New images from solar telescope showcase sun's surface in unprecedented detail

A mosaic of new and unprecedented solar images was captured by the Inouye Solar Telescope during its first year of operations.—NSF/AURA/NSO

Newly released images of the sun's surface, obtained using the National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, provide an unprecedented level of detail, showcasing sunspots and other features. Located on the island of Maui in Hawaii, this powerful 4-meter (13.1-foot) telescope has captured eight remarkable images that offer a unique perspective of the solar surface.

Despite the sun's increasing activity as it approaches the solar maximum in July 2025, which marks the peak of its 11-year cycle, the released photos focus on the quieter aspects of the sun's surface.

Dots and filaments glow within and around a sunspot.—NSF/AURA/NSO

The images highlight the presence of cool, dark sunspots on the photosphere, the sun's surface region with a strong magnetic field. These sunspots can be as large as or even bigger than the Earth and are associated with solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which can affect satellite-based communications on Earth.

The contrasting sunspot regions captured in the images display bright hot plasma flowing upward, while darker and cooler plasma flows downward. In the chromosphere, the atmospheric layer above the surface, threadlike structures indicate the presence of magnetic fields.

The images also reveal fine, detailed structures within the dark sunspots, including glowing dots where the magnetic field is strongest. Surrounding the sunspot, there are penumbral filaments derived from the magnetic field that transport heat.

The telescope captured an image of what scientists believe shows a decaying sunspot.—NSF/AURA/NSO

One of the images displays a sunspot in a decaying state, as it has lost most of its brighter surrounding region or penumbra. Scientists believe that the remaining fragments could represent the final stage of a sunspot's evolution before it vanishes.

The Inouye Solar Telescope has also captured "light bridges," which are bright solar features spanning the darkest region of a sunspot. These complex structures, with varying appearances, may indicate the imminent decay of a sunspot. Further observations will contribute to a better understanding of light bridge formation and its significance.

These images were obtained during the commissioning phase of the Inouye Solar Telescope, making them among the first observations using this ground-based solar telescope. The telescope is currently undergoing further enhancement to achieve its full operational capabilities.

Scientists have high hopes that the telescope's advanced capabilities will provide answers to crucial questions about the sun, such as the origins of solar storms and the complexities of its magnetic field. By enabling observations three times more detailed than other observatories, the Inouye Solar Telescope, in conjunction with space-based missions like Solar Orbiter and the Parker Solar Probe, aims to unravel long-standing mysteries surrounding our star while offering breathtaking views in a new light.

Experts compete to decipher message from Mars

Possible to listen to a short extract translated into sounds

- RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 28 - The competition to decode a message from Mars that reached Earth on the evening of May 24 has started: the data, collected by radio telescopes at 21:16 Italian time, have already been processed and made available online at the website of the project 'A Sign in Space'.

In the space of a few hours, more than 1,300 people from all over the world, Italy included, took up this challenge, an experiment on the margins between science, art and science fiction, according to the National Astrophysics Institute (INAF), which set it up from an idea from the artist Daniela de Paulis, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, the SETI Institute, and the Green Bank Observatory.

The signal, which simulates a message sent by an extra-terrestrial civilization, was transmitted via radio waves by the Trace Gas Orbiter probe of the ExoMars mission, in orbit around Mars. "It reached Earth around 21:16 Italian time and it lasted half an hour, as had been predicted," said the INAF experts.

It was picked up by the Italian radio telescope at Medicina near Bologna, run by INAF, and two American radio telescopes, the Allen Telescope Array of the SETI Institute, in California, and the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, as well as by various independent ham radio groups. (ANSA).

 

Alien Hunters are Enlisting the Public’s Help on an Ambitious Practice Run

Is it a multimedia art project? Or a rehearsal for alien contact? Let’s call it both.

BY UNIVERSE TODAY

AND ALAN BOYLE
MAY 27, 2023

honglouwawa/E+/Getty Images

Is it a multimedia art project? Or a rehearsal for alien contact? Let’s call it both: Researchers specializing in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, worked with a media artist to stage the receipt of an interstellar message — and a global effort to decode the message.

