oldpaddoboy

I also found this interesting comment....here: https://phys.org/news/2024-03-astrophysicist-science-lifetime-nova-outburst.html "Outside of the novelty of these novae,, Blazek says systems like T CrB are particularly interesting for astrophysicists because they are prime candidates for Type 1a supernovae, even larger stellar explosions that are integral to mapping the cosmos. When a star like T CrB's white dwarf hits a certain mass after repeated novae and it can't support its own mass, it starts to collapse and erupts into a massive, bright explosion, known as a supernova. Novae occur every 80 years, but supernovae are one-time events because they are so powerful that they end up destroying a star. Type 1a supernovae are even more notable because they seem to always have the same brightness, which means they likely always happen to stars of the same mass, Blazek says." Which prompts the question, Will this be a nova, or a type 1a supernova, and how can they predict the difference?

Nice pickup. I went through the links myself, and like you, couldn't find anything specific. Perhaps as you say, when the nova event becomes likely, there are specific signs or activity. Other then the following taken from the article, which indicate an "error range" in predictability, I couldn't really say. "But every 80 years or so, exchanges between its two stars, which are locked in a deadly embrace, spark a runaway nuclear explosion." "Starrfield is currently rushing to finish a scientific paper predicting what astronomers will find out about the recurring nova whenever it shows up in the next five months. "I could be today... but I hope it's not," he said with a laugh" "Once the mass roughly of Earth has built up on the white dwarf—which takes around 80 years—it heats up enough to kickstart a runaway thermonuclear reaction, Starrfield said." end of quotes: My only thought is perhaps the orbital ellipticity has some bearing on exactly when it is predicted and when it occurs? "

OK, understood. My point was that much evil exists on social media, even though not necessarily criminal behaviour. I suppose in many respects its the age we live in, an age I don't fully adhere to, or agree with. Then again, my time was far from perfect also.

In actual fact, I had never heard of the terminology "deep fakes" and had to google. First thing that came to mind was a former President of yours. Doesn't phishing and this deep fakes crap apply to all social media? Isn't this why reputable social media like science forums for example, have moderators to weed out the nonsense.

As you say, such things as obvious satire, election propaganda perhaps, and obvious humour. But the stuff promoting damn out right lies, harmful inuendo, shaming others, hateful speech, excessive promotion of crazy conspiracy theories, and phishing in general are detrimental to society. The shaming of others and hateful speech have been recognised as the cause of young suicides in Australia and the reason for the consideration of bans for young ones and sub teens.

I would imagine so. How is the current Parker solar probe operating if at all it is still operational? This one apparently is studying the Sun in ultra violet light,

Australia at the present time is considering the idea of passing a law banning children under the age of 14 from participating in all social media. Some states will apparently be going it alone if the Federal government are slow to act. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-24/social-media-ban-children-under-16-government/103885784 On the question at hand, my answer is yes.

Thanks Daveman. My Northern horizon view is somewhat blocked from my position, so I may have to do some driving.

Great! Thanks for the update.

Interesting!

https://phys.org/news/2024-05-key-ingredient-life-space.html Researchers shed light on how key ingredient for life may form in space: This graphic depicts methanol's chemical structure (CH₃OH) breaking down into hydroxymethylene (HCOH), "A team led by University of Maryland chemists discovered a new way to create carbenes, a class of highly reactive yet notoriously short-lived and unstable molecules. Involved in many high-energy chemical reactions such as the creation of carbohydrates, carbenes are crucial precursors to the building blocks of life on Earth—and possibly in space. The scientists successfully formed a carbene called hydroxymethylene (HCOH) by breaking down methanol (a common alcohol found in many industrial chemicals like formaldehyde) with pulses of ultraviolet radiation. The results were published in a paper on May 14, 2024, in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. "It's surprising to see this carbene come from such a commonplace molecule like methanol—we have squirt bottles of it in labs everywhere," said Leah Dodson, an assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UMD and senior author of the paper. Carbene species play an integral role in high-energy chemistry, transition-metal-carbene chemistry, catalysis, photolytic formation of carbohydrates, and possibly even the formation of interstellar sugars. In 1921, “reactive formaldehyde”─now known as hydroxymethylene (HCOH)─was first implicated as an intermediate in photocatalytic processes. However, due to its transient nature, direct observation of HCOH has predominantly been attained using cryogenic isolation methods. As a result, HCOH gas-phase reactivity measurements have been limited. We directly observed HCOH using photoionization spectroscopy following UV photodissociation of methanol. Our measurements show it reacts slowly with O2 at room temperature. This work provides evidence for the formation mechanism of HCOH from CH3OH and its subsequent reactivity under gas-phase reaction conditions." more at link: The paper: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.4c03090# ABSTRACT: "Carbene species play an integral role in high-energy chemistry, transition-metal-carbene chemistry, catalysis, photolytic formation of carbohydrates, and possibly even the formation of interstellar sugars. In 1921, “reactive formaldehyde”─now known as hydroxymethylene (HCOH)─was first implicated as an intermediate in photocatalytic processes. However, due to its transient nature, direct observation of HCOH has predominantly been attained using cryogenic isolation methods. As a result, HCOH gas-phase reactivity measurements have been limited. We directly observed HCOH using photoionization spectroscopy following UV photodissociation of methanol. Our measurements show it reacts slowly with O2 at room temperature. This work provides evidence for the formation mechanism of HCOH from CH3OH and its subsequent reactivity under gas-phase reaction conditions."

