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Wall Street Journal
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
‘The Party's Interests Comes First' Review: First-Generation Revolutionary
Joseph Torigian, a young scholar of both Communist Chinese and Soviet politics, has written a masterly biography of Xi Zhongxun, the father of China's present-day president, Xi Jinping. 'The Party's Interests Come First' is a scrupulously researched and keenly perceptive account of an important but, in the West, little-known historical figure. Mr. Torigian's first book, 'Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion' (2022), revealed the pathological court politics that prevailed after the deaths of Joseph Stalin in the U.S.S.R. and Mao Zedong in China. The successions of power that followed in these Leninist regimes weren't the result of policy differences, bargains to gain support and maneuvers within party rules, as is often assumed. Instead, Mr. Torigian shows, they were the outcomes of intrigue, battles over ideology, historical animosities and violence. The biography of Xi Zhongxun (1913-2002) expands on that theme. Xi was a revolutionary and, after the formation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, held several high-ranking party offices from the 1950s to the early 1990s. He was never the country's ruler, as his son has become, but Mr. Torigian's examination of the elder Xi's life affords important insights into China's opaque and mysterious Communist regime of the 21st century. Mr. Torigian, an associate professor at American University's School of International Service, traces Xi's career as it developed from the first phase of the Chinese Civil War, through World War II and the triumph of Mao and the Communists, to the post-Mao reforms and the tragedy of Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
A Gigantic Megacomet Is Erupting as It Zooms through the Solar System
There's a giant ball of ice barreling through the solar system right now, and it's bigger than any we've seen before. It poses no threat to Earth, but this comet, called C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein), has enraptured astronomers ever since its discovery in 2021. The hulking object, sometimes jovially called a 'megacomet,' is 100 times bigger than most comets we see in the solar system. And now we're learning more about it than ever before as it zooms toward its closest approach to our sun in 2031. In a study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on June 12, Nathan Roth of American University and his colleagues report the first conclusive detection of carbon monoxide on the megacomet. That's a crucial finding because it might tell us more about the object's origins, history and likely upcoming behavior as it dives deeper into the solar system. 'We wanted to test what drives activity in this comet,' Roth says. 'It's so far from the sun and so cold that trying to explain what makes a comet 'work' at these distances is difficult.' C/2014 UN271 was first imaged by chance in observations from 2014. Seven years later, when astronomers actually spotted it in their archives, the comet was at more than 20 times the Earth-sun distance, inside the orbit of Neptune. But they also found that it is on a path that will bring it nearly to Saturn's orbit in 2031 before it heads out again. The comet's orbit is huge, extending out to about 55,000 times the Earth-sun distance—87 percent of a light-year and well out into the Oort Cloud of icy objects that surrounds our sun. [Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter] Following the comet's discovery astronomers used various telescopes, including the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, to scrutinize it from afar. The object was initially thought to be as big as 370 kilometers (230 miles) across. Revised observations showed it to be about 140 kilometers (87 miles) wide. But that's still the biggest anyone has ever seen—most comets in the solar system are only one or two kilometers across. 'It's huge,' says Quanzhi Ye, an astronomer at the University of Maryland, who was not involved in Roth's study. 'It represents a part of the cometary spectrum that we don't understand.' Some of those observations revealed bursts of activity from the comet, which sprouted an enormous, enveloping 'coma' of expelled gas that stretches some 250,000 kilometers (155,000 miles) across (more than half the distance from the Earth to the moon). To find out the cause of this activity, Roth and his team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to observe the comet in radio waves for about eight hours in March 2024. They found a clear trace of carbon monoxide spewing from the comet, suggesting that its sprawling coma is fueled, at least in part, by carbon monoxide ice sublimating—turning from solid to gas—as the comet approaches the sun. The carbon monoxide appears to be vented in jets from spots on the object's surface, possibly the result of the overhead sun heating a localized region and causing the ice to sublimate. 'If you were standing on the comet, and the sun was right overhead, this is the area where the sun is heating the surface the most and the jet originates from,' Roth says. What's not clear so far, however, is how fast the comet is spinning and whether the location of the jets is changing over time. 'Are there different jets being activated at different times? We don't know yet,' Roth says. As C/2014 UN271 gets closer, other ices that are often found on comets, such as methane and hydrogen sulfide ice, might start to sublimate, too, and add their own contributions to the object's activity. 'As we continue to monitor it, we'll be able to get a better idea of the chemical fingerprint that's preserved inside the comet,' Roth says. Rosita Kokotanekova, an astronomer at the Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory in Bulgaria, who was not part of Roth's research team, says the detection of carbon monoxide is useful because it is 'important to identify what prompts activity at these large distances.' Researchers have witnessed gas venting from other, much smaller comets at a similar distance, 'which was very puzzling,' she adds. 