Astronomers discover strange new celestial object in our Milky Way galaxy

posted in: All news | 0

By MARCIA DUNN

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have discovered a strange new object in our Milky Way galaxy.

Related Articles


SpaceX launches another Starship rocket after back-to-back explosions, but it tumbles out of control


Is there life after extinction? Some scientists and conservationists are trying to find out


U of M researchers are planting ‘survivor’ trees in hopes of defeating Dutch elm disease


More tornadoes and fewer meteorologists make for a dangerous mix that’s worrying US officials


These surreal trees survived for centuries. Scientists worry for their future

An international team reported Wednesday that this celestial object — perhaps a star, pair of stars or something else entirely — is emitting X-rays around the same time it’s shooting out radio waves. What’s more, the cycle repeats every 44 minutes, at least during periods of extreme activity.

Located 15,000 light-years away in a region of the Milky Way brimming with stars, gas and dust, this object could be a highly magnetized dead star like a neutron or white dwarf, Curtin University’s Ziteng Andy Wang said in an email from Australia.

Or it could be “something exotic” and unknown, said Wang, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory spotted the X-ray emissions by chance last year while focusing on a supernova remnant, or the remains of an exploded star. Wang said it was the first time X-rays had been seen coming from a so-called long-period radio transient, a rare object that cycles through radio signals over tens of minutes.

Given the uncertain distance, astronomers can’t tell if the weird object is associated with the supernova remnant or not. A single light-year is 5.8 trillion miles.

The hyperactive phase of this object — designated ASKAP J1832−091 — appeared to last about a month. Outside of that period, the star did not emit any noticeable X-rays. That could mean more of these objects may be out there, scientists said.

“While our discovery doesn’t yet solve the mystery of what these objects are and may even deepen it, studying them brings us closer to two possibilities,” Wang said. “Either we are uncovering something entirely new, or we’re seeing a known type of object emitting radio and X-ray waves in a way we’ve never observed before.”

Launched in 1999, Chandra orbits tens of thousands of miles (kilometers) above Earth, observing some of the hottest, high-energy objects in the universe.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Snelling Avenue and St. Clair Avenue intersection closing intermittently

posted in: All news | 0

The intersection of Snelling and St. Clair avenues will be closed intermittently beginning Friday as construction in the area wraps up.

The intersection will shut down at 6 a.m. Friday, May 30, and open again at 6 a.m. Sunday, June 1, to accommodate Grand Old Day traffic.

The intersection will be shut down again at 9 p.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday, then again from 9 p.m. Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday, June 4, when work is expected to be complete.

The resurfacing of a half-mile of Snelling Avenue between St. Clair and Grand avenues began last year and includes building bump-outs and ADA-compliant crossings at all intersections.

The work wraps up with replacement of the signal system at Snelling and St. Clair avenues and resurfacing of the intersection and installing ADA-compliant crossings.

For more information, visit: mndot.gov/metro/projects/snellingave-stpaul.

Related Articles


Group calls for Target to apologize, St. Paul PD to look at false reporting after 2 men accused of being armed


Ex-volunteer with Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office youth program gets probation for sexually abusing girl


West Seventh Pharmacy to close after 110 years


Twins ready for three-city “Minor League Road Trip”


Twins threaten but fall in series finale to Royals

Harvard agrees to relinquish early photos of slaves, ending a long legal battle

posted in: All news | 0

By LEAH WILLINGHAM

BOSTON (AP) — Harvard University will relinquish 175-year-old photographs believed to be the earliest taken of enslaved people to a South Carolina museum devoted to African American history as part of a settlement with one of the subjects’ descendants.

The photos of the subjects identified by Tamara Lanier as her great-great-great-grandfather Renty, whom she calls “Papa Renty,” and his daughter Delia will be transferred from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to the International African American Museum in South Carolina, the state where they were enslaved in 1850 when the photos were taken, a lawyer for Lanier said Wednesday.

The settlement marks the end of a 15-year battle between Lanier and the esteemed university to release the 19th-century “daguerreotypes,” a precursor to modern-day photographs. Lanier’s attorney Joshua Koskoff told The Associated Press that the resolution is an “unprecedented” victory for descendants of those enslaved in the U.S. and praised his client’s yearslong determination in pursuing justice for her ancestors.

“I think it’s one of one in American history, because of the combination of unlikely features: to have a case that dates back 175 years, to win control over images dating back that long of enslaved people — that’s never happened before,” Koskoff said.

In a statement, Harvard said it had “long been eager to place the Zealy Daguerreotypes with another museum or other public institution to put them in the appropriate context and increase access to them for all Americans.”

“This settlement now allows us to move forward towards that goal,” the university said. “While we are grateful to Ms. Lanier for sparking important conversations about these images, this was a complex situation, particularly since Harvard has not confirmed that Ms. Lanier was related to the individuals in the daguerreotypes.”

A complex history

Lanier, who lives in Connecticut, sued the Ivy League school in 2019 for “wrongful seizure, possession and expropriation” of the images of Renty, Delia and five other enslaved individuals. The suit attacked Harvard for its “exploitation” of Renty’s image at a 2017 conference and in other uses. It said Harvard has capitalized on the photos by demanding a “hefty” licensing fee to reproduce the images.

