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A recent study of black hole jets from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has identified bright formations or “knots” in these jets, with each showing unexpected variations in speed. This analysis, led by David Bogensberger, an astrophysicist at the University of Michigan, examined decades-old Chandra data on the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Centaurus A galaxy, located around 12 million light-years from Earth.

Observations of Bright ‘Knots’ Moving at Variable Speeds

The findings, which was published in The Astrophysical Journal, reveal that the knots within these jets, which emit energy from the black hole, are moving faster in X-ray observations compared to radio wavelengths. For instance, some knots recorded speeds of 94 per cent of light in the X-ray band, which exceeded the 80 per cent speed of light observed in radio wavelengths. As per the study, these discoveries provide a unique view of black hole jet mechanics, as the X-ray wavelengths reveal elements unseen in other spectral bands.

Funding Challenges for NASA’s X-ray Programme

This research arises as NASA faces potential budget cuts that could affect the Chandra Observatory’s operations. With the U.S. presidential election and government budget discussions ongoing, Chandra’s funding future remains uncertain. Despite these challenges, the telescope—currently operating with 2024 funding levels—continues to provide crucial insights, highlighting its role in studying distant cosmic phenomena.

Centaurus A Galaxy and Black Hole Jet Mechanics

First detected in the 1800s, Centaurus A’s jets were later mapped with radio telescopes in the 20th century. Of these, one jet points towards Earth, while the fainter “counterjet” extends away from it. The movement and brightness changes in Centaurus A’s knots echo findings from previous observations of M87 galaxy jets, where brightness increased before dimming over time.

The study brings new insights into how magnetic fields and spin near black holes influence jet formation, offering astronomers fresh approaches for understanding such mechanisms across different galaxies. Future studies may further clarify whether the knot behaviour is due to internal jet dynamics or external forces such as interstellar materials.

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Scientists Transform Lead into Gold, But Only for a Fleeting Moment

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May 20, 2025

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Scientists Transform Lead into Gold, But Only for a Fleeting Moment

Medieval alchemists would have been stunned to see lead turned into gold – but that’s what scientists at CERN’s Awesomely Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have done. Through near-miss collisions rather than head-on atomic bashes, the team at the ALICE collaboration can convert lead to gold at a rate of 89,000 atoms each second. Although each gold atom survived only a tiny fraction of a second, the experiment is a testament to the precision of modern particle physics. It serves as a testament to the LHC’s growing ability to change the very structure of the atom.

CERN Scientists Create Gold from Lead Using Proton Removal at LHC—But Only for a Split Second

As per the report from CERN, three protons are stripped from the lead nuclei, transforming them into gold. These odd metamorphoses occurred when lead atoms barely missed each other, resulting in powerful electric and magnetic fields that could have shuffled the particles. Their detectors would work on both large and small particle-event scales “because it’s the small ones that you need to see that those tiny changes would be different,” ALICE project chief Marco Van Leeuwen mentioned.

Despite the astonishing atom-per-second count, the total mass of gold created between 2015 and 2018 added up to just 29 picograms — far less than visible to the naked eye. Uliana Dmitrieva, a physicist from the collaboration, highlighted that it represents the first observation of this type of gold production at the LHC and with their sophisticated detectors. Though recent upgrades have almost doubled output, the gold remains more symbolic, scientifically, than economically.

The findings have a broader significance than mere novelty. As physicist John Jowett explains, this is fine-tuning of electromagnetic dissociation in theoretical models, and it helps estimate beam losses, which are important for improving the LHC as well as future colliders. While commercial alchemy remains in the realm of science fiction, it helps push forward the understanding of particle manipulation and atomic science.

This transient artifice of gold illustrates not only human creativity but the distance technology today has travelled from the desires of the alchemists of old.

