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Thursday, May 12, 2022

Finding our galactic centre

Three years ago, history was made when the first image of a black hole inspired wonder and awe around the world as we glimpsed the shadow of light escaping from the supermassive black hole M87*. Today, history is being made again as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration releases the image of a second black hole — Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) — the one at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy.

The world watched breathlessly as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched on Christmas morning and travelled 1.5 million kilometres to its earth-trailing orbit. Now, we breathe a sigh of relief as the telescope has begun sending us the first images as it aligns and prepares for research, launching a new chapter in humanity’s endeavour to study the universe.

Pharmaceutical drugs often take advantage of a specific shape in order to bind to the biological target. Some molecules, however, can exist with two versions that are mirror images of each other, similar to a left-handed and right-handed pair of gloves. In the body, often only one of the two molecules is an active pharmaceutical drug due to the difference in shape.