Scientists using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may have identified a new kind of supermassive black hole: one wrapped inside a dense cloud of gas, giving it the appearance of a star. The object, named MoM-BH*-1, formed about 660 million years after the Big Bang and appeared as an unusually bright red spot, the reddest hue the telescope has documented. Researchers initially considered whether a powerful star surrounded by hydrogen could explain what they were seeing, but their simulations only matched the object’s extreme brightness after adding a black hole, producing about 100 billion times the energy of a star.
Double agents have been playing both sides for thousands of years. One of the earliest recorded examples comes from the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who told the story of Zopyrus, a Persian nobleman who supposedly mutilated himself to convince the people of Babylon that he had defected. Once trusted inside the besieged city, he opened its gates to the Persian army.
Centuries later, the Chevalier d’Éon operated inside a very different double game. While serving France as a diplomat in Britain, d’Éon also worked for Louis XV’s secret intelligence network, the King’s Secret, which operated without the knowledge of the French government, gathering information for a possible invasion even as France was negotiating peace with Britain.
By the Cold War, double agents had become some of intelligence’s most valuable assets. Polish intelligence officer Michał Goleniewski, codenamed Sniper, supplied the CIA with Soviet Bloc secrets while remaining in place behind the Iron Curtain. His intelligence exposed spies in the West and included information on Soviet military capabilities, before he eventually defected to the United States.
Join series producer Joe Foley in this week’s podcast selection, ‘Brief Histories: Double Agents,’ to uncover the dangerous art of working for both sides.
Take on immersive games and challenges at SPYGAMES! Test your team's skills and strategy, compete to climb the leaderboards, and recharge with food and drink in your own private space hosted by a dedicated staff member.
Book your next team social.
Take on immersive games and challenges at SPYGAMES! Test your team's skills and strategy, compete to climb the leaderboards, and recharge with food and drink in your own private space hosted by a dedicated staff member.
A change in someone’s behavior. A detail that doesn’t quite fit. A pattern emerging before anyone else sees it.
If you’re a Spycatcher, you’re naturally observant, curious and questioning. You don’t always take things at face value — and you’re good at putting small clues together to see the bigger picture.
In the intelligence world, those qualities are used to uncover hidden threats and spot when something isn’t what it seems.
In everyday life, they can make you a perceptive colleague, a shrewd judge of character, and the person who asks the question everyone else overlooked.
Can you uncover what’s hidden in Thérèse Lorraine’s shopping?
French Resistance fighter Thérèse Lorraine is visiting shops secretly run by her colleagues, where a series of specially reserved items are waiting for her to collect. But this is no ordinary shopping trip. Something has been concealed among the items on her list. Solve this week’s SPYSCAPE crossword to discover what she is really picking up.
Give your party guests an unforgettable experience designed to engage, entertain, and inspire. Our dedicated staff will be on hand to help, and you'll even get your own private space to celebrate.
Host your birthday at SPYSCAPE or SPYGAMES.
Give your party guests an unforgettable experience designed to engage, entertain, and inspire. Our dedicated staff will be on hand to help, and you'll even get your own private space to celebrate.
Can dogs tell how we’re feeling just by looking at us?
A new study published in iScience suggests dogs can distinguish between several human emotions from facial expressions alone. Researchers led by Raúl Hernández-Pérez at the University of Vienna used MRI scans to measure how dogs’ brains responded to different human faces.
In one experiment, researchers showed eight dogs happy and neutral expressions. Happy faces activated a brain region linked to reward processing, while neutral faces did not. A second experiment tested 12 dogs with images showing happiness, sadness, fear, and anger. The scans suggested the dogs could separate happiness from the three negative emotions, and distinguish fear from sadness and anger. Anger and sadness, however, appeared harder for them to tell apart.
Researchers now want to know how dogs process emotion through nonvisual signals. Dogs rely heavily on smell, with noses estimated to be around 1,000 to 10,000 times more sensitive than ours.
Nature
Total Solar Eclipse
What happens when the sun disappears?
For less than two and a half minutes, parts of the Arctic and Europe were plunged into totality on Wednesday as the moon passed directly between Earth and the sun.
Its path crossed northern Russia, Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and a small part of Portugal, while a partial eclipse was visible across much of Europe, Canada, and parts of the northern United States.
The event can affect more than daylight. Researchers have documented changes in wildlife behavior during eclipses, including bees going quiet, owls beginning to hoot, and crickets starting to chirp as the sun fades.
Try brain-teasing challenges at SPYSCAPE and pulse-racing fun in SPYGAMES.
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