The project, titled “A Sign in Space,” is orchestrated by media artist Daniela de Paulis in collaboration with the SETI Institute, the European Space Agency, the Green Bank Observatory, and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (also known as INAF).

The metaphorical curtain rose on May 24, when ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter transmitted an encoded radio message from Martian orbit to Earth at 3 p.m. Eastern.

Sixteen minutes after transmission, the signal was received by three radio telescope facilities that have previously played starring roles in the SETI quest: the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array in California, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, and INAF’s Medicina Radio Astronomical Station in Italy.

The data transmission will be processed by the three radio astronomy teams and then will be made available to the public for decoding.

Processed data will be stored securely in collaboration with the Breakthrough Listen to Open Data Archive and Filecoin, a decentralized data storage network.

Anyone working to decode and interpret the message can discuss the process on a Discord server set up for the project. Findings and observations can be submitted to the team via a secure form on the project’s website.

“A Sign in Space” is also presenting a series of Zoom-based discussions in the weeks to come, focusing on the societal implications of detecting a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization. Check out the schedule of events on the SETI Institute website to register, and keep checking back for updates.

De Paulis, the artist behind “A Sign in Space,” is a former contemporary dancer and licensed radio operator who currently serves as artist-in-residence at the SETI Institute and the Green Bank Observatory. She has incorporated radio technologies and philosophies in her art projects since 2009 and is a regular host of the Wow! Signal Podcast.

“Throughout history, humanity has searched for meaning in powerful and transformative phenomena,” de Paulis said today in a news release. “Receiving a message from an extraterrestrial civilization would be a profoundly transformational experience for all humankind. ‘A Sign in Space’ offers the unprecedented opportunity to tangibly rehearse and prepare for this scenario through global collaboration, fostering an open-ended search for meaning across all cultures and disciplines.”

There already have been a few unplanned rehearsals for alien contact, sparked by false alarms encountered during SETI surveys. Those experiences suggest that any apparent detection of signals from an extraterrestrial civilization wouldn’t be kept secret for long.

“Rest assured that the first thing anyone would do upon detecting a tantalizing signal is to contact people at other observatories to request help in confirming the discovery,” SETI Institute astronomer Seth Shostak said. “Lots of people would know. Secrecy is neither a possibility nor a policy.”

“A Sign in Space” could shed light on what happens next.

“This experiment is an opportunity for the world to learn how the SETI community, in all its diversity, will work together to receive, process, analyze, and understand the meaning of a potential extraterrestrial signal,” said Wael Farah, project scientist for the Allen Telescope Array. “More than astronomy, communicating with E.T. will require a breadth of knowledge. With ‘A Sign in Space,’ we hope to make the initial steps towards bringing a community together to meet this challenge.”

 

Alien signal beamed to Earth from Mars for first time: Report

On Wednesday, the ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) flashed an encoded message to Earth from its orbit around Mars at 9 pm, stimulating a situation when a real signal from another civilisation is received by us.

The images shared by ESA comprises of observations from Mars Express’ 

High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC).

Livemint

26 May 2023, 

For the first time, an alien signal has been beamed to Earth from Mars, confirmed European Space Agency on 26 May.

On Wednesday, the ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) flashed an encoded message to Earth from its orbit around Mars at 9 pm, stimulating a situation when a real signal from another civilisation is received by us, reported India Today.

“Throughout history, humanity has searched for meaning in powerful and transformative phenomena. Receiving a message from an extraterrestrial civilisation would be a profoundly transformational experience for all humankind," said Daniela de Paulis, the artist behind the 'A Sign in Space' project.

ALSO READ: Second tallest volcano on Mars is higher than Mount Everest. See pictures

An Artist in Residence at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, Paulis, brought together a team of international experts, space scientists, and artists to create a project to explore the process of interpreting and decoding an extraterrestrial message.

As part of the project, the signal was beamed by the European probe and was received by the Green Bank Telescope (West Virginia), the Medicina Radio Astronomical Station (Italy), the Allen Telescope Array (California), and the Very Large Array (New Mexico).

