Fastest star ever spotted at the centre of our galaxy

 

Image courtesy of ESO and Digitized Sky Survey 2 O.

Joel Kontinen

Some stars are slow but others are fast. Now scientist have discovered the fastest star at the centre of our galaxy.

Stefan Gillessen at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany and his colleagues found S301 using the Very Large Telescope in Chile.

At its closest approach, S301 is only about 1.8 billion kilometres from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. That’s just 12 times the distance between Earth and the sun, 10 times closer to Sagittarius A* than the previous record-holder. “If you were living on a planet around this star, the size of the black hole at the closest approach would appear similar to the full moon from Earth – it would be absolutely stunning,” says Gillessen.

“Earth does this as well, and we can measure with satellites around Earth that there is a very, very slight frame dragging from Earth’s rotation,” says Tuan Do at the University of California, Los Angeles, who wasn’t involved in the research. “This is doing the same thing, just with much different objects.”

Measuring Earth’s spin is relatively easy, but a black hole’s spin is much harder to determine because of its lack of a visible surface. The most precise way to measure it would be by measuring frame dragging, and S301 is the first star close enough to feel that effect.

“We drop a leaf in the wind and see how the air is moving by measuring that leaf,” says Gillessen. “A star is just the perfect leaf to drop to see the movement of space-time.”

Actually measuring the spin of Sagittarius A* using this method will probably take around a decade, he says, but that may speed up if we find more stars like it.

“With one star, it would take a while, but it would still be the best constraint on spin that we’ve ever had by far,” says Ziri Younsi at University College London. “If you can find another star that’s even closer, that’s better still. If you can find a population of these stars, then you’re in business.”

But when we finally do measure the spin of a black hole, it will be a crucial piece of the cosmic jigsaw. It will not only help us understand how black holes have contributed to the evolution of the universe, but will also provide a probe into the behaviour of gravity in extreme environments, which has proved extremely difficult to study.

 Source: 

By Leah Crane 2026 Fastest star ever spotted at the centre of our galaxy | New Scientist 28 August 

Two emerging tick viruses that can be deadly are spreading in the US

 

Image courtesy of Jason Ondreicka/Alamy.

Joel Kontinen

Two tick-borne viruses – Heartland virus and Bourbon virus – have killed at least seven people in the US so far and appear to be spreading. Nebraska has just become the ninth state to detect one or both viruses in local ticks. New York also recently reported its first case of Bourbon virus in a person.

Are these viruses going to keep expanding in ticks? Are we going to see more and more cases of human infections? These are questions that a lot of my colleagues and I are wondering about,” says  Joseph J Fauver at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

When God created the world everything was fine but then after the fall of man he fall on while ticks and  other creatures poisoned Earth. Tics spread viruses when God  cursed mankind  and  animals after the fall of man in Genesis 3.

Source:

Alice Klein 2026 Two emerging tick viruses that can be deadly are spreading in the US | New Scientist 20 August

 

Lack of sleep may cause anxiety by making us less adaptable to threats

 

Image courtesy of Millennium Images/plainpicture

Joel Kontinen

A lack of sleep can cause anxiety, which would  cause less adaptable threats.

We often feel more anxious and stressed when we are tired, and scientists may have partly uncovered why. A lack of shuteye may make it harder for our brain to adapt to new, potentially threateninig environments, keeping us in a hyperalert state. This might have been an advantage for our ancient human ancestors, who were more vulnerable to predators, but may be less useful in our modern world.

“Our biodies and brain view sleep loss as a reason to turn on the emergency engines in order to survive,” says Eti Ben Simon at the University of Texas at Dallas, who wasn’t involved in the research. “It is a ‘better safe than sorry’ approach we received from evolution to better deal with challenges in tough times.”

 Source:

Tosin Thompson 2026 Lack of sleep may cause anxiety by making us less adaptable to threats | New Scientist 24 August

Astronomers find water in the harsh environment near the Milky Way's black hole

 

Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, F. Peißker, J. Lu, F. Yusef-Zadeh, N. B. Sabha, C. Chin

Joel Kontinen

Astronomers detected dust and water surprisingly close to the Milky Way's central black hole, Sagittarius A*, offering a rare direct view of how evolved stars may behave in hostile settings. It is situated in the region around the star IRS 3 and  it is: 26,000 light-years from Earth.

This unprecedented view of the star IRS 3  shows that it is shedding an enormous amount of material, gas and dust to build a sprawling envelope around itself. Within that star's envelope, scientists detected traces of water.

Although astronomers have detected water near other stars before, this is the first time it's been found this close to the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, known as Sagittarius A*.

