The universe appears to be speaking to us, after a centuries old “echo” from a supermassive black hole was detected by scientists. The black hole located inside the Milky Way became active around 200 years ago and produced a sound that is now being studied. The research was published in Nature and focuses on the black hole named Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) found 26,000 light-years away from Earth. The noise was triggered when the object consumed gas and dust, with particles moving into the event horizon. The findings could teach us more about the activity of supermassive black holes, which continue to intrigue and confound scientists. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Author of the research Dr Frederic Marin of Strasbourg University said: “It reveals the past awakening of this gigantic object – which is four million times more massive than the Sun. “Our work presents the missing piece of evidence that X-rays from the giant molecular clouds are due to reflection of an intense, yet short-lived flare produced at or nearby Sagittarius A*. These results can further constrain the past activity of the galactic centre.” By their very nature, black holes are difficult to study as they absorb light around them, and these new findings offer insight into a fascinating part of space. Dr Marin said: “To get an idea of the increase in intensity of the X-ray emission when the black hole emerged from its quiescent state, it is as if a single glow-worm hidden in a forest suddenly became as bright as the Sun. “These findings explain why galactic molecular clouds near Sgr A* are shining more brightly than usual. It is because they are reflecting the X-rays emitted by Sgr A* 200 years ago.” 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.

LONDON British consumers buying cryptoassets will get a 24-hour "cooling-off" period for the first time from October under

Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 4 storm changes now make the storm begin to move quicker in the endgame, putting a greater emphasis on rotations.

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS A French-led backlash led to a U.S. economist withdrawing from a top European

India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander only touched down on the Moon a month ago, but already it's made some major contributions to science. The spacecraft arrived on the satellite's unexplored south pole on 23 August, securing India's place as the first country to achieve this ambitious feat. Its rover, named Pragyan (or "wisdom" in Sanskrit) then embarked on an exploration of the rocky terrain, equipped with two instruments for conducting chemical experiments. And now, India's space agency, the ISRO, has published the ground-breaking data collected by the bold robot. Pragyan's findings offered a new, detailed insight into what makes up the lunar soil. And whilst scientists were unsurprised by the presence of iron, titanium, aluminium and calcium in the rocks, they were stunned to note a much higher concentration of sulphur than expected. The discovery is significant for a number of reasons. Most significantly, perhaps, because the sulphur could be used to help create a human base on the Moon. As Jeffrey Gillis-Davis, a planetary scientist, pointed out in a piece for Science Alert: "Astronauts and robots could travel from the south pole base to collect, process, store and use naturally occurring materials like sulfur on the Moon – a concept called in-situ resource utilization. "In-situ resource utilization means fewer trips back to Earth to get supplies and more time and energy spent exploring. Using sulfur as a resource, astronauts could build solar cells and batteries that use sulfur, mix up sulfur-based fertilizer and make sulfur-based concrete for construction." Gillis-Davis went on to explain that sulfur-based concrete has a number of advantages over the more common variety used in building, pointing out that it "hardens and becomes strong within hours rather than weeks, and it's more resistant to wear". "It also doesn't require water in the mixture, so astronauts could save their valuable water for drinking, crafting breathable oxygen and making rocket fuel," he added. The presence of sulphur near the Moon's south pole also suggests that highland soils at the lunar poles could have very different compositions to highland soils at the lunar equatorial regions. This would have key implications for our understanding of how the Moon works as a geological system, given that sulfur mainly comes from volcanic activity. Still, there's plenty of work to be done. And while this is all just one small step in Chandrayaan-3's mission, it could mean a great leap in how we view our dear celestial companion. Sign up for 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.

By Kantaro Komiya TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan launched its lunar exploration spacecraft on Thursday aboard a homegrown H-IIA rocket, clearing a

Reddit users have hijacked a collaborative experiment launched by the company within minutes of its launch. The third edition of Reddit Place – a 1-million-pixel online canvas that allows any user to choose the colour of an individual pixel – launched on Thursday amid ongoing protests against the platform’s management. Communities, or sub-Reddits, quickly organised to post explicit messages aimed at Reddit’s chief executive on various sections of the canvas. In the centre of r/Place, a giant sign appeared within minutes reading, “Fuck Spez”, referring to Reddit CEO Steve ‘Spez’ Huffman. Other sections included graffiti scrawled with the same message, while another featured the text “Never forget what was stolen from us” – referring to the third-party apps that shut down in the wake of API changes to the site. Reddit was forced to push back the experiment several times in efforts to avoid coinciding with the worst of the protests, which at one stage saw thousands of high profile sub-Reddits go dark. Reddit acknowledged the timing of the latest social experiment, adding the tagline: “Right place, wrong time.” The Independent has reached out to Reddit for further comment on the latest protests. Reddit Place is set to continue for the next four days, allowing users to contribute to its evolving creation. Previous editions featured flags, cartoon characters, popular memes and even works of art. One nihilistic group called The Black Void was able to take over vast swathes of the 2017 Reddit Place Canvas with black pixels. The original concept of Reddit Place was intended to “enable humans to communicate and collaborate in ways they have never been able to before”, according to creator Josh Wardle, who went on to create the popular word game Wordle. “My hope is that the success and collaborative nature of projects like Place will encourage other internet companies to take some more risks when exploring ways that their users can interact,” he said at the time. Read More The Reddit blackout, explained: Why thousands of subreddits are protesting third-party app charges Reddit CEO tells employees ‘this will pass’ in response to major chaos at site Netflix kills its cheapest plan without ads Netflix’s password sharing crackdown is going much better than people expected Stolen ChatGPT accounts for sale on the dark web

Pokimane and Kevin Kim have flirted on camera, sparking rumors that they may be dating

BALTIMORE & CAMPBELL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 12, 2023--

TL;DR: As of Aug. 27, you can get the premium Microsoft Office training bundle and

The game's director Shiro Mouri says they worked "harder" than ever to "try and surprise" players.

Outsourcing the job of vacuuming to a robot vacuum likely means that your floors are