Kandice Tirado

Astronomers Found The Oldest, Most Distant Black Hole (BH), Formed ~13.3B Yrs Ago In Galaxy (G) CAPERS-LRD-z9. The BH Is ~300M× Our Sun’s Mass & ~10× Milky Way’s BH. The G, In The “Little Red Dots” Class, Is Compact, Bright, And Red; With Red Color Cause Unclear. Both BH & G, Found Via JWST Spectroscopy, Offer Clues To Early G/BH Evolution.

…

In Nov 2023, Scientists Detected The Biggest Black Hole (BH) Merger Ever: Two BHs Of 103 And 137 Solar Masses (SM) Collided 10bn Ly Away, Spinning ~40K x Earth’s. The Resulting 265-SM BH, Detected Via Gravitational Waves, Breaks The Previous 140 SM Record And Challenges Current BH Formation Models, Suggesting Layered Mergers From Prior Collisions.

JWST Has Directly Imaged Exoplanet TWA 7b—~100x Earth’s Mass & Located 111 Ly Away—Orbiting A Young 6.4-Myr-Old Star CE Antilae. It’s The Lightest Planet Ever Imaged In This Way, Enabled By JWST’s Infrared Vision & A Coronagraph That Blocks Starlight To Reveal Faint Nearby Planets. This Marks A Major Leap In Studying Early Planet Formation.

…

Scientists Discovered The Hadal Snailfish, Earth’s Deepest-Living Vertebrate, Thriving Over 36k Ft Deep In The Mariana Trench. Their Survival Ability In Extremely Harsh Conditions Aids In Exploring Extraterrestrial Life Possibilities & Emphasizes Responsible Practices During Deep-Sea Resource Extraction To Protect These Fragile Ecosystems.

…

In A World-First, Astronomers Have Witnessed A Supermassive Black Hole “Waking Up” And Brightening In Real-Time. Located 360 Million Light-Years Away In Galaxy SDSS1335+0728, The Black Hole Has Shown Increased Luminosity Since 2019, But Its Activation Cause Remains Unknown. Similar Activation Could Occur With Sagittarius A* In Our Galaxy.

…

Astronomers Discovered WASP-193b, An Exoplanet 50% Larger Than Jupiter But Only 14% Of Its Mass, Making It The 2nd Lightest Known Planet After Kepler 51d. Located 1,200 LY Away, The “Puffy Jupiter” Is Likely Comprised Mainly Hydrogen & Helium, And Its Extended Atmosphere Is Ideal For Studying Its Planetary Formation With Tools Like JWST.

…

Astronomers Observed, For The First Time, The ‘Glory Effect’ (GE) On An Exoplanet, WASP-76b, Similar To Earth’s & Venus‘s. It Features Concentric, Colorful Rings Of Light Caused By Light Reflecting Off Clouds Made Of A Uniform Substance. Extreme Conditions—Scorching Dayside, Nightside Iron Rain—Permit GE, Offering Insights Into Alien Atm.

…

Geophysical Findings Reveal Deniliquin, A 520km-Wide Impact Structure Submerged Beneath NSW, Australia, Surpassing The Largest Known Impact Crater (IC), South Africa‘s Vredefort Crater. Sediment Analysis Suggests An Impact 440-500 Myrs Ago. Rock Sample Recovery Is Crucial To Confirm Its Meteoritic Origin. Most IC Are Less Than 200 Myrs Old.

…

Harvard University Inaugurated Claudine Gay As Its First Black And Second Female President. Gay, The 30th President In Harvard’s History, Is A 1998 Distinguished Harvard Alum And Accomplished Political Scholar. Gay’s Tenure Follows Her Role As Dean Of The Faculty Of Arts And Sciences And Founding Chair Of The Inequality In America Initiative.

Scientists Found 50 Tiny Microscopic Sphere Fragments Of A Mysterious Meteor, From Outside Our Solar System, Which Crashed Into The Pacific Ocean, Near Papua New Guinea, In 2014. Further Testing Is Required To Determine If These Spheres, Made Of A Unique Metallic Substance, Are Natural Or Of Technological Origin, Which Could Signify Alien Life.