Machine learning links water quality measurements to potential pathogen risks - EurekAlert!

A more precise result can expose a new problem or resolve an apparent discrepancy. Muons, particle masses and optical clocks show why progress depends on the relationship between measurement, calculation and independent comparison. An extra decimal place can change a scientific argument. It can make an apparent disagreement harder to ignore, reveal a previously hidden instrumental effect or show that a prediction works better than expected. The result matters because of the question it resolves, rather than because the number is unusually precise.

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.