PARIS: The Gaia space probe on Monday unveiled its latest discoveries in its quest to map the Milky Way in unprecedented detail, surveying nearly two million stars and revealing mysterious “starquakes” which sweep across the fiery giants like vast tsunamis.
The mission’s third data set, which was released to eagerly waiting astronomers around the world at 1000 GMT, “revolutionizes our understanding of the galaxy,” the European Space Agency (ESA) said.
ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher told a press conference that it was “a fantastic day for astronomy” because the data “will open the floodgates for new science, for new findings of our universe, of our Milky Way.”
Some of the map’s new insights came close to home, such as a catalogue of more than 156,000 asteroids in our Solar System “whose orbits the instrument has calculated with incomparable precision,” Francois Mignard, a member of the Gaia team, said.
But Gaia also sees beyond the Milky Way, spotting 2.9 million other galaxies as well as 1.9 million quasars — the stunningly bright hearts of galaxies powered by supermassive black holes.
The Gaia spacecraft is nestled in a strategically positioned orbit 1.5 million kilometers (937,000 miles) from Earth, where it has been watching the skies since it was launched by the ESA in 2013.
The observation of starquakes, massive vibrations that change the shape of the distant stars, was “one of the most surprising discoveries coming out of the new data,” the ESA said.
Gaia was not built to observe starquakes but still detected the strange phenomenon on thousands of stars, including some that should not have any — at least according to our current understanding of the universe.
“We have a fantastic new gold mine to do the asteroseismology of hundreds of thousands of stars in our Milky War galaxy,” said Gaia team member Conny Aerts.
Gaia has surveyed more than 1.8 billion stars but that only represents around one percent of the stars in the Milky Way, which is about 100,000 light years across.
The probe is equipped with two telescopes as well as a billion-pixel camera, which captures images sharp enough to gauge the diameter of a single strand of human hair 1,000 kilometers away.
It also has a range of other instruments that allow it to not just map the stars, but measure their movements, chemical compositions and ages.
The incredibly precise data “allows us to look more than 10 billion years into the past history of our own Milky Way,” said Anthony Brown, the chair of the Data Processing and Analysis Consortium which sifted through the massive amount of data.
The results from Gaia are already “far beyond what we expected” at this point, Mignard said.
They show that our galaxy is not moving smoothly through the universe as had been thought but is instead “turbulent” and “restless,” he said.
“It has had a lot of accidents in its life and still has them” as it interacts with other galaxies, he added. “Perhaps it will never be in a stationary state.”
“Our galaxy is indeed a living entity, where objects are born, where they die,” Aerts said.
“The surrounding galaxies are continuously interacting with our galaxy and sometimes also falling inside it.”
Around 50 scientific papers were published alongside the new data, with many more expected in the coming years.
Gaia’s observations have fueled thousands of studies since its first dataset was released in 2016.
The second dataset in 2018 allowed astronomers to show that the Milky Way merged with another galaxy in a violent collision around 10 billion years ago.
It took the team five years to deliver the latest data, which was observed from 2014 to 2017.
The final dataset will be released in 2030, after Gaia finishes its mission surveying the skies in 2025.
Monday’s release confirmed only two new exoplanets — and 200 other potential candidates — but far more are expected in the future.
“In principle Gaia, especially when it goes on for the full 10 years, should be capable of detecting tens of thousands of exoplanets down to Jupiter’s mass,” Brown said.
Space probe reveals secrets of ‘restless’ Milky Way
https://arab.news/4pfn8
Space probe reveals secrets of ‘restless’ Milky Way
- European Space Agency: Mission’s third data set ‘revolutionizes our understanding of the galaxy’
Oil, sand and speed: Saudi gearheads take on towering dunes
- Drivers modified their cars to improve performance months in advance
- For many dune bashing and desert drifting is a passion that began in adolescence
Az Zulfi — SAU
Az Zulfi, Saudi Arabia, April 2, 2025 : Wearing a helmet and strapped securely into his four-wheel-drive, Abdelilah Al-Rabea tore off across the Saudi desert, kicking up clouds of sand as a crowd of hundreds cheered him on.
