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A huge bubble of galaxies that is one billion lightyears across could be a remnant of the ripples caused by the Big Bang, according to astronomers who have mapped the structure. The structure, named Hoʻoleilana by University of Hawaii scientists, is thought to have been caused by so-called Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs). These were ripples in the particles of the early Universe in the period following the Big Bang, when planets, solar systems and galaxies were not yet fully formed. As the ripples went outward, they created areas of density in the particles, causing bubble-like structures in which galaxies eventually coalesced. Until now, the BAOs were just a prediction – part of the wider Big Bang theory. No specific structures in the Universe had been found which mimicked their patterns. But Hoʻoleilana fits the description of these huge cosmic bubbles perfectly, according to Brent Tully, who led the study at the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy. “We were not looking for it. It is so huge that it spills to the edges of the sector of the sky that we were analyzing,” he said. “As an enhancement in the density of galaxies it is a much stronger feature than expected. The very large diameter of 1bn light years is beyond theoretical expectations. “If its formation and evolution are in accordance with theory, this BAO is closer than anticipated, implying a high value for the expansion rate of the universe.” The bubble is absolutely huge. It is made up of several superclusters, structures which themselves are thought to be among the Universe’s largest arrangements of matter. This includes the Hercules Supercluster, the Corona Borealis Supercluster and the Sloan Great Wall. All of these structures contain thousands of galaxies. In the middle of Hoʻoleilana sits the Bootes Supercluster and the Bootes Void, an immense space of nothingness which is an incredible 330m lightyears across. Daniel Pomarede, from the CEA Paris-Saclay University, who contributed to the research, said: “It was an amazing process to construct this map and see how the giant shell structure of Ho’oleilana is composed of elements that were identified in the past as being themselves some of the largest structures of the universe.” The research was published on 5 September in The Astrophysical Journal. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Days after Jason Aldean went viral over a song about small town America that many commentators have interpreted as containing lyrics which amount to dog-whistle racism, the singer was mired in fresh controversy. Somewhat appropriately it was over another alleged scandal in a small town, in which a Twitter user claimed he failed to tip in a burrito restaurant in Charleston, West Virginia, having supposedly ordered 65 burritos ten minutes before the joint closed. Now, the internet wants to know if it actually happened. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter On July 20, 2023, a user posted: “Remember when @Jason_Aldean came to small town Charleston, WV, ordered 65 burritos from a local joint ten minutes before close and didn't tip anyone? Then his team reached out after the story went viral and the employees got let go? Try that in a small town." A screenshot of the tweet was widely shared on TikTok, Reddit, and other websites, three days after the Country Music Television (CMT) network pulled Aldean's new music video for his song, 'Try That in a Small Town.' Find out more about the racism scandal engulfing the song here. According to fact-checkers at Snopes, the controversy goes back to a 2017 news story by TMZ, which claimed the singer had ordered 60 burritos and a quesadilla at a restaurant called Black Sheep, which totaled around $500. “We found no concrete information on whether the order was placed for takeout and was picked up by one of Aldean's crew members, or if the entire crew sat down at the restaurant. However, the former appeared to likely have been the case, as we have so far found no photographic or video evidence of the crew eating at the restaurant,” reported the fact checkers. The tweet’s claim that the order for Aldean's crew was made "ten minutes before close" wasn’t mentioned in the original story by TMZ. Arep for Aldean said an "appropriate tip" had been left for the order back in 2017, adding: “Jason had absolutely no contact with the restaurant or any of its employees.” Meanwhile it looks like the tweet’s claim that “employees” were fired by Black Sheep because the story went viral is partially true. The original reporting from TMZ mentioned that one employee who was fired, after apparently tweeting about the order for Aldean's crew. The apparent tweets posted by the employee, which are no longer available, appeared in a second report by TMZ. One of them read: “@Jason Aldean can suck my a-- for not tipping Black Sheep, after ordering 60 burritos.” So to sum up: nobody can quite tell if the story is totally true. Aldean may not have been personally involved, but it looks like there was a big old burrito order for him and his crew, and there was definitely some controversy around the tip. We’ll have to leave the rest to your imagination. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

WhatsApp has announced a new feature that it says will “protect your most intimate conversations”. Chat Lock will allow users of the messaging app to take a chat thread from their inbox and put it in a new folder that can only be accessed by a password or biometric information, such as a fingerprint. Meta, the company’s owner, on Monday, said this would keep users’ conversations behind “one more layer of security” and has already started rolling it out. The content of messages in notifications will also be automatically hidden, the tech behemoth said. In a press release, Meta said: “We believe this feature will be great for people who share their phones from time to time with a family member, or in moments where someone else is holding your phone at the exact moment an extra-special chat arrives. “You can lock a chat by tapping the name of a one-to-one or group and selecting the lock option. To reveal these chats, slowly pull down on your inbox and enter your password or biometric.” It comes after warnings from WhatsApp that it could face being banned in the UK under the government’s online safety bill. Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp parent company Meta, said in late March that the upcoming legislation could weaken the end-to-end encryption that secures messages on the service. He added that if the government told the company to weaken any security features it would resist, leading to the possibility it could be banned in the UK." width="500"> Just last month it signed an open letter with its competitors, including Signal, arguing that the bill poses “an unprecedented threat to the privacy, safety and security of every UK citizen”. The row is over end-to-end encryption, used by WhatsApp, which allows only the sender and recipient to access the contents of a message. However, police and law enforcement agencies argue this feature makes it harder to uncover serious wrongdoing, such as child sexual abuse, and want to weaken the feature. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Meta, said in a statement on Facebook: “New locked chats in WhatsApp make your conversations more private. “They’re hidden in a password-protected folder and notifications won’t show sender or message content.” Read More Creepy WhatsApp update sparks fears users are being listened to through their phone Government faces years of strike action from nurses, warns RCN chief Creepy WhatsApp update sparks fears users are being listened to through their phone WhatsApp just fixed two of its most glaring quirks Scientist spends 74 days underwater and expects to lose an inch in height