hole

This is how they solved the mystery of the black hole of IC 3599

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In 1990 a large eruption was detected in the black hole located in the center of the galaxy IC3599, 280 million light years from Earth. Later, in 2010, a new eruption was detected. This type of phenomena They occur approximately once every 10,000 to 100,000 years per galaxy. It is extremely rare, so the eruption of the same black hole with just 20 years of separation was worth investigating. Therefore, a team of scientists from Northern Kentucky University decided to monitor the black hole to immediately capture any other eruptions that occurred in the future. Those of 1990 and 2010 had been rebuilt a posterioribut in order to understand them they needed to capture them in real time. And they did it. It took 15 years, until on October 31, 2025, another one was captured. Without a doubt, it was a most exciting Halloween night. What they captured. The authors of the study just published followed this black hole in three different ways. On the one hand, with the Neil Gehrels Swift telescope, specialized in detecting gamma ray emissions. He is currently not in his best days. It has been necessary launch a ship to rescue it before it falls out of orbit. However, so far it has done its job very well. These scientists also used the XMMNewton, a space observatory specialized in detecting X-ray emissions. And, finally, they took data using ground-based telescopes at the Lick, Xinglong and Caucasus Mountain observatories. With all this, on October 31, 2025 was observed that the black hole’s brightness increased 50 times compared to its lowest levels. Something was happening. Another eruption had occurred in the black hole. But why? The data to have everything clearer. To understand what was happening in the black hole it was necessary to have as much data as possible. Therefore, we began measuring its size. It can’t be done directly, but it can be done by analyzing the host-galaxy mass ratio. This allows the mass of the black hole to be extrapolated by analyzing the galaxy that contains it. Thus, they saw that the black hole is equivalent to 2 million solar masses. On the other hand, terrestrial telescopes analyzed its spectrum and detected a series of lines during the eruption that are not normally present. These were mostly related to highly ionized iron, so it seemed that the eruption consisted mostly of ionized gases released over a long distance. The reasons for the black hole eruption. The eruption of a black hole is usually caused by the destruction of a star that came too close. It can also occur when two black holes orbit each other. However, all of these hypotheses did not fit with the data that was measured in IC3599. What seemed most fitting to these scientists was that it was an episode of instability in the radiation pressure of the accretion disk. This happens when light presses the gas in the inner disk so much that great instability is generated in this area, followed by its collapse. The ionized gas is ejected until the disc is empty. Afterwards, it is cooled and little by little it is slowly refilled. It is a process that It does not have a fixed periodicity. Between the first and the second eruption 19.5 years passed and between this and the third 15.7 years. For this reason, the hypothesis that it is due to the action of stars or compact objects with a fixed orbit is also ruled out. A fact that draws attention. Although the eruption of the black hole does not follow a fixed periodicity, there is something that does occur with a certain periodicity: an oscillation of X-ray measured every 7.4 hours. This may be something known as quasi-periodic oscillation, but at the moment it is not known what this is due to. It will be necessary to continue monitoring this black hole. 15 years have not been enough. Image | Pixabay artistic rendering In Xataka | Stephen Hawking made a prediction about black holes in 1971. A new signal has proven him overwhelmingly right

For the first time we have “touched” the event horizon of a black hole. This is how we got it