"We’re asking individuals and groups to take part in decoding and interpreting the content of the message. The decoding and interpretation process will determine both the technical and cultural content of the message," the project website read.

The message has been designed and encoded by de Paulis and her team, and is currently undisclosed. Further, the project has requested people to send in their interpretation of the message.

“This experiment is an opportunity for the world to learn how the SETI community, in all its diversity, will work together to receive, process, analyze, and understand the meaning of a potential extraterrestrial signal," India Today quited ATA Project Scientist Dr Wael Farah as saying.

“More than astronomy, communicating with ET will require a breadth of knowledge. With 'A Sign in Space', we hope to make the initial steps towards bringing a community together to meet this challenge," Dr Farah added.

White House plan to fight antisemitism takes on centuries of hatred in America

Recommended steps include raising awareness of antisemitism now and in the past, expanding knowledge of Jewish heritage in the US

By PAMELA S. NADELL

27 May 2023

Antisemites hang a banner over a Los Angeles freeway declaring 'Kanye is right about the Jews' next to another advertising the Goyim Defense League's Goyim TV website. 

(Oren Segal, via Twitter/used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

THE CONVERSATION via AP — As reported antisemitic incidents in the US in 2022 soared to an all-time high, the White House began developing plans to combat this hate, proclaiming in an official statement, “antisemitism has no place in America.”

The US National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, released on May 25, 2023, was based on conversations with more than a thousand stakeholders, including me, a scholar of American Jewish history. The plan outlines over 100 steps for federal agencies to take in the coming year and calls upon Congress, state and local governments and the private sector to join them. Understanding that history matters, those steps include raising awareness of antisemitism in the present and the past, and expanding knowledge of Jewish heritage in the US.

That heritage has two sides. Its bright side honors the achievements of America’s Jews and their many contributions to this nation. Its darker side contains a long history of antisemitism from Colonial days to today.

Governors, generals and members of Congress

During the recent celebration marking Jewish American Heritage Month at the White House, Jewish accomplishments were spotlighted. Michaela Diamond and Ben Platt, stars of the Broadway revival of the musical “Parade,” performed. That these actors, the show’s book writer, Alfred Uhry, and its composer, Jason Robert Brown, are all Jewish attests to Jews’ presence and contributions to American theater, the arts and beyond.

Yet “Parade” tells the story of one terrible episode in the history of American antisemitism.

US President Joe Biden speaks during the celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Washington. (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

In 1913, Leo Frank, the manager of an Atlanta pencil factory and a Jew, was accused of having murdered one of his teenage workers. Frank maintained his innocence, and the trial became a national media circus.

Mobs gathered outside the courtroom. Frank’s attorney told the court, had Frank not been a Jew, he never would have been prosecuted.

Even as the trial judge questioned Frank’s guilt, the jury convicted him, and Frank was sentenced to hang. Two years later, after Georgia’s governor commuted that sentence to life imprisonment, a gang of vigilantes, without firing a shot, kidnapped Frank from jail and lynched him.


Leo Frank. (Public domain/Wikipedia)

Antisemitism had arrived in America 250 years before Leo Frank’s murder. In September 1654, after 23 Jewish refugees fleeing the persecution in colonial Brazil landed in Manhattan, the colony’s governor, Peter Stuyvesant, tried to eject this “deceitful race” of “blasphemers” and “enemies.”

He failed.

Yet during the Civil War, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant did expel Jews from his military district, the District of the Tennessee, which spanned from the southern tip of Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico, an order President Abraham Lincoln countermanded.

In the 1940s, Rep. John Rankin, a Democrat from Mississippi, railed against the Jews from the House floor, claiming that Jews “have been for 1,900 years trying to destroy Christianity, and everything that is based on Christian principles.”

They had already “virtually destroyed Europe,” ranted Rankin, and were now doing the same to America.
‘Misfortune’ to be a Jew

Powerful voices from the private sector joined governors, generals and members of Congress in spouting antisemitism.

