Reclaiming the U.S. Senate Majority In the fight for control of the U.S. Senate, Republicans have been on offense most of the 2024 cycle. The 2024 Senate map heavily favors Republicans. The current Senate…

A long time ago, the Milky Way Galaxy was busy being a prodigious star-formation engine. In those times, it turned out dozens or hundreds of stars per year. These days, it’s rather more quiescent, cranking out only a few per year. Astronomers want to understand the Milky Way’s star-birth history, so they focus on some of the more recent star litters to study. One of them is Westerlund 1, a young so-called “super star cluster” that looks compact and contains a diverse array of older stars. It was part of a burst of star creation around 4 to 5 million years ago. Several observatories have looked at Westerlund 1, including the James Webb Space Telescope. Its observation is part of a project called the Extended Westerlund 1 and 2 Open Clusters survey (EWOCS) using the near-infrared camera on the telescope. Why use NIRCam to look at bright stars in an open cluster? It’s because Westerlund 1 is challenging to observe. It lies (from our point of view) behind an obscuring cloud of gas and dust that absorbs or scatters most of the visible light coming from the cluster. Infrared light gets right through, however, so that made it easier to study and characterize the stars in this cluster. It’s also observable in X-rays, allowing astronomers to pinpoint energetic sources in the cluster. The Webb view reveals the full range of stars in Westerlund 1, making it easier to spot the various stellar types. In addition, the NIRCam image shows patches of reddish gas in and around the cluster. A view of Westerlund 1 from the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. One of its stars (called W26) is a red supergiant seems to be surrounded by clouds of hydrogen gas. It’s the first ionized nebula to be seen around a red supergiant star. Courtesy European Southern Observatory. About Westerlund 1 This collection of stars may be the most massive known cluster of its kind in the Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomers estimate it contains up to 100,000 times the mass of the Sun. Its population consists almost entirely of red supergiants, yellow hypergiants, and at least one luminous blue variable, in addition to other types of giants. There’s also an X-ray pulsar in the cluster and a magnetar that formed from a supernova explosion. The whole collection occupies a region less than six light-years across. Westerlund 1 in visible and x-ray light. Arrows point to a magnetar discovered in this super star cluster. Courtesy NASA/CXC/UCLA/M.Muno et al Westerlund 1 probably formed about 4 to 5 million years ago in one massive burst of star formation. Its age makes it an infant in stellar “years” and many of its massive, giant-type stars have short lifetimes. Compared to the Sun’s projected 10-billion-year lifetime, just one of those supergiant stars will live only about 20 million years at the most. Then, it will explode as a supernova, scattering its remains across space. Astronomers estimated the age of Westerlund 1 based on a comparison of older, more evolved stars to well-understood models of stellar evolution. Those models suggest typical ages of stars of varying masses. This cluster pushes the boundaries of the models, with its red and yellow supergiants, as well as Wolf-Rayet stars (highly evolved and massive). The red supergiants, for example, don’t typically get to that stage for a least 4 million years. Wolf-Rayet stars, which are extremely bright and hot, don’t live very long. Due to their brief lifetimes, these weird old stars are also quite rare. Living with this Cluster Westerlund 1 provides important clues about the origin and evolution of young, massive stars in clusters. The different populations there tell a story about this cluster’s formation and effect on its nearby neighborhood. First, the diverse mix of stars gives clues to its “initial mass function”. That describes the distribution of stellar masses in a cluster—that is, how many stars of different masses formed from the original star-birth crèche. What’s equally interesting is what this cluster’s stars will do in the future. Since there are so many massive stars and so few supernovae remnants there, it’s only a matter of time before the stellar fireworks begin. Over 40 million years, more than 1,500 supernovae will occur, making Westerlund 1 a brilliant spectacle for study. In the long term, Westerlund 1 will likely evolve from an open cluster into a spherically shaped conglomeration of stars called a globular cluster. For now, this cluster presents an extreme environment in which stars and planets (if there are any) can form. Plus, it’s rare. Only a few like it still exist in our galaxy, offering clues to that earlier era in Milky Way history when most of its stars formed. That’s why it’s considered a “laboratory” where astronomers can study the evolution of high-mass stars. For More Information The Exotic Stellar Population of Westerlund 1Westerlund under the Ligh tof GAIA EDR3: Distance, Isolation, Extent, and a Hidden Population The post The Open Star Cluster Westerlund 1, Seen by Webb appeared first on Universe Today.