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On January 14, 2025, the largest gravitational wave so far was detected. Today, these types of findings They are much more frequent than when the first of these waves was discovered, 10 years ago now. However, the fact that it was especially intense encouraged an international team of scientists to try something they had been wanting to try for some time: delve into the event horizon of a black hole. Less noise and a lot of intensity. Since the first gravitational wave was detected, the techniques used have been greatly refined, so background noise has been significantly reduced. Therefore, today it is possible to detect direct waves, a “jet” of gravitational radiation that occurs just when the two event horizons of the black holes that collided give rise to a single one. The study of these waves could provide very interesting information about black holes. However, a sufficiently powerful gravitational wave was necessary. For years, the authors of the study that It was just published in Nature They were exploring options, but they knew they were looking at the ideal candidate when analyzing one that was detected in January 2025. Important concepts. Before understanding what these scientists did we must be clear what are gravitational waves and what is the event horizon. Gravitational waves are produced by a very violent event, capable of disturbing space-time like a stone falling into the water of a pond. Normally, said violent event is the collision of two black holes, which merge to give rise to a single one. For its part, the event horizon is the theoretical limit from which nothing approaching a black hole can escape. Not even the light. When two black holes merge, we go from having two event horizons to just one. Just when that happens, that’s when direct waves form. The event horizon of a black hole remains a great unknown in many ways GW250114. The gravitational wave detected on January 14, called GW250114, was formed when two very similar black holes collided, one of 33.6 solar masses and the other of 32.2 solar masses. The result was a black hole of 62.7 solar masses. This is not the exact sum of the two black holes, because there was a surplus that was released in the form of very intense energy. This is how gravitational waves arise. Before and after. Generally, black hole collisions can be observed before and after. The vibrations of the approach and the stabilization after the formation of the new black hole are studied. There is a lot of mystery surrounding what happens in the “during.” Therefore, studying direct waves could provide a lot of interesting information. Finding the ideal fusion, these scientists identified the direct waves and proceeded to analyze them. As they had anticipated, this allowed them to extract data about the new event horizon. In turn, this allows us to extract data that cannot normally be measured from black holes, such as their rotation frequency or surface gravity. Was Einstein right? Scientists have been studying whether Einstein was right for years. His theory of relativity covers so many phenomena in the Universe that, with each new one that is discovered, an attempt is made to verify whether its predictions are fulfilled. Thanks to this first measurement of direct waves, it is believed that in the future it will be possible to study whether these black hole mergers obey the General Theory of Relativity. Basically, they want to check for the umpteenth time whether Einstein was right. Although for this we will first have to check if these direct waves can be detected together with other gravitational waves and, incidentally, if the resulting measurements are consistent with those that have been made now. This is just a start, but at least it is a small thread drawn from the tangle of mysteries that surrounds black holes. Image | NOIRLab In Xataka | The LIGO experiment could test Einstein’s theories. It won’t be easy

Madrid is a black hole of workers and students who live outside Madrid. And they just took away their transport pass.