In May 1920, the newspaper The Dearborn Independent, owned by the automobile tycoon Henry Ford, ran the headline “The International Jew: The World’s Problem.” For the next 91 weeks, the weekly ran a series of articles decrying Jewish power and Jews’ dangerous influence on American life.

The paper’s circulation soared as copies were distributed in every Ford dealership and sent to every member of Congress.

German diplomats award Henry Ford, center, Nazi Germany’s highest decoration for foreigners, The Grand Cross of the German Eagle, in Detroit on July, 30, 1938, for his service to the Third Reich. Karl Kapp, German consul in Cleveland pins the medal while Fritz Heiler, left, German consul in Detroit shakes his hand. (AP Photo/file)

News of Ford’s antisemitism even reached Adolf Hitler, who, in March 1923, in the early days of the Nazi Party, told a Chicago reporter how much he admired Ford’s anti-Jewish policies. If he could, Hitler said, he would send some of his so-called “shock troops” to America to support Ford.

Encounters with antisemitism, and not only those from public figures, linger in the memories of American Jews. My book “America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today” highlighted some of them. In the 1880s, a Philadelphia writer ruefully recalled a teacher saying: “It is your misfortune, not your fault, that you are a Jew.”

In 1945, just days after World War II ended, Bess Myerson, a Jewish woman from the Bronx, was crowned Miss America. Heading out on tour after the pageant, this Miss America was turned away from what were called “restricted” hotels, which did not admit Jews. Three of the pageant’s sponsors refused to feature a Jewish Miss America in their ads.

In this September 8, 1945 file photo, Bess Myerson, of New York, holds the scepter after being crowned Miss America 1945 at the annual Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, N.J. Myerson, the first Jewish Miss America who parlayed her stunning 1945 victory into national celebrity, died December 14, 2014, at her home in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 90. (photo credit: AP)

Myerson spent part of her year wearing her crown speaking out against antisemitism. Meanwhile, returning American GIs who had liberated the concentration camps had seen with their own eyes just where antisemitism could lead.

The antisemitism the White House hopes to combat today rests on this history and much more.

The White House plan comes just as the trial of the man accused of the deadliest hate crime against American Jews, the murder of 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018, gets underway.

Pamela S. Nadell, American University

White House rejects Lauren Boebert’s claim that antisemitism plan will be used ‘go after conservatives’



President Joe Biden’s administration has announced a national strategy, the nation’s first, for combating antisemitism, with a call to action across government agencies, law enforcement and other institutions against a reported wave of discrimination and proliferation of online hate.

“It sends a clear and forceful message: In America, evil will not win. Hate will not prevail,” the president said in a prerecorded message shared on 25 May. “The venom of antisemitism will not be the story of our time.”

Sharing a video of the announcement, Republican US Rep Lauren Boebert said the plan would instead be used to target “conservatives” like her.

“When they say stuff like this, they mean they want to go after conservatives,” she wrote on Twitter on 26 May. “Their tactics are straight out of the USSR’s playbook.”

Her critics were quick to point out that she was conflating a campaign against hate with an attack on the American right, an echo of other far-right criticism against attempts to combat hate speech, white supremacism and violent extremist groups.

Democratic US Rep Sara Jacobs shared Ms Boebert’s post with a meme from Mean Girls, with the caption: “So you agree? You think you’re antisemitic?”

“Congresswoman Boebert is mistaken; antisemitism is not ‘conservative’ – it is evil,” deputy White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told The Independent.

“President Biden is standing up for a bedrock American value that goes beyond politics and is embraced by liberals, conservatives, and independents: that we are better than antisemitism and hate,” he added. “Those vile forces fly in the face of what America represents. If anyone finds opposition to hate threatening, they need to look inward.”

Mr Bates also suggested that Ms Boebert study the history of the Soviet Union’s “long, repulsive history of antisemitism” – a regime that the president also has condemned.

In a statement to The Washington Post, Ms Boebert’s office condemned antisemitism and charactised the Biden plan as an attempt to censor speech.

“This is the latest version of this administration’s failed ‘Ministry of Truth,’” Ms Boebert said in the statement. “The First Amendment guarantees a marketplace of ideas where truth, beauty, and justice ultimately win out.”

