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    First ever Free-Floating Black Hole found Roaming through Interstellar Space

    February 9, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    HST image in the F814W (I-band) filter of an 800 ×800 region centered on MOA-11-191/OGLE-11-0462, obtained at our final epoch in 2017 August. North is at the top, east on the left. Encircled in green is the source star, now returned to baseline luminosity. The site is resolved into the source, a much brighter neighboring star 0.004 to the WNW, and several nearby fainter stars. The inner cyan circle has a diameter of 100, corresponding to the typical best seeing in ground-based microlensing survey images; the outer cyan circle’s diameter is 200, which is not unusual seeing. The source, bright neighbor, and several fainter stars are generally blended in ground-based frames, and the blending increases with seeing. Credit: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.13296.pdf

    An international team of re...

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    COVID-19 infections Increase Risk of Heart Conditions up to a Year Later, study finds

    February 8, 2022, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    An analysis of federal health data indicates that people who have had COVID-19 are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular complications within the first month to a year after infection, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.

    Cardiovascular care essential part of post-infection care. An in-depth analysis of federal health data indicates that people who have had COVID-19 are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular complications within the first month to a year after infection. Such complications include disruptive heart rhythms, inflammation of the heart, blood clots, stroke, coronary artery disease, heart attack, heart failure or even death.

    Such problems occur even among ...

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    A CMOS-based chip that integrates silicon quantum dots and multiplexed readout electronics

    February 8, 2022, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Microscopy photo of chip with bond wires. Credit: Ruffino et al.

    Researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory have recently designed an integrated circuit (IC) that integrates silicon quantum dots with conventional readout electronics. This chip, introduced in a paper published in Nature Electronics, is based on a 40-nm cryogenic complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology that is readily and commercially available.

    “Our recent paper builds on the expertise of the two groups involved,” Andrea Ruffino, one of the researchers at EPFL who carried out the study, told TechXplore...

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    Puffy Planets Lose Atmospheres, become Super-Earths

    February 8, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    ILLUSTRATION OF THE MINI-NEPTUNE TOI 560.01, LOCATED 103 LIGHT-YEARS AWAY IN THE HYDRA CONSTELLATION. THE PLANET, WHICH ORBITS ITS STAR AT DISTANCE OF 0.06 AU, IS LOSING ITS PUFFY ATMOSPHERE AND MAY ULTIMATELY TRANSFORM INTO A SUPER-EARTH.
    Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory/Adam Makarenko

    Finding Represents First Detections of Atmospheric Loss in “Mini-Neptunes.

    Astronomers have identified two different cases of “mini-Neptune” planets that are losing their puffy atmospheres and likely transforming into super-Earths. Radiation from the planets’ stars is stripping away their atmospheres, driving hot gas to escape like steam from a pot of boiling water.

    “Most astronomers suspected that young, small mini-Neptunes must have evaporating atmospheres,” says Michael Zhang, lead author of bot...

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