Increasing your memory will support you to move one step forward in social-cultural and economic activities as well as making your life easier. Keeping the formulas, dates, or names in the mind… Who wouldn’t want that, right?
When you type “How to increase my memory?” on Google Search Engine, you get many options like puzzles, games, and difficult tests. However, today we will suggest something that has been proved by science. It is also free and easy to apply. It is sleeping!
Scientists say that if you have regular sleep (8 hours a day, fully dark and quiet as much as possible) you’ll notice that your memory will increase. The main purpose of this article is to tell you about the experience. But first, let’s learn more about sleep!
Hidden Treasure: Sleep
While we are discovering the unhidden parts of oceans, launching rockets and telescopes into space 50 years ago, we’re missing one thing in our lives: finding the hidden treasure of the brain and sleep.
Keep this in mind: Sleeping is very complicated, complex, and harder to describe than you think. Maybe you’ve heard of the different stages of sleep. For example; NREM and REM. These stages have different functions. However, we’ll not go into these in this writing. It’ll be enough if you know the following:
NREM is the stage;
where your sleep is deep,
the body’s physiologically active phase is,
that is responsible for the production/destruction of your body parts during your sleep.
REM is the stage;
where we dream,
when our body is paralyzed,
when our sensory sensations are active.
Source: Truedark
If you follow the graphic below while you’re reading the information above, you can easily understand the stages of NREM, REM, and awakeness. A person who sleeps approximately at 23:00 directly goes to the NREM 3 & 4 stages and shows a deeper and low wave spectrum sleep as it is seen in Cycle 1. In the following hours, while the third and fourth NREM stages are decreasing, the first and second stages of NREM starts to increase in a parallel to the REM stage. It means you’re dreaming in the meantime of getting awake.
The Experiment of Increasing Your Memory
In 2006, a group of researchers in Germany came up with an idea of an experiment. They invited young and healthy human beings for their experiment and divided them into two groups: Group A & Group B. The people in Group A had electrode pads on their forehead and backhead while Group B had nothing. In the end, the researchers led them to sleep.
The researchers started to give to Group A very low and carefully calculated amounts of electricity (stimulation) instead of recording the electrical brain waves emitted from their brains during sleep. However, they applied this stimulation only at the deepest stage of NREM. The researchers did not want Group A to feel the stimulation and wake up because of it that’s why they kept the stimulation very low. On the other hand, its effects on sleep were unpredictably high.
Before the experiment, both the experiment groups got notified about the information list. A day after sleeping, the researchers gave them the information list and let them do it. The researches could not believe how the test results were. The people in Group A got two times higher scores compared to Group B. In other words, the researchers doubled the test scores by increasing the electrical quality of deep sleep brain wave activity.
They also reported they stimulation applied in the stage REM was not successful. The stimulation where there was synchronized, low, and slow electrical brain waves in the stage of NREM, was improving memory.
BE CAREFUL! Don’t try this experiment at home. Some people really got injured while trying to give electrical brain waves.
If there are people around you that want to improve their memory and getting prepared for exams, just remind them to have a good and stable sleep. This is the reason why we wanted to share this paper with you.
I suggest you to read “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker if you’re interested in learning more about sleep. Enjoy and don’t forget to check other papers.
Original article appeared on DijitalX TR, written by Mehmet Emin Köse.
Astronomers using European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes have discovered giant spots on the surface of extremely hot stars hidden in stellar clusters. Not only are these stars plagued by magnetic spots, some also experience superflare events, explosions of energy several million times more energetic than similar eruptions on the Sun. The findings, published today in Nature Astronomy, help astronomers better understand these puzzling stars and open doors to resolving other elusive mysteries of stellar astronomy.
The team, led by Yazan Momany from the INAF Astronomical Observatory of Padua in Italy, looked at a particular type of star known as extreme horizontal branch stars — objects with about half the mass of the Sun but four to five times hotter. “These hot and small stars are special because we know they will bypass one of the final phases in the life of a typical star and will die prematurely,” says Momany, who was previously a staff astronomer at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. “In our Galaxy, these peculiar hot objects are generally associated with the presence of a close companion star.”
Surprisingly, however, the vast majority of these extreme horizontal branch stars, when observed in tightly packed stellar groups called globular clusters, do not appear to have companions. The team’s long-term monitoring of these stars, made with ESO telescopes, also revealed that there was something more to these mysterious objects. When looking at three different globular clusters, Momany and his colleagues found that many of the extreme horizontal branch stars within them showed regular changes in their brightness over the course of just a few days to several weeks.
