【推荐1】A multinational team of astronomers, led by Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), has captured a “once-in-a-lifetime” supernova and mapped it in “unprecedented” detail, the WIS said in a statement on Wednesday.

A supernova is a massive star explosion that occurs when a star burns through its fuel at the end of its lifespan, resulting in a brilliant burst of fiery plasma in vibrant colors radiating with the brightness of a hundred million suns. As described in the journal Nature, the team used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to witness in real-time one of the closest supernovae in decades, a red supergiant star exploding in a neighboring galaxy, Messier 101.

The researchers were able, for the first time, to closely follow a supernova while its light emerged from the circumstellar material in which the exploding star was embedded. They then acquired data on the star from times before its demise when it was just a red supergiant star, thus creating the most complete portrait of a supernova, a composite of its last days and death.

The team also found a gap between the mass of material ejected from the star during the explosion and its original mass, suggesting that the supernova left behind a black hole into which the missing mass was swallowed. The researchers concluded that “this study presents a unique opportunity to better understand the mechanisms that lead to the conclusion of a star’s life and the eventual formation of something entirely new.”

【推荐3】Interesting Space Facts

As time goes by, technological advancements have made us learn more facts about space in the past century than in all time before that. We’ve already searched the universe for the most amazing space facts, including facts about the planets in our solar system, moons, the Milky Way and beyond!     1    

The highest mountain discovered is the Olympus Mons, which is located on Mars. It is 16 miles high, making it nearly 3 times higher than Mount Everest.    2     That’s the size of Arizona !

The sun weighs about 330,000 times more than Earth.    3     In fact, the sun is so huge that it contains 99.85% of all mass in our solar system.

Footprints left on the moon won’t disappear as there is no wind. But wait a minute.

    4     Well, it actually wasn’t blowing. That blowing you see is because of a telescopic horizontal rod (望远镜水平杆) that the astronauts were struggling to remove from the flag’s top.

    5     This is due to the lack of gravity in space causing the vertebrae (椎骨) to expand a little. However, this extra height is lost when they re-enter the earth’s atmosphere and are affected by the earth’s gravity again.

【推荐1】With bright lights on the floor and walls, loud electronic music, and a red shuttlecock flying around, this Malaysian badminton court seems like the set of a science fiction movie. “Shuttle In The Dark” is a place to play badminton in the famous Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. It was set up in late 2021 by a company that wanted people to take up the sport after two years of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Badminton is one of the most popular sports in Malaysia and Asia. The Southeast Asian country has produced some of the world’s top-ranked players. Irina Inozemtseva is Director of Inic Sport Management. She said the goal was to “gain back the interest of people to come back and play.” She added that the group wanted to draw in not only expert players but also “new people who were not able to or never played badminton before.” The futuristic court presents a new difficulty for players. They have to adjust their eyes to the darkness to play, said Lee Yan Sheng, a professional badminton coach.

Professional player Ho Yen Mei used the term focus — meaning to carefully direct attention — to describe the requirements of playing on the court. “With the lighting, somehow we are still able to hit it and then it requires better focus. And it’s exciting, it’s different but it's still like playing normal badminton,” she said. Open to players of all levels, Shuttle in the Dark charges $42.63 per hour to use the courts and rent their equipment. A regular public court charges about $4.50.

【推荐2】Architecture is among the most valuable and respected careers in India. We’ve all heard stories about the great architectural designs, but behind these huge and artistic designs is the workmanship and crafted skills of amazing architects who are not appreciated enough. And below is a list mentioning the most notable Indian architects of all time.

Hafeez Contractor

The man responsible for the three tallest buildings in India, The 42 in Kolkata, The Imperial twin-towers of Mumbai, and Hafeez Contractor, is a recipient of the 2016 Padma Bhushan. He completed his master’s degree in Columbia after winning a scholarship for Columbia University and later designed several skyscrapers in India.

Chitra Vishwanath

The Principal Architect and MD of Biome Environment Solutions, this Bangalore based architecture is a conservationist whose works are based on ecology. Chitra is recognised for over 500 projects, she also built her own mud house in Bangalore which includes unique features such as rain-water harvesting well and is ventilated naturally with the help of trees.

Bijoy Jain

After working in Los Angeles and London, Bijoy came to Mumbai and opened his architectural firm, Studio Mumbai. He also received the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2009 and is a Professor of architecture at Yale University.

Nariman Gandhi

He is considered a legend for his unconventional architectural creations which specialised in organic architecture. His ideologies and philosophies deviated (偏离) from the mainstream architectural thought. Nariman is notable for making exceptional use of rock, brick, wood, glass and leather in his works, for instance, the famous Dawood Shoe House in Mumbai.