NASA Webb Explores Family Tree of Newly Discovered Distant Objects - UNIVERSE

Since their discovery by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in 2022, little red dots (LRDs) have been the subject of great interest to astronomers. Understanding the nature of these extremely distant, compact red sources has been a puzzling scientific endeavor.

One popular theory is that little red dots are supermassive black holes known as active galactic nuclei, although they display characteristics unlike nearby active galactic nuclei. While they appear abundant at high redshift early in the universe, they rapidly decrease in number at lower redshifts. (The higher the redshift, the greater the distance the light has traveled across the universe.) This perplexing shift in number raises the question: What happens to little red dots as the universe matures?

A team of researchers led by Pierluigi Rinaldi of the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory, now at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, has built upon their previous research in a new study published on July 29 in The Astrophysical Journal and proposed one pathway LRDs can follow as the universe ages: Though they may look like a unique galaxy population, these dots are affected by observational bias — some features just don’t appear at higher redshifts with current technology.

Image: Saguaro in GOODS-North Field (NIRCam)

Scientists have proposed one pathway little red dots can follow as the universe matures based on their analysis of spiral galaxy WISEA J123635.56+621424.2, nicknamed the “Saguaro.” They suggest little red dots may be a temporary phase of highly active supermassive black holes.

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Pierluigi Rinaldi (Steward Observatory); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Their conclusions are based on their analysis of lower-redshift spiral galaxy WISEA J123635.56+621424.2, nicknamed the “Saguaro” for its prominent arms, like the cactus native to the Sonoran Desert in the Southwestern United States. A particularly intriguing feature of this redshift 2 galaxy, which corresponds to approximately 3.3 billion years after the big bang, is its little red dot-like center that is reminiscent of the ruby red fruit produced by the desert plant.

“Everything created in the early universe must evolve into something around us. We have had little idea of what LRDs become, but these results finally show us how to find their progeny,” said co-author George Rieke of the University of Arizona. Previous studies by NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope provided the first hint of the dust-obscured, compact galaxy population in the lower-redshift universe that the Saguaro belongs to, paving the way for NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes’ high-resolution analyses.

“The Saguaro is important because it’s a prototypical little red dot and is one of the few we have found at lower redshift. It can be used to study the pathway of these dots throughout cosmic time,” said Fabio Pacucci of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a co-author of the study.

Among the thousands of sources Rinaldi looked at across several surveys, the Saguaro was an example of the right place — with one of Webb’s microshutter arrays perfectly framed over the galaxy’s core to take spectroscopic data — and right time — being at lower redshift. To get as broad a view of the spiral galaxy as possible across the electromagnetic spectrum, the team used Hubble’s ultraviolet- and Webb’s infrared-imaging and spectroscopic archival data, respectively.

“Because the Saguaro is at lower redshift, we can see the very beautiful and bright host galaxy in high resolution and detail with Webb and Hubble,” said Zihao Wu of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and a co-author of the study. “Webb’s observations can help us understand how the galaxy and its little red dot-like nucleus are connected.”

The team took multiple approaches to verify that the Saguaro’s compact red nucleus matched the characteristics of a prototypical LRD. In particular, the Hubble and Webb data showed that the nucleus is brighter in both ultraviolet and infrared light than in visible light, just like distant LRDs. The team also carefully disentangled the light emitted from the host and nucleus, and considered the presence of X-ray emission from the source.

Although the majority of little red dots at high redshift are not detectable in X-ray light, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory detected weak X-ray emission from the Saguaro.

“What the X-ray light observations show is that this galaxy has an active galactic nucleus, and a very obscured one at that,” said Carys Gilbert, a Master’s student at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and a co-author of the paper. “It’s not only obscured but also X-ray weak. That kind of combination could explain the lack of X-ray emission that we see from all other little red dots. It fits the puzzle of little red dots nicely.”