“After eliminating all other scenarios, there was only one remaining possibility to explain their observed brightness variations,” concludes Simone Zaggia, a study co-author from the INAF Astronomical Observatory of Padua in Italy and a former ESO Fellow: “these stars must be plagued by spots!”
Spots on the Sun vs spots on extreme horizontal branch stars [ESO/L. Calçada, INAF-Padua/S. Zaggia]
Mystery of extreme horizontal branch stars are unveiling
Spots on extreme horizontal branch stars appear to be quite different from the dark sunspots on our own Sun, but both are caused by magnetic fields. The spots on these hot, extreme stars are brighter and hotter than the surrounding stellar surface, unlike on the Sun where we see spots as dark stains on the solar surface that are cooler than their surroundings. The spots on extreme horizontal branch stars are also significantly larger than sunspots, covering up to a quarter of the star’s surface. These spots are incredibly persistent, lasting for decades, while individual sunspots are temporary, lasting only a few days to months. As the hot stars rotate, the spots on the surface come and go, causing the visible changes in brightness.
Beyond the variations in brightness due to spots, the team also discovered a couple of extreme horizontal branch stars that showed superflares — sudden explosions of energy and another signpost of the presence of a magnetic field. “They are similar to the flares we see on our own Sun, but ten million times more energetic,” says study co-author Henri Boffin, an astronomer at ESO’s headquarters in Germany. “Such behaviour was certainly not expected and highlights the importance of magnetic fields in explaining the properties of these stars.”
After six decades of trying to understand extreme horizontal branch stars, astronomers now have a more complete picture of them. Moreover, this finding could help explain the origin of strong magnetic fields in many white dwarfs, objects that represent the final stage in the life of Sun-like stars and show similarities to extreme horizontal branch stars. “The bigger picture though,” says team member, David Jones, a former ESO Fellow now at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain, “is that changes in brightness of all hot stars — from young Sun-like stars to old extreme horizontal branch stars and long-dead white dwarfs — could all be connected. These objects can thus be understood as collectively suffering from magnetic spots on their surfaces.”
If you’re having problems with your Internet connection and want to fix it, we suggest you trying these 8 ways to increase your Internet speed.
1. Change The Place Of Your Router
If your router is in a closed area like closets, you should change its place in order to have better signals. Try to put your router in the center of your home and make sure that there is nothing around to dampen the router’s signal.
2. Make Sure That Your Router Is Up To Date
Having the recent version of the Wi-Fi specification is one of the best ways to get great performance out of your router. It used to be a dry technical nomenclature but the Wi-Fi alliance has made it easy to differentiate the newest technology. For example; Wi-Fi 6 is just coming out, Wi-Fi 5 is great, and Wi-Fi 4 is not able to cope with today’s demands.
3. Control Which Wi-Fi Channel You Are On
Routers use Wi-Fi channels in order to communicate with different devices around you. However, your router might be overlapping with the same channel as your neighbor’s. Therefore, it is better to check which channel you’re on and change it accordingly. We suggest you change your router preferences to automatic from manual. This way, your router will try to find the best channel to use. Also, newer Wi-Fi versions make use of different frequencies which means more unique channels are available.
4. Make A Second Wi-Fi Network
Having a Wi-Fi Extender is a great way to get the Wi-Fi signals from your router and rebroadcast it to the place where your extender is. For example; If you put your router in the living room, it might be harder to get signals from the living room to the farthest room. Therefore, putting a Wi-Fi Extender in that room can help you to have a better connection for that room. If it is possible, buy an access point and connect it using a cable. If the cable is not feasible, get a mesh Wi-Fi. It will get its connection from the Wi-Fi router and rebroadcast it to increase the range.
5. Try An Ethernet Cable
Especially make sure to use Ethernet cable for your desktops, if you want to have a better network connection. This way, your network will be faster and more stable for the device that you’re using because the network connection will not be affected by Wi-Fi interference.
6. Disconnect All The Unused Devices From Your Network
If you don’t have a better router, having many devices connected to your network might create a problem for the network connection. Therefore, it is always better to have a decrease in the number of devices that are connected to your router. This will help you to have a better network connection for the devices that you’re frequently using.
7. Check Your Device/Laptop
If you’re the only person that is having a slow connection, the problem might be with your laptop. That’s why you should check which programs are running in the background. Some programs that you might not need can cause you to have a slow Internet connection. So, you can delete those programs or cancel the automatic upgrades.
8. Check Your ISP Package
So, you followed the steps above and still have a bad internet experience. Let’s make a quick analogy here. Imagine your Wi-Fi being a Ferrari but it is on a dirt road, it can go fast but the road is slowing it down. It would perform better on a highway, right? The same thing applies to your internet connection. Your Wi-Fi might be up to snuff but it will only go as fast as the package and the internet technology would allow. So, check your ISP package and consider changing your ISP to a different ISP with a better package/technology. Generally, fiber will allow a better connection than Coax which in turn is better than DSL.
