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Alexa isn't the only one you can talk to through your Echo device. You can

Smoke from wildfires in Canada has traveled over 2,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to cover the skies

Digital-asset investment products added $199 million last week, the biggest weekly inflows in nearly a year, as a

Many of us will never get our heads around the fact that scientists can actually look back in time. The power of telescopes enables us to study phenomena that occurred billions of years ago, and even gaze upon the dawn of creation itself. Now, astrophysicists have solved a great mystery at the heart of our universe's birth, when everything was shrouded in a dense fog. In four separate papers published in (or accepted into) The Astrophysical Journal, scientists at MIT, Japan’s Nagoya University, ETH Zurich and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands have shared some stunning insights into the period known as the Epoch of Reionisation. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Relatively little is known about this era, during which the thick fog engulfing the universe gradually cleared, allowing stars and galaxies to shine. However, fresh observations made using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are beginning to pull back the curtain on it all. Now, scientists have finally figured out why one billion years after the Big Bang, that dense fog finally dispersed. First things first, what exactly is the Epoch of Reionisation? During the first billion years after the Big Bang, space was filled with a soupy mist of ionised gas which was impenetrable to light. As the gas began to cool, protons and electrons began to combine to form mostly neutral hydrogen atoms and some helium. These clumps of neutral hydrogen are then believed to have started forming stars, grouped into galaxies. This process reionised the gas but, because space had expanded by this point, the newly ionised hydrogen was diffuse enough to allow light to stream through, as Science Alert notes. A few million years later, the universe had become the transparent expanse with which we’re now familiar. To explain, here’s a look at what those four new papers reveal about why space became so much clearer. Paper 1 In the first study, researchers at the University of Groningen revealed that they had discovered crucial evidence of star formation during the Epoch of Reionisation. They found a specific wavelength of hydrogen, called hydrogen alpha, which is formed when a star is born and blasts out huge amounts of ionising ultraviolet radiation. Until now, no one was sure what produced all the ultraviolet light that emerged during the Epoch of Reionisation. But, thanks to their detection of hydrogen alpha, the Groningen team of astronomers that star formation had a “significant role in the process of reionisation”. Paper 2 Another paper, spearheaded by Japanese astrophysicist Daichi Kashino, added galaxies into the mix. According to Kashino and his international team, reionisation happened in “bubbles” around the plethora of newly-formed galaxies. They used JWST data to pinpoint these pockets and measure them precisely, identifying that they had a 2 million light-year radius around the tiny galaxies. Over the next hundred million years, the bubbles grew larger and larger, eventually merging and causing the entire universe to become transparent, according to an article published by NASA. Paper 3 A third group of researchers, led by ETH Zurich astrophysicist Jorryt Matthee, analysed the characteristics of these bubbles and found that the early galaxies they contained were hot, low in metals and dust and very active. He said they were “more chaotic” than those in the nearby universe, adding: "Webb shows they were actively forming stars and must have been shooting off many supernovae. They had quite an adventurous youth!” Paper 4 A fourth paper, led by MIT cosmologist Anna-Christina Eilers, focused its attention on the quasar galaxy at the centre of the JWST observations. This quasar is, according to NASA, an “extremely luminous active supermassive black hole that acts like an enormous flashlight”. Eilers and her team used data from the telescope to confirm that the black hole is the most massive currently known in the early universe, weighing 10 billion times the mass of the Sun. “We still can’t explain how quasars were able to grow so large so early in the history of the universe,” she said. “That’s another puzzle to solve!” Conclusion Well done if you’ve survived to the end – this is all pretty heavy-going. But the key point here is that before the JWST no one knew for sure what caused reionisation. Now, thanks to the mighty golden-eyed telescope, one of the great mysteries behind the birth of creation has finally been solved. 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.

The European Union will join an international effort to assess whether large-scale interventions such as deflecting the sun’s

International Business Machines Corp. will buy software company Apptio for $4.6 billion, marking the seventh acquisition this year

Social media star Joe Bartolozzi has been the victim of a viral hoax after rumours of his alleged death began to circulate online. Fans became concerned when the words “Joe Bartolozzi dead” trended online, but who is the influencer and why was he a victim of the death hoax? Who is Joe Bartolozzi? 21-year-old Bartolozzi is an American YouTuber, TikToker and streamer who has grown a social media following thanks to his amusing commentary and content. He boasts a staggering 22.5 million followers on TikTok where his clips have racked up 1.8 billion likes. Since creating a YouTube channel in 2020, Bartolozzi has gained 1.46 million subscribers, while his other social media platforms also have millions of followers and lots of engagement. So, when fake rumours suggested that Bartolozzi had died, it didn’t take long for the phrase “Joe Bartolozzi dead” to start trending as people tried to get to the bottom of it. But, his fans were quickly reassured when Bartolozzi continued to post on his social media channels. In one TikTok which has been viewed over 11 million times, Bartolozzi addressed the death hoax saying that it had become very annoying for him. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter @joe.bartolozzi @river its been a week and im over it He yelled: “I didn’t die because it would be impossible for me to talk about how I died. It has been one week – one week, seven days – it’s already really f***ing annoying.” In the comments, fans poked fun at the rumours, joking that his video was produced by artificial intelligence. One fan joked: “This Ai stuff is getting out of hand let him rest.” “AI is getting too far…” another said. Someone else mocked: “He made backup videos so we won't be sad that he is not here. Fly high joe.” Bartolozzi has posted regularly since the rumours began so it’s safe to say he is alive and well. 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.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 26, 2023--

Excessive heat warnings and heat advisories stretch from southern Arizona to the Florida Panhandle, covering most of Texas

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