Astronomer Reveals Never-before-Seen Detail of the Center of our Galaxy

Panorama of the galactic center showing plumes and threads. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UMass/Q.D. Wang; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT

New image made using NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory hints at previously unknown interstellar energy source at the Milky Way center. New research by University of Massachusetts Amherst astronomer Daniel Wang reveals, with unprecedented clarity, details of violent phenomena in the center of our galaxy. The images, published recently in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, document an X-ray thread, G0.17-0.41, which hints at a previously unknown interstellar mechanism that may govern the energy flow and potentially the evolution of the Milky Way.

“The galaxy is like an ecosystem,” says Wang, a professor in UMass Amherst’s astronomy department, wh...

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3 years Younger in just 8 weeks? A new study suggests yes!

Intervention group age change. Participants scored an average of 1.96 years younger than baseline (p=0.066). Of 18 participants included in the final analysis, 8 scored age reduction, 9 were unchanged, and 1 increased in methylation age.
CREDIT
Correspondence to: Kara N. Fitzgerald email: kf@drkarafitzgerald.com

A groundbreaking clinical trial shows we can reduce biological age (as measured by the Horvath 2013 DNAmAge clock) by more than three years in only eight weeks with diet and lifestyle through balancing DNA methylation.

A first-of-its-kind, peer-reviewed study provides scientific evidence that lifestyle and diet changes can deliver immediate and rapid reduction of our biological age...

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Engineered Defects in Crystalline Material Boosts Electrical Performance

Xiaoli Tan and a team of campus collaborators used this transmission electron microscope at the Ames Laboratory’s Sensitive Instrument Facility to study the effects of engineering defects into certain materials. Larger photoPhoto by Christopher Gannon.

Researchers have discovered that engineering one-dimensional line defects into certain materials can increase their electrical performance. Materials engineers don’t like to see line defects in functional materials.

The structural flaws along a one-dimensional line of atoms generally degrades performance of electrical materials. So, as a research paper published today by the journal Science reports, these linear defects, or dislocations, “are usually avoided at all costs.”

But sometimes, a team of researchers from Europe, Iowa St...

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Dark Matter Map reveals Hidden Bridges between Galaxies

A new map of dark matter in the local universe reveals several previously undiscovered filamentary structures connecting galaxies. The map, developed using machine learning by an international team including a Penn State astrophysicist, could enable studies about the nature of dark matter as well as about the history and future of our local universe.

Dark matter is an elusive substance that makes up 80% of the universe. It also provides the skeleton for what cosmologists call the cosmic web, the large-scale structure of the universe that, due to its gravitational influence, dictates the motion of galaxies and other cosmic material. However, the distribution of local dark matter is currently unknown because it cannot be measured directly...

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