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Collision of black holes? Experts answer luminous cosmic burst

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A new study has attempted to answer a massive, luminous burst which was 100 times more radiant than our milky way in a galaxy named OJ287, located at a distance of five billion light years.

Scientists suggested this must have come from a system with two black holes.

The smaller one orbits, the larger one at around the speed of light. According to the study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, their spiral dance was responsible for luminosity.

The scientists noted that the recorded burst, observed in February last year, occurred when the smaller black hole crashed into a disk of gas surrounding the larger black hole.

These discs — also called accretion discs — are common in black holes, particularly in the supermassive black holes that are present at the centre of the giant galaxies.

Their gravitational pull is so potent that they rip apart everything that comes into their event horizon.

This animation illustrates the activity surrounding a black hole. While the matter that has passed the black holes event horizon cant be seen, material swirling outside this threshold is accelerated to millions of degrees and radiates in X-rays. Nasa Solar System Exploration/File
This animation illustrates the activity surrounding a black hole. While the matter that has passed the black hole’s event horizon can’t be seen, material swirling outside this threshold is accelerated to millions of degrees and radiates in X-rays. Nasa Solar System Exploration/File

After falling into the large black hole, the smaller one swallows up some of the gas at the accreditation disc, which energizes an explosive jet of radiation, ejecting from the smaller black hole.

The author Mauri Valtonen from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, in a statement: “According to the estimates, the flare occurred shortly after the smaller black hole had received a massive dose of new gas to swallow during its plunge.”

Valtonen also added: “It is the swallowing process that leads to the sudden brightening of OJ287. It is thought that this process has empowered the jet which shoots out from the smaller black hole of OJ 287.”

The event lasted for only a day.

“An event like this was predicted ten years ago, but has not been confirmed until now,” Valtonen said.

A disk of hot gas swirls around a black hole in this illustration. The stream of gas stretching to the right is what remains of a star that was pulled apart by the black hole. — Nasa/File
A disk of hot gas swirls around a black hole in this illustration. The stream of gas stretching to the right is what remains of a star that was pulled apart by the black hole. — Nasa/File

He said: “It turns out that we have simply just had bad luck. Nobody observed OJ287 exactly on those nights when it did its one-night stunt.”

The black holes are “so close to each other in the sky that one cannot see them separately, they merge to a single point in our telescopes,” Valtonen noted.

Co-author of the study Achamveedu Gopakumar from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, said: “The total number of predicted flares now number 26, and nearly all of them have been observed.”

The study remarked that such explosions would continue to occur as the smaller black holes orbit the bigger ones, though they’ll be irregular because the 12-year orbit is oblong. 

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Cybersecurity firm reports exposure of sensitive DeepSeek data on the internet.

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The New York-based cybersecurity firm Wiz has discovered a cache of sensitive data from the Chinese artificial intelligence business DeepSeek that was mistakenly exposed to the public internet.

In a blog post released on Wednesday, Wiz reported that examinations of DeepSeek’s infrastructure revealed that the company had inadvertently exposed over a million lines of unencrypted data. The materials were digital software keys and chat logs that seemingly documented prompts transmitted from consumers to the company’s complimentary AI assistant.

The chief technical officer of Wiz stated that DeepSeek promptly safeguarded the data following the notice from his organisation.

“It was removed in under an hour,” stated Ami Luttwak. “However, this was exceedingly easy to locate, leading us to believe we are not the sole discoverers.”

DeepSeek did not promptly respond to a request for comment.

DeepSeek’s rapid success after the introduction of its AI helper has exhilarated China and incited concern in America. The Chinese company’s evident capacity to rival OpenAI’s skills at a significantly reduced cost has raised concerns regarding the viability of the business models and profit margins of U.S. AI behemoths like Nvidia and Microsoft.

By Monday, it surpassed the U.S. competitor ChatGPT in downloads from Apple’s App Store, prompting a worldwide decline in technology stocks.

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WhatsApp launches bulk channel management functionality

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WhatsApp has initiated testing of a bulk channel administration feature on iOS for select beta users, enabling the simultaneous selection of many channels, hence enhancing the efficiency of managing following channels.

This essential update enables users to perform bulk activities, including muting many channels simultaneously, designating them as read, and altering notifications. If the chosen channels are muted, users will now have the option to activate notifications. Users can swiftly silence unmuted channels in one action.

Additionally, this feature enables users to unfollow many channels simultaneously, thereby optimizing the process of decluttering their channel list. This change is particularly beneficial for users that oversee numerous subscriptions, as reported by WABetaInfo.

Previously, users were required to manage each channel individually, rendering tasks such as muting or designating channels as read laborious and time-consuming.

The functionality provides enhanced flexibility and control over channel subscriptions, enabling users to efficiently manage notifications. The solution streamlines laborious operations for consumers who subscribe to numerous channels, hence enhancing their entire experience.

Accessibility
The bulk management feature is presently accessible exclusively to a limited number of beta testers who installed the latest WhatsApp beta for iOS using the TestFlight application. WhatsApp, owned by Meta, plans to expand the feature’s availability to a larger user base in the next weeks.

This update demonstrates WhatsApp’s dedication to enhancing user experience by offering a clear and efficient method for managing channels and notifications.

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Pakistani internet slowdown: ongoing submarine cable issue

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Even after two weeks, the global submarine cable AAA-1 problem that was discovered on January 2 near Qatar has not been fixed, causing sluggish internet connection in several Pakistani towns.

According to a representative for Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), the issue has affected customers’ capacity to effectively access social media applications and browse the online. Even with initiatives to fix the problem, social networking sites still lag during busy times.

Internet traffic has been redirected via alternate channels to lessen the impact, and more capacity has been set up to stabilize the service.

The PTCL representative promised that “Internet service across the country is operating normally, and there will be no issues with web browsing,” noting that social media applications’ lag is common during

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