Every year through the end of April, droves of people flock to Zulfi, more than 200 kilometers northwest of Riyadh, where adrenaline-seeking motorists drive superpowered cars across steep dunes.
Dune bashing, or tatees in Arabic, is an adventure sport that involves driving off-road across challenging desert landscapes, and has long been a popular pastime in the oil-rich kingdom.
“This is a popular sport in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf because we have these dunes,” Rabea said.
It requires “considerable effort,” he added, but the payoff is “a real rush of adrenaline.”
Abdallah Al-Amar, who came to watch the show with his son, said spectators were willing to “travel great distances” for the meets, flocking from all over the country to watch the drivers perform their stunts.
Saudi Arabia, as the world’s biggest oil exporter, enjoys bargain-basement gasoline prices, with a liter costing just 2.33 riyals ($0.62).
The cheap fuel, combined with prolonged periods of extreme heat, means cars reign supreme in the kingdom — further fueling a passion for motorsports.
Waiting all year
In Zulfi, hundreds of cars and pick-up trucks dotted the sands as far as the eye can see, while nearby a motorist raced up a 100-meter-tall dune.
“The cars you see here are specially equipped” for the challenge, Rabea told AFP.
Crowds made up almost exclusively of men looked on, drinking coffee and tea on carpets strewn on the sand.
Engines roared, crowds cheered and plumes of dust rose with every turn of the wheels.
“We wait for this moment all year. We optimize the engine, the car, every single detail,” Rabea said.
At the foot of the dune, modified cars and trucks with oversized tires and powerful engines were lined up, waiting to take on the dunes.
Their drivers were making final adjustments to the vehicles, preparing to defy gravity racing uphill at dizzying speed.
'Always loved the dunes'
For many, dune bashing and desert drifting is a passion that began in adolescence.
Badr Al-Ghamas, a 33-year-old man from Al-Qassim, began practicing the sport when he was only 15 years old.
“For some, sports means to play football or swimming. For us, it’s going dune bashing,” he said with a smile.
One experienced drifter, Ahmed Al-Rumi told AFP that drivers modified their cars to improve performance months in advance.
But the extreme sport is not without risk.
“A while ago, there was an accident because the car was not fully safe,” Rumi said, adding that no one was hurt.
Many of the drivers, however, brushed off the risk of accidents, citing safety precautions they take.
In his 2014 book “Joyriding in Riyadh: Oil, Urbanism, and Road Revolt,” researcher Pascal Menoret said this passion for speed and high-risk maneuvers was rooted in a desire to project an image of power and masculinity.
At sunset the drivers headed home, leaving behind splotches of oil on the sand and track marks scarring the dunes.
But Amar said the gas-guzzling sport was not necessarily in conflict with nature.
“I grew up on a farm and I’ve always loved the dunes,” he said.
“Now, I bring along my son who shares the same passion.”
Film ‘Warfare’ immerses viewers in real-time Iraq War mission
- “Warfare” sees the young men taking up positions in a residential building in the dark of night
LONDON: New A24 movie “Warfare” places audiences among a platoon of US Navy SEALs as they battle insurgents during the Iraq War.
Written and directed by combat veteran Ray Mendoza and filmmaker Alex Garland, the movie is a real-time re-enactment of a 2006 surveillance operation gone awry and based entirely on the memories of Mendoza and the soldiers who took part in it.
“Warfare” follows Garland’s 2024 film “Civil War,” which Mendoza worked on as a military supervisor, and features an ensemble cast of top talent including Cosmo Jarvis, Will Poulter, Charles Melton, Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai.
It pays tribute to wounded sniper Elliott Miller, played by Jarvis, whose recollections of the events are sparse.
“I wanted to make it for Elliott,” Mendoza said at the film’s London premiere on Tuesday. “He doesn’t recall what happened. Over the years he’s asked a lot of questions. I’ve been in this industry for 15 years now, and it’s kind of a goal, a journey, for me to acquire all the tools and skills I needed along the way to make it.”
