Infant star’s artistic outburst

the gist

HH 34 is a Herbig-Haro object, a glowing patch of gas about 1,400 light-years away near the Orion Nebula. It is produced when a hot, blue jet of gas, launched by a very young star still wrapped in dust, crashes into slower material ahead of it. The jet is heated where it collides and glows visibly. The knots and ripples along the jet are thought to come from several outbursts from the star that have caught up with one another over time. Herbig-Haro objects last only a few thousands of years, which is brief on astronomical timescales. Hubble has been able to see changes in them across observations only a few years apart.

so what

Herbig-Haro objects are a direct record of how young stars shed material as they form. They show how stars push back against their surroundings during the earliest stage of their lives.

fun fact

Herbig-Haro objects are named after the astronomers George Herbig and Guillermo Haro, who studied them independently.

ESA/Hubble · CC BY 4.0

Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA

source: ESA/Hubble ↗

historyWikipediaclassic1336–1565 · Karnataka, India

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