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No Autonomous Community lost as many inhabitants as Madrid in 2025. No Autonomous Community gained as many inhabitants as Madrid in 2025. It may seem paradoxical but is what the data says. Madrid has become a labor and economic black hole. And the consequences are obvious. It is the region that attracted the most population last year, adding more than 100,000 new residents. But it is also the one that lost the most population, with just over 12,000 people who have gone to live outside the Community of Madrid. The increase in house prices and the day-to-day cost of living is expelling some of its workers from the city. Some of them simply go to live far enough away to find more affordable housing with the promise that a quick train connection allows them to be just over an hour from their work. A good example is Valladolid. Those, perhaps, are the luckiest. Others have simply grown up outside the region, in a rural environment, and have come to Madrid to try their luck to get one of those jobs. statistics place only in large cities. Workers who, perhaps, simply They arrived in Madrid during their university days. and they have ended up staying. Unlike when they were in their twenties and returned to their place of origin every summer. Or workers who do not appear anywhere because they are irregular immigrants who have arrived in Madrid with the same promises as any other profile we have talked about before but that remain outside of any type of statistics. Madrid has decided to remove their transport pass from all of them. Or make it much more complicated. Unnecessarily unnecessary registration All the previously mentioned profiles could have access to the transport subscription of the Community of Madrid without any type of hindrance. All that was necessary was a DNI, a residence permit or a passport and to pay the corresponding fee each month. This transport pass allows you to take Metro, bus and Cercanías throughout the Community of Madrid, which is divided into zones. These areas even reach the closest towns in Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León and They range from 32.70 euros to 79.00 eurosdepending on the extension we seek to cover. Obviously, the pass is especially useful for those who travel by public transport to go to work or school, since it is a flat rate that in zone A is compensated after 40 or so trips. That is, if every week you take a train, a subway or a bus twice a day, the investment is already worth it. Much more if we take into account that the cost of the youth subscription (from 15 to 26 years old) is just 10 euros. But the Community of Madrid has announced something: you will have to be registered in the region or in one of the municipalities covered by the transport pass. (even if they are in one of the Castiles) to enjoy the flat rate. That is, this leaves out all those who have left the city to more distant municipalities, the students who do not register in the city because they return to their places of origin once the school year ends. Or immigrants who cannot prove their stay in the city. And the latter is what, everything indicates, has served as fuel for the Community of Madrid to make this decision. When the Government of Spain opened the door to the regularization of thousands of immigrants in April, some conditions were placed. One of them was to demonstrate certain rootssuch as receipts for rent, purchases… or being the holder of a public transport pass. The latter, because it is the simplest, filled the transportation offices with immigrants who wanted to get said transportation pass.. In response, in the Community of Madrid the requirements to obtain this card have changed and now they require proof of registration (unless you are a large family) in a municipality in Madrid or in surrounding regions. The result is that, automatically, immigrants in an irregular situation cannot get this transport pass but, as we said before, neither can workers expelled by the city itself, those who come to try their luck for a few months or university students. In The Country They point out that the Community of Madrid estimates that around 200,000 people are affected by this change, which will also be extended to all renovations in the future. That is, if you are not registered in Madrid and you renewed your transport pass last year, you will not have problems in a decade but it will be more complicated for those who renew it next year. The measure has sparked great controversy. And there are those who have pointed out the measure as “racist and exclusive”, as Oscar Lopezminister of the government of Spain and general secretary of the PSOE in Madrid, and of course numerous associations in defense of immigrants such as Regularización Ya, as reported in the newspaper. From the Community of Madrid they defend that The measure has been approved since 2011 and that has been delayed due to technical issues but in addition they have already opened the door for some autonomous communities to co-finance Madrid transport so that Your students can benefit from this flat rate. Those 200,000 affected barely exceed 3% of Madrid’s public transport users, but the economic hole is especially harmful to them. Right now, a university student who lives and goes to class within the city of Madrid pays 10 euros. If you take a bus and a subway each day there and back, you will make a minimum of 80 trips a week (Monday to Friday only). Without registering, you will start paying 58.40 euros. If you live in Madrid but study in another area beyond the city, you will pay at least 85 euros. The punishment is even greater if you combine the metro and/or the municipal bus with the Cercanías service. The situation is … Read more

a star with a black hole inside

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From 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope has detected hundreds of red dotspossibly formed about 600 million years after the Big Bang. Its origin has been an enigma for all this time. However, little by little the same telescope is managing to delve into some of them until making such interesting findings. like the black hole that formed before its galaxy. Now, furthermore, has done the most in-depth and detailed inspection so far one of these red dots, discovering in the process an object that until now was only considered theoretical: the black hole star. More precision than ever. Some of these red dots have the advantage of being close to a large galactic cluster that can function as a magnifying glass. Having a great mass, its gravitational attraction deforms space time, which curves, generating a kind of lens that magnifies what is behind. This has allowed the James Webb to delve much better into the GLIMPSE-17775 red dot, obtaining the equivalent of 80 hours of observation with 30 hours of observation. Its spectrograph has revealed 40 spectral lines, the most detailed analysis of one of these red dots, and with them a pretty good idea of ​​its composition. black hole star. When a very massive star no longer has fuel to remain “on” it can reach a point where it collapses and becomes a black hole. Usually a complete conversion. The entire star is “replaced” by the black hole. However, there is a hypothesis that in some cases a part of the star does not disappear, so that the black hole remains embedded inside it. This theoretical phenomenon is known as quasi star or black hole star and it would basically be a stellar-sized black hole, surrounded by a dense cocoon of partially ionized gas. It could happen, but until now none had been detected. The 40 spectral lines. As explained by the authors of the studythe 40 spectral lines found by James Webb were like puzzle pieces lying on the ground. As they were taken and placed in their place, the black hole star appeared. For example, there were lines associated with hydrogen, oxygen and helium that do not fit the simple model of a rotating gas cloud, such as that found around a black hole. On the other hand, there were oxygen lines that could only be formed with a large amount of energy, such as that coming from a black hole. There were also lines of iron that would correspond to those that form in a star that is already fusing its last fuel reserves. Finally, there were lines that would correspond to a scattering of electrons like the one that would take place in that cocoon of dense gas. Everything fits. The spectrum also revealed the existence of fluorescence and helium absorption, both characteristics that fit with a dense medium that surrounds a powerful energy source. Everything fits with the black hole star. In fact, it is possible that other red dots are also red, since that would explain why they emit so few X-rays. The cocoons of star debris would be absorbing the black hole’s emissions, preventing them from being detected by telescopes. Other red dots will have to continue to be analyzed, but it seems that they are becoming less enigmatic than when they were discovered. All thanks to James Webb. Image | NASA, ESA, CSA, Vasily Kokorev (UT Austin); Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) In Xataka | We have been studying the planets of TRAPPIST-1 for years with great hope. James Webb just knocked it down

