Science. Freaking awesome science.

[Nich]

first ever image of a black hole unveiled in the next hour or so

https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/blackholes/

[Ab]

I waited up to see it.

Holy shit.

That's a photo. Of a BLACK HOLE. Fifty four million lightyears away.

[StN]

Hmm - photo? Or radio telescope data rendered...

I watched this excellent video the other night - and he (and the people who were used to visualise Interstellar) was right. Half brighter on one side due to red shift. And the black bit isn't showing the event horizon, but a few diameters out.

Very cool.

[CCS]

Looks like the bumhole of Satan, if you ask me. Those scientists took a picture of the Devil's Anus.

[crocos]

Then the Devil has one huge shitter: XKCD diagrammed the scale

From the photo you can tell it's spinning - Here's a vid on how you can tell that.

And yes, it's a radio telescope array that imaged this - more info from another Veritassium vid here, including how it's spinning, how we saw the image etc.

Today's theme: Muse, Supermassive Black Hole (Crank the bass!)

[CCS]

Oh great, we're not even a germ's pube-width on the searing anus flesh of Beelzebub's hungry maw.

[Lightspeed]

Einstein eh? What a fuckin' cheeky guy.

[Lightspeed]

Cool article on how we detect exoplanets:

Scientists Have Found The Galaxy's Missing Exoplanets: Cold Gas Giants

[Cyberbob]

Alzheimer’s Disease is a ‘Double-Prion Disorder,’ Study Shows

This could be pretty significant in the world of AD prevention.

“The fact that prion levels also appear linked to patient longevity should change how we think about the way forward for developing treatments for the disease. We need a sea change in Alzheimer’s disease research, and that is what this paper does. This paper might catalyze a major change in AD research.”

The fact that a condition like Alzheimer’s could actually be an infection that can be prevented, but also could be transmitted and caught, is a pretty revolutionary way of thinking about it.

[Lightspeed]

James Webb Telescope Vacuum Tested, Finally Moving Toward Launch

I can't wait for this to be up and running.

[Lightspeed]

Valles Marineris Hemisphere Enhanced

[Lightspeed]

Astronomers watch six galaxies suddenly fire up into quasars

[Lightspeed]

This is next level. A model of two galaxies colliding, along with images of galaxies captured in various stages of collision.

[Lightspeed]

Model of the storms at the base of Jupiter.

[Ab]

Geminids tonight, who's staying up late to watch?

[Lightspeed]

Not this year.

[pxpx]

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47638586

Vaporware? Or promising (albeit distant) technology?

[Lightspeed]

NASA brings Voyager 2 fully back online, 11.5 billion miles from Earth

[Ab]

Phew, pour one out for the NASA nerds of the seventies.

[Cyberbob]

Just watched as 40 or so Starlink-2 satellites casually crossed the sky over Auckland.

Incredible science, but it definitely does make you wonder about the future. This is just one mission from one corporation. Where does it end?

[Lightspeed]

Hopefully improved, more sustainable technology.

Right now we pretty much just hurl stuff up and hope it stays there, which is easy cause there's still not much up there.

[Ab]

No One Can Explain Why Planes Stay In The Air

https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...ay-in-the-air/

[Ab]

This seemed like the most appropriate place.

Freeman Dyson RIP

[Lightspeed]

Amazing legacy. RIP.

[Nich]

Telescopes Around The World Pick Up Fast Radio Burst Coming From Our Own Galaxy
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/05/t...ur-own-galaxy/

I wonder if they are prime numbers transmitted by phase modulation...

[Lightspeed]

Awesome! Something new we're getting closer to understanding.

[Lightspeed]

This is some cool research:

DNA-repairing enzyme reverses age-related cognitive decline

[Lightspeed]

Is it aliens? I think it's aliens.

Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

As the researchers plotted each of the 38 bursts over time, a pattern began to emerge: One or two bursts would occur over four days, followed by a 12-day period without any bursts, after which the pattern would repeat. This 16-day cycle occurred again and again over the 500 days that they observed the source.

The article continues about how it could be to do with orbits and some such, but I'm sure I've read that it's definitely aliens and we should expect their arrive soon.

[BoyWonder]

They should probably wait until next year TBH.

[Lightspeed]

Case for Axion Origin of Dark Matter Gains Traction

The existence of dark matter has been confirmed by several independent observations, but its true identity remains a mystery. According to this study, axion velocity provides a key insight into the dark matter puzzle. Previous research efforts have successfully accounted for the abundance of dark matter in the universe; however certain factors, such as the underproduction of axions with stronger ordinary matter interactions, remained unexplored.

[StN]

Ironincally / Prophetically, when the pics stopped, it was evident that it didn't happen

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/...r-next-mission

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-z...-t-happen.html

I'm no rocket scientist, but it looked like a problem when switching batteries on the electric pumps that run the fuel to the vacuum engine.

[Lightspeed]

Rough day in the office for them, that's for sure.

[Ab]

We lost the flight late into the mission. I am incredibly sorry that we failed to deliver our customers satellites today. Rest assured we will find the issue, correct it and be back on the pad soon.

— Peter Beck (@Peter_J_Beck) July 4, 2020

I bet you are, the "customers" are undoubtedly three-letter-acronym US govt agencies that disappear people who cause them problems.

[Lightspeed]

First image of a multi-planet system around a sun-like star

[Lightspeed]

Study suggests religious belief does not conflict with interest in science, except among Americans

[Lightspeed]

On the correlation between solar activity and large earthquakes worldwide

Large earthquakes occurring worldwide have long been recognized to be non Poisson distributed, so involving some large scale correlation mechanism, which could be internal or external to the Earth. Till now, no statistically significant correlation of the global seismicity with one of the possible mechanisms has been demonstrated yet. In this paper, we analyze 20 years of proton density and velocity data, as recorded by the SOHO satellite, and the worldwide seismicity in the corresponding period, as reported by the ISC-GEM catalogue. We found clear correlation between proton density and the occurrence of large earthquakes (M > 5.6), with a time shift of one day. The significance of such correlation is very high, with probability to be wrong lower than 10–5. The correlation increases with the magnitude threshold of the seismic catalogue. A tentative model explaining such a correlation is also proposed, in terms of the reverse piezoelectric effect induced by the applied electric field related to the proton density. This result opens new perspectives in seismological interpretations, as well as in earthquake forecast.

[DrTiTus]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

On the correlation between solar activity and large earthquakes worldwide

Ken Ring said the same thing, IIRC.

[Lightspeed]

NASA's OSIRIS REx Mission Ends Up With More Than It Expected

There so much that's cool about this. Lots of cool details in the video.

[StN]

Just saw this is the Boca Chica cam chat:

​Make sure you watch the next Electron launch! Gabe Newell will donate $1 to Starship Children's Hospital for everyone who watches it.

Not sure if real, but I'd watch an Electron launch anyway This chap will make a fine Kiwi one day.

/edit - Seems legit.

[Lightspeed]

When is this launch supposed to happen? It's delayed till tomorrow?