This Week in Astronomy: New Horizons Map, Hidden Hydrogen Cloud Near Earth and Black Hole Dissonance Mystery

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Bedtime Astronomy. Explore the wonders of the cosmos
<v Speaker 1>with our soothing Bedtime Astronomy podcast. Each episode offers a
<v Speaker 1>gentle journey through the stars, planets, and beyond, perfect for
<v Speaker 1>unwinding after a long day. Let's travel through the mysteries
<v Speaker 1>of the universe as you drift off into a peaceful
<v Speaker 1>slumber under the night sky. This week in Astronomy, New
<v Speaker 1>Horizons map hidden hydrogen cloud near Earth and black hole
<v Speaker 1>dissonance mystery. New Horizons unveils first Liman Alpha map of
<v Speaker 1>the galaxy. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has achieved a major
<v Speaker 1>milestone by creating the first ever map of the galaxy
<v Speaker 1>in the important ultraviolet wavelength known as Liman alpha missions.
<v Speaker 1>This new view offers a fresh perspective on the galactic
<v Speaker 1>region surrounding our Solar system. The findings have been detailed
<v Speaker 1>in a study led by the Southwest Recis Search Institute
<v Speaker 1>SwRI and published in the Astronomical Journal under the title
<v Speaker 1>the Lyman Alpha Sky is observed by New Horizons at
<v Speaker 1>fifty seven astronomical units. Authored by doctor RG. Gladstone and
<v Speaker 1>his team, the study explains that understanding the background of
<v Speaker 1>Lyman alpha emissions helps scientists better grasp the structures and
<v Speaker 1>processes occurring near our Solar System. The research points to
<v Speaker 1>the idea that hot bubbles of interstellar gas, such as
<v Speaker 1>the one in which our Solar System resides, may actually
<v Speaker 1>be regions where hydrogen gas emissions are enhanced at the
<v Speaker 1>Lyman alpha wavelength. Lyman alpha refers to a particular wavelength
<v Speaker 1>of ultraviolet light that is both emitted and scattered by
<v Speaker 1>hydrogen atoms. It is especially valuable to astronomers because it
<v Speaker 1>aids in studying distant stars, galaxies, and the interstellar medium
<v Speaker 1>by providing clues about their composition, temperature, and motion. While
<v Speaker 1>New Horizon was on its primary mission to Pluto, it
<v Speaker 1>began collecting baseline data on Liman alpha missions using an
<v Speaker 1>ultraviolet spectrograph instrument called Alice, developed by SWRII. A spectrograph
<v Speaker 1>is a device used by astronomers to break light into
<v Speaker 1>its different colors, allowing detailed analysis, and Alice specializes in
<v Speaker 1>the far ultraviolet part of the light spectrum. After completing
<v Speaker 1>its main mission at Pluto, New Horizons continued its journey
<v Speaker 1>deeper into space. Scientists took this opportunity to conduct broader
<v Speaker 1>and more frequent surveys of Liman alpha missions using alice,
<v Speaker 1>including a significant set of scans in twenty twenty three
<v Speaker 1>that covered about eighty three percent of the sky. To
<v Speaker 1>focus solely on emissions from outside the Solar System, the
<v Speaker 1>New Horizons team created a model of scattered solar Liman
<v Speaker 1>alpha missions and then subtracted these from their data. What
<v Speaker 1>remained revealed a surprisingly bright and fairly uniform Limeman alpha background,
<v Speaker 1>about ten times stronger than what earlier estimates had predicted.
<v Speaker 1>The results indicate that the emission and scattering of Lyman
<v Speaker 1>alpha photons likely come from hydrogen atoms within the shell
<v Speaker 1>of a hot interstellar bubble surrounding our Solar System in
<v Speaker 1>nearby stars, a structure believed to have been formed by
<v Speaker 1>supernova explosions a few million years ago. Interestingly, the study
<v Speaker 1>found no signs that the so called hydrogen wall, a
<v Speaker 1>theorized accumulation of interstellar hydrogen atoms at the edge of
<v Speaker 1>the heliosphere, significantly contributes to the Liman alpha signal. Scientists
<v Speaker 1>had previously suggested that such a wall would form as
<v Speaker 1>the solar wind encountered the interstellar medium, but New Horizons
<v Speaker 1>data provided no evidence to support this idea. The research
<v Speaker 1>represents a landmark achievement, providing the first clear and detailed
<v Speaker 1>look at the ultraviolet sky around the Solar System. It
<v Speaker 1>not only uncovers new characteristics of our galactic environment, but
<v Speaker 1>also challenges older theories that are not supported by the
<v Speaker 1>new horizons observations. This new Lineman Alpha map now lays
<v Speaker 1>a strong foundation for future studies aimed at further uncovering
<v Speaker 1>the mysteries of the space beyond our solar neighborhood. EOS.