This is how a supermassive black hole wakes up

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A team of scientists led by Riccardo Middei, from the INAF Astronomical Observatory in Rome, has monitored the step by step of a black hole “resurrecting” after “taking a break.” After monitoring for six years the galaxy that houses ithave been able to see how, after a clear decrease in its brightness, its activity increased significantly. This has allowed them confirm that some standards of physics were very well calculated. However, it has also been detected that some may not have been entirely correct. It’s actually more than six years.. All part of the observations of the Seyfert galaxy ESO 511-G030 that were made in 2007 and 2019 during the mission XMM Newton. It was found that the brightness of the center of the galaxy was 10 times weaker in 2019, whether measured in ultraviolet or when X-rays were detected. A previous detection indicated an increase in 2012, but since there were no measurements between 2012 and 2019, it was not possible to know exactly what happened in that period. The authors of the study that has just been published They wanted to have continuous monitoring, so they took regular data with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory from 2019 to 2025. Thus, they saw that, indeed, in 2019 the black hole at the center of the galaxy had practically fallen asleep. However, in 2021 a recovery began to be detected, first in the brightness measured in ultraviolet and then in X-rays. The black hole was waking up. An active galactic nucleus. The Seyfert galaxy is a galactically active nucleus. That is, it emits a brightness higher than that which would correspond to the sum of all its stars. This is because at its center there is an active supermassive black hole. This attracts all matter that gets too close to it. In fact, from a boundary known as the event horizon, not even light can escape. Throughout this process of falling into the black hole, a lot of radiation is emitted. Knowing this, we can see two parts in the black hole. On the one hand, the accretion disk, a rotating ring of hot gas and matter falling into the black hole. During its rotation, it emits optical light and ultraviolet radiation. On the other hand, on this disk is the corona, composed of hot plasma, whose emissions are mainly X-rays. This is the reason why, to measure the activity of a black hole, data are taken in both ultraviolet and Step by step. The reactivation of the black hole occurred in two parts. First of all, the brightness in the ultraviolet clearly increased, between 2021 and 2023. Then, between 2022 and 2023 it was the turn of the X-rays. Therefore, it can be said that first the activity increased in the accretion disk and then in the corona of the black hole. size doesn’t matter. By eliminating the contribution corresponding to the stars of the galaxy, the brightness corresponding to the black hole increased by 20 to 30 times. It was a radical increase in activity, which came at just the right time. And scientists calculate that the transition occurred at just under 1% of its Eddington rate. This is a theoretical figure that describes the universal threshold at which a black hole can accrete or attract matter before radiation pressure expels the incoming gas. For it to truly be a universal figure, as predicted, it would have to be equivalent for both very large black holes and stellar ones. In the stars it has already been measured. Now, in this one, which has a mass equal to 17 million times that of the Sun, the figure is practically the same, so it can be considered universal. What doesn’t add up. The limit from which the black hole “falls asleep and wakes up” seems to coincide with the theory, but there is something that does not fit so much: the speed at which it does so. Both the fade and the recovery occurred too quickly than estimated in the standard models. Therefore, it is clear that the models still have a lot to perfect. To be able to do this, it will be necessary to study more galaxies like this one. Comes into play Vera Rubin Observatoryin which so many astronomers are placing their hopes. Thus, based on observations, the missing piece may be found. Image | POT In Xataka | We already know in which region of the solar system Planet 9 must be (if it really exists)

If you’ve ever wondered how much a massive black hole weighs, the answer is that the Sun next to it looks like a marble.

