Space & Physics
In search for red aurorae in ancient Japan
Ryuho Kataoka, a Japanese auroral scientist, played a seminal role in searching for evidence of super-geomagnetic storms in the past using historical methods
Aurorae seen on Earth are the end of a complex process that begins with a violent, dynamic process deep within the sun’s interior.
However, studying the depths of the sun is no easy task, even for scientists. The best they can do is to observe the surface using space-based telescopes. One problem that scientists are attempting to solve is how a super-geomagnetic storm on Earth comes to being. These geomagnetic storms find their roots in sunspots, that are acne-like depressions on the sun’s surface. As the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year solar cycle, these sunspots, numbering in the hundreds, occasionally release all that stored magnetic energy into deep space, in the form of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) (which are hot wisps of gas superheated to thousands of degrees).
Super-geomagnetic storms, a particularly worse form of geomagnetic storm, can induce power surges in our infrastructure, causing power outages that can plunge the world into darkness, and can cause irreversible damages to our infrastructure
If the earth lies in the path of an oncoming CME, the energy release from their resultant magnetic field alignment can cause intense geomagnetic storms and aurorae on Earth.
This phenomenon, which is astrophysical and also electromagnetic in nature, can have serious repercussions for our modern technological society.
Super-geomagnetic storms, a particularly worse form of geomagnetic storm, can induce power surges in our infrastructure, causing power outages that can plunge the world into darkness, and can cause irreversible damages to our infrastructure. The last recorded super-geomagnetic storm event occurred more than 150 years ago. Known as the Carrington event, the storm destroyed telegraph lines across North America and Europe in 1859. The risk for a Carrington-class event to happen again was estimated to be 1 in 500-years, which is quite low, but based on limited data. Ramifications are extremely dangerous if it were to ever happen.
However, in the past decade, it was learnt that such super-geomagnetic storms are much more common than scientists had figured. To top it all, it wasn’t just science, but it was a valuable contribution by art – specifically ancient Japanese and Chinese historical records that shaped our modern understanding of super-geomagnetic storms.
Ryuho Kataoka, a Japanese space physicist, played a seminal role in searching for evidence of super-geomagnetic storms in the past using historical methods. He is presently an associate professor in physics, holding positions at Japan’s National Institute of Polar Research, and The Graduate University for Advanced Studies.
“There is no modern digital dataset to identify extreme space weather events, particularly super-geomagnetic storms,” said Professor Kataoka. “If you have good enough data, we can input them into supercomputers to do physics-based simulation.”
However, sunspot records go until the late 18th century when sunspots were actively being cataloged. In an effort to fill the data gap, Professor Kataoka decided to be at the helm of a very new but promising interdisciplinary field combining the arts with space physics. “The data is limited by at least 50 years,” said Professor Kataoka. “So we decided to search for these red vapor events in Japanese history, and see the occurrence patterns … and if we are lucky enough, we can see detailed features in these lights, pictures or drawings.” Until the summer of 2015, Ryuho Kataoka wasn’t aware of how vast ancient Japanese and Chinese history records really were.
“There is no modern digital dataset to identify extreme space weather events, particularly super-geomagnetic storms,” said Professor Kataoka.
In the past 7 years, he’s researched a very specific red aurora, in documents extending to more than 1400 years. “Usually, auroras are known for their green colors – but during the geomagnetic storm, the situation is very different,” he said. “Red is of course unusual, but we can only see red during a powerful geomagnetic storm, especially in lower latitudes. From a scientific perspective, it’s a very reasonable way to search for red signs in historical documents.”
A vast part of these historical red aurora studies that Professor Kataoka researched came from literature explored in the last decade by the AURORA-4D collaboration. “The project title included “4D”, because we wanted to access records dating back 400 years back during the Edo period,” said Professor Kataoka.
“From the paintings, we can identify the latitude of the aurora, and calculate the magnitude or amplitude of the geomagnetic storm.” Clearly, paintings in the Edo period influenced Professor Kataoka’s line of research, for a copy of the fan-shaped red aurora painting from the manuscript Seikai (which translates to ‘stars’) hangs on the window behind his office desk at the National Institute of Polar Research.