Something is common in Trees and Human: Change to Adapt
As we know the cell is the basic structural, functional, and biological unit of all known living organisms. The number of cells in plants and animals varies from species to species but humans contain about 100 trillion cells.
Since our bodies are huge masses of atoms we can generate electricity. Protons have a positive charge, neutrons have a neutral charge, and electrons have a negative charge. When we talk about the nervous system sending ‘signals’ to the brain, or synapses ‘firing’ or the brain we’re talking about electricity. It is the electrical signal which carries messages between point A and point B.
According to the scientists we are not the only one who uses electrical signals to communicate between cells inside the organism.
Humans aren’t the only one in electrical signalling
When Mimosa leaf induces electric signals, many other plant cells surprisingly realize this communication. Regulating the electrical charges in order to adapt the new situations is very common amongst plants.
There is tactile signalling (externally circumstanced) makes the plant to adapt the current conditions. Prof. Daniel Chamovitz explains that phenomenon as: “plant responses to tactile signalling over 2% of the 25.000. Arabidopsis (thaliana) genes are activated when you touch a plant. When an animal brushes up against it or even when the wind shakes its leaves as well. A plant rooted in the soil has to respond to multiple ways in order to modulate its growth, its own physiology. It’s an adaptation to survive in a changing environment is impressive” Also in Venus flytraps, closes when a pray gets in, by the help of electrical charges in the membrane. That helps the plant to depolarize ions. The release of calcium ions in response to the depolarization is very similar to what happens in neural communication in humans.” The electrical mechanism allows plants for short term memory and our brains work also electrical potentials one of which involves also in human short term memory.
Thigmomorphogenesis
Jovanov and Alexander G. Volkov has mentioned in their article on Plant Electrostimulation and Data Acquisition a similar thing. ‘‘Monitoring the electrical signaling in higher plants represents a promising method to investigate fast electrical communication during environmental changes.’’
Plants are known specifically sensitive even for a small change of temperature like cold, warm or any type of weather conditions.
Trees also adopts to its nature thanks to electrical signalling (Coursera Professor Daniel Chamovitz)
In that picture simply we see two same types of a tree. The first one lives in the valley has relatively shorter branches. The one on the left side, top of a mountain, find ways to sustain its own survival. The one which is relatively longer branches exposed to a strong wind. It must have adapted some skills by transforming the mechanic sensitive stimulations into information by leaning branches to one side.
Electrical Signalization in Plants and Brain Neuron Synapses In Humans
That signalization contextual transfers the information of external conditions is much more complex in animal cells than in plant cells. How these adaptation skills have been developed in order to make the survival possible is still a subject of researches.
The information transfer by the help of genes and chemicals makes humans also to survive in different circumstances. The scientists have discovered that there is a big connection to human responses like in plant cells. Calcium regulates electrical charge and communication between the cells of a plant by binding a very important protein called calmudilin. In plant cells Calmodulin activates electrical charges simply by touching it such as by wind shaking.
The Importance of Calcium
Calcium is equally important for animal cells for memory, for information, for muscle function and for nerve growth. Without any doubt, human anatomy is more complex than plant anatomy. As we know in our bodies Neurons communicate with each other using electricity and chemicals. The nervous system consists of the brain, spinal cord, and a complex network of neurons. This system is responsible for sending, receiving, and interpreting information from all parts of the body. The nervous system monitors and coordinates internal organ function and responds to changes in the external environment. This system can be divided into two parts. First the central nervous system second the peripheral nervous system. Motor neurons carry information from the central nervous system to organs, glands, and muscles. Sensory neurons send information to the central nervous system from internal organs or from external stimuli. Interneurons relay signals between motor and sensory neurons.
Instantly, the structure of our Brain Changes
Whenever we dream, laugh, think, see, or move tiny chemical and electrical signals are racing between these neurons. That happens along billions of tiny neuron highways. Countless messages zip around inside it every second like a supercharged pinball machine. Our neurons create and send more messages than all the phones in the entire world. While a single neuron generates only a tiny amount of electricity, all our neurons together can generate enough electricity to power a low-wattage bulb. Signals along certain pathways of neurons over and over. They are forming new connections. In fact, the structure of our brain changes every time we learn, as well as whenever we have a new thought or memory.
According to Dr. Pascale Michelon Neuroplasticity (brain plasticity) refers to the brain’s ability to change throughout life. The brain has the amazing ability to reorganize itself by forming new connections between brain cells. New connections can form and the internal structure of the existing synapses can change. In 2007 Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge, M.D. wrote a book on that matter. It is called The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science.