The observations, described Aug. 11 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, show that even in the harsh conditions surrounding a galaxy's central region, aging stars like IRS 3 may still be quietly seeding their surroundings with dust. That challenges the assumption that galactic centers are too extreme for this process to happen at all.

"The detection of water is especially exciting because it shows that molecular material can survive in an environment dominated by intense radiation," study co-author Macarena Garcia Marin, a researcher at the European Space Agency, said..

Genesis, the book that explains the origin of the universe says that there is water everywhere in the galaxy, so it is not difficult to find water there.  

 Source:

Shreejaya Karantha 2026 Astronomers find water in the harsh environment near the Milky Way's black hole — Space photo of the week | Live Science 21 August 

Greenland meltwater is intensifying European heatwaves

 

Image courtesy of British Antarctic Survey/Alice Fremand/Cover Images

Joel Kontinen

The cooling of the North Atlantic is creating waviness in the jet stream and high-pressure ridging over Europe, a study finds.

Does the heat wave that is disturbing Europe have a say on Greenlands ice?  It may have caused extreme heat in western Europe and the Mediterranean, a study on climate models has revealed.

As Greenland ice loss accelerates, Europe may suffer more frequent and intense heatwaves than climate models currently predict.

This newly discovered “atmospheric bridge” played a major role in the unprecedented heatwaves this summer, according to Marilena Oltmanns at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre, who is one of the study’s authors.

Source:

Alec Luhn 2026 Greenland meltwater is intensifying European heatwaves | New Scientist 21 August

Astronomers discover a giant, rocky 'mega-Earth' 23 times more massive than our planet

 

Image courtesy of  NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC).

Joel Kontinen

Researchers have found a  giant mega-Earth that is 23 times more passive than Earth, It is build on rock.

Called GJ 523b, the exoplanet is about 2.5 times wider than Earth but packs roughly 23 times our planet's mass into that relatively compact size. Worlds this large and dense are sometimes referred to as "mega-Earths," an informal term for unusually massive, predominantly rocky planets. GJ 523b's high density suggests it contains relatively little atmosphere despite being large enough that astronomers would normally expect it to have accumulated a substantial gaseous envelope, according to a statement from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

"This isn't what we expected at all," Max Kroft, lead author of the study, said in the statement. "Dense planets like this aren't uncommon, but they're usually small rocky planets similar to Earth or Mercury. This planet is two and a half times bigger than the Earth."

The team calculated that GJ 523b has a mass about 23.5 times that of Earth, a radius 2.55 times larger and a density of about 126.82 grams per cubic inch. It circles its star every 17.75 days. Evolutionists claim that the planetary system is also relatively young, at an estimated nearly 170 million years old, according to the study.

That combination of size, mass and youth poses a puzzle for planet formation models. Planets begin by building cores of rock and metal, which can then pull in hydrogen and helium from the disk of gas and dust surrounding a young star. In our own solar system, giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn are thought to have begun rapidly accumulating their massive gaseous envelopes once their growing cores reached roughly 20 times Earth's mass.

GJ 523b is already about 23 times Earth's mass, putting it beyond that threshold. Yet instead of developing into a gas-rich world, its unusually high density suggests it has relatively little gas and remains predominantly rocky — raising the question of why it followed such a different path.

According to evolutionists, one possibility is that GJ 523b initially formed with a thick atmosphere that was later stripped away. Another is that it formed through a collision between two planets, creating a larger rocky world while blasting much of their gaseous envelopes into space, according to the statement.

But that is speculating on Darwinist fables.

Source:

Samantha Mathewson 2026 Astronomers discover a giant, rocky 'mega-Earth' 23 times more massive than our planet | Space 19 August

 

Did humans evolve to be active throughout the day and night

 

Image courtesy of Lanet Earth/Shutterstock

Joel Kontinen

Evidence from hunter-gatherers suggests humans aren't diurnal but cathemeral throughout the day and night? with bouts of activity at nighttime – a sleep pattern similar to some lemurs.

Did early men also work  during the night? According to evolution, we have a shared ancestor, but humans are very different from lemurs.

Humans are generally considered diurnal, or mainly active during the day, but this may not be strictly accurate. Data from hunter-gatherers suggests they are fairly active at night, and don’t simply rest and sleep after the sun goes down.

This finding means that the human sleep pattern is closer to that of some lemur species, says David Samson at the University of T oronto in Canada, author of The Sleepless Ape. Instead of being primarily active in the day and restful at night, humans may be “cathemeral”, meaning they spread their activities throughout each 24-hour period. “The key point is that day and night activity are both regular parts of the behavioural repertoire,” says Samson.

 Source

 Michael Marsh 2026 Did humans evolve to be active throughout the day and night? | New Scientist 18 August