TYB
Survivor Winner Bick Wilson From The Jungle To KY Legislature …Wins Midterm Election
The tribe has spoken and past "Survivor" winner Nick Wilson is in the house … Kentucky's House of Representatives, that is!!!
The competition series champ and former public defender took the W in this week's midterm election … becoming a Kentucky state legislator after announcing last year he would run for the seat.
Nick was running unopposed in his 82nd district, making this one of the easier challenges he's faced in recent years … and he didn't even have to get dropped in the jungle!
Fans of the show know Nick was voted the winner of the CBS show's 37th season, "David vs. Goliath" – while many early on saw him as a bit lazy, he quickly proved himself … making it all the way to the end.
Fun fact: Mike White, the creator of "White Lotus," was also on the "David vs. Goliath" season with Nick.
He returned in 2020 for "Winners at War," pitting him against other champions of the past … but he didn't take home the gold that time – instead, he got blindsided and ended up in 7th place.
Someone's got that immunity idol!!!
https://www.tmz.com/2022/11/11/survivor-winner-nick-wilson-elect-house-of-representatives-kentucky-midterms/
Webb Offers Never-Before-Seen Details of Early Universe
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was specially designed to detect the faint infrared light from very distant galaxies and give astronomers a glimpse at the early universe. The nature of galaxies during this early period of our universe is not well known nor understood. But with the help of gravitational lensing by a cluster of galaxies in the foreground, faint background galaxies can be magnified and also appear multiple times in different parts of the image.
Today, we sit down with three astronomers working on Webb to talk about their latest findings. The team members are Dan Coe of AURA/STScI for the European Space Agency and the Johns Hopkins University; Tiger Hsiao of the Johns Hopkins University; and Rebecca Larson of the University of Texas at Austin. These scientists have been observing the distant galaxy MACS0647-JD with Webb, and they’ve found something interesting.
Dan Coe: I discovered this galaxy MACS0647-JD 10 years ago with the Hubble Space Telescope. At the time, I’d never worked on high redshift galaxies, and then I found this one that was potentially the most distant at redshift 11, about 97 percent of the way back to the big bang. With Hubble, it was just this pale, red dot. We could tell it was really small, just a tiny galaxy in the first 400 million years of the universe. Now we look with Webb, and we’re able to resolve TWO objects! We’re actively discussing whether these are two galaxies or two clumps of stars within a galaxy. We don’t know, but these are the questions that Webb is designed to help us answer.
Tiger Yu-Yang Hsiao: You can also see that the colors between the two objects are so different. One’s bluer; the other one is redder. The blue gas and the red gas have different characteristics. The blue one actually has very young star formation and almost no dust, but the small, red object has more dust inside, and is older. And their stellar masses are also probably different.
It’s really interesting that we see two structures in such a small system. We might be witnessing a galaxy merger in the very early universe. If this is the most distant merger, I will be really ecstatic!
Dan Coe: Due to the gravitational lensing of the massive galaxy cluster MACS0647, it’s lensed into three images: JD1, JD2, and JD3. They’re magnified by factors of eight, five, and two, respectively.
Rebecca Larson: Up to this point, we haven’t really been able to study galaxies in the early universe in great detail. We had only tens of them prior to Webb. Studying them can help us understand how they evolved into the ones like the galaxy we live in today. And also, how the universe evolved throughout time.
I think my favorite part is, for so many new Webb image we get, if you look in the background, there are all these little dots—and those are all galaxies! Every single one of them. It’s amazing the amount of information that we’re getting that we just weren’t able to see before. And this is not a deep field. This is not a long exposure. We haven’t even really tried to use this telescope to look at one spot for a long time. This is just the beginning!
https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/10/26/webb-offers-never-before-seen-details-of-early-universe/
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/videos/01GG5W78M4HHTNVQSAR1G4861J
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/52471113068/in/album-72177720301006030/
Beneath the Night Sky in a Galaxy (Not Too) Far Away
We spoke with Kristen McQuinn of Rutgers University, one of the lead scientists on Webb Early Release Science (ERS) program 1334, focused on resolved stellar populations. These are large groups of stars – including stars within the dwarf galaxy Wolf–Lundmark–Melotte (WLM) – that are close enough for Webb to differentiate between individual stars, but far enough for Webb to capture a large number of stars at once.