In addition to demonstrating how the Saguaro’s central compact red source fits the little red dot criteria, the team synthetically shifted the galaxy to a higher redshift to explore how this galactic environment would appear to observers if located in the early universe. As expected, the Saguaro’s surrounding galactic structure fades so that only the bright, LRD-like source at its center is visible.

“Our theory is that most of these distant sources are affected by this cosmological effect, creating an observational bias,” said Rinaldi. “We simply are not able to sample the immediate environment of high-redshift little red dots because their surroundings are just too faint to be observed even with Webb. Little red dots are far more complex than just being a dot. They’re just the tip of the iceberg — of a supermassive black hole interacting with its nearby surroundings.”

Image: Little Red Dot at Redshift 2: Real and Simulated Graphic

Scientists synthetically shifted the Saguaro, a lower-redshift spiral galaxy, to a higher redshift to find out how it would appear if it was in the early universe. Its compact red appearance suggests that little red dots are a phase of highly active supermassive black holes.

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Pierluigi Rinaldi (Steward Observatory); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI); Illustration: Leah Hustak (STScI)

Considering the Saguaro case study, the team believes that LRDs may not be a unique galaxy population, but instead a temporary phase of highly active supermassive black holes. Could this theory be the link between the populous high-redshift little red dots seen by Webb and the local universe?

While the Saguaro is not representative of all LRDs, the team proposes that this is one phase of these compact red sources. To build more confidence, further study of the Saguaro is necessary, as well as seeking other Saguaro-like galaxies at lower redshift. The team also intends to comb through Webb’s bountiful archival data to build a census of little red dots to study how their environments may impact how they mature. These different approaches are all geared to helping uncover the family tree of little red dots.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.

To learn more about Webb, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/webb

To learn more about Hubble, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/hubble 

Source: NASA Webb Explores Family Tree of Newly Discovered Distant Objects - NASA Science  

Cyclosporiasis: What’s Behind This Summer’s Lettuce-Linked Outbreak (And Why the Culprit Keeps Slipping Away)

Summer in the US usually means sunshine and beach trips. This year, for thousands of people across at least 34 states, it’s also meant abdominal cramping, nausea, and explosive diarrhea, the result of ingesting a microscopic parasite called Cyclospora. Nearly a hundred people have been hospitalized since the outbreak began in May, and while no deaths have been reported, health officials are still working to pin down exactly where the contamination came from.

A parasite that hijacks its host from the inside

Cyclospora belongs to the same broad group of parasites as malaria. According to parasitologist Malcolm Jones of the University of Queensland, these organisms can only grow and reproduce inside a host cell, effectively hijacking its internal machinery to complete their life cycle. The species behind this outbreak, Cyclospora cayetanensis, is a major driver of gastrointestinal illness worldwide.

Why this outbreak is so hard to trace

C. cayetanensis has an unusual life cycle that makes it especially tricky to track. It doesn’t spread directly from person to person, and it doesn’t need an intermediate animal host either. Instead, an immature form of the parasite is shed in human feces and takes at least a week in the environment to mature into a hardy, infectious form called an oocyst, which can then persist for weeks. If contaminated water or improperly treated fecal material comes into contact with crops, oocysts can end up on produce. As few as ten oocysts are enough to cause disease.

Once swallowed, the parasites break free from their cyst walls in the gut, invade the lining of the small intestine, and go through rounds of asexual reproduction before switching to sexual reproduction and forming new cysts that pass back out in feces to start the cycle again. Symptoms can take up to two weeks to appear after eating contaminated food, and in untreated cases they can resolve and then return in a relapsing pattern over a month or longer, all of which makes it genuinely difficult for investigators to work backward to the source.

Lettuce, a recall, and then a walk-back

Using epidemiological data and genotyping of Cyclospora from stool samples, CDC investigators identified clusters of related cases and linked the outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce sourced from Mexico, sold at major chains including Taco Bell. The FDA recalled the implicated lettuce products, and officials advised anyone with recalled lettuce at home to discard it and disinfect any surfaces it may have touched.

Then came a twist: on re-review, the FDA announced the lettuce results were a false positive, leaving the true source of the outbreak unidentified for now.

