Atomic resonance so narrow that it doesn't lose a second in 300 billion years
Forward-looking: Atomic clocks are extraordinarily precise and intricate timekeeping devices, capable of maintaining accuracy without losing a second over hundreds of millions of years. Currently, researchers are actively exploring the development of potential nuclear clocks that could offer even greater precision and reliability in time measurement.
Why it matters: Carbon is one of the primary building blocks of life as we know it. Therefore, the detection of carbon signs on celestial bodies other than Earth is always a significant discovery. Thanks to JWST's powerful instruments, scientists now have evidence that carbon should be abundant on one of the most promising targets for extraterrestrial life research.
In context: Supermassive black holes are among the most extreme phenomena that humans have discovered in outer space. They possess a mass hundreds of thousands, or even millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun, and they are responsible for powering unprecedented luminous events known as quasars.