Air University Aerospace and Aviation Campus. On the occasion, he along with air chief offered prayers for the progress and prosperity of the premier institution at Kamra. He also visited various facilities of the institution.

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Air University Aerospace and Aviation Campus opens in Kamra - Daily Times

RF and microwave cable and connectors aviation – Military & Aerospace Electronics

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NASHUA, N.H. Industry judges have named the 7 series RF and microwave cable and connectors assemblies from W. L. Gore & Associates in Newark, Del., as a platinum award recipient in the Military & Aerospace Electronics and Intelligent Aerospace 2019 Technology Innovators Awards.

The Gore 7 series from Gore assemblies are engineered to prevent the ingress of water vapor, fuels, oils, chemicals, and other hazardous contaminants commonly found in aviation environments.

With their rugged, vapor-sealed construction, these assemblies maintain low insertion loss, low return loss, and phase stability at frequencies to 18 GHz, while providing shielding effectiveness in challenging aerospace environments.

The Military & Aerospace Electronics and Intelligent Aerospace 2019 Technology Innovators Awards are in three tiers -- ranging from platinum, the highest, to the gold awards, and finally to the silver awards -- and are based on the recommendations of an independent panel of industry judges.

Research has shown that more than 75 percent of RF and microwave assemblies must be replaced frequently because of damage during installation or operation. Costs can add up quickly with replacing assemblies, extra labor, and more maintenance and downtime.

Related: 2019 Military & Aerospace Technology Innovators Awards announced for aerospace and defense achievement

With small flexible construction and tight bend radius, GORE 7 series RF and microwave assemblies provide mechanical protection, electrical performance, and easy installation and routing.

The 7 series is tested and qualified with approved aerospace materials for commercial airborne applications for performance over the aircrafts lifetime, few replacements, reduced system downtime, and relatively low total costs.

These assemblies have been selected for use in SmartSky Networks airborne test lab developed to optimize their new air-to-ground network and for use by the European Aviation Network providing Wi-Fi internet access on European short-haul flights.

The GORE RF and microwave assemblies are for L-band air-to-ground networks; active electronically-steered phase arrays; GPS connectivity; Iridium; Ku-band satellite communications antennas; and SwiftBroadband packet-switched services.

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RF and microwave cable and connectors aviation - Military & Aerospace Electronics