Staying safe in the meantime

For anyone concerned about fresh produce in general, Jones recommends thoroughly washing fruits, vegetables, and leafy greens in clean water, then cooking or microwaving them, since heating food above 70°C (158°F) kills the oocysts. He also points to surveillance as the longer-term fix: catching outbreaks early lets health authorities trace the source and pull the specific product off shelves before it spreads further.

Original paper: Hadjilouka A, Tsaltas D. Cyclospora Cayetanensis — Major outbreaks from ready-to-eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Foods. 2020;9(11):1703. 

Source: Cyclosporiasis: What’s Behind This Summer’s Lettuce-Linked Outbreak (And Why the Culprit Keeps Slipping Away)   

New theory on how six‑tonne Stonehenge rock was transported from Scotland thousands of years ago: On a glacier - Other Sciences - Archaeology

The Altar stone is towards the middle of Stonehenge. Credit: Nash DJ, Ciborowski TJR, Darvill T, Parker Pearson M, Ullyott JS, Damaschke M, et al., CC BY-NC

Built from stones weighing between 2 and 25 tonnes (2 to 28 tons), the structure of Stonehenge demonstrates a scale of construction hard to imagine before the invention of the wheel. The mystery deepens when you consider that the stones are not from the local bedrock. So why these stones, and how did they get there?

Recent work I carried out with geochemist Anthony Clarke from Curtin University in Australia might have an answer to these two questions for Stonehenge's most far-traveled stone—the Altar Stone.

The Altar Stone was sourced from 700 km (435 miles) away in northeast Scotland, from a region of bedrock geology known as the Orcadian Basin that was once a lake called Lake Ocradie. The sandstone of the Altar Stone was formed from these lake sediments. Now, new work by our international team has tested the possibility that it was transported by glaciers.

It is the largest and heaviest of the so-called bluestones (Stonehenge's traveled rocks), weighing 6 tonnes (6.6 tons) and measuring 4 meters (13 feet) long. The bluestones were the first stones at Stonehenge, predating the larger stones that form the arches by 2,000 years.

We know the north of the UK was covered by ice until approximately 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. This ice was so thick and persistent that it flowed like a slow-moving river, picking up and carrying rock and debris with it. The team tested whether rocks from the Orcadian Basin could have traveled closer to Stonehenge if transported by this body of ice.

We studied this using a new numerical model, which I have been developing over the past five years to predict the possible deposit locations of glacially transported rocks (known as erratics). This showed that rocks transported from the Orcadian Basin could have been carried to a region off England's east coast called Dogger Bank.

Although today Dogger Bank is known for cod fishing and wind farms, it is thought to have once been a Neolithic site of significance as early humans moved from southern Europe north and west into the UK as the climate warmed at the end of the last ice age approximately 12,000 years ago. Dogger Bank represented a local topographic high point within the Doggerland region, rich in archaeological evidence.

What is interesting about Dogger Bank is that it is formed in part by a large glacial moraine (a ridge of rock and debris deposited by a glacier). This moraine marks the end of a glacial "conveyor belt," where a range of glacially transported rocks and boulders from the north would have been deposited during the last ice age.

To someone walking around Dogger Bank at the time, the site would probably have looked like something between a building demolition site and an interesting rock museum. We know Neolithic people were highly knowledgeable about rocks and selective about the stones they chose for tools. This suggests they might have deliberately chosen the Altar Stone for some of its attributes.

More recently, there are countless examples of people realizing that the landscape's glacial erratics were out of place. The Victorians in Britain, for example, chose the name "erratic" because of the rocks' unusual locations (at the time, they were thought to be the result of the biblical flood).

On the other side of the North Sea, Scandinavians know erratics as "troll stones," having realized these boulders came from the upland mountains. They used to think the only explanation was that they had been thrown hundreds of kilometers by playful trolls, with the early Swedish term for erratics (jättekast) literally translating to "giant throw." It's hard to say exactly what made the Neolithic people of Dogger Bank choose the Altar Stone. But if it was transported by ice to Dogger Bank, they would have needed to move it at least once before taking it 400 km (250 miles) to Stonehenge.

