We've had all kinds of black holes over the last few years – see earlier posts. Now we have a free floating black hole roaming through interstellar space – see https://phys.org/news/2022-02-free-floating-black-hole-roaming-interstel… … An international team of researchers, or people gazing into space telescopes, and ruminating afterwards, say that a possible microlensing event back in 2011 was due to the presence of a free floating black hole. The first of its kind ever seen, or observed. See their findings at https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.13296 or go to the arXiv web site for 220.13296v1 or https://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.13296.pdf
This finding came about on the back of cosmologists predicting the presence of many black holes wandering around in deep space. Theory first – then look for evidence to support the theory. Black holes are difficult to spot. They are as black, if not even blacker, than interstellar space. Not surprising if they are invisible. What actually was seen? This is the big question. Lensing effects, it would seem. When light from stars is thought to be bent by the pull of an unseen object, assumed to be a black hole. Even then, the lensing effect is extremely slight – but luck would have it, back in 2011, somebody spotted a star that seemed to brighten for no apparent reason. An active star. How unusual. Not only that but over a 6 year period the position of the star seemed to have changed. The researchers claim the change can only be due to an unseen object exerting a force that was pulling in the light as it passed by. If black holes exist they may have found one. If black holes don't exist they have discovered a star that is active, and cruising through space.
At https://phys.org/news/2022-02-saturn-high-altitude-extraordinary-aurorae… … we have all read about the unusual auroral activity on Saturn, possibly as a result of it's moons and geomagnetic processes. In this piece Saturn's aurorae are heightened by high altitude winds, creating some extraordinary auroral activity. We are not told if the winds are ionised, or not.Saturn appears to be unique among the planets in the solar system in that aurorae is generated not just as a result of its magnetosphere, as on earth for example, but by other factors. These include the swirling winds at its poles. The NASA Cassini mission to Saturn had a problem in measuring the length of day via radio emission pulses. The rotation rate, in other words. Then, when comparing data with an earlier mission it seemed the rotation rate had changed. This appears to fly in the face of mainstream theory and thinking. What can cause a planet's speed of rotation to change so quickly? This appears to involve those polar winds – but what generates those winds?