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An image of the sky showing the region around ASKAP J1832-0911. X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, radio data from the South African MeerKAT radio telescope, and infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (Credit: Ziteng (Andy) Wang, ICRAR) ********************************************************************** In a nutshell Scientists discovered the first long-period radio transient that also emits X-rays, creating an entirely new class of cosmic objects ASKAP J1832−0911 pulses every 44.2 minutes with both radio waves and X-rays, something that wasn’t supposed to be possible The object could be either an ancient magnetar or an ultra-magnetized white dwarf system, both of which challenge current...

Enhanced 3D printing techniques now allow for the production of 17-4 PH stainless steel, optimizing its strength and corrosion resistance. This achievement marks a significant step forward in the additive manufacturing of complex alloys. Credit: SciTechDaily.com =============================================================================== Using advanced X-ray techniques, scientists have achieved a significant milestone in 3D printing by producing 17-4 PH stainless steel with superior strength and durability. This development promises to lower costs and increase production flexibility, offering profound implications for manufacturing complex materials. Breakthrough in 3D Printing of Stainless Steel Researchers have developed a reliable method to produce a specific type of stainless steel, 17-4...

This artist’s impression illustrates the mechanism that could be at the origin of the powerful bursts of X-ray light seen from a newly awakened black hole named Ansky. Credit: ESA A mysterious black hole in a distant galaxy just woke up after decades of silence—and it’s putting on a cosmic light show! **************************************************************************** ESA’s XMM-Newton and other X-ray telescopes are capturing massive bursts of energy known as quasiperiodic eruptions (QPEs) that defy current theories. Unlike anything seen before, these powerful flashes may be rewriting the rulebook on how black holes behave, evolve, and interact with their surroundings. XMM-Newton Observes Rare...

Conservators at The Courtauld Institute in London have discovered an image of a mystery woman hidden beneath one of Picasso's most famous Blue Period paintings. The unknown image was discovered when The Courtauld took x-ray and infrared images of Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto (1901), revealing the outline of an unidentified woman with a distinctive chignon hairstyle, which was fashionable in Paris at the turn of the century.But the research also revealed evidence of another head at an even lower level in the painting, suggesting the canvas was much reused and painted over -- something Picasso, like other impoverished...

Tiny cosmic particles can have serious impacts on Earth, causing election votes to be miscounted, planes to free-fall and computers to reboot, scientists say.These cosmic particles can hit electronic devices on Earth, which can cause components to burn out and cause malfunctions. Cosmic particles come from cosmic rays from outside our solar system. They crash into the Earth's atmosphere creating a range of particles, including protons, electrons, X-rays and gamma-rays that can penetrate aircraft.These cosmic particles constantly hit Earth, and can cause bits of information in electronics to change.

Scientists x-rayed ancient Egyptian tomb paintings to better understand the painters' creative process.Every painter has a process, but the painstaking revisions and countless tiny edits are invisible to those who only see the final product. In a study published today in PLOS ONE, researchers used x-rays to reveal how 3000-year-old paintings inside Egypt’s Theban Necropolis unfolded step by step. The findings hint at the creative process used to produce these ancient masterworks.Applying the x-ray method to ancient Egyptian wall paintings “is really a game changer,” says Marine Cotte, a chemist at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, who previously collaborated with...

A team of doctors, nurses and medical researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Australia has found that ultrasound devices can serve as reliable diagnostic tools for children presenting symptoms of distal forearm fracture. In their study, the group tested the use of ultrasound devices in diagnosing arm fractures in children. Prior research has shown that distal forearm fractures (broken bones in the part of the forearm nearest to the wrist) are among the most common injuries to children reported by emergency room personnel. Prior research has also shown that many parents are concerned about exposing their children to the high...

According to new research, deep learning models based on artificial intelligence can identify someone’s race merely by looking at their X-rays, which would be impossible for a human doctor looking at the same photos. The findings raise several serious concerns concerning AI’s role in medical diagnosis, assessment, and treatment: Could computer algorithms mistakenly apply racial bias when analyzing photographs like these? An international team of health researchers from the United States, Canada, and Taiwan tested their AI on X-ray images that the computer program had never seen before after training it with hundreds of thousands of existing X-ray images annotated...

https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2022-02/processed/jupiter-aurora_1024.jpg ======================================================================== Jupiter has finally been observed spitting out X-rays in high-energy wavelengths. Emanating from the giant planet's permanent auroras, and detected by NASA's space-based X-ray telescope NuSTAR, the emissions are the most energetic light seen coming from any planet in the Solar System (aside from Earth). The detection could shed light on the most powerful auroras in the Solar System, and solves a longstanding mystery: why the joint ESA-NASA Ulysses spacecraft didn't detect any Jovian X-rays in its nearly three decades of operation between 1990 and 2009. Jupiter's auroras constitute an absolutely fascinating phenomenon. At both its poles, the...