'People were trying to figure out what exactly is causing this activity [so far from the sun].' C/2014 UN271's size makes it an especially alluring target for study. The presence of carbon monoxide ice is doubly interesting: Analysis of available data about the comet revealed that it first exhibited signs of activity at more than 25 times the Earth-sun distance. But according to theoretical models, its carbon monoxide ice should have been sublimated by the sun's rays when the object was even farther out in the solar system. This discrepancy may mean the comet made a pass of the sun before, with sublimation first eating away at layers of ice on its surface and its current activity only being kickstarted at closer distances, when heat from sunlight reached ice deeper within the object. Finding a behemoth like C/2014 UN271, Kokotanekova says, could hint at the existence of a whole class of gigantic progenitor comets. Such comets might have been the first large, icy objects to coalesce in the solar system, after which they could have eventually broken apart to form smaller comets. 'It's possible that the small objects are mostly fragments, while the large ones, like UN271, have never collided with anything,' she says. That might mean there are more primordial megacomets awaiting discovery. If so, the recently completed Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, which will begin a 10-year panoramic survey of the heavens later this year, could find more of them. 'It's so sensitive that it will certainly pick up comets of this size, quite probably even further away from us,' Ye says. Rubin's wide eye on the sky should also give us more information on C/2014 UN271 itself, says Meg Schwamb, an astronomer at Queen's University Belfast uninvolved with this latest finding. 'Rubin's going to watch it come in,' she says. That could help us get a better handle on its activity, in partnership with telescopes like ALMA. 'You need both of those pieces of information—if it got brighter, and whether the amount of carbon monoxide changed—to tell you what's going on,' Schwamb says. For now Comet UN271 remains a fascinating target of study, a giant comet like no other that is giving us a unique window into the dark frontiers of the outer solar system. 'This is just an incredibly exciting object,' Roth says. And, for astronomers eager to learn more about this and other mega comets, the best is yet to come.
Scientific American
2 days ago
- Science
- Scientific American
Astronomers Spy Jets Spewing from Megacomet Zooming through the Solar System
There's a giant ball of ice barreling through the solar system right now, and it's bigger than any we've seen before. It poses no threat to Earth, but this comet, called C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein), has enraptured astronomers ever since its discovery in 2021. The hulking object, sometimes jovially called a 'megacomet,' is 100 times bigger than most comets we see in the solar system. And now we're learning more about it than ever before as it zooms toward its closest approach to our sun in 2031. In a study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on June 12, Nathan Roth of American University and his colleagues report the first conclusive detection of carbon monoxide on the megacomet. That's a crucial finding because it might tell us more about the object's origins, history and likely upcoming behavior as it dives deeper into the solar system. 'We wanted to test what drives activity in this comet,' Roth says. 'It's so far from the sun and so cold that trying to explain what makes a comet 'work' at these distances is difficult.' C/2014 UN271 was first imaged by chance in observations from 2014. Seven years later, when astronomers actually spotted it in their archives, the comet was at more than 20 times the Earth-sun distance, inside the orbit of Neptune. But they also found that it is on a path that will bring it nearly to Saturn's orbit in 2031 before it heads out again. The comet's orbit is huge, extending out to about 55,000 times the Earth-sun distance—87 percent of a light-year and well out into the Oort Cloud of icy objects that surrounds our sun. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Following the comet's discovery astronomers used various telescopes, including the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, to scrutinize it from afar. The object was initially thought to be as big as 370 kilometers (230 miles) across. Revised observations showed it to be about 140 kilometers (87 miles) wide. But that's still the biggest anyone has ever seen—most comets in the solar system are only one or two kilometers across. 'It's huge,' says Quanzhi Ye, an astronomer at the University of Maryland, who was not involved in Roth's study. 'It represents a part of the cometary spectrum that we don't understand.' Some of those observations revealed bursts of activity from the comet, which sprouted an enormous, enveloping 'coma' of expelled gas that stretches some 250,000 kilometers (155,000 miles) across (more than half the distance from the Earth to the moon). To find out the cause of this activity, Roth and his team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to observe the comet in radio waves for about eight hours in March 2024. They found a clear trace of carbon monoxide spewing from the comet, suggesting that its sprawling coma is fueled, at least in part, by carbon monoxide ice sublimating—turning from solid to gas—as the comet approaches the sun. The carbon monoxide appears to be vented in jets from spots on the object's surface, possibly the result of the overhead sun heating a localized region and causing the ice to sublimate. 'If you were standing on the comet, and the sun was right overhead, this is the area where the sun is heating the surface the most and the jet originates from,' Roth says. What's not clear so far, however, is how fast the comet is spinning and whether the location of the jets is changing over time. 'Are there different jets being activated at different times? We don't know yet,' Roth says. As C/2014 UN271 gets closer, other ices that are often found on comets, such as methane and hydrogen sulfide ice, might start to sublimate, too, and add their own contributions to the object's activity. 'As we continue to monitor it, we'll be able to get a better idea of the chemical fingerprint that's preserved inside the comet,' Roth says. Rosita Kokotanekova, an astronomer at the Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory in Bulgaria, who was not part of Roth's research team, says the detection of carbon monoxide is useful because it is 'important to identify what prompts activity at these large distances.' Researchers have witnessed gas venting from other, much smaller comets at a similar distance, 'which was very puzzling,' she adds. 