“If the congresswoman believes efforts to combat antisemitism are a way to ‘go after conservatives’,” said Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences, “then what does that say about conservatives?”

The Independent has requested additional comment from Ms Boebert’s office.

In 2022, there were 3,697 reported incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism in the US, according to the Anti-Defamation League. That figure marks a 36 per cent increase from 2021, and represents the largest number of attacks against Jewish people in the US since the organisation began reporting such incidents more than 40 years ago.

The Biden administration’s plan – with input from hundreds of federal and local officials, faith leaders and civil rights groups, among others – includes more than 100 recommendations for policy changes and congressional action, among other steps.

It also includes 10 separate calls for technology companies to bolster zero-tolerance policies against hate speech and to combat the spread of antisemitic language across their platforms.

Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen, co-chair of the Senate and House Bipartisan Task Forces for Combating Antisemitism, said the “whole-of-government approach” will “effectively utilize the full force of the United States government to root out antisemitic hate across our nation.”

Florida mom who tried to ban Amanda Gorman’s book has ties to far-right groups

A woman at the centre of a widely derided complaint attended rallies and protests with extremist groups and posted antisemitic content as she joined far-right book ban activism, reports find

Alex Woodward

The Independent
New York
Saturday 27 May 2023

A Florida woman whose complaints led to school restrictions for a poem read at Joe Biden’s inauguration appears to have ties to several far-right groups, including the Ron DeSantis-supported Moms for Liberty and neo-fascist gang the Proud Boys.

In a complaint requesting that her child’s school remove the books entirely, Daily Salinas claimed that The Hill We Climb – Amanda Gorman’s book-length version of the poem she read at the president’s inauguration ceremony – and several other titles contained references to critical race theory, gender ideology, “indirect hate messages,” and “indoctrination,” especially of socialism, according to documents shared by the Florida Freedom to Read Project.

Her complaint prompted the school to restrict access to the book, along with The ABCs of Black History, Cuban Kids and Love to Langston. A school committee moved the books to the library’s middle school section, despite the books being recommended for younger readers.

Ms Salinas told the Miami-Herald that she “is not for eliminating or censoring any books” but wants materials to be appropriate and for students “to know the truth” about Cuba.

But she appears to have connections with or has expressed support for several far-right groups that have promoted sweeping restrictions against LGBT+ people and honest discussions of race and racism, according to a review of her social media history and online activity from Miami Against Fascism and The Daily Beast.

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In August 2021, she was photographed alongside Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio during a protest against Covid-19 protections in Miami-Dade schools.

The following year, while wearing a Ron DeSantis T-shirt, she attended another rally organised by Proud Boys to support far-right activist Christoper Monzon, a 2017 “Unite the Right” rally attendee who was allegedly beaten while canvassing for Republican Senator Marco Rubio last year. Ms Salinas also was photographed posing with Mr Monzon and a small group of his supporters after his release from hospital.

That same year, Ms Salinas also worked as a volunteer for the governor’s “Education Agenda Tour,” which promoted right-wing candidates in school board elections as part of his efforts to upend the state’s education system.

Video from a Miami-Dade school board meeting in July 2022 appears to show Ms Salinas with the group Moms for Liberty disrupting the hearing to protest sex education textbooks that had previously been approved by the board. Footage shows police forcibly removing her from the meeting.

Moms for Liberty, a right-wing group that emerged from protests over Covid-19 guidelines, has offered so-called bounties for reporting teachers who allegedly discuss “divisive topics” in schools, attacked The Trevor Project for supporting young LGBT+ people at risk of suicide, and launched a barrage of book challenges.

The group has also won praise from Mr DeSantis, who appointed one of its members to a board that now controls properties operated by the Walt Disney Company for its massive Orlando park campus.

The Independent has requested comment from the group’s Miami-Dade chapter.

A review of Ms Salinas’ social media history includes a Facebook post calling the Proud Boys “los mejores”, or “the best.”

“My Proud Boys,” she wrote in the post on April 2021, above a photo of Tarrio with other members of the group.