Adaptation to change is inevitable
‘‘Environmental effects on human physiology are numerous. One of the most carefully studied effects is the alterations in thermoregulation in the body due to outside stresses. This is necessary because in order for enzymes to function, blood to flow, and for various body organs to operate, the temperature must remain at consistent, balanced levels.’’
‘‘Living things need to ‘fit’ into their surroundings, to ensure survival. An adaptation is an inherited characteristic that helps an organism survive and reproduce in its environment. Sometimes adaptations are learned during the organism’s lifetime.’’ Animals inherit many kinds of adaptive behaviour. ‘‘In general, adaptations can be structural (meaning an organism undergoes bodily changes to survive). Or it is also known as behavioural (when a specific behaviour increases an organism’s chances of survival).’’ Animal migration is an example of a behavioural adaptation.
Mutation
In nature adaptations usually occur because a gene mutates or changes by accident. Some mutations can help an animal or a plant to survive better than others in the species without the mutation. An example of a structural adaptation is the way some plants have adapted to life. In the desert hot and dry places especially. For plants called succulents, for instance, have adapted to this climate by storing water in their thick stems and leaves.
According to one aspect of cause to adaptation in humans is mainly thanks to using the technology. We design and build better air conditioners, warmer parkas, better diving suits, and lights to see in the dark. Technology lets us adapt quickly to changes in our environment. However, for other animals, adaptation is a slow, steady process which may take hundreds of thousands of years to accomplish.
Mindfulness Based Meditations & impacts on Human Brain
Thanks to the Electro-encephalogram (EEG) today we can make experiments on how the brain works. For instance, 128 sensors pick up tiny electrical signals emitted as brain cell works less when we are relaxed and the eyes closed. The pattern that the brain produces by the help of all this small activity of doing nothing we can clearly see that the brain is still active. As soon as we open our eyes this time the brain leaps into a big action mode which makes it work much more sophisticatedly.
Every one of us needs short breaks during the day. That helps our brain to breath. Some type of meditation also help. If you start exercising, your brain recognizes this as a moment of stress. As your heart pressure increases, the brain thinks you are either fighting the enemy or fleeing from it. To protect yourself and your brain from stress, you release a protein called BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor). This BDNF has a protective and also reparative element to your memory neurons and acts as a reset switch. Sometimes we need to reset or other words switch off our brain activity. Just feeling calm and quiet is enough. We need to simply sit and try doing nothing.
Psychology and Human Brain
There are a lot of tools available for us to protect our brain health and psychology. In particular against daily unwanted loads. Daily routines happen in highly rapid changes in our surrounding. Mindfulness type meditation practices would be very useful to grow and survive. Meditations need our full attention. Our minds simply observe what sort of tendencies it makes. This observatory position is the essence of acceptance. Like my trainer, Vin Harris has mentioned the fact that ‘‘mind has its own life’’. It charges electrical activity all the time.
By the nature of the human brain carries or accumulates different electrical charges during the day. These charges may have given negative or positive impulses to our body. Neuropsychiatric disorders associated with early life adversity may involve neural changes. It is reflected in EEG power as a measure of brain activity and disturbed sleep.
8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program at the University of Massachusetts gets some results on Meditation groups. Participants reported spending an average of 27 minutes each day practising mindfulness exercises indicated significant improvements compared with the control group. The analysis of MR images focused on areas where meditation-associated differences. It is found that the brain increased grey-matter density in the hippocampus. This part is known to be important for learning and memory, self-awareness, compassion and introspection.
Meditation helps
Participant-reported reductions in stress and decreased grey-matter density in the amygdala. This part is known to play an important role in anxiety and stress.
According to Psychiatry Research Journal Anatomical magnetic resonance (MR) images from 16 healthy meditation-naïve participants, grey matter concentration was high. It is investigated in using voxel-based morphometry, compared with a waiting list control group of 16 individuals. Grey matter concentration within the left hippocampus shows that the brain increases cingulate cortex and grey matter concentration. Some brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective-taking. At least 20 more other scientific effects you may find thanks to meditation. That includes pain management, better sleep, control of emotions etc. None of these changes was seen in the control group.
Conclusion
Having difficulties or behaving in social changes impacts us deeply and we end up with a big need for adaptation skills. Adaption is vital to surviving as we see in all living things.
It would be important also to underline the fact that the human brain which is charged many times higher than a less sophisticatedly structured plant, needs more manoeuvres to improve its skills to discharge in order to adapt its days and environments. But we are not the only one who charges electrical signalling and search for change to adapt better.