So, tell us a bit about this galaxy, WLM. What’s interesting about it?
WLM is a dwarf galaxy in our galactic neighborhood. It’s fairly close to the Milky Way (only about 3 million light-years from Earth), but it’s also relatively isolated. We think WLM hasn’t interacted with other systems, which makes it really nice for testing our theories of galaxy formation and evolution. Many of the other nearby galaxies are intertwined and entangled with the Milky Way, which makes them harder to study.
Another interesting and important thing about WLM is that its gas is similar to the gas that made up galaxies in the early universe. It’s fairly unenriched, chemically speaking. (That is, it’s poor in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.)
This is because the galaxy has lost many of these elements through something we call galactic winds. Although WLM has been forming stars recently – throughout cosmic time, really – and those stars have been synthesizing new elements, some of the material gets expelled from the galaxy when the massive stars explode. Supernovae can be powerful and energetic enough to push material out of small, low-mass galaxies like WLM.
This makes WLM super interesting in that you can use it to study how stars form and evolve in small galaxies like those in the ancient universe.
You arranged to show this image at a planetarium. How did you feel when you saw the image projected on the dome?
It was just inspiring. It really was incredible. I will never look at these images the same again. Seeing this on the dome, it was like looking up at our own night sky – at the Milky Way – from a dark site. I could imagine that we were standing on a planet in the WLM galaxy and looking up at its night sky.
We can see a myriad of individual stars of different colors, sizes, temperatures, ages, and stages of evolution; interesting clouds of nebular gas within the galaxy; foreground stars with Webb’s diffraction spikes; and background galaxies with neat features like tidal tails. It’s really a gorgeous image.
And, of course, the view is far deeper and better than our eyes could possibly see. Even if you were looking out from a planet in the middle of this galaxy, and even if you could see infrared light, you would need bionic eyes to be able to see what Webb sees.
What are you trying to find out by studying WLM?
The main science focus is to reconstruct the star formation history of this galaxy. Low-mass stars can live for billions of years, which means that some of the stars that we see in WLM today formed in the early universe. By determining the properties of these low-mass stars (like their ages), we can gain insight into what was happening in the very distant past. It’s very complementary to what we learn about the early formation of galaxies by looking at high-redshift systems, where we see the galaxies as they existed when they first formed.
The Early Release Science programs were designed to highlight Webb’s capabilities and help astronomers prepare for future observations. How are you supporting other astronomers with this work?
In a few ways. We’re checking the calibration of the NIRCam instrument itself. We’re checking our stellar evolution models. And we’re developing software to measure star brightnesses.
We already studied this exact same field very carefully with Hubble. Now we’re looking at the near-infrared light with Webb, and we’re using WLM as a sort of standard for comparison (like you would use in a lab) to help us make sure we understand the Webb observations. We want to make sure we’re measuring the stars’ brightnesses really, really accurately and precisely. We also want to make sure that we understand our stellar evolution models in the near-infrared.
Our team is also charged with developing a public software tool to measure the brightness of all the resolved stars in the NIRCam images. This is a non-proprietary tool that everyone will be able to use. We are developing and testing the software, and optimizing the parameters used for measurements. This is a bedrock tool for astronomers around the world. If you want to do anything with resolved stars that are crowded together on the sky, you need a tool like this.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/
ESO (European Southern Observatory) images a wondrous star factory to mark 60 years of collaboration
For the past 60 years the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has been enabling scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe. We mark this milestone by bringing you a spectacular new image of a star factory, the Cone Nebula, taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT).