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“What am I going to have for breakfast today?” when will this heat pass” and “how much does a black hole“are those three questions that you will surely ask yourself every day when you wake up. For the first two the answer is uncertain, but for the third a group of researchers from Carnegie Science in California has the answer. Because they have just measured, for the first time, the mass of an inactive black hole that dates back to the early universe and they do not give the answer in tons because it is a figure that escapes human understanding. But they do give the mass compared to the Sun and… well, it’s still not something we can assume. The weight of a black hole. The results HE they published this past Thursday in Science magazine and they are clear: a black hole located in the center of the galaxy MRG-M0138 has about 6,000 million times the mass of the Sun. The mass of our star is 2 × 10^30 kg, equivalent to 332,946 times the mass of the Earth. Does this leave you calmer? Surely not because it is like when they tell us that one company buys another for 75 billion dollars: These are such absurd quantities that it is very difficult to get the idea of ​​what it entails, but this thing about weighing bodies around the universe makes sense. Fascinatingly, MRG-M0138 is a massive galaxy whose light has traveled to our sensors from a time when the universe was only about 3 billion years old. This galaxy is no longer forming stars and the central black hole is “quiet.” The scale spacel. To achieve the measurement, the team at the Californian center used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to track the movement of stars around the cosmic giant. It is not the first time that the mass of a black hole has been calculated, but it is the first time that it has been done with one that is so far away (10,000 million light years from Earth, 15 times further than the previous measurement record) and, in addition, it is the first time that an inactive black hole in a galaxy of the early universe. This speaks very well of the benefits of the JWST, which with its sensors allows a very defined image of extremely distant bodies, opening up a huge range when it comes to studying what surrounds us. The problem with sleeping black holes is that they are invisible. It does not emit light, so it cannot be observed directly. So, to “weigh it,” the researchers used a technique that had already been used before: stellar dynamics. Basically, they look at the speed at which stars move near the galactic center and compare that speed to that of more distant stars. In this way, they infer the mass of the black hole. So that. To continue knowing what surrounds us, basically. Because it is not just about measuring the mass of something so distant, but about understanding the formation around it. Thus, this discovery offers new clues to researchers about black holes and galaxies that were born in the early universe. A look at the future by looking at the past. Because, until not long ago, it had been difficult to prove whether there was a close relationship between the central black holes of these very old galaxies. Recent findings suggest that those denser galaxies were sites of rapid black hole growth early in the history of the cosmos. Furthermore, this research will be the basis for future work that will delve into this relationship and, above all, it will also be the basis for analyzing the data collected by the JWST in other similar galaxies. In fact, although the JWST is a good cosmic “magnifying glass”, in Chile the observatory is being expandedThe Bells‘ which is supported by Carnegie Science and will allow studying stellar movements in distant galaxies in much more detail than what JWST offers. In the end, it is about continuing to understand the universe and studies like this allow us to test theoretical methods to understand how massive black holes formed, grew, shaped the evolution of galaxies and, ultimately, became silent giants. Image | Navid Marvi/Carnegie Science In Xataka | We had always believed that galaxies preceded black holes. James Webb has discovered something else

Gasoline hoses have a tiny hole at the end. Without chips involved, it is the smartest piece in the entire supplier

