science

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_microwave_background

The cosmic microwave background (CMB or CMBR) is microwave radiation that fills all space in the observable universe. It is a remnant that provides an important source of data on the primordial universe. With a standard optical telescope, the background space between stars and galaxies is almost completely dark. However, a sufficiently sensitive radio telescope detects a faint background glow that is almost uniform and is not associated with any star, galaxy, or other object. This glow is strongest in the microwave region of the radio spectrum. The accidental discovery of the CMB in 1965 by American radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson was the culmination of work initiated in the 1940s.

CMB is landmark evidence of the Big Bang theory for the origin of the universe. In the Big Bang cosmological models, during the earliest periods, the universe was filled with an opaque fog of dense, hot plasma of sub-atomic particles. As the universe expanded, this plasma cooled to the point where protons and electrons combined to form neutral atoms of mostly hydrogen. Unlike the plasma, these atoms could not scatter thermal radiation by Thomson scattering, and so the universe became transparent. Known as the recombination epoch, this decoupling event released photons to travel freely through space – sometimes referred to as relic radiation. However, the photons have grown less energetic due to the cosmological redshift associated with the expansion of the universe.

Maybe it's hard to get funding when your planet sounds like a butt. It's such a cool and unique planet though. Its the only one that spins on its side afak. I wonder why? I WANT TO KNOW!

Sorry I'm super into Space at the moment.

That red spot is getting smaller

Space posting hours whos with me?

Anyway heres the surface of Titan, a really interesting moon of Saturn. Very cold with a thick atmosphere and lakes of liquid methane.

This was fascinating to me because I never even considered the possibility that black holes could be inside stars, acting as initial seeds for star formation.

Turns out that primordial black holes (PBH) are a candidate for dark matter which has recently become more plausible with supporting evidence from LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave detections.

There is something quite elegant about black holes being responsible for dark matter, at least because that means we don’t need some unknown particle to explain it.

Yet it would be odd for black holes to transform immediately from exotic to mundane if it turns out they are everywhere all at once.

CW: Discussion of transphobia, family violence

I'd like to point out that these rates seem unfortunately common across the globe, I would say these are fairly standard issues. I do like this paper, as they are very detailed and have clearly looked at western papers and filled in some gaps. I have edited the tables to only include the overall statistics to save space, but the paper does break things down by transfem, transmasc, and nonbinary, I wholly recommend viewing the whole thing.

TABLE 1. Demographic characteristics of the participants (N = 1063).

TABLE 2. Gender identity differences in family stressors, the management of gender identity and expression, and family violence.

TABLE 3. Association between family stressors, the management of gender identity and expression, and family violence.

Interpretation of Table 3:

Logistic regression was conducted to examine the associations of family stressors and the management of gender identity and expression with family violence. Family non-acceptance of sexual and gender minorities (AOR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.21, 1.70) and family pressure to marry and reproduce (AOR = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.33, 1.75) were positively associated with higher levels of family violence. Moreover, disclosure of gender identity was positively associated with family violence (AOR = 1.90, 95% CI = 1.37, 2.62). Specifically, TNB individuals who disclosed their gender identity to their family members were 1.90 times more likely to experience family violence compared to those who did not disclose their gender identity. However, the association between gender expression suppression and family violence was not significant (AOR = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.91, 1.19). Furthermore, individuals assigned male at birth were less likely to experience family violence than those assigned female at birth (AOR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.40, 0.82). Table 3 presents the regression of family stressors and the management of gender identity and expression on family violence.

Conclusion by authors:

While the family is often considered a shelter, our study reveals that for TNB individuals in China, it can unfortunately become an arena where rejection and victimization occur. The findings shed light on the harsh reality that TNB individuals face within their families, with a striking three-quarters of participants reporting experiences of family violence based on their gender identity and/or expression. These prevalence rates exceed those observed in Western contexts, highlighting the influence of rigid gender norms and family values on the familial experiences of TNB individuals in the Chinese context. Additionally, the study uncovers gender identity differences in experiences of family stressors and violence. The findings also establish a clear link between family stressors, the management of gender identity and expression, and the occurrence of family violence. Taken together, the results emphasize the pressing need for legal, institutional, and social measures to promote inclusive family violence prevention and responses for TNB individuals. There should also be a greater consideration of Chinese cultural factors when designing family violence interventions within health and social service settings.

Study: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg3005

Lightest black hole or heaviest neutron star? Manchester astronomers uncover a mysterious object in Milky Way

An international team of astronomers have found a new and unknown object in the Milky Way that is heavier than the heaviest neutron stars known and yet simultaneously lighter than the lightest black holes known.

Using the MeerKAT Radio Telescope, astronomers from a number of institutions including The University of Manchester and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany found an object in orbit around a rapidly spinning millisecond pulsar located around 40,000 light years away in a dense group of stars known as a globular cluster.

