It is an unfortunate reality that there is never time to cover all interesting scientific stories every month. In the past, we have presented end -of -year nets of Great Science Stories We got lost. This year, we are experiencing with a monthly collection. The January list includes documents on the use of lasers to reveal tattoos of Peruvian mummies; the physics of the wobble spears and darts; How a black hole changes with time; and “Cat states” quantum for the correction of errors in quantum computers, among other fascinating investigations.
Monitoring of changes in a black hole over time
Left: EHT Images of M87* Of the observation campaigns of 2018 and 2017. Medium: Example images of a general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulation (GRMHD) at two different moments. Right: same Simulation snapshots, blurred to match the EHT observation resolution.
Credit: EHT collaboration
In 2019, Event Horizon Telescope announced the First direct image never taken of a black hole in the center of an elliptical galaxy, Messier 87 (M87), located in the constellation of Virgo to about 55 million light years away. Astronomers have now combined previous observation data for more information about the turbulent plasma dynamics near the M87*event horizon over time, according to A role Published in Astronomy and Astrophysics magazine.
The co -author Luciano Rezzolla of the University of Goethe Frankfurt in Germany compared the new analysis to compare two photographs of Mount Everest, with a year apart. While it is unlikely that the basic mountain structure changes a lot at that time, cloud changes could be observed near the peak and deduct from these properties such as wind direction. For example, in the case of M87*, the new analysis confirmed the presence of a light ring that is brighter at the bottom, which in turn confirmed that the rotational axis points to the earth. “More of these observations will be made in the coming years and with increasing precision, with the ultimate goal of producing a film of what happens near M87*”. Rezolla said.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2025. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202451296 (About Dois).
Lasers reveal Peruvian mummies tattoos
A tattooed forearm of a mummy from Chancay.
Credit: Michael Pittman and Thomas G Kaye
Humans around the world have been making tattoos for more than 5,000 years, judging by traces found in mummified remains from Europe to Asia and South America. But it can be a challenge to decipher the details of those tattoos, given how much the ink to “bleed” tends over time, along with the usual body decomposition. Infrared images can help, but in an innovative turn, scientists decided A role Published in the Minutes of the National Academy of Sciences.