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China has launched a new resupply mission to its module and the astronauts and space station to which it is connected in orbit above the Earth, sending food, fuel, scientific gear, and updated spacesuits. The Long March 7 rocket, taking it aloft, took off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre on Hainan Island at 5:34 p.m. EDT July 14 (5:34 a.m. China Standard Time July 15), carrying the Tianzhou 9 cargo spacecraft. The vehicle is carrying about 7.2 tons (6.5 metric tons) of supplies to support the three taikonauts currently on the station for the ongoing Shenzhou 20 crewed mission.

China Enhances Tiangong Station with New Spacesuits and Fitness Gear in Tianzhou 9 Mission

As per a report by China Global Television Network (CGTN), the cargo includes two new spacesuits that should last three to four years and allow for up to 20 spacewalks, rather than 15 for the old generation. Also along for the ride is a core muscle training device meant to boost the station’s gym for astronauts with better tools to fight muscle atrophy in microgravity conditions. The report emphasised that these improvements are key to ensuring crew health during long-duration missions.

Tianzhou 9 marks the ninth cargo launch China has executed for its human spaceflight program since 2017. The first such spacecraft docked with Tiangong 2, a prototype lab that tested critical technologies ahead of the current space station’s development. Subsequent missions have supplied either the fully assembled Tiangong station or its core module, Tianhe, which was launched in April 2021.

Launched in October 2022, the Tiangong space station, a 3-module space station, is a significant step in China’s independent space ambitions. And while its mass is but 20 percent of what the International Space Station allotted to its construction, Chinese officials have signalled plans for growing the outpost, possibly boosting its stature in low Earth orbit activities worldwide.

Cargo deliveries like Tianzhou 9 are essential to keeping Tiangong in business and the Chinese space program’s long-term human presence in space running. Thanks to improvements in equipment, preparations, and life support, the nation looks prepared to further cement its place in orbital science and discovery.

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Century-Old Thermoelectric Effect Finally Observed – Transverse Thomson Effect Discovery Explained

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Century-Old Thermoelectric Effect Finally Observed – Transverse Thomson Effect Discovery Explained

In a recent paper published online, researchers have reported the transverse Thomson effect’s first experimental observation. It is a key thermoelectric phenomenon that has made scientists avoid it since it was predicted almost a century ago. Physicists have observed thermoelectric effects to understand the connection between heat and electricity on the basis of the Peltier, Seebeck and Thomson effects studied during the 1800s. The Thomson effect includes heating or cooling during the flow of electric current and a temperature gradient towards the same direction through a conductor.

How Scientists Isolated the Elusive Transverse Thomson Effect

As per phys org, Scientists found the transverse version of the effect that exists when the electric current, magnetic field and temperature gradient interact. A team led by Atsushi Takahagi experimentally demonstrated the higher order effect of thermoelectricity. The researchers isolated the signals by applying extracted temperature modulations that oscillates at the same frequency and applying periodic electric currents. Through two sets of measurements, the team successfully isolated the Thomson effect from overlapping signals.

The Role of Bismuth Antimony Alloy in Demonstrating the Effect

For their experiments, the team picked a bismuth antimony alloy, which shows a strong Nernst effect at room temperature. This effect occurs when the temperature gradient and magnetic field are applied orthogonally and generate an electric field perpendicularly. The Ettingshausen effect, on the reverse, creates a temperature gradient from the magnetic and electric field. The researchers found that the transverse Thomson effect is dependent on the temperature derivative of the Nernst coefficient itself, which is different from the conventional one.

Switching Between Heating and Cooling Using Magnetic Fields

A surprising finding was the ability to switch between the cooling and heating simply by changing the direction of the magnetic field. This interplay led to the reversal sign in the effect at the magnetic field strengths, and was confirmed through experiments and numerical simulations.

New Possibilities for Thermal Management and Future Research Directions

The discovery made its way for these different thermal management applications, especially where controlled heat is required. The future research might focus on finding new materials where both the gradients of the transverse Thomson coefficient amplify each other and do not cancel out, which signals the high performance of thermoelectric materials.