https://phys.org/news/2024-05-webb-distant-black-hole-merger.html "An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to find evidence for an ongoing merger of two galaxies and their massive black holes when the universe was only 740 million years old. This marks the most distant detection of a black hole merger ever obtained and the first time that this phenomenon has been detected so early in the universe. Astronomers have found supermassive black holes with masses of millions to billions times that of the sun in most massive galaxies in the local universe, including in our Milky Way galaxy. These black holes have likely had a major impact on the evolution of the galaxies they reside in. However, scientists still don't fully understand how these objects grew to become so massive. The finding of gargantuan black holes already in place in the first billion years after the Big Bang indicates that such growth must have happened very rapidly, and very early. Now, the James Webb Space Telescope is shedding new light on the growth of black holes in the early universe." full article at link The paper: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/531/1/355/7671512?login=false GA-NIFS: JWST discovers an offset AGN 740 million years after the big bang ABSTRACT: " A surprising finding of recent studies is the large number of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) associated with moderately massive black holes (⁠log⁡(M∙/M⊙)∼6−8⁠), in the first billion years after the big bang (z > 5). In this context, a relevant finding has been the large fraction of candidate dual AGN, both at large separations (several kpc) and in close pairs (less than a kpc), likely in the process of merging. Frequent black hole merging may be a route for black hole growth in the early universe; however, previous findings are still tentative and indirect. We present JWST/NIRSpec-IFU observations of a galaxy at z = 7.15 in which we find evidence for a log⁡(M∙/M⊙)∼7.7 accreting black hole, as traced by a broad component of H β emission, associated with the Broad Line Region (BLR) around the black hole. This BLR is offset by 620 pc in projection from the centroid of strong rest-frame optical emission, with a velocity offset of ∼40 km s–1. The latter region is also characterized by (narrow) nebular emission features typical of AGN, hence also likely hosting another accreting black hole, although obscured (Type 2, narrow-line AGN). We exclude that the offset BLR is associated with Supernovae or massive stars, and we interpret these results as two black holes in the process of merging. This finding may be relevant for estimates of the rate and properties of gravitational-wave signals from the early universe that will be detected by future observatories like LISA." 10 CONCLUSIONS "' The results presented in this work highlight the power of NIRSpec-IFU observations in the study of high-z galaxies, mergers, and the detection of moderately massive black holes through imaging-spectroscopy. Our observations provide clear and robust evidence for a massive black hole involved in a merger with another galaxy, likely hosting another accreting black hole, at z = 7.15, only 740 Myr after the big bang. Overall, our results seem to support a scenario of an imminent massive black hole merger in the early universe, highlighting this as an additional important channel for the early growth of black holes. Together with other recent findings in the literature, this suggests that massive black hole merging in the distant universe is common. Our observations may be used as guidance for the modelling of gravitational-wave events originating from massive black hole mergers that will be detectable with future observatories like LISA (e.g. Haehnelt 1994; Jaffe & Backer 2003; Sesana et al. 2005; Valiante et al. 2021; Amaro-Seoane et al. 2023)."

No introduction necessary. The beautiful Judith Durham of course recently passed away....

A young English Lass again from the 60's, (remember I'm an old bastard!) Helen Shapiro, with familiar guess artists

Here is an Interesting cover version of Buddy Holly's Peggy Sue, by the Beach Boys.......