<v Speaker 1>A hidden giant hydrogen cloud near Earth. An international team
<v Speaker 1>of scientists led by a Rutgers University New Brunswick astrophysicist
<v Speaker 1>has made a remarkable discovery by identifying a potentially star
<v Speaker 1>forming cloud, one of the largest single structures in the
<v Speaker 1>sky and among the closest ever detected to the Sun
<v Speaker 1>and Earth. This enormous ball of hydrogen, previously invisible to researchers,
<v Speaker 1>was found by targeting its primary component, molecular hydrogen. For
<v Speaker 1>the first time, a molecular cloud was detected using light
<v Speaker 1>emitted in the far ultraviolet part of the electromagnetic spectrum,
<v Speaker 1>an achievement that paves the way for further exploration using
<v Speaker 1>this method, as scientists named the newly found molecular hydrogen
<v Speaker 1>cloud EOS, after the Greek goddess who personifies Dawn. Their
<v Speaker 1>discovery is detailed in a study published in Nature Astronomy.
<v Speaker 1>Molecular clouds are regions composed of gas and dust, with
<v Speaker 1>molecular hydrogen being the most abundant element, serving as the
<v Speaker 1>essential building block of stars, planets, and ultimately life itself.
<v Speaker 1>These clouds also contain molecules like carbon monoxide, which has
<v Speaker 1>traditionally been used to detect such clouds through radio and
<v Speaker 1>infrared observations due to its strong chemical signature. However, in
<v Speaker 1>this case, the researchers took a different approach by looking
<v Speaker 1>directly from molecular hydrogen emissions in the far ultraviolet range.
<v Speaker 1>The data revealed glowing hydrogen molecules detected through a process
<v Speaker 1>called fluorescence, making the cloud visible in a way that
<v Speaker 1>had never been achieved before. This method allowed the team
<v Speaker 1>to observe io literally glowing against the darkness of space.
<v Speaker 1>Despite its proximity, EOS poses no threat to Earth or
<v Speaker 1>the Solar System. Its closeness instead offers a unique opportunity
<v Speaker 1>to study a major structure within the interstellar medium, the
<v Speaker 1>material that fills the space between stars within a galaxy
<v Speaker 1>and acts as the raw material for new star formation.
<v Speaker 1>Observing EOS gives scientists the chance to better understand the
<v Speaker 1>processes of how molecular clouds form, dissociate, and eventually lead
<v Speaker 1>to the birth of stars and planetary systems. The gas
<v Speaker 1>cloud itself is crescent shaped and located about three hundred
<v Speaker 1>light years away from Earth, sitting on the edge of
<v Speaker 1>the local bubble, a vast cavity filled with hot gas
<v Speaker 1>that surrounds the Solar System. In terms of size, EOS
<v Speaker 1>stretches across a space in the sky equivalent to about
<v Speaker 1>forty full moons and contains a mass roughly three thousand,
<v Speaker 1>four hundred times that of the Sun. Using modeling, sciencests
<v Speaker 1>estimate that the cloud will evaporate in about six million years.
<v Speaker 1>The innovative use of far ultraviolet fluorescence emission techniques, as
<v Speaker 1>demonstrated by this discovery, could dramatically transform the understanding of
<v Speaker 1>the interstellar medium. It could allow hidden molecular clouds to
<v Speaker 1>be uncovered across the galaxy and possibly even at the
<v Speaker 1>furthest reaches detectable from cosmic dawn. The early period of
<v Speaker 1>the universe. EOS was revealed through data collected by a
<v Speaker 1>far ultraviolet spectrograph called FIMS spear, an instrument on board
<v Speaker 1>the Korean satellite STSat one. A far ultraviolet spectrograph functions
<v Speaker 1>similarly to a prism, but for ultraviolet light, breaking it
<v Speaker 1>into its component wavelengths and producing a spectrum that scientists
<v Speaker 1>can analyze. The data set used for this discovery had
<v Speaker 1>only recently been made publicly available in twenty twenty three,
<v Speaker 1>when it caught the attention of the lead researcher. The
<v Speaker 1>identification and of EOS highlights the importance of new observational
<v Speaker 1>strategies and expanding the understanding of the universe. Unlike traditional
<v Speaker 1>molecular clouds heavily traced by carbon monoxide, EOS is largely coodark,
<v Speaker 1>meaning it contains very little carbon monoxide and therefore does
<v Speaker 1>not emit the standard signals picked up by conventional observation methods.
<v Speaker 1>This quality explains why such a massive structure remained hidden
<v Speaker 1>for so long, despite being relatively close by cosmic standards.