Doggerland was gradually flooded as large ice sheets around the world melted at the end of the last ice age. We know it stayed above sea level until around 8,000–9,000 years ago (perhaps even as late as 7,000 years ago). However, throughout that time, the landscape saw dramatic change. It transitioned from a land bridge connecting Europe to Britain to a small island, where the Altar Stone stood. This island eventually slipped below the sea, too.

This is interesting because Doggerland was inundated before the construction of Stonehenge. Therefore, the Altar Stone would have had to be transported to at least one intermediate site before finally being incorporated into Stonehenge.

Once the Altar Stone was safely on England's east coast, the idea that it was moved by humans to Salisbury Plain becomes more plausible. This distance would be roughly the same as that of the other bluestones, the next most far-traveled stones, but still 10 times the distance of the more locally sourced larger Sarsen Stones. Around the time of Stonehenge's construction, we know east-west travel was happening along the Berkshire Ridgeway, a Neolithic high route often touted as the oldest road in Europe, leading directly to Salisbury Plain.

Our recent study opens up a new hypothesis for how the Altar Stone could have traveled south to Stonehenge, and why people might have been motivated to first move the stone in response to rising sea levels threatening its initial site.

This work suggests that Neolithic people not only had the agency and coordination to move a large rock hundreds of kilometers, but also potentially realized that their landscape was changing and that they needed to act.

Provided by The Conversation  

by Remy Veness, The Conversation

edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Andrew Zinin 

Source: New theory on how six‑tonne Stonehenge rock was transported from Scotland thousands of years ago: On a glacier 

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NASA Sets Coverage for August Northern Hemisphere Total Solar Eclipse

A total solar eclipse is seen in Dallas, Texas on Monday, April 8, 2024. A total solar eclipse swept across a narrow portion of the North American continent from Mexico’s Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada. A partial solar eclipse was visible across the entire North American continent along with parts of Central America and Europe.

Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber

On Wednesday, Aug. 12, a total solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, the Atlantic Ocean, Spain, and a small corner of Portugal. NASA will stream the eclipse live with views across the path and interviews with subject matter experts through a variety of platforms.

Learn where to watch online: https://www.nasa.gov/live

Viewers in other places in the Northern Hemisphere also will have the chance to experience a partial solar eclipse, including parts of the U.S. (from Alaska to North Carolina), most of Canada, much of Europe, and northwestern Africa.

During the eclipse, NASA will conduct experiments in the path of totality. To investigate the dynamics of the Sun’s corona, a NASA-funded science team will chase the Moon’s shadow with a WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft. The NASA-supported Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project is sending students from several U.S. universities to Iceland and Spain to launch scientific balloons before, during, and after the eclipse to research how the temporary darkening of our skies during the eclipse affects Earth’s atmosphere. 

NASA’s eclipse coverage is as follows (all times Eastern):

Wednesday, Aug. 12

• 1:15 p.m.: Eclipse broadcast begins
• 1:45 p.m.: Totality begins in Iceland
• 2:28 p.m.: Totality begins in Spain

NASA photography coverage
Photos of the eclipse, dependent on visibility, will be available shortly after the eclipse. View images on the agency’s Flickr account.

Watch, engage on social media
During the broadcast, NASA experts will answer questions submitted on social media. Send in your questions and let people know you’re watching the eclipse on X, Facebook, and Instagram by following and tagging these accounts:
 
X: @NASA, @NASASolarSystem, @NASAScience_

Facebook: NASA, NASASolarSystem, @NASAScience

Instagram: @NASA, @NASASolarSystem, @NASAScience_

Learn more about the eclipse at: https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses 

Source: NASA Sets Coverage for August Northern Hemisphere Total Solar Eclipse - NASA

A quantum heat engine that simultaneously provides work and refrigeration - Physics - General Physics - Quantum Physics

The image visualizes a quantum Otto engine driven by indefinite causal order. Blue streams from the cold reservoirs intertwine in a quantum-switch geometry and flow toward the central two-level system, representing anomalous heat transfer from colder to hotter. The golden arrow shows useful work output, while the minimal interferometer at the bottom recalls the photonic experiment. Credit: Rosario Lo Franco.

