Finally, a true blue rose exists - Science News

Imagine a universe where stars still shine, planets still form, and water exists, but liquids are so thick that living cells can barely function. Even with the chemical ingredients for life, the conditions might make living organisms impossible. Scientists have uncovered a remarkable connection between the fundamental laws of physics and the ability of life to exist. Their findings suggest that even relatively small changes to some of the universe's most basic physical constants could dramatically alter how liquids flow, potentially preventing essential biological processes from taking place.

Milky Way’s first microblazar candidate sits 12,000 light-years away, offering a rare ground-level lab for studying relativistic jetsA black hole 12,000 light-years away is firing a jet of plasma almost directly toward Earth. At that distance, no known or expected danger to Earth has been identified by the researchers or the institutions involved. What astronomers have actually found is rarer and more interesting than a threat. Researchers have identified IRAS 18293-0941 as a compelling candidate for the Milky Way’s first microblazar, a class of object that gives astrophysicists a close-up laboratory for studying some of the most violent physics in the galaxy. What Astronomers FoundThe discovery centers on a binary system whose black hole expels plasma jets at close to three-quarters the speed of light, pointed almost directly toward Earth. The system pairs a hot, massive star with a black hole that completes a full orbit roughly every 11.38 days. Material drawn from the companion star feeds the black hole, and some of that matter gets expelled outward as opposing jets traveling at approximately three-quarters the speed of light. Terminology matters here.