A major breakthrough has been achieved by the international cooperative space science satellite "Tian Guan" (Einstein Probe, EP), led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The satellite successfully captured a fleeting cosmic X-ray signal numbered EP240414a, providing a brand-new perspective for unraveling the process of stellar death.
The newly captured EP240414a by the Tian Guan satellite originated from the collapsing end of a massive star about 4 billion light-years away. The instantaneous radiation burst generated by the huge energy release lasted only about 150 seconds, yet it contained crucial information about the collapse of the stellar core and energy release. Surprisingly, this collapse of a massive star did not produce the higher-energy gamma-ray bursts commonly observed by astronomers in the past, but instead emitted much lower-frequency soft X-ray radiation. Therefore, only the Tian Guan satellite, which simultaneously features a large field of view and high sensitivity in the soft X-ray band, was able to exclusively capture EP240414a.
The global first demonstration vessel powered by a pure ammonia-fuel internal combustion engine, "Anhui," successfully completed its maiden voyage in the Chaohu Lake waters of Hefei, Anhui. This milestone marks a significant breakthrough in the industrial application of ammonia fuel in the shipping sector, opening up a practical and brand-new path for energy conservation, emission reduction, and green development in the shipping industry. It also holds great landmark significance for accelerating the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient water transportation energy system.
The maiden-voyage "Anhui" is equipped with a 200kW high-speed gas internal combustion generator set, two 100kW propulsion motors, and a twin-propeller propulsion system. With a full load capacity of 50 tons, its rated speed reaches 10 knots.
On June 30, Huawei announced the open sourcing of the Pangu 7-billion-parameter dense model, the Pangu Pro MoE 72-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model, and Ascend-based model inference technologies. This is the first time Huawei has open-sourced the core capabilities of the Pangu large model. The main open-source contents include: the weights of the Pangu Pro MoE 72B model and basic inference codes, which have been officially launched on open-source platforms; Ascend-based inference codes for ultra-large-scale MoE models, which have also been officially launched on open-source platforms; and the weights and inference codes related to the Pangu 7B model, which will be launched on open-source platforms in the near future.
The Ningxia-Hunan ?00 kV UHVDC transmission project has successfully completed its 168-hour trial operation, acquiring a power transmission capacity of 4 million kilowatts and starting to supply electricity to Hunan. This will provide clean power support for Hunan during the peak summer power consumption period. During the project's debugging and trial operation, 140 million kWh of electricity has already been transmitted to Hunan. It is expected that by mid-September, the "Ningxia-Hunan Power Transmission" project will be fully completed and put into operation, with a power transmission capacity of 8 million kilowatts at that time.
The perovskite solar cells independently developed by the New Energy Photoelectric Materials and Devices Team of Hainan University, certified by the China National Photovoltaic Industry Metrology and Testing Center, have achieved a steady-state photoelectric conversion efficiency of 27.32%. This value exceeds the 26.95% efficiency record announced by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory in February this year and the 27.3% industry benchmark value included in Martin Green's solar cell efficiency statistics in May, marking that Hainan University has joined the global leading ranks in the field of third-generation photovoltaic technology.
