M7.7 quake in Taiwan kills 1, injures more than 50
Images | Central News Agency/Kyodo
An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 struck off the east coast of Taiwan on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring more than 50, while small tsunami reached nearby islands in Japan's southwest, Kyodo reports.
Taiwan's biggest quake since a 1999 temblor triggered landslides in Hualien County and left some people trapped in collapsed buildings, local authorities and reports said.
The island's meteorological authority put the magnitude of the quake at 7.2, while the Japan Meteorological agency said it registered 7.7.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen set up an emergency response office and said the military will be dispatched to quake-hit areas for relief operations.
The person killed in the quake was hit by a falling rock in Hualien, authorities said. High-speed railway services on the island were partially suspended and major expressways in eastern Taiwan were closed due to debris, but the safety of all nuclear plants on the island was confirmed.
Small tsunami reached the islands of Yonaguni, Ishigaki and Miyako in Okinawa Prefecture, the Japan Meteorological agency said. The agency initially projected tsunami of up to 3 meters and then 1 meter.
The 8:58 a.m. quake registered 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Yonaguni, said the agency. The magnitude was revised to 7.7 from 7.5.
Its epicenter was at a depth of 23 kilometers, some 250 km west-southwest of Ishigaki Island, according to the Japanese agency. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tokyo will "swiftly offer support" to Taiwan if requests are made.
In Hualien, the quake caused a five-story building to tilt with its first floor collapsing while a nine-story building was also left leaning. Schools and offices suspended activities following the quake.
The temblor was felt across Taiwan and a series of aftershocks continued to rock the island, with schools evacuating children to open sports fields for safety. In the capital Taipei, debris has fallen off some buildings and monuments, including the archway at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, local media reports said.
In Okinawa, flights were temporarily suspended at Naha airport following issuance of the tsunami warning, with passengers urged to move to higher floors of the terminal building, its operator said. The airport is located on the coast of the main island of the prefecture.
Alarms repeatedly sounded to urge evacuation to higher ground. On Yonaguni Island, residents evacuated to a junior high school overlooking the sea.
Residents calmly evacuated. (At this point) it doesn't seem the waves are coming," the school's vice principal said. After the warning was issued, some 40 residents gathered on the second floor of the school.
An employee at a rental car outlet in Ishigaki said, "I was surprised when my mobile phone's alarm rang loudly. There have been a lot of earthquakes recently, so I'm scared."
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China launches Shenzhou-18 manned spaceship
Images | Xinhua/Li Gang
China on Thursday launched the Shenzhou-18 manned spaceship to send three taikonauts to its orbiting Tiangong space station for a six-month mission, Xinhua reports.
The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.
The Shenzhou-18 crew members are Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu, with Ye as the mission commander, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
The Shenzhou-18 mission marks Ye's second journey into space, following his previous role as a crew member during the Shenzhou-13 mission from October 2021 to April 2022. Li Cong and Li Guangsu are both on their first-ever space adventure.
The crew will utilize the scientific experiment cabinets and extravehicular payloads to carry out more than 90 experiments in the fields of basic physics in microgravity, space material science, space life science, space medicine and space technology, said Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the CMSA, at Wednesday's press conference.
A unique task for the three pilot-turned taikonauts is to create an "aquarium" and raise fish in zero gravity.
They will create a simplified version of an aquatic ecosystem using zebrafish and algae to study how the space environment affects their growth and system balance.
The "aquarium" is 1.25 liters in volume and can accommodate four small fish. But if the experiment succeeds, it will be a significant breakthrough to cultivate vertebrates in China's space program. Not only will the taikonauts find joy in the space "aquarium," but it may also pave the way for their future counterparts to enjoy nutritious fish from their own in-orbit harvests.
The next step in our research involves conducting experiments on fruit flies and mice," said Cang Huaixing, a chief researcher for the space station's scientific experiments, at the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Taikonauts in orbit will also be involved in an experiment of cultivating plants. The purpose is to analyze the changes in the function and gene expression of plant stem cells in a microgravity environment. According to scientists, this research will provide theoretical support for designing crops that can adapt to outer space conditions.
More than 100 Arabidopsis seeds will be grown and nurtured in space for approximately four weeks. The crew aboard the space station will freeze them at minus 80 degrees Celsius in real-time and bring them back to Earth for further analysis and research.
In addition to the two experiments related to fish and plant, the crew will also conduct molecular research on the co-origin of proteins and nucleic acids, as well as the origin of codons. Furthermore, they will test a newly developed spacecraft coating material.
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China's gigantic telescope detects over 900 new pulsars
Images | Xinhua/Ou Dongqu
China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, has identified more than 900 new pulsars since its launch in 2016, its operator said Wednesday, Xinhua reports.
Pulsars, or fast-spinning neutron stars, originate from the imploded cores of massive dying stars through supernova explosions.
Han Jinlin, a scientist with the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), said that the pulsars included over 120 binary pulsars, more than 170 millisecond pulsars, and 80 faint and intermittent pulsars.
Han added that over the past 50-plus years since the discovery of the first pulsar, less than 3,000 pulsars were discovered worldwide, and the number of new pulsars discovered by FAST is more than three times the total number of pulsars found by foreign telescopes during the same period.
The study has important implications for understanding the dense remnants of dead stars in the Milky Way and their radiation characteristics," Han said.
Pulsar observation is an important task for FAST, which can be used to confirm the existence of gravitational radiation and black holes, and help find answers to many other major questions in physics.
Jiang Peng, chief engineer of the FAST, said that all staff members make every effort to improve the performance of the telescope. At present, the annual observation time of the telescope is about 5,300 hours, and it plays an important role in the continuous output of scientific research achievements.
Located in a deep and round karst depression in southwest China's Guizhou Province, FAST started formal operation in January 2020. It is believed to be the world's most sensitive radio telescope.
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Middle Corridor holds significant importance for Kyrgyzstan - ambassador
Images | trend.az
The Middle Corridor (Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, or TITR) holds significant importance for Kyrgyzstan, the country's Ambassador to Azerbaijan Kairat Osmonaliev told Kyrgyz media, Trend reports.
The topic of the Middle Corridor is currently under active discussion. Essentially, it revives the operation of the old classical Silk Road, which originally passed through Central Asian countries, including the Caucasus. We are continuously working on this issue, including maximizing multimodal transportation along the corridor," the ambassador said.
He noted that Baku is now becoming a regional logistics hub, with the Baku Alat International Sea Trade Port and the Baku Hovsan International Sea Trade Port. According to him, discussions are currently underway for cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and both ports.
The Middle Corridor is a transportation and trade route that connects Asia and Europe, passing through several countries in the region. It is an alternative route to the traditional Northern Corridor and Southern Corridor. The route starts in China and crosses Central Asian countries. It then passes through the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Türkiye before reaching Europe.
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