Trump reveals who he thinks killed JFK in bombshell interview with Clay Travis after releasing new assassination files
President Donald Trump has shared his thoughts about who killed former President John F. Kennedy in a wide-ranging interview with Outkick founder Clay Travis onboard Air Force One on Saturday.
Emily in Paris star seen on sexy topless vacation in Mexico without fiance
Emily in Paris star Camille Razat sizzled in the Mexican sun during a luxurious beachside escape in Tulum on Saturday, soaking up the rays with a gal pal.
Stansted Airport travel chaos as signalling problem causes train cancellations
Disruption is expected to continue throughout rush hour
Another Large Black Hole In 'Our' Galaxy
RockDoctor (Slashdot reader #15,477) writes:
A recent paper on ArXiv reports a novel idea about the central regions of "our" galaxy.
Remember the hoopla a few years ago about radio-astronomical observations producing an "image" of our central black hole — or rather, an image of the accretion disc around the black hole — long designated by astronomers as "Sagittarius A*" (or SGR-A*)? If you remember the image published then, one thing should be striking — it's not very symmetrical. If you think about viewing a spinning object, then you'd expect to see something with a "mirror" symmetry plane where we would see the rotation axis (if someone had marked it). If anything, that published image has three bright spots on a fainter ring. And the spots are not even approximately the same brightness.
This paper suggests that the image we see is the result of the light (radio waves) from SGR-A* being "lensed" by another black hole, near (but not quite on) the line of sight between SGR-A* and us. By various modelling approaches, they then refine this idea to a "best-fit" of a black hole with mass around 1000 times the Sun, orbiting between the distance of the closest-observed star to SGR-A* ("S2" — most imaginative name, ever!), and around 10 times that distance. That's far enough to make a strong interaction with "S2" unlikely within the lifetime of S2 before it's accretion onto SGR-A*.)
The region around SGR-A* is crowded. Within 25 parsecs (~80 light years, the distance to Regulus [in the constellation Leo] or Merak [in the Great Bear]) there is around 4 times more mass in several millions of "normal" stars than in the SGR-A* black hole. Finding a large (not "super massive") black hole in such a concentration of matter shouldn't surprise anyone.
This proposed black hole is larger than anything which has been detected by gravitational waves (yet) ; but not immensely larger — only a factor of 15 or so. (The authors also anticipate the "what about these big black holes spiralling together?" question : quote "and the amplitude of gravitational waves generated by the binary black holes is negligible.")
Being so close to SGR-A*, the proposed black hole is likely to be moving rapidly across our line of sight. At the distance of "S2" it's orbital period would be around 26 years (but the "new" black hole is probably further out than than that). Which might be an explanation for some of the variability and "flickering" reported for SGR-A* ever since it's discovery.
As always, more observations are needed. Which, for SGR-A* are frequently being taken, so improving (or ruling out) this explanation should happen fairly quickly. But it's a very interesting, and fun, idea.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
We live in the so-called 'best town in Britain,' but there is a downside: Locals reveal what life is REALLY like in lauded market town
The chocolate box charm of Saffron Walden, in Essex, has failed to win over some people in the town who have bemoaned the poor broadband connection and mobile phone reception.
M25 Dartford Crossing live updates with 'long delays' and rush hour chaos after crash
An incident is causing long delays
Kate Middleton's secret weapon that she is using for her comeback wardrobe - and where you can get your own for just £3.50
She's back, and she means business. After months away from the spotlight, the Princess of Wales has made her triumphant return to public life with a striking new look.
The extraordinary bond between Britain's most prolific executioner and the sister of the last woman he hanged, revealed by RICHARD KAY
They made an unlikely pair, the hangman and the sister of the woman he executed. But here they were on their way to view together the final resting place of Ruth Ellis.
The war of the pyramids: Row over what REALLY lies beneath Egypt's, Giza monuments explodes after secret city investigation
A row over what really lies underneath the Pyramids of Giza has exploded, after one of Egypt's top ancient history experts slammed claims that there is an 'underground city' beneath them was 'fake news.'
McCloud judgement creates a tricky pension dilemma for civil servants - STEVE WEBB gives his verdict
Like thousands of other civil servants, retired and employed, I have received an offer from the Civil Service Pension Scheme - and my decision is permanent.
Google admits it deleted some customer data after 'technical issue'
Maps Timeline info wanders off forever for users without encrypted backups
Google has admitted it lost some customer data, possibly forever.…
Justin Bieber's disrespectful act fuels marriage fears as solo Hailey Bieber blows off steam alone
Hailey Bieber was seen behind the wheel of her new SUV following her morning workout on Sunday after her husband Justin Bieber shared a shockingly disrespectful post on Instagram.
Jennifer Aniston seen leaving dinner date with hunky Pedro Pascal in West Hollywood
Jennifer Aniston was spotted grabbing dinner with Gladiator 2 hunk Pedro Pascal on Saturday.
Representative Line: The Rounding Error
At one point, someone noticed that some financial transactions weren't summing up correctly in the C# application Nancy supported. It didn't require Superman or a Peter Gibbons to figure out why: someone was using floating points for handling dollar amounts.
That kicked off a big refactoring project to replace the usage of double types with decimal types. Everything seemed to go well, at least until there was a network hiccup and the application couldn't connect to the database. Let's see if you can figure out what happened:
MessageBox.Show("Please decimal check the connection details. Also check firewall settings (port 1433) and network connectivity.");What a clbuttic mistake.
Thief caught red handed stealing £10k worth of fishing equipment - because he was wearing ankle tag
The man had been serving a suspended sentence for non-dwelling burglaries
What it's REALLY like acting with Helen Mirren, by 1923 spy
Paramount Plus' Yellowstone prequel 1923 has no shortage of star-power with A-listers like Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, but it also has its fair share of hard-working supporting stars.
The 'gem of Essex' the county's most affordable place to live with stunning coastal homes and seaside views
It's a popular place for people wanting to enjoy seaside views
Essex mum reflects on living with long covid five years after lockdown
Five years after the first lockdown, it can be easy to forget the impact the covid pandemic had on every aspect of our lives.
19 ski trip destinations to travel to from London Stansted this Easter
Alps: Geneva, Chambery, Grenoble, Turin, Basel, Salzburg, Milan, Verona, Vienna, Klagenfurt
'Fish Doorbell' Enters Fifth Year with Millions of Fans
Long-time Slashdot reader invisik reminds us that the "fish doorbell" is still going strong, according to the Associated Press.
"Now in its fifth year, the site has attracted millions of viewers from around the world with its quirky mix of slow TV and ecological activism."
The central Dutch city of Utrecht installed a "fish doorbell" on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht's Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a website. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through.
"Much of the time, the screen is just a murky green with occasional bubbles, but sometimes a fish swims past. As the water warms up, more fish show up..."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.