On 5 October 1962 five countries signed the convention to create ESO. Now, six decades later and supported by 16 Member States and strategic partners, ESO brings together scientists and engineers from across the globe to develop and operate advanced ground-based observatories in Chile that enable breakthrough astronomical discoveries.​
On the occasion of ESO’s 60th anniversary we are releasing this remarkable new image of the Cone Nebula, captured earlier this year with one of ESO’s telescopes and selected by ESO staff. This is part of a campaign marking ESO's 60th anniversary and taking place in late 2022, both on social media under the #ESO60years hashtag, and with local events in the ESO Member States and other countries.
In this new image, we see centre-stage the seven-light-year-long pillar of the Cone Nebula, which is part of the larger star-forming region NGC 2264 and was discovered in the late 18th century by astronomer William Herschel. In the sky, we find this horn-shaped nebula in the constellation Monoceros (The Unicorn), a surprisingly fitting name.
Located less than 2500 light-years away, the Cone Nebula is relatively close to Earth, making it a well-studied object. But this view is more dramatic than any obtained before, as it showcases the nebula’s dark and impenetrable cloudy appearance in a way that makes it resemble a mythological creature.
The Cone Nebula is a perfect example of the pillar-like shapes that develop in the giant clouds of cold molecular gas and dust, known for creating new stars. This type of pillar arises when massive, newly formed bright blue stars give off stellar winds and intense ultraviolet radiation that blow away the material from their vicinity. As this material is pushed away, the gas and dust further away from the young stars gets compressed into dense, dark and tall pillar-like shapes. This process helps create the dark Cone Nebula, pointing away from the brilliant stars in NGC 2264.
In this image, obtained with the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) on ESO’s VLT in Chile, hydrogen gas is represented in blue and sulphur gas in red. The use of these filters makes the otherwise bright blue stars, that indicate the recent star formation, appear almost golden, contrasting with the dark cone like sparklers.
This image is just one example of the many stunning and awe-inspiring observations ESO telescopes have made in the past 60 years. While this one was obtained for outreach purposes, the overwhelming majority of ESO’s telescope time is dedicated to scientific observations that have allowed us to capture the first image of an exoplanet, study the black hole at the centre of our home galaxy, and find proof that the expansion of our Universe is accelerating.
Building on our 60 years of experience ​in astronomy development, discovery and cooperation, ​ESO continues to chart new territory for astronomy, technology and international collaboration. With our current facilities and ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), we will keep on addressing humanity’s biggest questions about the Universe ​and enabling unimaginable discoveries.​
The image in this release was created as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems programme, an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes, for the purposes of education and public outreach. The programme makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations. All data collected may also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to astronomers through ESO’s science archive.
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2215/
https://www.eso.org/public/outreach/gems/
Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak ousted in Nevada
Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) was projected to lose reelection in the race for the Nevada governor’s mansion, making his Republican challenger, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, the first candidate to knock out a Democratic incumbent in a gubernatorial race this cycle.
The Associated Press called the race for Lombardo shortly before 9 p.m. ET. Sisolak had conceded in a statement before the call was made.
“While votes are still coming in — and we need every ballot tallied and every voice heard — it appears we will fall a percentage point or so short of winning,” he said.
Lombardo had hammered Sisolak over crime during the fiercely fought race, echoing a strategy used by Republicans across the country in the lead-up to Nov. 8.
Additionally, the Republican seized on concerns over skyrocketing inflation and the possibility of a major recession. He was endorsed by former President Trump, who campaigned for him and GOP Senate candidate Adam Laxalt in Las Vegas over the summer.
Lombardo’s win could end up being the biggest bright spot for his party in the Silver State. Laxalt currently holds a slim lead over Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, though her allies expect her to overtake him as more votes come in. Meanwhile, three Democratic House incumbents won their respective races in Nevada, while GOP secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant was expected to lose to Democrat Cisco Aguilar.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3731841-democratic-gov-steve-sisolak-concedes-in-nevada/