The filmmakers set a rule to “not invent or heighten anything” and recount the events as accurately as possible.
“What films usually do is they find a way to dramatize, and that sometimes means romanticize combat and conflict and to be inaccurate. We tried to strip all of that out and present war in this instance, as it was. That was our sole intention,” Garland said.
“Warfare” sees the young men taking up positions in a residential building in the dark of night. It depicts their close bond and the chaos that ensues when they come under fire and try to evacuate wounded soldiers.
For the cast, portraying real people and recreating the events in Ramadi, came with responsibility.
“We had to try and do the story, what happened, justice and try to do these characters justice,” said Connor, who plays gunner Tommy.
“Warfare” was shot outside London over five weeks in early 2024. In preparation for its extended takes and carefully choreographed scenes, the cast took part in an intensive three-week boot camp.
“That included weapons handling, strategy, tactics, some of the language that is unique to SEALs and the military. We learned radio communications, first aid, some navigational stuff, and then went out on a few exercises as a team and put it into practice,” said Poulter, who plays an officer in charge of the operation.
Although immersing audiences in warfare, the movie is rooted in humanity, said Michael Gandolfini, who plays Lt. Macdonald.
“It’s about human beings and it’s about consequences of human beings doing these things to other humans. You walk out, I believe, feeling immense pain but immense humanity.”
“Warfare” begins its global theatrical rollout on April 10.
A fire at a New York cat sanctuary kills its founder and dozens of cats
- The body of founder Christopher Arsenault, 65, was found in a back room, officials said
- An estimated 150 cats are believed to have survived at the facility
NEW YORK: A fire burned down a Long Island cat shelter, killing its founder, who lived there, and at least 59 of the felines he rescued, authorities said.
The fire at the Happy Cat Sanctuary in the hamlet of Medford was reported shortly after 7 a.m. Monday. The cause is under investigation.
The body of founder Christopher Arsenault, 65, was found in a back room, officials said.
“He appeared to be a very caring person,” said Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County SPCA. “His life was about the cats.”
An estimated 150 cats are believed to have survived at the facility, which also included outdoor buildings, Gross said. Some of the surviving animals suffered burns and smoke inhalation. The SPCA and other animal rescue groups were working together to arrange care for them.
Arsenault founded Happy Cat in 2006 after the death of his 24-year-old son, Eric, in a motorcycle accident, according to the sanctuary’s website. Arsenault described finding his calling when he came across a colony of 30 sick kittens and nursed them back to health.
At the time of the fire, he was planning to move the sanctuary from Long Island to a farm upstate, Gross said.
“Unfortunately, this disaster happened and now he’s gone,” Gross said. “Right now it’s in the early stages of trying to put all of this together to get these animals cared for.”
A Venus flytrap wasp? Scientists uncover an ancient insect preserved in amber that snatched its prey
A Venus flytrap wasp? Scientists uncover an ancient insect preserved in amber that snatched its prey
- Scientists uncovered over a dozen female wasps preserved in 99-million-year-old amber from the Kachin region in northern Myanmar
- It’s a playbook adapted by many parasitic wasps, including modern-day cuckoo and bethylid wasps, to exploit insects
NEW YORK: An ancient wasp may have zipped among the dinosaurs, with a body like a Venus flytrap to seize and snatch its prey, a new study says.
The parasitic wasp’s abdomen boasts a set of flappy paddles lined with thin bristles, resembling “a small bear trap attached to the end of it,” said study co-author Lars Vilhelmsen from the Natural History Museum of Denmark.
Scientists uncovered over a dozen female wasps preserved in 99-million-year-old amber from the Kachin region in northern Myanmar. The wasp’s flaps and teeth-like hairs resemble the structure of the carnivorous Venus flytrap plant, which snaps shut to digest unsuspecting insects. But the design of the wasp’s getup made scientists think its trap was designed to cushion, not crush.