"It's actually amazing."

They arrived to their Troubadour show in style. Continue reading…

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In the music business since the early 70s, the bassist, singer and songwriter Gene Simmons had the chance to see many incredible bands appearing over the decades. Besides being known as a talented musician and businessman, he is also remembered for being quite sincere about things. He always gave his true opinion on things and talked about many bands, revealing if he liked them or not. One of those groups is Oasis, the successful Britpop band led by the brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher, which became one of the best-selling groups that appeared in the 90s. What is Gene Simmons opinion on Oasis When Oasis released their debut album in 1994, Kiss already was active for 21 years and were one of the biggest bands on the planet. But obviously, music was evolving and the British band became one of the most influential ones from that decade. Now, in 2024 they reunited again and the first shows will happen in 2025. In an interview with Forbes, Simmons was asked about their reunion and gave their opinion on them. He revealed he is a big fan of them. Also that he has some kind of friendship with Liam, especially since one of the kids of the British artist is also called Gene. "(I'm a) Big fan (Of Oasis)! Oh, it's brilliant marketing, whether by hook or by crook, whether it's by accident or plan. I know Liam a little bit. We ran into each other at a hotel and exchanged pleasantries. He actually pulled my leg and convinced me that one of his two boys—Gene and Lennon—that he named Gene after me." He continued: "I doubt it, but he convinced me at the hotel! But that relationship between the two brothers, I mean I've read that story before, it’s always worked. Start with Cain and Abel and go right down. All the great pairings: Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards. They all turn on each other after a while, then they get back together again! It always works and good for them because, again, people want to hear those songs! They've got lots of fans and they'll do great. Good luck! More power to them," Gene Simmons said. During that same conversation, Gene said that Oasis fans who complained about the dynamic ticket pricing of the Oasis concerts in the United Kingdom are "entitled to fuck off". He said that "you have the ultimate power, supply and demand. Whatever the pricing is, is all academic. Somebody sits in a room and tries to figure out how far the rubber band can stretch. And if you're not selling tickets, guess what happens? The price goes down. Capitalism! If you don't want to pay that amount, don't go," Gene Simmons said. He doesn't put Oasis in the same category as Elvis and The Beatles [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maTP315XZCQ&pp=ygUGb2FzaXMg[/embed] For more than a decade, the Kiss member has been saying that Rock and Roll music is dead. He blames the music fans who started to download the songs instead of buying the records for that. Because it represented the downfall of the music business model that kept the recording companies nurturing the bands until they could become big and come up with great music. So he always questions which bands that appeared, for example, after the 90s that could be compared with the big incredible bands from the previous decades. In an interview with Dennis Miller Option in 2020, Simmons said he doesn't put a band like Oasis in the same category as The Beatles and Elvis Presley, for example. "Let's just be clear; we love Oasis. In fact, Liam [Gallagher] named one of his kids after me, if truth be told. There's Lennon and there's Gene; Gene's named after me, and Lennon was named after John Lennon. "But the real answer is that if you walk down the streets to the masses and you said 'Oasis', I don't know if a 35- or 40-year-old is going to know what that is. Universal stardom is - whether you like it or not, whether you never heard a song, everybody knows Elvis or The Beatles," Gene Simmons said.The post Gene Simmons’ opinion on Oasis appeared first on Rock And Roll Garage.

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