Using the clock-like ticks from the millisecond pulsar they showed that the massive object lies in the so-called black hole mass gap.

It could be the first discovery of the much-coveted radio pulsar – black hole binary; a stellar pairing that could allow new tests of Einstein’s general relativity and open doors to the study of black holes.

The results are published today in the journal Science.

“Either possibility for the nature of the companion is exciting. A pulsar–black hole system will be an important target for testing theories of gravity and a heavy neutron star will provide new insights in nuclear physics at very high densities.” - UK project lead Ben Stappers, Professor of Astrophysics, The University of Manchester

When a neutron star - the ultra-dense remains of dead star – acquire too much mass, usually by consuming or colliding with another star, they will collapse. What they become after they collapse is the cause of much speculation, but it is believed that they could become black holes – objects so gravitationally attractive that even light cannot escape them.

Astronomers believe that the total mass required for a neutron star to collapse is 2.2 times the mass of the sun. Theory, backed by observation, tells us that the lightest black holes created by these stars are much larger, at about five times more massive than the Sun, giving rise to what is known as the ‘black hole mass gap’.

The nature of compact objects in this mass gap is unknown and detailed study has so far proved challenging. The discovery of the object may help finally understand these objects.

Prof Stappers, added: “The ability of the extremely sensitive MeerKAT telescope to reveal and study these objects is a enabling a great step forward and provides us with a glimpse of what will be possible with the Square Kilometre Array.”

The discovery of the object was made while observing a large cluster of stars known as NGC 1851 located in the southern constellation of Columba, using the MeerKAT telescope.

The globular cluster NGC 1851 is a dense collection of old stars that are much more tightly packed than the stars in the rest of the Galaxy. Here, it is so crowded that the stars can interact with each other, disrupting orbits and in the most extreme cases colliding.

The astronomers, part of the international Transients and Pulsars with MeerKAT (TRAPUM) collaboration, believe that it is one such collision between two neutron stars that is proposed to have created the massive object that now orbits the radio pulsar.

The team were able to detect faint pulses from one of the stars, identifying it as a radio pulsar - a type of neutron star that spins rapidly and shines beams of radio light into the Universe like a cosmic lighthouse.

The pulsar spins more than 170 times a second, with every rotation producing a rhythmic pulse, like the ticking of a clock. The ticking of these pulses is incredibly regular and by observing how the times of the ticks change, using a technique called pulsar timing, they were able to make extremely precise measurements of its orbital motion.

“Think of it like being able to drop an almost perfect stopwatch into orbit around a star almost 40,000 light years away and then being able to time those orbits with microsecond precision.” - Ewan Barr from Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, who led the study with his colleague Arunima Dutta

The regular timing also allowed a very precise measurement of the system’s location, showing that the object in orbit with the pulsar was no regular star but an extremely dense remnant of a collapsed star. Observations also showed that the companion has a mass that was simultaneously bigger than that of any known neutron star and yet smaller than that of any known black hole, placing it squarely in the black-hole mass gap.

While the team cannot conclusively say whether they have discovered the most massive neutron star known, the lightest black hole known or even some new exotic star variant, what is certain is that they have uncovered a unique laboratory for probing the properties of matter under the most extreme conditions in the Universe.

Arunima Dutta concludes: "We're not done with this system yet.

“Uncovering the true nature of the companion will a turning point in our understanding of neutron stars, black holes, and whatever else might be lurking in the black hole mass gap.”

How far US space exploration has fallen. Embarrassing.

Privatizing space travel has been a disaster, as predicted.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a supercritical phase of matter, which in astronomy is called 'ice' or volatiles. The planet's atmosphere has a complex layered cloud structure and has the lowest minimum temperature of 49 K (−224 °C; −371 °F) out of all the Solar System's planets. It has a marked axial tilt of 82.23° with a retrograde rotation rate of 17 hours. This means that in an 84-Earth-year orbital period around the Sun, its poles get around 42 years of continuous sunlight, followed by 42 years of continuous darkness.

Uranus has the third-largest diameter and fourth-largest mass among the Solar System's planets. Based on current models, inside its volatile mantle layer is a rocky core, and surrounding it is a thick hydrogen and helium atmosphere. Trace amounts of hydrocarbons (thought to be produced via hydrolysis) and carbon monoxide along with carbon dioxide (thought to have been originated from comets) have been detected in the upper atmosphere. There are many unexplained climate phenomena in Uranus's atmosphere, such as its peak wind speed of 900 km/h (560 mph), variations in its polar cap and its erratic cloud formation. The planet also has very low internal heat compared to other giant planets, which is still unexplained.