The painting fascinated Professor Kataoka, since it depicted an aurora that originated during a super-geomagnetic storm over Kyoto in 1770. However, the painting did surprise him at first, since he wondered whether the radial patterns in the painting were real, or a mere artistic touch to make it look fierier. “That painting was special because this was the most detailed painting preserved in Japan,” remarked Professor Kataoka. “I took two years to study this, thinking this appearance was silly as an aurorae scientist. But when I calculated the field pattern from Kyoto towards the North, it was actually correct!”
Fan-shaped red aurora painting from the ‘Seikai’, dated 17th September, 1770; Picture Courtesy: Matsusaka City, Mie Prefecture.
The possibility to examine and verify historical accounts using science is also a useful incentive for scholars of Japanese literature and scientists partaking in the research.
“This is important because, if we scientists look at the real National Treasure with our eyes, we really know these sightings recorded were real,” said Professor Kataoka. “The internet is really bad for a survey because it can easily be very fake,” he said laughing. It’s not just the nature in which science was used to examine art – to examine Japanese “national treasures” that is undoubtedly appealing, but historical accounts themselves have contributed to scientific research directly.
“From our studies, we can say that the Carrington class events are more frequent than we previously expected,” said Professor Kataoka. There was a sense of pride in him as he said this. “This Carrington event is not a 1 in 200-year event, but as frequent as 1 in 100 years.” Given how electricity is the lifeblood of the 21st century, these heightened odds do ingrain a rather dystopian society in the future, that is ravaged by a super-geomagnetic storm.
Professor Kataoka’s work has found attention within the space physics community. Jonathon Eastwood, Professor of Physics at Imperial College London said to EdPublica, “The idea to use historical information and art like this is very inventive because these events are so rare and so don’t exist as information in the standard scientific record.”
There’s no physical harm from a geomagnetic storm, but the threat to global power supply and electronics is being increasingly recognized by world governments. The UK, for instance, identified “space weather” as a natural hazard in its 2011 National Risk Register. In the years that followed, the government set up a space weather division in the Met Office, the UK’s foremost weather forecasting authority, to monitor and track occurrences of these coronal mass ejections. However, these forecasts, which often supplement American predictions – namely the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – have failed to specify previously where a magnetic storm could brew on Earth, or predict whether a coronal mass ejection would ever actually strike the Earth.
Professor Kataoka said he wishes space physicists from other countries participate in similar interdisciplinary collaborations to explore their native culture’s historical records for red aurora sightings
The former occurred during the evacuation process for Hurricane Irma in 2017, when amateur radio ham operators experienced the effects of a radio blackout when a magnetic storm affected the communications network across the Caribbean. The latter occurred on another occasion when a rocket launch for SpaceX’s Starlink communication satellites was disrupted by a mild geomagnetic storm, costing SpaceX a loss of over $40 million.
Professor Kataoka said he wishes space physicists from other countries participate in similar interdisciplinary collaborations to explore their native culture’s historical records for red aurora sightings. He said the greatest limitation of the AURORA-4D collaboration was the lack of historical records from other parts of the world. China apparently boasts a history of aurora records longer than Japan, with a history lasting before Christ himself. “Being Japanese, I’m not familiar with British, Finnish or Vietnamese cultures,” said Professor Kataoka. “But every country has literature researchers and scientists who can easily collaborate and perform interdisciplinary research.” And by doing so, it’s not just science which benefits from it, but so is ancient art whose beauty and relevance gains longevity.
Space & Physics
The Universe Is Ringing
How gravitational waves from colliding black holes are opening an entirely new way of exploring the cosmos
More than a century after Albert Einstein predicted them, gravitational waves are transforming astronomy. Ripples in space-time produced by colliding black holes and neutron stars are now being detected routinely, revealing a universe filled with violent mergers and cosmic echoes that have travelled billions of years to reach Earth.
A Ripple Across the Cosmos
When the densest objects in the universe collide, the impact does not simply end with the destruction or merger of stars. It sends ripples through the very fabric of space and time.