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Scientists Discover Three-Eyed Sea Moth From Half a Billion Years Ago

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May 20, 2025

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Scientists Discover Three-Eyed Sea Moth From Half a Billion Years Ago

Scientists have discovered a half a million years old three eyed “sea moth” from a cache of museum fossils in Canada. These finger-sized feisty predators are speculated to lurk in the primordial seas, hooking prey into its mouth while breathing through long gills on its butt. This species is named Mosura fentoni because of its resemblance to the fictional Japanese monster Mothra. This species, belonging to the group of ancestral arthropods called radiodonts, gives valuable insight towards the surprising diversity and adaptations in the ancient arthropods.

About the species

According to a study by Paleontologists Joseph Moysiuk and Jean-Bernard Caron, earliest-diverging arthropods, the radiodonts, exhibited comparatively limited variability in tagmosis. Unlike them, the newly found species M. fentoni exhibits up to 26 trunk segments, the highest number reported for any radiodont, despite being among the smallest known.

The species also had the longest gills relative to body length of all known radiodonts. the back-end gills were most likely a specialized system for respiration; horseshoe crabs, wood lice and some other living arthropods have subsequently evolved a similar system. Researchers aren’t certain why M. fentoni needed the long butt gills, but they speculated it was an adaptation to low-oxygen environments or an active lifestyle.

While paleontologists are still learning why Mosura fentoni had a third eye, researchers believe the eye may have been used to detect light and the seascape it moved through. Perhaps Mosura fentoni’s median eye was used to orient themselves during high-speed hunts, according to the U.K. Natural History Museum.

Key Insights

Arthropods are a large group of invertebrates with hard exoskeletons, segmented bodies and jointed legs. Today, they make up around three-quarters of all living animals, including insects, arachnids and crustaceans. One of the reasons for their evolutionary success is their specialized body segments. Radiodonts are probably the first group of arthropods to branch out in the evolutionary tree, so they provide key insight into ancestral traits for the entire group. The new species emphasizes that these early arthropods were already surprisingly diverse and were adapting in a comparable way to their distant modern relatives.

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NASA’s LROC Captures ispace RESILIENCE Landing Site Ahead of June 2025 Lunar Touchdown



Acer AI TransBuds With Ear-Hook Design Unveiled at Computex 2025

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NASA’s LROC Captures ispace RESILIENCE Landing Site Ahead of June 2025 Lunar Touchdown

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May 20, 2025

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NASA's LROC Captures ispace RESILIENCE Landing Site Ahead of June 2025 Lunar Touchdown

NASA’s LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera) has taken high resolution picture of the landing area for the ispace SMBC and HAKUTO-R Mission 2 lunar lander. It has been named RESILIENCE. This is scheduled to land on June 5, 2025, at a plain lava site near the north of the Moon, and within Mare Frigoris, dispersed with large-scale wrinkle ridges. This image gives enough details to the researchers preparing for this mission of lunar attempted ambition. This view is around 3.13 miles wide below the north. 

Ancient Lunar Terrain of Mare Frigoris

According to the research by NASA’s  Goddard Space Flight Center, Mare Frigoris is a basaltic plain built before 3.5 billion years, at the time of volcanic activities on the Moon. Image formed by LROC displays a terrain formed by the ancient lava flow with wrinkle ridges, built by tectonic features due to the cooling crust of the Moon. Such formations give valuable clues regarding geological history of the Moon and the driving forces that shaped its surface.

Why Mare Frigoris Was Chosen

This landing site has been chosen for relative smoothness and scientific interests. Mare Frigoris provides a stable surface, ideal for its soft landing. Ispace’s RESILIENCE is the second Japanese-led mission if it touches down successfully after HAKUTO-R in 2023, which ended due to a crash descent.

A Commercial Step Toward the Moon

The mission quite valuable because it is a commercial venture operated by Japans ispace in collaboration with SMBC Group. The ander is designed to showcase key technologies for future lunar logistics, long-term lunar infrastructure and resource exploration. There is a need to build a sustainable lunar economy with the rise in international interest in the Moon including Artemis program and more. 

Mapping the Path to Lunar Success

With the June launch window coming near, the new image generation by LROC helps the scientists to refine their landing path and allow them to understand the site. With the success of RESILIENCE, there will be another step forward to humanity’s renewed presence on the Moon.

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