Preamplifiers that boost laser beams at the National Ignition Facility. (LLNL/Damien Jemison) PHYSICS ========================================================================= A major milestone has been breached in the quest for fusion energy. For the first time, a fusion reaction has achieved a record 1.3 megajoule energy output – and for the first time, exceeding energy absorbed by the fuel used to trigger it. Although there's still some way to go, the result represents a significant improvement on previous yields: eight times greater than experiments conducted just a few months prior, and 25 times greater than experiments conducted in 2018. It's a huge achievement. Physicists at the...

Explanation: Why are the regions above sunspots so hot? Sunspots themselves are a bit cooler than the surrounding solar surface because the magnetic fields that create them reduce convective heating. It is therefore unusual that regions overhead -- even much higher up in the Sun's corona -- can be hundreds of times hotter. To help find the cause, NASA directed the Earth-orbiting Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) satellite to point its very sensitive X-ray telescope at the Sun. Featured here is the Sun in ultraviolet light, shown in a red hue as taken by the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)....

Decades after battling childhood cancer, survivors often face a new challenge: cardiometabolic disease. A spectrum of conditions that includes coronary heart disease and diabetes, cardiometabolic disease typically impacts people who are obese, elderly, or insulin resistant. Radiation therapy may be to blame. The findings suggest that it may be necessary to find strategies that reduce the radiation dose delivered to fat. "When physicians are planning radiation therapy, they are very conscious of toxicity to major organs. But fat is often not considered," says Rockefeller's Paul Cohen. Children with cancer are more likely to survive into adulthood than ever before. More...

The first study to use x-rays and CT scans to detect evidence of cancer among the skeletal remains of a pre-industrial population suggests that between 9-14% of adults in medieval Britain had the disease at the time of their death.This puts cancer prevalence in a time before exposure to tumour-inducing chemicals from industry and tobacco at around ten times higher than previously thought, according to researchers.Prior research into historic cancer rates using the archaeological record has been limited to examining the bone exterior for lesions. It suggested that cancer was rare, affecting less than 1% of the population.

More than 600 years ago, someone intricately folded, sealed and posted a letter that was never delivered. Now, scientists have digitally "unfolded" this and other similarly locked letters found in a 17th-century trunk in The Hague, using X-rays. For centuries prior to the invention of sealed envelopes, sensitive correspondence was protected from prying eyes through complex folding techniques called "letterlocking," which transformed a letter into its own secure envelope. However, locked letters that survive to the present are fragile and can be opened physically only by slicing them to pieces. The new X-ray method offers researchers a non-invasive alternative, maintaining...

Explanation: What's happening at the center of spiral galaxy NGC 5643? A swirling disk of stars and gas, NGC 5643's appearance is dominated by blue spiral arms and brown dust, as shown in the featured image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The core of this active galaxy glows brightly in radio waves and X-rays where twin jets have been found. An unusual central glow makes NGC 5643 one of the closest examples of the Seyfert class of galaxies, where vast amounts of glowing gas are thought to be falling into a central massive black hole. NGC 5643, is a...

NASA currently expects to land the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars on February 18, 2021. Once the rover is on the surface and working, it will begin to search for traces of microscopic life that could be billions of years old. The rover is fitted with an instrument called PIXL, which is a lunchbox-sized device at the end of the seven-foot-long robotic arm fitted to the rover. . PIXL uses more than an x-ray beam alone, it also has a hexapod, which is a device featuring six mechanical legs connected to the robotic arm guided by...

A simple visit to an obscure factory by Chinese President Xi on Monday is all it took to raise the specter that China could be contemplating cutting off supply of critical materials to the U.S. and potentially crippling large swathes of its industries. Also, fueled by political innuendo in Xi’s recent call for a new “Long March” in reference to a key founding tenet of the Chinese Communist Party, speculators are growing increasingly wary of Chinese export restrictions to the U.S., including rare earth minerals. As the world’s largest producer, the Middle Kingdom has a vice-like grip on rare earths...

An Indian theoretical physicist who questioned the existence of black holes and thereby challenged Stephen Hawking of Britain at last feels vindicated. But he is sad. Abhas Mitra, at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai, was perhaps the first and the only scientist who had the guts to openly challenge Hawking of Cambridge University who is regarded by many as the modern-day Einstein. For over 30 years Hawking and his followers were perpetuating the theory that black holes -- resulting from gravitational collapse of massive stars -- destroy everything that falls into them preventing even light or information...

American space agency, the NASA had recently observed flares of X-rays from a black hole, which goes against the conventional notion that they are compact particles with such huge gravity that even light can't escape. Last month NASA announced that two of its space telescopes caught a huge burst of X-ray spewing out of a super massive black hole. These flairs appeared to be be triggered by the eruption of a charged particle from the black hole, which according to conventional belief doesn't let anything out. The latest findings are in accordance with the theory of Indian astrophysicist Abhas Mitra...

About eight hundred years ago, a ship sank in the Java Sea off the coast of the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. There are no written records saying where the ship was going or where it came from -- the only clues are the mostly-disintegrated structure of the vessel and its cargo, which was discovered on the seabed in the 1980s. Since the wreck's recovery in the 1990s, researchers have been piecing together the world that the Java Sea Shipwreck was part of. In a new study in the Journal of Archaeological Science, archaeologists have demonstrated a new...