These ripples—known as gravitational waves—spread outward at the speed of light, crossing galaxies and cosmic voids for millions or even billions of years. By the time they reach Earth, they are unimaginably faint distortions of space itself.
Yet scientists have learned how to detect them.
A global network of observatories now monitors these tiny disturbances: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States, the Virgo detector in Italy, and the Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA) in Japan. Together, these instruments form one of the most sensitive scientific experiments ever constructed, capable of detecting distortions smaller than the width of a proton.
Through them, astronomers have begun to “listen” to the universe.
And what they are hearing is astonishing.
A Universe Filled with Collisions
The LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration has now released the latest compilation of gravitational-wave detections, to appear in a special issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters. The findings suggest that the cosmos is reverberating with collisions far more frequently than scientists once imagined.
The newly released Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog-4.0 (GWTC-4) includes detections from part of the observatories’ fourth observing run, conducted between May 2023 and January 2024.
In just nine months, the detectors recorded 128 new gravitational-wave candidates—signals that likely originated from extreme astrophysical events occurring hundreds of millions or billions of light-years away.
This newest batch more than doubles the size of the gravitational-wave catalog, which previously contained 90 candidates from earlier observing runs.
“The beautiful science that we are able to do with this catalog is enabled by significant improvements in the sensitivity of the gravitational-wave detectors as well as more powerful analysis techniques,” says Nergis Mavalvala, a member of the LVK collaboration and dean of the MIT School of Science.
What began in 2015 with the first historic detection has now become a steady stream of discoveries.
“In the past decade, gravitational wave astronomy has progressed from the first detection to the observation of hundreds of black hole mergers,” says Stephen Fairhurst, professor at Cardiff University and spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. “These observations enable us to better understand how black holes form from the collapse of massive stars, probe the cosmological evolution of the universe and provide increasingly rigorous confirmations of the theory of general relativity.”
When Black Holes Dance
Most gravitational waves detected so far originate from binary black holes—pairs of black holes locked in orbit around each other.
Over time, gravity draws them closer together. As they spiral inward, they release enormous amounts of energy in the form of gravitational waves. In the final fraction of a second, the two objects merge in a titanic collision, forming a single, larger black hole.
These cosmic dances are among the most energetic events in the universe.
Black holes themselves are born when massive stars collapse at the end of their lives, compressing enormous amounts of matter into regions so dense that not even light can escape.
Many form in pairs. When they eventually collide, the event sends gravitational waves surging through space.
The first such detection, announced in 2016, confirmed a century-old prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Since then, dozens—and now hundreds—of similar events have been observed.
But the latest catalog shows that the universe is far more diverse than scientists once believed.
Pushing the Edges of Black Hole Physics
The newly detected signals reveal a remarkable variety of cosmic systems.
Among them are the heaviest black hole binaries ever detected, systems where the masses of the two black holes are strikingly unequal, and pairs spinning at astonishing speeds.
“The message from this catalog is: We are expanding into new parts of what we call ‘parameter space’ and a whole new variety of black holes,” says Daniel Williams, a research fellow at the University of Glasgow. “We are really pushing the edges, and are seeing things that are more massive, spinning faster, and are more astrophysically interesting and unusual.”
One particularly dramatic signal—GW231123_135430—appears to have originated from two enormous black holes, each roughly 130 times the mass of the Sun. Most previously observed mergers involved black holes closer to 30 solar masses.
The extraordinary size of these objects suggests they may themselves have formed from earlier black hole mergers—a kind of cosmic generational chain.
Another remarkable event, GW231028_153006, revealed a binary in which both black holes are spinning at around 40 percent of the speed of light.
And in GW231118_005626, scientists detected an unusually uneven pair where one black hole is roughly twice as massive as the other.
“One of the striking things about our collection of black holes is their broad range of properties,” says Jack Heinzel, an MIT graduate student who contributed to the catalog’s analysis. “Some of them are over 100 times the mass of our sun, others are as small as only a few times the mass of the sun. Some black holes are rapidly spinning, others have no measurable spin.”