In March of this year, she shared a Facebook post promoting the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a fraudulent century-old piece of antisemitic propaganda.

Ms Salinas appeared to have deleted the post after it was flagged by Miami Against Fascism on Twitter. She then posted an image of an Israeli Defense Force soldier with a caption reading: “People never seen this. I love my Jewish people.”

“I want to apologize to the Jewish community,” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on 24 May. “I’m not what the post says,” she added. “I love the Jewish community.”

She also co-hosted a Spanish-language podcast – “Hablando Como Los Locos” – that published an episode with the caption “Learn more about Kanye West, his polemic, his message” on 5 December 2022. Four days earlier, the rapper appeared on Alex Jones’s InfoWars and praised Adolf Hitler.

The Independent has requested comment from Ms Salinas.

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The school librarian in the middle of Louisiana’s war on libraries

Mr DeSantis – who has entered the race for the 2024 Republican nomination for president – has ushered through sweeping laws to control public school education and lessons and speech he deems to be objectionable while characterising reporting on the impacts of such policies as a “hoax” and a “fake narrative” manufactured by the press.

The state is at the centre of a nationwide trend of challenges against books and materials in libraries and schools, while the governor continues to falsely insist that no books have been banned as he launches his 2024 campaign.

A trio of state laws enacted within the last school year include what opponents have called the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in all school grades, and laws that restrict discussions of race or racism, and mandate how schools catalog books on their shelves. Taken together, teachers and schools have been forced to remove materials out of fear of facing legal action without clear guidance, or have faced an increase in threats and challenges from activists emboldened by legislation.

Last week, Penguin Random House and several prominent authors and families filed a federal lawsuit against a school district where activists have challenged dozens of books, largely involving or written by people of colour or LGBT+ people.

In Escambia County alone, nearly 200 books have been challenged, at least 10 books have been removed by the school board, five books were removed by district committees, and 139 books require parental permission, according to an analysis from free expression group PEN America.

In Florida’s Clay County, at least 100 books were pulled off shelves after challenges from a single person, PEN America found.

Hickey Upset, Not Surprised, Mount Cashel Brother Linked to Abuse in U.S.

May 26, 2023 | 

Gemma Hickey stands next to the monument to Mount Cashel victims in this file photo.

Author and advocate Gemma Hickey is demanding action and expressing frustration over the latest revelations that a Christian Brother convicted of abusing boys at Mount Cashel Orphanage ended up in Illinois where he is the focus of similar investigations.

“We’re demanding zero-tolerance. Stop shuffling predators around from place to place,” says Hickey. “We’ve seen it here and we’ve seen it in other parts of the world, and this is just wrong.”

According to the CBC, Ronald Lasik, who remained a member of the Irish Christian Brothers until his death in 2020, is among a number of people named in an ongoing investigation into Church-related abuse in the United States.

Hickey, who has been an outspoken advocate for people who have suffered abuse at the hands of clergy, is not surprised by the latest revelations.

“As horrible as this is, I’m not surprised. We’re used to seeing this. It’s a move straight out of the Catholic Church’s playbook,” says Hickey, citing the example of former Mount Cashel brothers now facing charges in British Columbia.

“It’s disheartening and disturbing. We’re holding the Church to account so this type of situation doesn’t keep happening

China’s first domestically produced passenger jet makes maiden commercial flight

Although China hopes to cut its reliance on foreign technology, many of the C919’s parts are sourced from overseas

Agence France-Presse
Sun 28 May 2023
China’s first domestically produced passenger jet took off on its maiden commercial flight on Sunday, a milestone event in the nation’s decades-long effort to compete with western rivals in the air.

Beijing hopes the C919 commercial jetliner will challenge foreign models like the Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320, though many of its parts are sourced from abroad.

Its first homegrown jetliner with mass commercial potential would also cut the country’s reliance on foreign technology as ties with the West deteriorate.


China’s war chest: how the fight for semiconductors reveals the outlines of a future conflict

“In the future, most passengers will be able to choose to travel by large, domestically produced aircraft,” state broadcaster CCTV said.