Everything has started after the 1960’s book called “J. L. Mero’s Mineral Resources of the Sea“. After the idea of descending to the inner waters, many countries sent out their research vessels for the discovery of nodule deposits. It is true, the underground sea basin has vents that create massive sulfide deposits. The valuable metals such as silver, gold, copper, manganese, cobalt, and zinc are just some elements they contain. But what about the biodiversity which is dependent on these deposits?
Papua New Guinea became the first country to approve a permit for the exploration of minerals in the deep seabed. It is followed by China, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, France and Japan.
The international law–based regulations on deep sea mining are protected by the United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea. From 1973 to 1982, the strict laws came into force in 1994. But the damages are still increases day by day.
cdn.sci-news
Today, the ISA (International Seabed Authority), a UN institution, is the only body delivering the reseach certifications to companies. Greenpeace reported that 30 exploration licenses had been granted worldwide by ISA before 2018. But according to campaigners, deep-sea mining should stay as exploration. It shouldn’t be used as a commercial-scale mining. If the research pod can descend 3,000 meters to reach the seabed, drillings performed at this depth causes too much harm. For example, the scaly-foot snail has been put under the highly endangered species.
ScienceFocus, scaly foot snail
According to the evolutionary biologist Julia Sigwart “the iron that precipitates out of the vent fluid is incorporated into the shell and the scales of the scaly foot. It hasn’t grown an iron shell, but the available environmental iron on the surface has integrated into it” (The Guardian Weekly, 6 March 2020, pg27)
For other endangered animals please look at this page.
Unfortunately, deep-sea animals are no longer untouched
Recent technological advancements have given rise to the use of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to collect mineral samples from prospective mine sites. Using drills and other cutting tools, the ROVs obtain samples to be analysed for precious materials.
According to Halfar, J.; Fujita removing parts of the seafloor might disturb the habitat of benthic organisms with unknown long-term effects. Some of these animals are sea anemones, sponges, corals, sea stars, sea urchins, worms, bivalves and crabs. Aside from the direct impact of mining the area, some researchers and environmental activists have raised concerns about leakage, spills and corrosion that could alter the mining area’s chemical makeup (Danger of Deep-Sea Mining”. Science, 316(5827): 987).
For Bigelow, Laboratory for Ocean Sciences’ facts “Microbes across the seafloor” are responsible for essential ecosystem services. These services start from fueling the food web to powering global nutrient cycles. Environments that are promising for mining are also often the sites of globally-important microbial processes and unusual animal communities — and they are very slow to recover from disturbance.”
We, as human beings, should feel responsible for the destruction of the marine eco-system. For the sake of uncovering new industrial frontiers, we shouldn’t risk the deep-sea lives. There is no return if we do so and even without mentioning the human-caused climate change.
Europe’s priorities can be influenced by strong campaigns. With campaigns, we can create awareness in the society. If you want to learn the general technics on how to boost your organisational image and gain the necessary confidence to implement campaigns you need to first make your points clear.
The Dandelion Group in Brussels offers six different types of communication workshops for eurocrats, civil society organisations, public affair leaders and for students (more info please look). One of those workshops is called European Campaign Management. If you learn how to craft an impactful campaign in a short time you need to tell the right stories to the right people.
But first, what is a campaign? And how can you easily take attention?
BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD
Gandhi
campaign management
What is a Campaign?
Sometimes traditional means are not working to transform the hearts and the minds of people in our society because of belief systems and traditions. Or, sometimes the target groups are so powerful and difficult to influence that it is out of our limits of time and budget. In that point, change agents want to make a point, but let’s imagine that the change is still not happening then campaigns are one way of fixing social problems.
First, you need to take the mass society on your side. Making the public talk about the problem is half of the solution. Next, you need to address the right problem at the right time. It is very important to be ready for the next level in advance. Here are some necessary steps to design the right questions even before going into effective campaigning:
Ask 5 Questions Before Starting Your European Campaign Management
1. The first question that you suppose to know is: Does your message universal enough thus you don’t offend some other parts of the society? Trying not to shame or offend any minority or fragile part of society is very important.
2. The second question is: Are you addressing the right issue? You need to know the specific change you want to see around you. Getting the right issue addressed is the biggest step before even started the campaign.
3. Thirdly, does the communication material vibrant enough so that you don’t bore people? Depending on the budget, the communication materials need to be dynamic to catch the attention.
4. The fourth important question is: Are you using the right channel to reach your audience? Every audience differs from each other. If you understand the character and the temperament of your audience it will become very easy for you to handle the right messages.
What are the interests of your audience? Which platforms are they more visible? What do they read?