The laws of thermodynamics state that heat naturally flows from hotter systems or regions to colder systems or regions until a state of thermal equilibrium is reached. This simple principle underpins the operation of numerous technologies, ranging from refrigerators to power plants.

Yet quantum systems, which are governed by quantum mechanics, can exhibit unusual behaviors that cannot be explained by classical physics. These behaviors could be used to create innovative thermal devices.

Researchers at Qufu Normal University, the University of Hong Kong and the University of Palermo recently observed an anomalous thermal effect that allows a quantum system to absorb heat from colder thermal reservoirs. This unusual effect, outlined in a paper in Physical Review Letters, was leveraged to develop a new quantum heat engine that simultaneously produces work (i.e., mechanical energy created by converting heat into motion or power) and refrigeration.

"Indefinite causal order (ICO) allows two events to occur in a superposition of orders," Zhong-Xiao Man, co-senior author of the paper, told Phys.org.

"In quantum thermodynamics, these events are modeled as thermalization channels acting on a system via a control qubit, creating an indefinite order. Previous work showed that even with identical channel temperatures, the system need not equilibrate to that temperature—a striking deviation from standard thermodynamics. Motivated by this, we asked: What happens to heat flow when the system and channels start at different temperatures?"

Designing a quantum engine with an unusual advantage

Building on earlier studies, Man and his colleagues set out to explore what happens to heat when a quantum system interacts with two thermal reservoirs. This led them to theoretically predict and experimentally demonstrate an anomalous reversed flow in which a quantum system absorbs heat from colder thermal reservoirs.

The researchers subsequently designed a new quantum Otto engine, a device that converts heat into useful work. In contrast with conventional Otto engines, however, the device they developed can simultaneously produce work and cool another system.

"We experimentally realized both the anomalous flow and the engine on a photonic platform, obtaining results that fully confirm our theoretical predictions," Man explained.

"The key idea behind our paper is that, in the quantum world, two thermal processes can occur in a superposition of different orders. This creates an unusual heat flow, allowing the engine to draw energy from a colder environment in a way that would not be possible classically."

The newly developed quantum heat engine uses the unusual heat flow to operate a quantum Otto cycle that concurrently generates useful work and provides refrigeration. This is a notable achievement, as enabling the two functionalities would typically require two separate and very different devices.

"First, we identified a new form of anomalous heat flow, showing that quantum coherence can fundamentally alter the way heat is exchanged between systems," said Giulio Chiribella, co-author of the paper.

"Second, we provided a complete theoretical and experimental demonstration of these unconventional thermodynamic effects in a photonic platform, bringing what was largely a theoretical concept closer to physical realization. Third, we clarified an important foundational issue by proving that these effects are not exclusive signatures of indefinite causal order but can also be reproduced within a definite causal structure."

Possible applications and future research avenues

In the future, the team's design and the anomalous heat flow they reported could be used to develop other promising quantum technologies that manipulate heat and energy in fundamentally new ways. While the engine introduced in the recent paper is still a proof of principle, it could potentially open new avenues for cooling quantum processors and managing heat in quantum sensors, imaging technologies or nanoscale devices.

"One area for future research is to move beyond idealized thermodynamic cycles and investigate more realistic implementations where all operations occur in a finite time," added Rosario Lo Franco, co-senior author of the paper.

"In practical devices, speed matters because it determines not only efficiency but also power output. Recent theoretical studies have shown that finite-time measurements and control operations can introduce fundamental trade-offs between energetic cost, information gain and performance, and we would like to understand how these limitations affect the type of engine proposed in our work." 

by Ingrid Fadelli, Phys.org

edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan 

Source: A quantum heat engine that simultaneously provides work and refrigeration 

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