China Eastern Airlines flight MU9191 rose into the skies above Shanghai Hongqiao Airport on Sunday morning, footage from CCTV showed. The plane is carried over 130 passengers, the broadcaster said.

Passengers received red boarding passes and enjoyed a sumptuous “themed meal” to commemorate the flight, CCTV reported.

China has invested heavily in the production of the homegrown jet as it seeks to become self-sufficient in key technologies.

Passengers take photos with a C919, China’s self-developed large passenger aircraft 

Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock

The aircraft is manufactured by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), but many of its parts – including its engines – are sourced from overseas.


From Monday, the C919 will operate on China Eastern’s regular route between Shanghai and the south-western city of Chengdu, CCTV reported.

The first model of the narrow-body jet, which seats 164 passengers, was formally handed over to China Eastern last year during a ceremony at an airport in Shanghai, hailed by state media as “an important milestone” for the country’s aircraft industry.

Zhang Yujin, COMAC’s deputy general manager, told state-backed Shanghai outlet The Paper in January that the company had taken about 1,200 orders for the C919.

COMAC planned to increase annual production capacity to 150 models within five years, Zhang said at the time.

Asia – and China in particular – are key targets for both Airbus and its American rival Boeing, which are looking to capitalise on growing demand for air travel from the country’s vast middle class.

Last month, Airbus said it would double its production capacity in China, signing a deal to build a second final assembly line for the A320 in Tianjin.

The first assembly site in the northern city opened in 2008 and produces four A320s a month, with Airbus hoping to increase that to six a month before the end of the year.

Rare green fireball explodes over Australia, creating bright flash visible for hundreds of miles

The exploding meteor, known as a bolide, also created a sonic boom that shook a nearby town.

Video footage of the meteor exploding. (Image credit: Carins Airport)

By Harry Baker   published 11 days ago

An unusual green meteor recently exploded as it plummeted through the sky over Australia, giving off a brilliant flash of light that could be seen for miles and a loud bang that stunned local residents below.

Cameras at Cairns Airport in Queensland captured a video of the exploding meteor, known as a bolide, at 9:22 p.m. local time on May 20. Video footage uploaded to the airport's Facebook page shows an initial green flash lighting up the night sky before a secondary white flash. 

Additional footage captured on smartphones, dashcams and security cameras showed that the flash was visible as far away as Normanton, which is around 370 miles (600 kilometers) west of Cairns, The Guardian reported. The sound of the explosion could be heard most clearly above the town of Croydon, which is around 60 miles (100 km) east of Normanton, suggesting that the meteor exploded somewhere overhead. 

The space rock was likely quite small, between 1.6 and 3.2 feet (0.5 and 1 meter) across, and could have been traveling up to 93,000 mph (150,000 km/h), Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist at Australian National University in Canberra, told The Guardian. Any fragments that crashed to Earth would likely have been very small and were likely still frozen, he added.

Bolides are meteors that blow up in Earth's atmosphere due to a buildup of friction that eventually causes the space rocks to instantaneously shatter with enough force to trigger a sonic boom, according to the American Meteor Society. 

The meteor "essentially does a belly flop," Tucker said. "The friction builds up and causes that glow and then it hits breaking point, which causes the huge flash and the sonic boom." 

Most bolides emit a white or yellow light when they explode. The unusual green flash of the meteor that exploded above Croydon was caused by a high concentration of metals such as iron and nickel in the meteor, Tucker said. 

Similar green light can also be given off by fireball meteors, which are extremely bright meteors that break apart in Earth's atmosphere but do not explode with the same intensity. In August 2022, a green fireball was spotted above New Zealand, and in November 2022, another one crashed into Lake Ontario. 

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Bolides occur in Earth's atmosphere relatively frequently. Between July 2017 and January 2022, astronomers detected around 3,000 bolides, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. But observers on the ground witness only a few of these blasts each year, because most of the explosions happen away from populated areas or above the ocean. 

In August 2022, people in Utah were shocked by a loud explosion from a suspected bolide that likely originated from the Perseid meteor shower.