The daguerreotypes were commissioned by Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz, whose theories on racial difference were used to support slavery in the U.S. The lawsuit says Agassiz came across Renty and Delia while touring plantations in search of racially “pure” slaves born in Africa.

To create the images, both Renty and Delia were posed shirtless and photographed from several angles.

“To Agassiz, Renty and Delia were nothing more than research specimens,” the suit says. “The violence of compelling them to participate in a degrading exercise designed to prove their own subhuman status would not have occurred to him, let alone mattered.”

In 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in Lanier’s favor and reaffirmed the merits of Lanier’s lawsuit against Harvard after a lower court judge ruled she had no legal claim to the images.

The state’s highest court recognized “Harvard’s complicity in the horrific actions surrounding the creation of the daguerreotypes,” saying that “Harvard’s present obligations cannot be divorced from its past abuses.”

A new home for Renty and Delia

Tonya M. Matthews, the CEO of the International African American Museum, called Harvard’s relinquishing of the images a moment “175 years in the making.”

“The bravery, tenacity, and grace shown by Ms. Lanier throughout the long and arduous process of returning these critical pieces of Renty and Delia’s story to South Carolina is a model for us all,” she said in a statement.

Related Articles


Why ‘wrench attacks’ on wealthy crypto holders are on the rise


Philanthropy wants to build Gen Z’s confidence in institutions. Will youth empowerment foster trust?


Wall Street drifts as the countdown ticks toward Nvidia’s earnings report


Macy’s surprises in first quarter, but cuts profit outlook as tariff costs seep in


Planning a wedding is stressful. Couples and vendors now have to factor in tariffs

The South Carolina museum has committed to working with Lanier and including her in decisions about how the story of the images will be told.

“It’s not an improvement just to move them from one closet in a mighty institution to another. And so really, the real importance of this is to allow these images to breathe, to allow the story — the full story — to be told not by a conflicted player in the story, which Harvard was from the beginning,” Koskoff said.

The attorney said “everybody has the right to tell the story of their own families.”

“That’s the least, most basic right we might have,” he said. “To be able to tell the story of her family with a museum that will allow her to tell it — I mean, you can’t do any better than that.”

In Lanier’s lawsuit, she asked for Harvard to acknowledge its complicity in slavery, listen to Lanier’s oral family history and pay an unspecified sum in damages. An undisclosed financial settlement was part of the resolution with Harvard announced Wednesday, but Koskoff said Harvard still hasn’t publicly acknowledged Lanier’s connection to them or its connection to perpetuating slavery in the U.S., Koskoff said.

“That is just left unanswered by Harvard,” he said.

He said Lanier isn’t expecting or waiting to hear from the institution, but that the settlement speaks for itself.

“In the end, the truth will find you — you can you can only hide from it for so long,” he said. “Yes, history is written by the winners. But over time, you know, those winners look like losers sometimes.”

Red Panda Forest Habitat opens at Minnesota Zoo this weekend

posted in: All news | 0

A new wooded outdoor habitat modeled after the Himalayan foothills is slated to open at the Minnesota Zoo this weekend and will feature red pandas, cranes and a deer, zoo official said.

The Red Panda Forest Habitat, on the Northern Trail at the zoo, will open Saturday, May 31. It will contain two red panda brothers named Cedar and Spruce. In addition, there will be a western tufted deer and two red-crowned crane sisters.

“These three animals depend on the unique mix of bamboo forests, mountainsides, wetlands and river valleys,” zoo officials said.

The new habitat gives the three species a natural environment to explore that includes climbing structures crafted from a repurposed oak tree that fell on the zoo campus. It also includes nesting boxes and feeders constructed of bamboo.

“The habitat was designed with each species’ well-being in mind — while also prioritizing the Zoo’s commitment to sustainability and our planet,” according to the zoo.

Red pandas, an endangered species, are skilled climbers in the moss-covered treetops of the forest, zoo officials said. Their ruddy-colored coat acts as camouflage in the Himalayan forest because it matches the moss on the canopy of trees where they live.

These two pandas were born in August 2024 at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo in Nebraska with their sister, Juniper. Red panda triplets are extremely rare, zoo officials said. The triplets represent 25% of all red pandas born in North American zoos last year.

Male western tufted deer are noted for their fang-like canine teeth that they use for defense, dominance battles and mating displays, zoo officials said. The Minnesota Zoo deer, named Douglas, came from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Ohio. His favorite food is sweet potato and he expresses curiosity with a ‘click’ sound. “Western tufted deer can also bark, whistle and whine,” zoo officials said.

Related Articles


Frost championship celebration today at Xcel Energy Center


Skywatch: High heavenly hair


Readers and writers: Immersion, writing from the heart help non-Native novelist access the culture


Pioneer Press 2025 patio guide: Wring every second out of summer at these 100+ Twin Cities spots


George Floyd: Minneapolis, St. Paul events mark his death, community response

The red-crowned crane is one of the rarest cranes in the world. There will be two 9-month-old sisters at the Red Panda Forest, arriving from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Their distinctive red heads and snowy white feathers will develop at 2 years old, the zoo said.

Panda-themed activities will take place on the plaza throughout the opening weekend of the new habitat.

Zoo officials said the public can sponsor a red panda, which supports the animals at the zoo “while forming a deeper connection with wildlife.” Each red panda sponsorship includes four exclusive updates, along with a certificate of sponsorship.

For more information, visit mnzoo.org/redpandaforest/.