CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – The Webb Space Telescope discovered the earliest known merger of black holes.

These two massive holes and their galaxies formed only 740 million years after the universe-creating Big Bang. Scientists claimed Thursday that they have made the furthest distant detection of merging holes ever.

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Webb Telescope Uncovers Merger Of Two Massive Black Holes From Early Universe

A black hole is 50 million times bigger than our sun. The other is estimated to be similar in size but buried in dense gas, making it difficult to measure.

Until today, astronomers didn’t know how supermassive black holes got so huge.

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Webb Telescope Uncovers Merger Of Two Massive Black Holes From Early Universe

The current findings, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, imply that mergers explain how holes can expand quickly — “even at cosmic dawn,” according to lead author Hannah Ubler of the University of Cambridge.

“Massive holes have been shaping the evolution of galaxies from the very beginning,” Ubler stated.

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Webb Telescope Uncovers Merger Of Two Massive Black Holes From Early Universe

Webb, the largest and most powerful observatory ever launched into space, will be the successor to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope when it launches in 2021. The infrared observatory, a joint US-European initiative, scans the universe from one million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth.

SOURCE – (AP)

CAPE Florida’s Cape Coral — This weekend, a very powerful solar storm approaching Earth may cause communications outages and cause the northern lights to appear in the United States.

For the first time in almost 20 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare geomagnetic storm watch. The entire weekend is under scrutiny, beginning on Friday.

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Strong Solar Storm Could Disrupt Communications And Produce Northern Lights In US

According to NOAA, the sun started to create powerful solar flares on Wednesday, which led to five plasma explosions that might have disrupted Earth’s power infrastructures and satellites in orbit. A coronal mass ejection, or eruption, can produce billions of tons of solar plasma.

The flares appear to be connected to a sunspot that is 16 times the diameter of Earth, which is why NOAA is classifying this as an uncommon occurrence. In 2003, a strong geomagnetic storm destroyed power transformers in South Africa and knocked out power in Sweden.

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Strong Solar Storm Could Disrupt Communications And Produce Northern Lights In US

According to NOAA, the most recent storm may cause northern lights as far south as Alabama and Northern California in the United States.

An amazing natural occurrence is the aurora borealis, sometimes known as the northern lights. The night sky in Earth’s polar regions is home to these vibrant, dancing lights. When charged solar particles clash with atmospheric gasses, these lights are created. 

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Strong Solar Storm Could Disrupt Communications And Produce Northern Lights In US

Though the lights are usually observed in green, pink, and violet hues, they can occasionally be seen in other colors as well. Countless people travel to locations like Alaska, Canada, and Scandinavia every year to see this amazing show in person since it is such a stunning sight.

SOURCE – (AP)

China has launched an unmanned spacecraft on a nearly two-month journey to gather rocks and soil from the moon’s far side, becoming the first country to undertake such an ambitious task.

China’s heaviest rocket, the Long March-5, lifted off at 5:27 p.m. Beijing time (0927 GMT) from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan, carrying the Chang’e-6 probe weighing more than 8 metric tons.

China’s Chang’e-6 is entrusted with landing in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon’s far side, which is continuously facing away from Earth, and retrieving and returning samples.

The launch is another significant milestone in China’s lunar and space exploration mission.

“It is a bit of a mystery to us how China has been able to develop such an ambitious and successful programme in such a short time,” said Pierre-Yves Meslin, a French researcher working on one of the Chang’e-6 mission’s scientific objectives.

In 2018, Chang’e-4 made China’s first unmanned moon landing on the far side. Chang’e-5 returned lunar samples for the first time in 44 years in 2020, and Chang’e-6 has the potential to make China the first country to retrieve samples from the moon’s “hidden” side.

Scientists, diplomats, and space agency officials from France, Italy, Pakistan, and the European Space Agency all attended the launch, which carried moon-study payloads on Chang’e-6.

However, no US groups requested for a payload place, according to Ge Ping, deputy director of the China National Space Administration’s (CNSA) Lunar Exploration and Space Program.

U.S. law prohibits China from collaborating with the United States’ space agency, NASA.

The Dark Side of the Moon

The far side of the moon, also known as the “dark side of the moon” despite receiving sunlight, is the hemisphere that always faces away from Earth. The Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft made the first observation of this strange region in 1959.

Unlike the near side, the far side lacks enormous, dark basins known as marias. Instead, hundreds of craters produced by asteroid collisions over billions of years blanket it.

The South Pole-Aitken Basin, an immense crater more than 1,500 miles wide and several miles deep, is one of the most visible landforms on the far side. This ancient impact basin is among the largest known crater formations in our solar system. The far side likewise has many mountains, ridges, and other harsh topography formed by cosmic collisions.

Studying the far side provides insights into the moon’s genesis and early history because it maintains impact records from the solar system’s turbulent childhood.

Scientists also intend to investigate it for potential resources and future lunar bases. With no atmosphere or magnetic field, the far side displays the wounds of endless meteor bombardments, exposing information about Earth’s only natural satellite that the near side lacks.

Source: Reuters

Apple Boss Tim Cook Makes Surprise China Visit

Apple Boss Tim Cook Makes Surprise China Visit