For the first time, an international research team led by the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has demonstrated that applying pixelized strong-lensing modeling on a galaxy cluster scale can significantly improve the precision of the inferred Hubble constant (H0)—a key parameter that describes the expansion rate of the universe.
|
|
||
|
A few days ago, I wrote about non-singular black hole models, specifically one known as the Hayward model. Since its introduction in 2006, several variations of the Hayward model have been introduced, including a rotating model similar to the Kerr metric used to study the supermassive black holes we’ve observed directly. This raises an interesting question: what if we use a rotating Hayward model instead of the usual Kerr model? A recent study answers that question.
Far from Earth, in the vast expanses of space between stars, exists a treasure trove of carbon. There, in what scientists call the “interstellar medium,” you can find a wide range of organic molecules—from honeycomblike polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to spheres of carbon shaped like soccer balls.
The International Space Station is one of the most remarkable achievements of the modern age. It is the largest, most complex, most expensive and most durable spacecraft ever built.
On October 29, Comet 3I/ATLAS reached its closest point to the sun.
Now that we have tools to find vast numbers of voids in the universe, we can finally ask…well, if we crack ’em open, what do we find inside?
The United States and China are locked in a contest to be the first country to send humans to the lunar surface in half a century. But there’s a developing twist: an emerging competition between American companies to build the landing vehicle that could win this new moon race for the US.
The experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) detect rare events on a daily basis, but some are exceptionally rare, such as this latest result from the CMS collaboration. For the first time, the collaboration has observed the production of a single top quark along with a W and a Z boson, an extremely rare process that happens only once every trillion proton collisions. Finding this event in the LHC data is like searching for a needle in a haystack the size of an Olympic stadium.
From the burning of wood to the action of medicines, the properties and behavior of matter are governed by the way chemical elements bond with one another. For many of the 118 known elements, the intricate electronic structures of the atoms that are responsible for chemical bonding are well understood. But for the superheavy elements lying at the far edge of the periodic table, measuring even a single property of these exotic species is a major challenge.
There is a limit to how big we can build particle colliders on Earth, whether that is because of limited space or limited economics. Since size is equivalent to energy output for particle colliders, that also means there’s a limit to how energetic we can make them. And again, since high energies are required to test theories that go beyond the standard model (BSM) of particle physics, that means we will be limited in our ability to validate those theories until we build a collider big enough.
On July 4, 2012, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland announced with great fanfare that they had successfully detected the Higgs boson, the manifestation of the mechanism that gives some elementary particles their mass. The finding was a triumph of both the experimental skill required to definitively detect the particle, and the theoretical acumen of those who predicted its existence, recognized by the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Video shows the NYPD officers instructing the suspect to drop the gun he was holding multiple times before he raised and pointed it at the lieutenant
After unsuccessfully attempting to carjack a vehicle, the armed man fled from Fresno officers on foot; the officers pursued the man into a parking lot before striking him with a cruiser
Hillsborough County deputies responded as the suspect, wearing a motorcycle helmet and tactical vests barricaded himself in a bedroom with his 7-year-old brother
The Easter Island in the South Pacific is famous for the Moai statues, the monumental zoomorphic sculptures created by a culture that still arouses controversy and admiration. But the island keeps other lesser-known peculiarities, although equally interesting and important. One of them is the Rongorongo, a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century unique to Easter Island. This mysterious script is important for a few reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, because there is nothing like it elsewhere in the Pacific. Secondly because if someday researchers manage to prove that it is a writing system and that it was a local development and not something imported, it would constitute one of the few cases of independent invention of writing in the history of humanity.  And while many authors believe it is, in fact, a unique writing system, it still has to be proven. However, despite the efforts made in recent decades, the Rongorongo script continues to elude decipherment. So far, experts have only been able to identify some calendrical and what might prove to be genealogical information. Two dozen objects bearing rongorongo inscriptions, some heavily weathered, burned, or otherwise damaged, were collected in the late 19th century and are now scattered in museums and private collections. All of the rongorongo-bearing artifacts are made of wood and have irregular shapes, among which there is one in the form of a reimiro, a crescent-shaped pectoral ornament once worn by the people of Easter Island, and another that resembles a man-bird. Regrettably, none remain on Easter Island. According to the oral tradition of Easter Island, the rongorongo tablets had a sacred character, and that only the ruling and religious elite knew how to read them. The texts are written following a system of alternate direction called Bustrofedon, very used in ancient Greece, which consists of writing a row from left to right and the next from right to left or vice versa. In addition, the rongorongo texts are also read from bottom to top, starting in the lower left corner of the tablets, and the lines continue on both sides of the tablet, meaning that you have to turn it before going up towards the next line.  The symbols used are schematic figures representing humans, animals, plants, geometric shapes and artifacts, many of them difficult to identify. According to tradition, they were engraved on the wood using shark teeth. Rongorongo is the modern name given to these inscriptions, which in the Rapa Nui language means to recite, declaim or sing. Its original name or description according to oral tradition was kohau motu mo rongorongo (lines to sing). This tradition also assigned a specific name to each tablet, based on what was written. Thus, kohau ta’u are chronicles, kohau ika were lists of people killed in combat, and kohau ranga were lists of war refugees. The rongorongo glyphs used are approximately one centimeter in height, and cover the entire usable surface of the tablets, making the most of the available space, due to the scarcity of wood on the island. The analysis of seven of the tablets revealed that the wood came from Thespesia populnea, an arborescent species possibly native to Hawaii and other Pacific islands, disseminated by the ancient Polynesians for the usefulness of their wood and fibers to make ropes.  Three other tablets were found to be Podocarpus latifolius, from South Africa and, therefore, may have been imported wood or were obtained as a result of contact with Westerners or from a shipwreck. Since it has not been possible to decipher what the tablets say, beyond what has been transmitted orally, the origin of this writing system is not known either. There is no archaeological evidence of written tradition in all of Polynesia, which is why researchers believe it could have been a local development. However, the legend says that the legendary founders of Rapa Nui brought 67 tablets, from wherever they may have come. Experts believe that the rongorongo script had not been invented before the thirteenth century. The only tablet analyzed with radiocarbon method dates from about 1680.  When González de Ahedo’s expedition annexed the island to Spain in 1770, the Rapa Nui chiefs signed the treaty using their own form of writing. That is why some believe that the invention of the rongorongo may have been inspired by this fact. Evidence of this is the fact that no expedition reported news about something similar to the Rongorongo before that of Eugene Eyraud in 1864, considered as the discoverer of the tablets. They also believe that the symbols with which the chiefs signed the treaty do not resemble those of the tablets at all. Since we have absolutely no idea what the tablets contain, the most widespread and accepted theory is that the rongorongo is not authentic writing system, but a mnemonic system of proto-writing that each scribe was reinterpreting in their own way. |
||
|
Copyright © 2026 Paranormal News Network - All Rights Reserved Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa 104 queries. 0.117 seconds. |
||