5. Lastly, does your campaign-specific enough such that it becomes measurable, achievable, realistic and time-wise? You need to do one campaign at a time. Dreaming is all good in the beginning but the campaign needs to fit into some measurable criteria.
change agent
How to sub-question the problematic?
These additional questions will help you to invest in your idea. Start asking these questions as well. What is the actual problem? Is change possible in that sector? Who is responsible for it?
What is the solution? Define a clear proposal of what needs to be done.
What is the benefit? Don’t do what’s already being done. Search for an added value in your proposal.
What do we have to do? Define one clear problem and propose one single solution. There is no one size of solution fits all the problems of the world.
LGBTQI
Asking the right questions before delivering a complete media plan is essential for campaign management. Right campaign management tools will allow your organisation to have a better campaign performance and outcome.
ESO, ALMA, and APEX contribute to paradigm-shifting observations of the gargantuan black hole at the heart of the galaxy Messier 87
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration — was designed to capture images of a black hole. Today, in coordinated press conferences across the globe, EHT researchers reveal that they have succeeded, unveiling the first direct visual evidence of a supermassive black hole and its shadow.
This breakthrough was announced today in a series of six papers published in a special issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun.
The EHT links telescopes around the globe to form an unprecedented Earth-sized virtual telescope. The EHT offers scientists a new way to study the most extreme objects in the Universe predicted by Einstein’s general relativity during the centenary year of the historic experiment that first confirmed the theory.
“We have taken the first picture of a black hole,” said EHT project director Sheperd S. Doeleman of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. “This is an extraordinary scientific feat accomplished by a team of more than 200 researchers.”
8 telescopes were used to capture the image
Black holes are extraordinary cosmic objects with enormous masses but extremely compact sizes. The presence of these objects affects their environment in extreme ways, warping spacetime and superheating any surrounding material.
“If immersed in a bright region, like a disc of glowing gas, we expect a black hole to create a dark region similar to a shadow — something predicted by Einstein’s general relativity that we’ve never seen before,” explained chair of the EHT Science Council Heino Falcke of Radboud University, the Netherlands. “This shadow, caused by the gravitational bending and capture of light by the event horizon, reveals a lot about the nature of these fascinating objects and has allowed us to measure the enormous mass of M87’s black hole.”
Messier 87 Captured by ESO’s Very Large Telescope
Multiple calibration and imaging methods have revealed a ring-like structure with a dark central region — the black hole’s shadow — that persisted over multiple independent EHT observations.
“Once we were sure we had imaged the shadow, we could compare our observations to extensive computer models that include the physics of warped space, superheated matter and strong magnetic fields. Many of the features of the observed image match our theoretical understanding surprisingly well,” remarks Paul T.P. Ho, EHT Board member and Director of the East Asian Observatory. “This makes us confident about the interpretation of our observations, including our estimation of the black hole’s mass.”
The Halo of Galaxy Messier 87.
“The confrontation of theory with observations is always a dramatic moment for a theorist. It was a relief and a source of pride to realise that the observations matched our predictions so well,” elaborated EHT Board member Luciano Rezzolla of Goethe Universität, Germany.
The EHT observations use a technique called very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) which synchronises telescope facilities around the world and exploits the rotation of our planet to form one huge, Earth-size telescope observing at a wavelength of 1.3mm. VLBI allows the EHT to achieve an angular resolution of 20 micro-arcseconds — enough to read a newspaper in New York from a café in Paris.
The EHT, a Planet-Scale Array.
The telescopes contributing to this result were ALMA, APEX, the IRAM 30-meter telescope, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, the Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano, the Submillimeter Array, the Submillimeter Telescope, and the South Pole Telescope. Petabytes of raw data from the telescopes were combined by highly specialised supercomputers hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and MIT Haystack Observatory.
European facilities and funding played a crucial role in this worldwide effort, with the participation of advanced European telescopes and the support from the European Research Council — particularly a €14 million grant for the BlackHoleCam project.
One of the most common advice you hear from cybersecurity analysts is to keep your location turned off unless it is necessary. For most, this may not come as an important warning. But in an era where data is more valuable than oil, you should know firms of any size and sector is invading your privacy, every day. You don’t need to be a genius to know that all your personal information is being processed in several types of AI experiments.
Just to give a simple example, I can mention a chess application I downloaded a few months back. After installation, the app asked permission to access my microphone and camera.” Why would a chess game which has nothing to do with cameras and microphones would ask permission to access them, especially when it didn’t ask this the first time I downloaded the same app one year ago? Furthermore, no explanation is provided for these confusing requests. Well, let me tell you why the app wants to access your mic and camera: To record visual and sound and sell all these data to Big Data companies along with all the information they gather.