Instead, researchers suggested the flytrap-like structure was used to hold a wriggly insect still while the wasp laid an egg, depositing a baby wasp to feed on and drain its new host.
It’s a playbook adapted by many parasitic wasps, including modern-day cuckoo and bethylid wasps, to exploit insects. But no known wasp or any other insect does so with bizarre flaps quite like this one.
“I’ve seen a lot of strange insects, but this has to be one of the most peculiar-looking ones I’ve seen in a while,” said entomologist Lynn Kimsey from the University of California, Davis, who was not involved with the research.
Scientists named the new wasp Sirenobethylus charybdis, partly for the sea monster from Greek mythology that stirred up wild whirlpools by swallowing and expelling water.
The new study was published in the journal BMC Biology and included researchers from Capital Normal University and the Beijing Xiachong Amber Museum in China.
It’s unclear when the wasp went extinct. Studying unusual insects like this one can help scientists understand what insects are capable of and how different they can be.
“We tend to think that the cool things are only found today,” said Gabriel Melo, a wasp expert at the Federal University of Paraná in Brazil, who had no role in the study. “But when we have this opportunity, we see that many really exceptional, odd things already happened.”
Fitness enthusiasts challenge themselves with pre-iftar hikes in Pakistani capital
- Hikers set out hour before sunset, break fast on trails on Margalla Hills National Park
- Participants say pre-iftar hikes help boost fat burning, maintain weight in Ramadan
ISLAMABAD: Zarnab Tahir struggled to catch her breath as the steep incline of the hiking trail at Islamabad’s picturesque Margalla Hills tested her endurance. Hiking can put people through physical exertion, especially when they do it on an empty stomach.
An hour before the sun sets and the call to prayer blares out from various mosques located in Pakistan’s capital city, a group of fitness enthusiasts take to the hiking trails in Margalla Hills National Park.
Islamabad Run With Us — IRU — which describes itself as Pakistan’s “pioneering running community,” is behind the pre-iftar hiking initiative.
“When you engage in pre-iftar (physical) activities during Ramadan, it gives you extra energy, an extra boost,” Qasim Naz, who founded IRU in 2016, told Arab News on hiking trail number three.
“And when someone joins in on an activity once or twice, they figure out it’s not that hard and they can sustain it comfortably.”
Naz stresses that staying active during the holy month is essential. The IRU organizes five activities a week, which include two runs and three hikes.
“Either we can maintain our weight, or if our goal is weight loss, we can achieve it by being in a calorie deficit while eating a healthy diet and exercising,” Naz explained.
Tahir, 22, meanwhile, said that she was committed to reaching the top of hiking trail before sunset. This was the second time she was hiking with IRU.
She agreed with Naz that group activities are “much easier” to sustain.
“I think it is important to go at your own pace and it’s so much easier with the group,” Tahir, a content creator, told Arab News.
“If you go alone, it’s kind of more difficult and you are, like, really slow but if you go with the group you can maintain that pace and I think it’s much easier that way.”
Mahwish Ashraf, a journalist associated with a foreign diplomatic mission in Islamabad, shared how she struggled the first time that she went on a pre-iftar hike with IRU.
“The first time I was hiking, I returned from in between, I couldn’t complete it,” she admitted. “So, this is my second time hiking with the IRU, and gladly, I’m at the main point, the meeting point.”
Eraj Khan, a commercial specialist visiting from Australia to spend Ramadan with his family, said pre-iftar hikes give one “lots of energy.”
“For fat burning, it’s a great activity,” Khan said. “Especially because the last two hours of fasting are the hardest, most people feel really hungry. But so far, I’m loving it.”
As the clock continued to tick and evening settled in, the hikers began to pick up their pace. For Tahir, reaching the top of the trail before sunset was a victory in itself.
She had pushed past exhaustion, embraced the challenge and proved to herself that she was capable of more than she thought she could achieve.
And according to her, hiking with the group made all the difference.
“The energy of the group keeps you going,” she said. “Even when you feel like stopping, you see everyone else moving forward, and you push through.”