<v Speaker 1>The hydrogen within the EOS cloud dates back to the
<v Speaker 1>time of the Big Bang about thirteen point six billion
<v Speaker 1>years ago, and over cosmic time scales, this hydrogen gradually
<v Speaker 1>made its way into the Milky Way, eventually assembling near
<v Speaker 1>the Sun, making the discovery a reflection of an incredible
<v Speaker 1>journey across the universe. The detection of EOS came as
<v Speaker 1>a surprise to many scientists, challenging long held beliefs that
<v Speaker 1>molecular hydrogen could not be easily observed directly. It is
<v Speaker 1>particularly remarkable that the cloud was found in data sets
<v Speaker 1>that initially were not expected to reveal such structures. The
<v Speaker 1>name EOS also ties into a proposed NAS emission that
<v Speaker 1>some of the researchers are supporting, aimed at extending the
<v Speaker 1>search for molecular hydrogen clouds on a much larger galactic
<v Speaker 1>scale and further investigating the origins of stars by studying
<v Speaker 1>the evolution of these clouds. Beyond EOS, the team continues
<v Speaker 1>to explore data for both nearby and distant molecular hydrogen clouds.
<v Speaker 1>In fact, a study recently submitted to arcsfour dot org
<v Speaker 1>reports that, using the James Web Space Telescope, researchers may
<v Speaker 1>have tentatively detected the most distant molecular gas ever observed.
<v Speaker 1>In this way, the team has managed to uncover both
<v Speaker 1>some of the nearest and furthest molecular hydrogen structures using
<v Speaker 1>far ultraviolet emissions, demonstrating the enormous potential of this groundbreaking
<v Speaker 1>approach to reshape the understand of star formation in the
<v Speaker 1>molecular universe. Black hole dissonance mystery solved. A long standing
<v Speaker 1>mystery in the study of gravitational waves from black holes
<v Speaker 1>has finally been solved by a scientist at Tokyo Metropolitan University.
<v Speaker 1>This problem, which had puzzled physicists for nearly three decades,
<v Speaker 1>involved a strange dissonance observed in the gravitational signals emitted
<v Speaker 1>by black holes, an unexpected irregularity in the way these
<v Speaker 1>immense cosmic objects vibrate. Black holes, regions of space so
<v Speaker 1>dense that not even light can escape their gravity, have
<v Speaker 1>only recently become observable through the ripples they create in
<v Speaker 1>space time. Thanks to the development of gravitational wave detectors
<v Speaker 1>like Ligo, Virgo and Cagra. These global collaborations have opened
<v Speaker 1>an entirely new way of studying the universe, allowing scientists
<v Speaker 1>to detect the aftermath of cataclysmic events like black hole mergers.
<v Speaker 1>Gravitational wave much like the sound produced by a ringing bell,
<v Speaker 1>consists of a series of distinct frequencies known as modes.
<v Speaker 1>Each mode corresponds to a different way the black hole
<v Speaker 1>oscillates or rings after a merger. In theory, these modes
<v Speaker 1>should behave in an orderly and predictable way. However, in
<v Speaker 1>nineteen ninety seven, a graduate student named tusashian Azawa from
<v Speaker 1>the Tokyo Institute of Technology performed calculations that revealed a
<v Speaker 1>peculiar anomaly. One of the modes appeared to act out
<v Speaker 1>of step with the others, creating a kind of mathematical dissonance.
<v Speaker 1>This finding was so strange that many assumed it must
<v Speaker 1>have been a computational error or some quirk of the
<v Speaker 1>methods used. But even with the advance of computing technology,
<v Speaker 1>the anomaly stubbornly persisted and remained unexplained. Now, Associate Professor
<v Speaker 1>Hayatomoto Hashi has finally unraveled the mystery by applying extremely
<v Speaker 1>precise computational techt chniques in drawing on a new branch
<v Speaker 1>of theoretical physics called non r mission physics. He discovered
<v Speaker 1>that the unusual behavior did not arise from a single
<v Speaker 1>rogue mode, but from the interaction between two distinct modes.
<v Speaker 1>These two modes were resonating with each other, essentially amplifying
<v Speaker 1>or distorting each other's effects in a way that produced
<v Speaker 1>the previously unexplained dissonance. What's more, this type of resonance
<v Speaker 1>isn't a rare fluke. When Modo Hashi expanded his analysis,
<v Speaker 1>he found that such resonances appear widely across many different
<v Speaker 1>black hole vibration modes, suggesting a universal phenomenon. The Implications
<v Speaker 1>of this discovery stretch beyond astrophysics. The resonance effect observed
<v Speaker 1>in gravitational waves has parallels in other areas of physics,
<v Speaker 1>including optical systems, where electromagnetic waves exhibit similar behavior. This
<v Speaker 1>connection has led to the emergence of a new interdisciplinary field,
<v Speaker 1>non r mission gravitational physics. By incorporating this new framework,
<v Speaker 1>scientists can better interpret the data gathered from large scale
<v Speaker 1>observatories like Ligo, Virgo and Cagra. This breakthrough not only
<v Speaker 1>resolves a decade's old theoretical issue, but also equips physicists
<v Speaker 1>with a deeper understanding of how black holes behave and
<v Speaker 1>how the fundamental forces of nature operate. Under extreme conditions.
<v Speaker 1>It marks a significant step forward in black hole spectroscopy,
<v Speaker 1>the study of these objects through the gravitational notes they emit,
<v Speaker 1>and offers exciting new directions for research across multiple domains
<v Speaker 1>of physics. Of the FO names