Here are the studies this week that spotted a blast from the past, opened a portal between realms, yakked it up, and rose from the ashes.
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that → spot → ashes
First, scientists have spotted a mysterious radio signal from the primordial universe that could illuminate cosmic evolution (it’s not aliens… sorry).
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it → spot → evolution
As always, for more of my work, check out my book First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens, or subscribe to my personal newsletter The BeX Files.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away
Scientists have discovered the most distant fast radio burst (FRB), a type of mysterious radio flare from space.
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Scientists → check → space
This burst erupted when the universe was only three billion years old and sent radio waves across 10 billion light years before they reached Earth on March 4, 2024.
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they → erupt → March
The distant signal, known as FRB 20240304B, hails from an ancient galaxy beyond “redshift 2,” which means it originated more than twice as far as the next-farthest known FRB.
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it → know → FRB
Redshift, represented by the variable “z,” measures how wavelengths of light get stretched out in their journeys across space, a phenomenon that shifts them to the red end of the spectrum.
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that → represent → spectrum
“Approximately one hundred FRBs have identified host galaxies with measured redshifts, with the vast majority at redshifts z ≲ 0.5,” said researchers led by Manisha Caleb of the Sydney Institute for Astronomy.
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researchers → identify → Astronomy
“Only a small number of FRB host galaxies have been identified at z ≳ 1.
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number → identify → ≳
This observational bias is driven by the sensitivity limit of radio observations that are capable of detecting FRBs and localizing their coordinates.”
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that → drive → coordinates
Caleb and her colleagues were able to capture the remote flash using South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope.
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Caleb → capture → telescope
Follow-up observations with the James Webb Space Telescope pinpointed “a low-mass, clumpy, starforming galaxy” at redshift 2.148 as the host of the burst.
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observations → pinpoint → burst
FRBs produce incredibly energetic radio pulses, but the exact mechanisms that generate them remain unknown.
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that → produce → them
Given the diverse features of these bursts—for instance, some repeat, and some are one-offs—they might come from many different sources.
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they → give → sources
In the case of FRB 20240304B, the team speculated that the burst is a magnetar, the highly magnetized remains of a massive star that went supernova.
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that → speculate → star
“The low stellar mass, active star formation, and low metallicity of the host galaxy are consistent with a magnetar origin of the FRB,” the researchers concluded.
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researchers → conclude → FRB
This milestone detection of such a distant and ancient FRB opens up the possibility of finding more bursts at high redshifts.
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detection → open → redshifts
In addition to pushing the limits of observation, future discoveries could allow scientists to extract clues about the evolution of the universe that become imprinted in these signals during their vast journeys.
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that → push → journeys
In other news...
Putting a quantum spin on things
Time to shrink down from the largest cosmic scale to the tiny quantum realm.
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Putting → put → realm
In a new study, scientists report that they successfully moved a centimeter-scale diamond with a force known as quantum spin, making it by far the largest object ever manipulated by a quantum effect.
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it → report → effect
It represents a major breakthrough, as the diamond is the first object large enough to be subject to gravity to be moved in this way, further bridging the gap between the loopy quantum realm and regular, everyday physics.
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diamond → represent → realm
a) When the laser is off, the diamond slab has a small magnetic moment (blue arrow) induced by the latent spin-state inside the nitrogen-vacancy centers of the diamond.
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slab → have → diamond
b) When the green laser is on, the spin-state is polarized, causing the magnetic moment to fluctuate weakly, pushing the diamond down towards the magnetic field (red arrows).
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moment → polarize → field
In the new work, scientists worked with a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) diamond containing electrons with “spin,” a form of angular momentum on the quantum scale.
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scientists → work → scale
Then, they shot a laser at the diamond—as science often demands—which stimulated electrons to spin in a certain state that eerily moved the diamond.
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that → shoot → diamond
“Experimentally observing this spin force for anything larger than atomic scales has proved challenging,” said researchers led by Anshuman Nayak of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology.
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researchers → observe → Science
“We have demonstrated the motional driving of a massive diamagnetically levitated mechanical oscillator by the force of NV spins in a gradient magnetic field.
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We → demonstrate → field
Congratulations, humanity: We just earned our license to quantum-motionally drive.
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We → earn → license
New yak just dropped
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yak → drop → ?
Domestic cows are overwhelmingly the most common bovine species on Earth today, but this family of swole ungulates once contained a diversity of wild lineages that included aurochs, steppe bison, and oxen.
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that → contain → aurochs
Now, scientists have discovered the remains of a distinct bovine species—named “yak X”—in Siberia’s Denisova Cave, which was also inhabited by many human species (hominins) during the Pleistocene era, which ended 12,000 years ago.
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which → discover → era
Yak X (cool name!) began diverging from extant yaks about 400,000 years ago, and had formed its own unique yak pack by 250,000 years ago, reports a team that sequenced its ancient genomes.
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that → diverge → genomes
The youngest bones from this mysterious animal date back about 27,200 years, so it must have died out sometime after.
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it → date → animal
“Yak X is a Pleistocene megafaunal species previously unknown to genomics,” said researchers co-led by Jonas Oppenheimer and Alexandre Gillardet of Stockholm University.
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researchers → say → University
“Yak X appears to have become genetically isolated from other bovines including bison and aurochs despite their apparent geographic proximity in Pleistocene mid-latitude Asia.
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X → appear → Asia
This lack of gene flow is in notable contrast to hominins at Denisova Cave, which displayed complex patterns of admixture among multiple divergent lineages.
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which → display → lineages
In other words, hominins at this cave, including Neanderthals and Denisovans, appear to have interbred, while this yak didn’t cross with its fellow bovine relatives.
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yak → include → relatives
The birth and death of a phoenix planet
Planets are frequently obliterated by the explosive deaths of their stars, but they can also be born out of those same stellar ashes.
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they → obliterate → ashes
Scientists have now directly observed the first evidence of one of these so-called “second-generation” planets that formed around a type of dead star called a white dwarf.
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that → observe → star
Located about 270 light years from Earth, the white dwarf—known as HS 0209+
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dwarf → locate → HS
About five million years ago, it shed its red giant shell and collapsed into its current husk state.
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it → shed → state
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