“We still don’t completely understand how black holes form in the universe,” he adds, “but our observations offer a crucial insight into these questions.”
Catching a Whisper in Space-Time
Detecting gravitational waves requires extraordinary precision.
The observatories use L-shaped interferometers with arms several kilometers long. Laser beams travel down these tunnels and reflect back to their source.
If a gravitational wave passes through the detector, it slightly stretches one arm while compressing the other, changing the distance the light travels by an incredibly tiny amount.
These changes can be smaller than one-thousandth the diameter of a proton.
Even with such advanced technology, detections remain unpredictable.
“You can’t ever predict when a gravitational wave is going to come into your detector,” says Amanda Baylor, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee who worked on the signal search. “We could have five detections in one day, or one detection every 20 days. The universe is just so random.”
Recent upgrades have dramatically improved the detectors’ reach. LIGO can now detect signals from neutron star collisions up to one billion light-years away, and black hole mergers far beyond that.
Testing Einstein’s Ultimate Theory
Gravitational waves are not only revealing spectacular cosmic events. They are also providing some of the most extreme tests ever conducted of Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
Black holes themselves are one of the most extraordinary predictions of the theory.
“Black holes are one of the most iconic and mind-bending predictions of general relativity,” says Aaron Zimmerman, associate professor of physics at the University of Texas at Austin.
When two black holes collide, he explains, they “shake up space and time more intensely than almost any other process we can imagine observing.”
One particularly powerful signal—GW230814_230901—allowed scientists to analyze the structure of the gravitational wave in exceptional detail.
“So far, the theory is passing all our tests,” Zimmerman says. “But we’re also learning that we have to make even more accurate predictions to keep up with all the data the universe is giving us.”
Measuring the Expansion of the Universe
Gravitational waves are also becoming powerful tools for answering one of cosmology’s biggest questions: how fast the universe is expanding.
Astronomers measure this expansion using the Hubble constant, but different methods have produced conflicting results.
Gravitational waves offer an independent approach.
“Merging black holes have a really unique property: We can tell how far away they are from Earth just from analyzing their signals,” says Rachel Gray, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow.
“So, every merging black hole gives us a measurement of the Hubble constant, and by combining all of the gravitational wave sources together, we can vastly improve how accurate this measurement is.”
Using the current gravitational-wave catalog, scientists estimate that the universe is expanding at roughly 76 kilometers per second per megaparsec.
For now, the uncertainty remains large—but future detections could sharpen the measurement significantly.
Listening to the Future
Only a decade ago, gravitational waves were purely theoretical signals.
Today, they are transforming astronomy.
With every new detection, scientists gain another glimpse into the hidden life of the universe: the birth of black holes, the evolution of galaxies, and the behavior of gravity under the most extreme conditions imaginable.
“Each new gravitational-wave detection allows us to unlock another piece of the universe’s puzzle in ways we couldn’t just a decade ago,” says Lucy Thomas, a postdoctoral researcher at the Caltech LIGO Lab.
“It’s incredibly exciting to think about what astrophysical mysteries and surprises we can uncover with future observing runs.”
The instruments on Earth are quiet, their lasers moving silently down vacuum tunnels. But far beyond our galaxy, black holes continue to collide.
And with each collision, the universe sends out another ripple—another echo across the cosmos—waiting for us to hear it.
Space & Physics
NASA’s Artemis II Captures Stunning ‘Earthset’ Over the Moon
NASA’s Artemis II crew captures a rare Earthset over the Moon, revealing lunar basins, craters, and Earth’s night-day divide.
NASA’s Artemis II mission has captured a striking new perspective of the Moon, showing Earth setting beyond the lunar horizon in a rare and visually dramatic moment from deep space.
The image, taken on April 6, 2026, at 6:41 p.m. EDT by the Artemis II crew during their journey around the far side of the Moon, reveals Earth partially dipping behind the Moon’s curved limb—an event often described as an “Earthset.”
A Geological Snapshot of the Moon
Beyond its visual impact, the image offers a detailed look at the Moon’s complex surface.