Like the other giant planets, Uranus has a ring system, orbiting natural satellites and a magnetosphere. Its ring system is extremely dark, with only about 2% of the incoming light reflected, and contains the known 13 inner moons. Further out are the larger five major moons of the planet: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon; and orbiting at much greater distance from Uranus are the known nine irregular moons. The planet's magnetosphere is highly asymmetric and has many charged particles, which may cause the darkening of its rings and moons.

Like Saturn, Jupiter, and Neptune, Uranus is a big ball of gas, often called a jovian or gas giant world. Uranus owes its vibrant blue-green hues not from unusual oceans but from an upper atmosphere flush with methane, which absorbs the sun's red light and scatters blue light back to our eyes.

The rest of planet's atmosphere is largely made of hydrogen and helium, with scant amounts of ammonia, water, and methane. Trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide also hint that, if you could visit this distant place without a spacesuit, the planet would smell like rotten eggs. While Saturn wears the crown for the least dense planet in our celestial family, Uranus is not far behind: Most of its mass is made up of an icy dense fluid of water, ammonia, and methane.

One particularly curious feature of Uranus is its off-kilter positioning. The gas giant is tipped on its side, spinning on its axis at nearly a right angle to its orbital path around the sun, which requires a lengthy 84 Earth-years to complete. Scientists believe that this unexpected tilt is the result of a massive collision with something the size of Earth far in the planet's past.

Thanks to its sideways turn, Uranus has some wild seasons, with the sun blazing across each pole for 21 Earth-years at a time while the opposing side lingers in the pitch blackness of space. And that's not the only strange thing about its spin. Like Venus, Uranus has what's known as a retrograde rotation, turning on its axis in the opposite direction to the rest of the planets.

TLDR:

Uranus smells stinky
Uranus spins on its side
Uranus spends 42 years in sunlight, 42 in darkness
Uranus has rings

uncritical support to games

“Female animals are just as promiscuous, competitive, aggressive, dominant and dynamic as males,” she writes.

That may not sound radical to today’s feminists, but in the field of evolutionary biology, such a pronouncement has long bordered on the heretical. Generations of biologists have focused on male behavior and physiology, on the assumption that females are little more than baby-making machines to be won over by the strongest, showiest males.

Living in space comes with risks. For astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), those risks occasionally make themselves intrusively apparent.

Earlier this month, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen snapped a photo of the Canadarm2, in which damage from a micrometeorite impact is clearly visible.

“The hole was made in 2021, where a 1 mm object, traveling at over 25,000 km/h relative to the Space Station hit the robotic arm. Fortunately, no critical components were damaged,” said Mogensen on social media.

The impact punched through the arm’s thermal blanket and impacted the boom. The robotic arm, which has been in service on the ISS for over twenty years, continues to function normally.

But the ISS isn’t always so lucky. In October, the Nauka science module suffered damage from a similar micrometeorite impact, causing 72 litres of coolant to leak from the module’s radiator out into space. After determining that the leaking coolant might contaminate astronauts’ spacesuits, a spacewalk planned for October 12th was postponed. Mogensen, alongside NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, was scheduled to recover science samples from the station exterior, where tests are ongoing to measure the ability of resilient microbial life to survive in space. In addition, the pair were expected to carry out a variety of exterior maintenance activities, including camera replacements and jumper cable installations.

That spacewalk will now occur in January or February 2024.

In its decades-long history, the ISS has so far avoided any serious damage to its pressurized modules. The station has the ability to maneuver itself out of harm’s way in the case of a close approach with a known piece of space debris. These evasive actions have occurred regularly throughout the ISS’s operations, occurring at a cadence of once or twice per year (and thrice in more recent years).

The challenge is knowing when debris might be on a collision course.

Ground-based orbital debris tracking programs currently monitor about 33,000 pieces of known space debris. But smaller pieces of debris and micrometeorites cannot be tracked from Earth, so the station relies on shielding to protect itself. A multi-layered structure known as Whipple shielding disperses the force of impact over a wider area, preventing depressurization.

There are also technology demonstration tests in the works for on-orbit debris trackers, which will be able to detect much smaller pieces of debris (as small as 3 cm).

In the meantime, astronauts like Mogensen stay ready for the worst-case scenario. A carefully planned regimen of emergency procedures is one way that space agencies try to minimize the risks.

“Most of the modules have shielding against smaller impacts, but it is not strong enough to withstand impacts against larger ones,” says Mogensen. “This is why we repeatedly practice emergency scenarios, including depressurization.”

Mogensen will stay in orbit until February 2024, when he will return to Earth with four of his crewmates on a SpaceX Dragon capsule. This is Mogensen’s second mission in space.

One I can imagine would be soldiers who get injured in battle Having limbs regenerated and then having to go back out and fight in more wars. Terrifying idea.

The perennial questions of "is it efficient outside of a lab setting?" and "does it scale?" obviously apply, but it is important to note that one of the reaction products is a potassium salt of carbon dioxide whose chemical formula is KOOCH.