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If you’ve ever paid attention to the pump while filling up, you may have noticed that it has a small hole located near the tip of the metal nozzle. That little hole is, possibly, the most ingenious piece of the entire set. And it is responsible for the hose “knowing” when to stop adding fuel and stopping on its own with that characteristic click. What exactly is it. This small hole is located at the end of the pipe (the part that you insert into the tank) and is connected to a thin, secondary tube that runs inside the nozzle parallel to the main fuel line. The nozzle uses the fuel itself that is being pumped to create the effect that activates the automatic cut. So to speak, the little hole does not pour gasoline, but rather breathes air. How it works. The key is in a physical principle called the Venturi effect. While the fuel flows at high speed through a narrowing of the duct, a low pressure zone is generated that sucks air through that small hole in the tip. The Venturi effect occurs because The density of gasoline is greater than that of airand it is precisely this phenomenon that causes the dispenser to turn off automatically when the tank is full. The moment of cutting. When the gasoline level inside the tank rises to cover that hole, the tube stops being able to suck in air. When the airflow is cut off, the suction is triggered and creates a vacuum that pulls on a flexible membrane (a diaphragm) housed in the handle of the nozzle. That movement releases a lever mechanism that slams the main valve shut, stopping fuel instantly. The pressure change causes the diaphragm to “jump”releasing the mechanical lever that closes the valve and ending with a click. And as you may have already noticed, the cut occurs even if you continue to pull the trigger. 100% mechanical. This entire system is purely mechanical. There are no electronic sensors, no chips, no batteries. The handle simply generates a slight vacuum at the tip of the pipe, and if that point becomes clogged, a mechanism closes the valve. It is basic physics applied to this little invention that we use in our routine, and that is capable of detecting even a small amount of fuel, blocking the hole to prevent it from overflowing. Security and cuts. This system prevents gasoline from overflowing from the tank, something that would be dangerous (risk of fire) and polluting. But its usefulness goes beyond safe filling. This extraordinary sensitivity is also the cause of those premature and repeated cuts when the jet turns off even though the tank is not full. The most common cause of these annoying cuts is simply a little gasoline splashing back and covers the hole momentarily, activating the mechanism ahead of time. In cars with short filler tubes, a rapid flow can easily flood that column, so the first recommended remedy is usually to reduce the filling rate. The position of the nozzle and the temperature of the fuel also play a role. In Xataka | The United States has the best electric car chargers in the world. Europe has something more important

Now we know that the Iranian Air Force did to the US what Ukraine could not do to Russia with drones: an abysmal hole

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During the Vietnam War, American commanders discovered that some of their most protected bases they could be hit unexpectedly due to coordinated attacks low costforcing to reinforce defenses that until then were considered sufficient and making it clear that, in war, the feeling of security is usually more fragile than it seems. The blow that no one expected. For decades, the US military architecture in the Middle East relied on in a network of bases designed to surround and contain Iran, a direct heir to the Cold War doctrine and designed to project power quickly. However, a report that came to light this weekend on NBC News has revealed a radical inversion of that logic in the war of 2026: what was supposed to be a shield has become a set of exposed objectives, hit in a coordinated manner by Iranian attacks that hit more than a hundred targets in several countries. We are talking about critical infrastructures such as runways, radars, hangars, command centers or defense systems were damaged or destroyed, and the impact was neither marginal nor symbolic, but structuralaffecting the very functioning of the US deployment in the region. The fence that ended up surrounded. The system of bases in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the Emirates or Saudi Arabia was designed to suffocate Iran, but its ability to attack key logistics nodes turned the equation around. How much? It appears that critical facilities were left disabled or evacuatedincluding the headquarters of the Fifth Fleet in Bahrainwhile multiple bases in Iraq and Kuwait had to be abandoned or rendered inoperative. The pressure was such that even the resupply became problematicleaving the American forces themselves in a position close to the siege they intended to impose. The encirclement strategy, which seemed unquestionable for decades, suddenly showed its fragility in the face of an adversary with saturation capacity through missiles, drones and aviation. The hole that changes war. What is most revealing is not only the extent of the damage, but what they represent for Washington: for the first time in years, a rival has managed to systematically drill US military infrastructure at multiple points at once. Iran not only hit bases, but achieved something that until now seemed beyond the reach of other recent conflicts: opening a deep and sustained hole in the defensive framework of the United States, affecting radarsair defenses and strategic assets. That ability to simultaneously degrade multiple layers of the system is reminiscent of what other actors have tried unsuccessfully in wars like the one in Ukraine, but here it translated in real effects on the ground, altering the operational balance and forcing us to rethink the assumed superiority. From control to operational chaos. The middle counted American that the intensity of the attacks and the speed with which they occurred generated a scenario of disorganization that overwhelmed the usual command and control mechanisms. Bases evacuatedemergency relocated personnel and even improvised situations what do we countsuch as the use of civil infrastructure, reflect the extent to which operational pressure broke the planned patterns. Plus: the inability to anticipate and managing the real scope of the attacks, added to the lack of clear communication about the damage, fueled the perception of an overwhelmed response to a type of more distributed warfaster and harder to contain. A cost beyond money. Although initial estimates speak of billions dollars in repairs (not counting advanced systems or unrecoverable equipment), the true impact possibly transcends the economic. What has been affected is the military deployment model itself: the idea that a network of advanced bases guarantees regional control. In other words, the war has shown that, faced with an adversary capable of to attack in depth with means relatively accessiblethis hitherto untouchable network may become a rather critical vulnerability. The result in the pavement American is not only a balance sheet of damages, but a strategic warning that forces us to give more than one turn to its scheme of how military power is projected in a world where distance is already does not protect the same. Image | x In Xataka | If the war resumes again, the US runs a risk unprecedented in the history of war: that the only one with missiles will be Iran. In Xataka | If the question is why the US attacked an Iranian ship with a weapon unprecedented in 40 years, we already know the answer: a “gift from China”