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Young Exoplanet Spotted Shedding Atmosphere Under Stellar Radiation

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Young Exoplanet Spotted Shedding Atmosphere Under Stellar Radiation

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, together with data from the Hubble Space Telescope, has revealed a “baby” exoplanet rapidly losing its atmosphere. The planet, named TOI 1227 b, orbits a faint red dwarf star and is only about 8 million years old. Powerful X-ray blasts from the star are stripping away the planet’s thick gas envelope. Models indicate TOI 1227 b is shedding an amount of gas equal to Earth’s entire atmosphere every ~200 years. The team notes the planet’s atmosphere “simply cannot withstand the high X-ray dose it’s receiving”. This finding offers a rare, real-time look at atmospheric erosion, showing how a young world can be dramatically reshaped by its star early on.

Observations of an Eroding Planet

According to the study, astronomers used Chandra’s X-ray data (and earlier Hubble observations of the planet’s transit) to study TOI 1227 b. This Jupiter-sized world orbits extremely close to its star – much closer than Mercury is to the Sun – and is about a thousand times younger than Earth. The host star is unleashing intense X-rays on the planet.

In artist’s illustrations and models, this appears as a blue tail of gas streaming off TOI 1227 b as its atmosphere is ripped away. Computer simulations show the radiation will “rapidly” strip off the gas. Remarkably, the planet is already losing the equivalent of an Earth’s atmosphere about every 200 years. If conditions persist, TOI 1227 b could ultimately shrink from a gas giant to “a small, barren world”.

Implications for Planetary Evolution

This discovery highlights the key role of stellar radiation in young planetary systems. High-energy X-rays (and ultraviolet light) from an active young star can heat and blow away a planet’s atmosphere. As co-author of the study Joel Kastner explains, understanding exoplanets requires that scientists “account for high-energy radiation like X-rays”. In this case, the star’s output acts like “a hair dryer on an ice cube,” gradually blowing the gas off the planet. Such photoevaporation is thought to explain why many intermediate-size exoplanets end up smaller or stripped to their cores.

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Gravitational Waves Reveal Most Massive Black Hole Merger Ever Observed

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Gravitational Waves Reveal Most Massive Black Hole Merger Ever Observed

Delivering a fresh jolt to a field recently rocked by controversy, astrophysicists have discovered the most massive collision yet of a pair of black holes that created another black hole, an event so powerful that it shook the universe in ripples of gravitational waves. Named GW231123, the event was detected on 23 November 2023 by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration during its fourth observing run. That event was two huge black holes — 100 and 140 times the mass of the Sun — slamming into one another to create a new black hole of 225 solar masses. The mass alone and its spinning now pose a problem for long-held notions about how black holes form in the cosmos.

Unprecedented Black Hole Merger Defies Stellar Models, Hints at Complex Cosmic Origins

As per a report by the LVK team, these black holes far exceed the sizes permitted by standard stellar evolution models. “Black holes this massive are forbidden through standard models,” mentioned LVK researcher Mark Hannam. One possible explanation is that both black holes were the products of earlier mergers, resulting in their unprecedented mass. Compounding the mystery, at least one of the black holes appears to have spun at near the maximum rate allowed by general relativity, making the signal extremely difficult to interpret.

Before this, the record for the most massive merger stood with GW190521, producing a 140-solar-mass black hole. GW231123 now surpasses that significantly. “This pushes the limits of our detection instruments and theoretical tools,” noted LVK member Sophie Bini from Caltech. Unusual features of the signal were unveiled on 14 July in Glasgow at the 16th Edoardo Amaldi Conference and the 24th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation.

The LVK detectors — the LIGO instruments in the United States, Virgo in Italy and KAGRA in Japan — have seen more than 300 black hole crashes since the fall of 2015. The high mass and fast spin of GW231123 are, however, uncommon. Black holes possess these features because they are not the products of run-of-the-mill deaths of the stars but carry with them a rather colourful history — a history of past encounters, maybe collisions.

LVK experts think it will take years to parse all the meanings of GW231123. “The merger is the most likely explanation, but there might be more complex scenarios that can give an answer,” team member Gregorio Carullo remarked. The event has become, already, a cornerstone observation within the nascent field of gravitational-wave astronomy, potentially redrawing the boundaries of our current understanding of black hole evolution.

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