'People were trying to figure out what exactly is causing this activity [so far from the sun].' C/2014 UN271's size makes it an especially alluring target for study. The presence of carbon monoxide ice is doubly interesting: Analysis of available data about the comet revealed that it exhibited signs of activity when it was more than 25 times as far out as the Earth-sun distance. But according to theoretical models, its carbon monoxide ice should have been sublimated by the sun's rays when the object was even farther out in the solar system. This discrepancy may mean the comet made a pass of the sun before, with sublimation first eating away at layers of ice on its surface and its current activity only being kickstarted at closer distances, when heat from sunlight reached ice deeper within the object. Finding a behemoth like C/2014 UN271, Kokotanekova says, could hint at the existence of a whole class of gigantic progenitor comets. Such comets might have been the first large, icy objects to coalesce in the solar system, after which they may could have eventually broken apart to form smaller comets. 'It's possible that the small objects are mostly fragments, while the large ones, like UN271, have never collided with anything,' she says. That might mean there are more primordial megacomets awaiting discovery. If so, the recently completed Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, which will begin a 10-year panoramic survey of the heavens later this year, could find more of them. 'It's so sensitive that it will certainly pick up comets of this size, quite probably even further away from us,' Ye says. Rubin's wide eye on the sky should also give us more information on C/2014 UN271 itself, says Meg Schwamb, an astronomer at Queen's University Belfast uninvolved with this latest finding. 'Rubin's going to watch it come in,' she says. That could help us get a better handle on its activity, in partnership with telescopes like ALMA. 'You need both of those pieces of information—if it got brighter, and whether the amount of carbon monoxide changed—to tell you what's going on,' Schwamb says. For now Comet UN271 remains a fascinating target of study, a giant comet like no other that is giving us a unique window into the dark frontiers of the outer solar system. 'This is just an incredibly exciting object,' Roth says. And, for astronomers eager to learn more about this and other mega comets, the best is yet to come.
New York Post
2 days ago
- Science
- New York Post
Astronomers make groundbreaking discovery about largest comet ever observed flying through deep space
A groundbreaking discovery was recently made about the largest comet ever observed hurtling toward the sun from the Oort Cloud in the outer reaches of our solar system. Astronomers recently got a close-up look at the comet, known as C/2014 UN271, flying through deep space with the powerful Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile. The icy giant is 85 miles across and is more than 10 times the size of any known comet, according to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). The NRAO reported that astronomers found that new observations from the comet showed jets of carbon monoxide gas erupting out from the comet's solid icy core. Using the ALMA, the researchers found the comet in deep space near Neptune or about 17 times the distance between the Sun and Earth, according to a release from NRAO. Using the ALMA telescope's high sensitivity and resolution, the researchers were able to focus on the carbon monoxide and heat being emitted from the comet. Nathan Roth of American University and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the lead author of the study, which was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, discussed how this gives researchers insight into the workings of this frozen rock hurtling through space. 4 Astronomers discovered jets of carbon monoxide gas erupting out from the comet's solid icy core. NRAO/Melissa Weiss 4 The comet was spotted in deep space near Neptune. NASA Goddard 'These measurements give us a look at how this enormous, icy world works,' Roth said. 'We're seeing explosive outgassing patterns that raise new questions about how this comet will evolve as it continues its journey toward the inner solar system.' Using previous ALMA observations and these newest findings, researchers were able to measure the comet. They measured the thermal signal to find the comet's size and amount of dust surrounding its core. 4 Scientists hope the new data will give them a better understanding of the makeup of the solar system. AP 4 Researchers used the ALMA telescope to track the carbon monoxide and heat being emitted from the comet. Diogo Josí© – Researchers believe that as C/2014 UN271 gets closer to the sun, they will see more frozen gas begin to vaporize off the titan of a comet. This could possibly give researchers more information about the primitive makeup of this icy giant. The researchers also hope that this will give a better understanding of the makeup of the solar system.
Global News
3 days ago
- Health
- Global News
Nova Scotia government signs agreements with universities to get doctors from Lebanon
The Nova Scotia government has signed agreements with two universities in Lebanon to bring family doctors to the province. Premier Tim Houston announced today that a five-year memorandum of agreement with the Lebanese American University in Beirut commits the university to sending 10 ready-to-practise physicians to Nova Scotia. Two doctors from the university are expected to arrive in Nova Scotia during each year of the agreement. Get weekly health news Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The province plans to spend $5 million during the life of the agreement to cover the cost of medical school residency positions, as well as licensing exams and immigration and relocation expenses. In return, the participating doctors will be required to sign an agreement that requires them to work in Nova Scotia for three years. Meanwhile, the premier confirmed that two doctors from the other university — the American University of Beirut — are already practising in Nova Scotia and another two are on the way. Story continues below advertisement This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 25, 2025.