A seven-dimensional black hole model proves that Stephen Hawking was right, to say the least.

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For a long time it was thought that black holes could only grow, since nothing escapes from them. Later, Stephen Hawking dismantled this theory, pointing out that radiation can come out of its interior and that, in fact, with this process the black hole it is fading away little by little. This hypothesis generated a new paradox; since, according to quantum mechanics, information cannot be created or destroyed in a quantum system. If the information cannot be destroyed, when the black hole disappears, where does all the information it stored go? This question has been a mystery until a team of scientists from the Slovak Academy of Sciences It occurred to him to do simulations in a 7-dimensional system. A reminder about black holes. a black hole It is an astronomical object so massive that its gravitational pull does not allow anything to escape from it. Not even the light. At a certain distance from the black hole is the event horizon, which is that point of no return from which everything is attracted towards its interior. Hawking radiation. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking launched a hypothesis which destroyed the idea that nothing can escape from a black hole. According to him, if we take quantum physics into account, there is something that can do it. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle states that a vacuum is not empty as such. Particle-antiparticle pairs continually form and appear and disappear. If this occurs in the vicinity of the event horizon, it could be that one of these particles is attracted towards the black hole, while another manages to escape from it, being slightly beyond the point of no return. That exhaust extracts energy from the black hole. This is what was called Hawking radiation. Disappearing black holes. We have all heard the famous formula from Einstein’s theory of relativity: E = mc². Since c is a constant, if there is energy, there must also be mass and, therefore, if energy is lost, for the constant to be maintained, mass must also be lost. That means that every time a black hole loses energy it is also losing mass. They are very massive objects, they would take a long time to turn off, but they finally do. The paradox arrives. Initially, many colleagues saw Hawking’s hypothesis as nonsense. However, today it is much more accepted. However, it is undeniable that it poses problems, such as the black hole information paradox. Where does the information go? Twisting space-time. The solution to the mystery has been possible by putting aside the theory of general relativity and analyze the problem with a somewhat more complex one: the Einstein-Cartan theory. The first points out that mass and energy can curve space-time. On the other hand, the second points out that it can also twist. For scales that are not excessively small there is no difference. However, when moving to tiny scales and therefore very high densities, This torsion plays an important role. A 7D model. Quantum physics models are often made in 4 dimensions: the three we all know and time. However, the authors of the recently published study took three more into account, so that the effects of the Einstein-Cartan torsion could be analyzed. Thus, they saw that when the matter of a black hole collapses its density increases greatly and, therefore, the twisting of space-time is detected. This gives rise to a repulsive effect, which counteracts the gravitational attraction that would normally take place in the engrossing hole. As a result, the evaporation of the black hole stops, which remains in a stable state, generating a remnant with a mass of 9×10⁻⁴¹ kg. A remnant with a lot of information. This tiny remnant is capable of storing all the information of the matter that the black hole contained. Specifically, these scientists’ models suggest that the remnant of a black hole the size of the Sun could store up to 1,515 × 10⁷⁷ qubits of information. Therefore, Hawking’s hypotheses are still valid and there is not even a paradox that dismantles them. At least this is not the lost information. Image | ESO (Wikimedia Commons) | ASA/Paul Alers (Wikimedia Commons) In Xataka | In 2009 Stephen Hawking hosted “the party of the century.” No one came precisely because Stephen Hawking organized it

