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Astronomers have obtained the closest look yet at a quasar, using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to study the enigmatic 3C 273, located 2.5 billion light-years away. This quasar, known as the first ever identified in 1963 by astronomer Maarten Schmidt, continues to intrigue scientists with its immense energy output, surpassing that of the brightest galaxies. The recent observations were detailed in reports, offering new insights into the quasar’s environment and its interaction with its host galaxy.

Unveiling the Quasar’s Intriguing Structure

According to the official blog of NASA, Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) coronagraph enabled researchers to block the quasar’s intense glare, exposing structures around its supermassive black hole. Dr. Bin Ren of the Côte d’Azur Observatory stated in interviews that unusual features, including “blobs of varying sizes” and an “L-shaped filamentary structure,” were identified within 16,000 light-years of the black hole. These findings suggest the possibility of smaller satellite galaxies being drawn into the black hole’s gravitational pull.

Hubble’s imaging capabilities also allowed for a closer look at the quasar’s extragalactic jet—a high-energy beam of material extending 300,000 light-years. Data compared with 22-year-old archival images indicated that the jet’s speed increases as it moves farther from the black hole, providing a deeper understanding of quasar jet dynamics.

Implications for Understanding Quasars

As per reports, these observations mark a significant step in decoding the complexities of quasar morphology and galactic interactions. The detailed images suggest that galactic collisions may be fuelling the quasar’s energy, with debris spiralling into its central black hole. Scientists believe these findings could bridge gaps between small-scale radio and large-scale optical studies of quasars.

Hubble’s findings continue to enhance the understanding of quasars, which were most active roughly 3 billion years after the Big Bang. Future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope are expected to shed additional light on the phenomenon. This research underscores the importance of collaborative international efforts in advancing space exploration and cosmology.

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Earth’s Hidden ‘Ignorosphere’ Could Provide Insights into Auroras

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January 23, 2025

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Earth’s atmosphere, particularly its upper layers, remains one of the least understood regions of the planet. Despite extensive research on the lower atmosphere, scientists have struggled to collect reliable data on the mesosphere and higher regions. This atmospheric layer, which sits between the stratosphere and space, has earned the moniker “ignorosphere” due to its inaccessibility. The mesosphere’s remoteness has left critical gaps in knowledge about its processes and their impact on Earth’s weather, climate, and phenomena like auroras.

New Dataset Offers Insights into the Ignorosphere

According to research published in Progress in Earth and Planetary Science, a team led by Kaoru Sato, a professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Tokyo, has developed a dataset spanning 19 years. The dataset models the atmosphere up to an altitude of 110 kilometres and incorporates rare measurements from sounding rockets, radar, and lidar instruments. As stated to Space.com, Sato explained that the dataset fills crucial gaps, enabling detailed modelling of processes like gravity waves and auroras.

Implications for Space Weather and Climate Modelling

It has been noted that space weather effects, including charged particles from solar storms, often interact with the mesosphere, impacting phenomena like auroras and ozone chemistry. These interactions, according to Sato, can also generate gravity waves, which play a significant role in global energy transport but remain poorly understood due to limited data.

Addressing Atmospheric Mysteries

Unexplained phenomena such as inter-hemispheric coupling, where cloud formations in the Arctic and Antarctic appear synchronised, are being studied using this dataset. Researchers are also examining the influence of the mesosphere on the ionosphere, where solar winds ionise gases.

The dataset is expected to contribute significantly to understanding atmospheric dynamics, offering new avenues for research on processes affecting Earth’s climate and space weather interactions.

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ELIZA Resurrected: World’s First Chatbot Revived After 60 Years

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January 23, 2025

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ELIZA Resurrected: World's First Chatbot Revived After 60 Years

ELIZA, a chatbot developed in the 1960s and recognised as the world’s first, has been revived using long-lost computer code found in archival records. Originally created by MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum, ELIZA was designed as a conversational program capable of mimicking a psychotherapist’s interactions. The project, conducted by researchers and archivists, marks a milestone in understanding early artificial intelligence and its impact on modern technology. Despite its simplicity compared to today’s AI, ELIZA’s ability to hold a conversation remains impressive.

Reconstruction of the Code

According to a paper posted on the preprint server arXiv, the chatbot’s code was uncovered in 2021 by Jeff Shrager, a cognitive scientist at Stanford University, and Myles Crowley, an MIT archivist. Written in a now-obsolete programming language called MAD-SLIP, the original 420-line code had not been operational for six decades. The research team spent years debugging and creating a computer emulator capable of running the software. ELIZA’s functionality was successfully restored on December 21, 2024.

Preserving Historical Authenticity

As reported by Live Science, researchers encountered a bug in the code but decided against fixing it, citing the need to preserve its historical integrity. Shrager explained to Live Science that altering the program would compromise its authenticity, likening it to modifying an iconic artwork. This decision highlights the importance placed on maintaining the original program’s features, even at the cost of usability.

Impact and Legacy

Experts emphasised ELIZA’s significance in shaping the development of artificial intelligence. David Berry, a digital humanities professor at the University of Sussex, stated that while modern language models surpass ELIZA in capability, its conversational design remains noteworthy. The chatbot was programmed to listen and prompt users, a feature seen as more conversationally authentic than many current AI systems.

The revival of ELIZA draws attention to the need for preserving the history of computer science, as its legacy is considered a cultural artifact reflecting the early days of computational innovation.

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Zombie Star’s Mysterious Spiky Filaments Baffle Astronomers in New Discovery

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January 23, 2025

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Zombie Star’s Mysterious Spiky Filaments Baffle Astronomers in New Discovery

A strange and ancient supernova remnant, located roughly 6,500 light-years away from Earth, has been puzzling scientists. The remnant, known as Pa 30, surrounds a zombie star cloaked in sulfur filaments stretching across three light-years. Skywatchers first documented the explosion in 1181, but its spiky filaments and structure have only recently been studied in detail. The unusual formation and preservation of these filaments over centuries remain unexplained, prompting astronomers to investigate their origins and dynamics.

New Observations of Pa 30 Nebula

According to a study published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, the 3-D structure and motion of the nebula’s filaments were mapped using observations from the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. The research, led by Tim Cunningham, an astronomer at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, revealed a unique three-layered structure. A central star is surrounded by a one-to-two light-year gap, followed by a spherical dust shell. Extending outward from this shell are the enigmatic filaments, creating the nebula’s spiky appearance.

As reported by Science News Explores, the explosion, believed to be a type 1a supernova, is typically associated with the complete destruction of a white dwarf star. In this instance, part of the star survived, raising further questions about the event’s nature.

Theories on Formation of Filaments

The precise mechanism behind the formation of the filaments has yet to be determined. It was suggested by scientists that a shock wave from the explosion might have interacted with the surrounding interstellar material, bouncing back and sculpting the spikes. The uniformity and persistence of these filaments over hundreds of years add to the mystery.

Future studies will focus on testing these theories and gathering more data to clarify the processes that led to the creation and stability of this unique nebula structure. Astronomers continue to examine Pa 30 in the hope of uncovering more details about its peculiar features.

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