Here, a big question must emerge for “at least slightly aware” consumers about their rights: Who gives all these developers and companies to access any kind information on our devices without a clear explanation? The answer is no one. At the moment you receive a request directly challenging your privacy, the decision is up to you. You can either don’t care whatever that question means and just go on playing the game or you can choose to spend a few more minutes to uninstall the app and try another one. But let me tell you what it means to accept this cheeky request: First, you are permitting an app to violate your permission. Second, your personal information ends in the hands of countless, unknown third parties (other developers and companies except for the app producer you are using and you as the consumer). Third, you let all these third parties and the app developer you permitted to profit from your data, while you gain nothing.
While you consider the privacy issue in regards to Google, the picture you are looking at is much more confusing. There’s no way to escape from the arms of the giant octopus but at least you can make yourself harder to detect among other people. What I always do is to keep my location turned off all the time except I need to use it. Despite this habit, I realized that something was wrong when Google sent me a “monthly travel map” out of nowhere. I looked at the places I’ve been the last month with perfect precision of time and location. The map which included even all the regular streets I just stopped by was the clear evidence by Google, that it was following me all the time. Another sign was the appearance of the information regarding the traffic even though I was not using the GPS.
Eventually, a report by AP in August 2018 provided insight into how Google gathers data on your “Location History” even though your GPS is turned off. Google was following me while my location was turned off, and recorded every single detail through my phone while I was travelling. Systematically recording every move of its users is a violation of the Terms of Use declared by Google.
So, what is going to happen now?
We can’t be sure if any authority will interfere with Google’s “actually I shouldn’t do it but whatever” attitude. Yet the new regulations being prepared by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GRPR) of the European Union (EU) which came into effect in May 2018 can make a remarkable change. Europe’s top court gave a landmark decision in 2014, giving the internet users the right to have the unwanted search results removed from Google. There may be positive signs against the unethical use of personal information by the tech giants. But it shall be the consumers who resist the violation of privacy rights. To do this, here are a few little adjustments to increase your invisibility on the internet.
What Do You Need To Turn Off?
First, open the Settings panel of your smartphone and simply turn off the location. Technically speaking, this will prevent Google to track your location via GPS satellites. While it became clear this very simple and naive adjustment is not enough to make Google go away, you need to a few things on the browser too.
Go to myactivity.google.com. There, if you have not signed in yet do it and then click on “Activity Controls.” Out of the three options you see there, turn of “Web and App Activity” and “Location History.”
After completing these steps, go back to the main page to make an extra check. Here, you can see your browsers history in “Group view” or “Item view.” In some pages, you will see that even though your location was off it was recorded. You shall delete them one by one.
Another option you will see on the main page is “Event deletion criteria.” You can use this option to delete all the activities between particular dates.
It is hard to know how much these steps would prevent Google from seeing you. At least you can get a grip on your privacy on the internet to become more successful in managing your visibility.
Thanks to an impressive collaboration bringing together data from ground-based telescopes, all-sky surveys and space-based facilities — including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope — a rare self-destructing asteroid called 6478 Gault has been observed.
Clear images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have provided researchers with new insight into asteroid Gault’s unusual past. The object is 4–9 kilometres wide and has two narrow, comet-like tails of debris that tell us that the asteroid is slowly undergoing self-destruction. Each tail is evidence of an active event that released material into space.
Gault was discovered in 1988. However, this observation of two debris tails is the first indication of the asteroid’s instability. This asteroid one of only a handful to be caught disintegrating by a process known as a YORP torque. When sunlight heats an asteroid, the infrared radiation that escapes from its warmed surface carries off both heat and momentum. This creates a small force that can cause the asteroid to spin faster. If this centrifugal force eventually overcomes gravity, the asteroid becomes unstable. Landslides on the object can release rubble and dust into space, leaving behind a tail of debris, as seen here with asteroid Gault.
“This self-destruction event is rare”, explained Olivier Hainaut (European Southern Observatory, Germany). “Active and unstable asteroids such as Gault are only now being detected by means of new survey telescopes that scan the entire sky, which means asteroids such as Gault that are misbehaving cannot escape detection any more.”
Astronomers estimate that among the 800,000 known asteroids that occupy the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, YORP disruptions occur roughly once per year. The direct observation of this activity by the Hubble Space Telescope has provided astronomers with a special opportunity to study the composition of asteroids. By researching the material that this unstable asteroid releases into space, astronomers can get a glimpse into the history of planet formation in the early ages of the Solar System.