The Orientale basin, one of the Moon’s most prominent impact structures, is visible along the edge of the lunar surface. Nearby, the Hertzsprung Basin appears as faint concentric rings, partially disrupted by the younger Vavilov crater, which sits atop the older geological formation.
Also visible are chains of secondary craters—linear indentations formed by debris ejected during the massive impact that created the Orientale basin.
Artemis II: Earth in Shadow and Light
The photograph also captures Earth in a moment of contrast.
The darkened portion of the planet is in nighttime, while the illuminated side reveals swirling cloud formations over Australia and the Oceania region, offering a reminder of Earth’s dynamic atmosphere even from hundreds of thousands of kilometres away.
Artemis II: A New Era of Lunar Exploration
The Artemis II mission marks a major step in NASA’s return to the Moon, carrying astronauts on a crewed journey around the lunar surface for the first time in over five decades.
Images like this not only provide scientific insights into lunar geology but also offer a powerful visual connection between Earth and its nearest celestial neighbour—highlighting both the scale of space exploration and the fragility of our home planet.
Space & Physics
MIT Develops System to Boost Data Centre Efficiency by Up to 94%
MIT researchers develop Sandook, a system that boosts data centre efficiency by up to 94% without new hardware, improving SSD performance.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new system that significantly improves data centre efficiency by optimising the performance of storage devices, potentially reducing the need for additional hardware.
The system, called Sandook, addresses a persistent challenge in modern data centres—underutilisation of storage devices due to performance variability. By simultaneously tackling multiple sources of inefficiency, the approach delivers substantial performance gains compared to traditional methods.
Data Centre Efficiency: Addressing a Hidden Bottleneck
In data centres, multiple storage devices such as solid-state drives (SSDs) are often pooled together so that applications can share resources. However, differences in device performance mean that slower drives can limit overall system efficiency.
MIT researchers found that these inefficiencies stem from three key factors: hardware variability across devices, conflicts between read and write operations, and unpredictable slowdowns caused by internal processes like garbage collection.
To overcome this, the team developed Sandook, a software-based system designed to manage these issues in real time.
Two-Tier Intelligent Architecture
The system uses a two-tier architecture, combining a global controller that distributes tasks across devices with local controllers that react quickly to performance slowdowns.
This structure allows Sandook to dynamically balance workloads, rerouting tasks away from devices experiencing delays and optimising performance across the entire system.
The system also profiles the behaviour of individual SSDs, enabling it to anticipate slowdowns and adjust workloads accordingly.
Significant Performance Gains
When tested on real-world tasks such as database operations, AI model training, image compression, and data storage, Sandook demonstrated major improvements.
The system increased throughput by between 12 percent and 94 percent compared to conventional methods, while also improving overall storage utilisation by 23 percent. It enabled SSDs to achieve up to 95 percent of their theoretical maximum performance—without requiring specialised hardware.
A More Sustainable Approach
Researchers emphasised that improving efficiency is critical given the cost and environmental impact of data centre infrastructure.
“There is a tendency to want to throw more resources at a problem to solve it, but that is not sustainable in many ways. We want to be able to maximize the longevity of these very expensive and carbon-intensive resources,” said Gohar Chaudhry, lead author of the study, ina media statement.
“With our adaptive software solution, you can still squeeze a lot of performance out of your existing devices before you need to throw them away and buy new ones,” she added.
Unlocking Untapped Potential
The system also addresses the challenge of inconsistent device behaviour over time.
“I can’t assume all SSDs will behave identically through my entire deployment cycle. Even if I give them all the same workload, some of them will be stragglers, which hurts the net throughput I can achieve,” Chaudhry explained.
By continuously adjusting workloads, Sandook ensures that even underperforming devices contribute effectively without dragging down overall performance.
Researchers say the system could be further enhanced by integrating new storage technologies and adapting to predictable workloads such as artificial intelligence applications.
“Our dynamic solution can unlock more performance for all the SSDs and really push them to the limit. Every bit of capacity you can save really counts at this scale,” Chaudhry said.
Implications
As demand for data processing continues to surge, innovations like Sandook could play a critical role in making data centres more efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable—without requiring massive infrastructure expansion.
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