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Categories: Offbeat: Computers and Math, Space: Astrophysics

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A peculiar cloud of gas, nicknamed the Tadpole due to its shape, appears to be revolving around a space devoid of any bright objects. This suggests that the Tadpole is orbiting a dark object, most likely a black hole 100,000 times more massive than the Sun. Future observations will help determine what is responsible for the shape and motion of the Tadpole.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

If you want to build a habitable planet, ice is a key ingredient. The ice can be found in enormous clouds in the Universe and it is the main carrier of the necessary elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur. These elements are part of the atmosphere around planets and part of molecules like sugar, alcohols and simple amino acids as well. The new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has contributed to the discovery of different ices in a molecular cloud, 'Chameleon 1' -- one of the coldest and darkest regions to have ever been explored. Astronomers assume that these types of molecules were also present in the cold cloud of gas and dust forming our own solar system.

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Researchers have released their findings on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the interstellar medium of nearby galaxies.

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In a new approach to security that unites technology and art, E researchers have combined silver nanostructures with polarized light to yield a range of brilliant colors, which can be used to encode messages.

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The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) announced their first publicly released catalog of astronomical objects. Over 200,000 astronomical objects including distant stars and galaxies have been mapped in 3D for the first time. Astronomers will use the data to better determine the Hubble constant, used to gauge the expansion of the universe. Possible 'naked black hole' early highlight of science results from HETDEX survey. TACC systems Corral, Stampede2, and Maverick were used in the data analysis and storage. Data publicly available through JupyterHub notebooks.

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Since their discovery by NASA's Voyager mission in the 1980s, temporary 'spoke' features across Saturn's rings have fascinated scientists, yet eluded explanation. They have been observed in the years preceding and following the planet's equinox, becoming more prominent as the date approaches. Saturn's upcoming autumnal equinox of the northern hemisphere on May 6, 2025, means that spoke season has come again. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope will be on the job studying the spokes, thanks to time dedicated to Saturn in the mission's ongoing Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program. Are the smudgy features related to Saturn's magnetic field and its interaction with the solar wind, as prevailing theory suggests? Confirmation could come in this spoke season, as scientists combine archival data from NASA's Cassini mission with new Hubble observations.

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New artificial intelligence technology being developed by engineers could significantly cut down on the time and cost that goes into film study for Super Bowl-bound teams (and all NFL and college football teams), while also enhancing game strategy by harnessing the power of big data.

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Dust launched from the moon's surface or from a space station positioned between Earth and the sun could reduce enough solar radiation to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

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Researchers have demonstrated that quantum bits (qubits) can directly transfer between quantum computer microchips and demonstrated this with record-breaking connection speed and accuracy. This breakthrough resolves a major challenge in building quantum computers large and powerful enough to tackle complex problems that are of critical importance to society.

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Astronomers have uncovered striking new evidence for a mass migration of stars into the Andromeda Galaxy. Intricate patterns in the motions of stars reveal an immigration history very similar to that of the Milky Way.

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A synthetic biosensor that mimics properties found in cell membranes and provides an electronic readout of activity could lead to a better understanding of cell biology, development of new drugs, and the creation of sensory organs on a chip capable of detecting chemicals, similar to how noses and tongues work.

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FRIDA, a robotic arm with a paintbrush taped to it, uses artificial intelligence to collaborate with humans on works of art. Ask FRIDA to paint a picture, and it gets to work putting brush to canvas. The robot uses AI models similar to those powering tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT and DALL-E 2, which generate text or an image, respectively, in response to a prompt. FRIDA simulates how it would paint an image with brush strokes and uses machine learning to evaluate its progress as it works. FRIDA's final products are impressionistic and whimsical. The brushstrokes are bold. They lack the precision sought so often in robotic endeavors. If FRIDA makes a mistake, it riffs on it, incorporating the errant splotch of paint into the end result.

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New research reveals that artificial intelligence can be used to find planets outside of our solar system. The recent study demonstrated that machine learning can be used to find exoplanets, information that could reshape how scientists detect and identify new planets very far from Earth.

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Can a pigeon match wits with artificial intelligence? Researchers tested pigeons' learning abilities and concluded the birds employ the same basic process, called associative learning, as the most advanced AI technologies.

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Researchers developed a new approach to building deformable underwater robots, using simple repeating substructures. The team demonstrated the new system in two different example configurations, one like an eel and the other a wing-like hydrofoil.

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The universe's carbon atoms complete a journey that spans eons -- forming in the hearts of dying stars, then becoming a part of planets and even living organisms. Now, a team has uncovered the chemistry behind one tiny, but critical, step in this process.

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Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope's first images of galaxy clusters, researchers have, for the very first time, been able to examine very compact structures of star clusters inside galaxies, so-called clumps.

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Performing human-like motions that involve multiple contacts is challenging for robots. In this regard, a researcher has envisioned an interactive cyber-physical human (iCPH) platform with complementary humanoid (physical twin) and simulation (digital twin) elements. iCPH combines human measurement data, musculoskeletal analysis, and machine learning for data collection and augmentation. As a result, iCPH can understand, predict, and synthesize whole-body contact motions.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Roughly 500 million light-years away, near the constellation Delphinus, two galaxies are colliding. Known as merging galaxy IIZw096, the luminous phenomenon is obscured by cosmic dust, but researchers first identified a bright, energetic source of light 12 years ago. Now, with a more advanced telescope, the team has pinpointed the precise location of what they have dubbed the 'engine' of the merging galaxy.

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Trapped ions have previously only been entangled in one and the same laboratory. Now, teams have entangled two ions over a distance of 230 meters. The nodes of this network were housed in two labs at the Campus Technik to the west of Innsbruck, Austria. The experiment shows that trapped ions are a promising platform for future quantum networks that span cities and eventually continents.