Unstable for 10 million years
Understanding the nature of this active and self-destructive object has been a collaborative effort involving researchers and facilities around the world. The asteroid’s debris tail was first detected by the University of Hawaiʻi/NASA ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System) telescopes in the Hawaiian Islands on 5 January 2019. Upon review of archival data from ATLAS and UH/NASA Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System), it was found that the object’s larger tail of debris had been observed earlier in December 2018. Shortly thereafter, in January 2019, a second, shorter tail was seen by various telescopes, including the Isaac Newton, William Herschel, and ESA OGS Telescopes in La Palma and Tenerife, Spain; the Himalayan Chandra Telescope in India; and the CFHT in Hawaiʻi. Subsequent analysis of these observations suggested that the two events that produced these debris trails occurred around 28 October and 30 December 2018, respectively. These tails will only be visible for only a few months, after which the dust will have dispersed into interplanetary space.
Follow-up observations were then made by various ground-based telescopes. These data were used to deduce a two-hour rotation period for Gault, which is very close to the critical speed at which material will begin to tumble and slide across the asteroid’s surface before drifting off into space.
“Gault is the best ‘smoking-gun’ example of a fast rotator right at the two-hour limit”, explained lead author Jan Kleyna (University of Hawaiʻi, USA). “It could have been on the brink of instability for 10 million years. Even a tiny disturbance, like a small impact from a pebble, might have triggered the recent outbursts.”
Hubble’s sharp imaging provided valuable detail regarding the asteroid’s activity. From the narrow width of the streaming tails, researchers inferred that the release of material took place in short episodes lasting from a few hours to a couple of days. From the absence of excess dust in the immediate vicinity of the asteroid, they concluded that the asteroid’s activity was not caused by a collision with another massive object. Researchers hope that further observations will provide even more insight into this rare and curious object.
Cutting-edge VLTI instrument reveals details of a storm-wracked exoplanet using optical interferometry
The GRAVITY instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) has made the first direct observation of an exoplanet using optical interferometry. This method revealed a complex exoplanetary atmosphere with clouds of iron and silicates swirling in a planet-wide storm. The technique presents unique possibilities for characterising many of the exoplanets known today.
This result was announced today in a letter in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics by the GRAVITY Collaboration, in which they present observations of the exoplanet HR8799e using optical interferometry. The exoplanet was discovered in 2010 orbiting the young main-sequence star HR8799, which lies around 129 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus.
Today’s result, which reveals new characteristics of HR8799e, required an instrument with very high resolution and sensitivity. GRAVITY can use ESO’s VLT’s four unit telescopes to work together to mimic a single larger telescope using a technique known as interferometry. This creates a super-telescope — the VLTI — that collects and precisely disentangles the light from HR8799e’s atmosphere and the light from its parent star.
HR8799e is a ‘super-Jupiter’, a world unlike any found in our Solar System, that is both more massive and much younger than any planet orbiting the Sun. At only 30 million years old, this baby exoplanet is young enough to give scientists a window onto the formation of planets and planetary systems. The exoplanet is thoroughly inhospitable — leftover energy from its formation and a powerful greenhouse effect heat HR8799e to a hostile temperature of roughly 1000 °C.
A planet hit by violent storms
This is the first time that optical interferometry has been used to reveal details of an exoplanet, and the new technique furnished an exquisitely detailed spectrum of unprecedented quality — ten times more detailed than earlier observations. The team’s measurements were able to reveal the composition of HR8799e’s atmosphere — which contained some surprises.
“Our analysis showed that HR8799e has an atmosphere containing far more carbon monoxide than methane — something not expected from equilibrium chemistry,” explains team leader Sylvestre Lacour researcher CNRS at the Observatoire de Paris – PSL and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. “We can best explain this surprising result with high vertical winds within the atmosphere preventing the carbon monoxide from reacting with hydrogen to form methane.”
The team found that the atmosphere also contains clouds of iron and silicate dust. When combined with the excess of carbon monoxide, this suggests that HR8799e’s atmosphere is engaged in an enormous and violent storm.
“Our observations suggest a ball of gas illuminated from the interior, with rays of warm light swirling through stormy patches of dark clouds,” elaborates Lacour. “Convection moves around the clouds of silicate and iron particles, which disaggregate and rain down into the interior. This paints a picture of a dynamic atmosphere of a giant exoplanet at birth, undergoing complex physical and chemical processes.”
This result builds on GRAVITY’s string of impressive discoveries, which have included breakthroughs such as last year’s observation of gas swirling at 30% of the speed of light just outside the event horizon of the massive Black Hole in the Galactic Centre. It also adds a new way of observing exoplanets to the already extensive arsenal of methods available to ESO’s telescopes and instruments — paving the way to many more impressive discoveries.