If you think that renovating your house is urgent, think about this building in Ukraine. Its hole is so big that it is a danger for Europe

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He Chernobyl accident released so much radiation that some areas they remain uninhabitable almost four decades later. In fact, the plant continues to house materials capable of remaining dangerous for thousands of years. Therefore, keeping them under control is one of the greatest engineering challenges ever faced in Europe. A challenge that a drone has put to the test. It was to last a century. The story we tell it a few months ago. The gigantic steel arch built over Chernobyl reactor 4 was conceived as a definitive solution to contain the worst nuclear accident in history for at least a hundred years, a colossal structure designed to isolate the ancient “sarcophagus” and buy humanity time. More than 100 meters high and capable of housing entire monuments inside, this system had to resist extreme conditions and allow the safe decommissioning of the reactor, encapsulating hundreds of tons of radioactive material that remain active decades after the disaster. The impact that changed everything. But everything changed in February 2025when a drone attack in the middle of the night pierced that shell seemingly invulnerable, opening a breach in the structure and exposing a system that was never designed to operate in a war environment. Although there were no immediate leaks or casualties, the damage compromised critical functionsespecially ventilation that controls humidity and prevents corrosion, introducing a silent but growing risk that could degrade the structure in a few years. What is still hidden under the steel. Under the damaged arch remains an environment extremely unstable: remains of the reactor, tons of nuclear fuel and melts of highly radioactive materials that continue to react slowly. The old “sarcophagus,” hastily built in 1986, was never structurally reliableand is actually completely dependent on the new cover to maintain the insulation. In other words, if that balance fails, the risk is not immediate, but potentially devastating, with the possibility of release radioactive dust that the wind could disperse throughout Europe. A “reform” as expensive as it is complex. System restore will not be neither quick nor easysince it involves working in conditions of high radiation, with strict limitations on time and exposure for operators. Temporary solutions barely contain the most urgent damage, while full restoration will require rebuilding highly specialized internal layers within a structure designed as a technical “sandwich”. We are talking about an estimated cost that exceeds 500 million of euros, a figure that reflects both the technical complexity and the hostile environment in which repairs must be carried out. The war enters Europe’s greatest nuclear risk. If you like, the incident it is not isolatedbut part of a context in which nuclear infrastructure have become exposed elements within an active conflict. Paradoxically, the Chernobyl exclusion zone that we had to protect from any danger has been the scene of military operationstroop movements and constant overflights of missiles and drones, which multiplies the risk of new impacts, whether accidental or intentional. In that scenario, even a technical failure or trajectory error could trigger consequences continental in scope. A reminder of what never ended. They remembered in a special from the Financial Times this week that, decades after the accident, Chernobyl remains the same latent threat, one that requires constant vigilance and international cooperation, and the drone impact has revealed the fragility of the systems designed to contain it. The infrastructure that was to definitively close the disastrous episode of 1986 now faces a new type of risk, thus demonstrating that nuclear safety depends not only on engineering, but also of geopolitical stabilitya (and common sense). In that delicate balance, each crack is not just a structural failure, but a warning about the limits of our ability to control the consequences of our own creations. Image | EBRD In Xataka | Drones in Ukraine have mutated into a system reminiscent of the Alien universe: an exoskeleton turns troops into super soldiers In Xataka | Iran is exploiting the US’s weak point: it is not its F-35s or its Patriot missiles, it is the bill every time they take off

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