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Scientists collect high-resolution images of the North Star's surface for 1st time

Polaris might be heavier — and spottier — than expected.

In our solar system, scattered across one of Earth's verdant mountains, six eggshell-white telescopes gaze into the deep universe. As one cohesive hive, the domed structures collect cosmic light to guide modern astronomers exploring space — and it is thanks to this hive that we now have a brilliant new perspective on the light that guided astronomers of the past: the North Star.

Our visual knowledge of the current North Star (because of Earth's axial wobble, the title passes to different stars over the eons) runs deep. Artists, old and new, have depicted Polaris shining in their paintings, astrophotographers have imaged it from their backyards and scientists have pointed their instruments at it for decades. But what's special about these new Polaris views, courtesy of the CHARA Array on Mount Wilson in California, has to do with resolution. The special thing about CHARA is, as touched on, its telescopes work in tandem with one another. Their light data is combined in a central facility to provide one whole, clear picture of a source. It's as though the sextet of worker telescopes forms one ultimate telescope with a diameter of 330 meters (1,083 feet). And because of this, the project's image resolution — specifically, angular resolution — is excellent.

Sure enough, after checking out some of these Polaris images, put together with CHARA observations taken between 2016 and 2021, scientists found some previously unknown features of the star. Most notably, there are discernable spots on the star's surface, kind of like the sunspots we see on the sun every now and then.

"The CHARA images revealed large bright and dark spots on the surface of Polaris that changed over time," Gail Schaefer, director of the CHARA Array, said in a statement . 

One of the major reasons this finding came as a surprise has to do with the fact that Polaris isn't any old star. It's a sort of star known as a Cepheid variable, which means it brightens and dims periodically. Polaris in particular gets brighter and fainter according to a four-day cycle, and scientists love locating Cepheids due to such very predictable behavior. That's because it allows these stars to be used for cosmic distance measurements. Basically, watching the change in a Cepheid's brightness over one cycle can reveal its true brightness.

Related: A rare nova ignites a 'new star' in the sky this year. Here's how to see it

By contrast, without predictably periodic pulsations, a star wouldn't be very reliable for such measurements. At risk of simplification, a dim star, for instance, could be either far away or just small — or, it could be weirdly dim for some other reason. Or, it could just happen to be dim during the time at which it was observed.

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Returning to those spots, as the CHARA team says, these high-resolution images of Polaris mark the first "glimpse of what the surface of a Cepheid variable looks like." So, to find spots with that first glimpse was intriguing. But these spots weren't the only result of the team's analysis.

Unlike our lonely sun, Polaris doesn't roam the universe by itself. Boasting about 46 times the size of our host star and lying over 400 light-years away from us, it's part of a triple-star system. It just happens to be the brightest of its siblings. In fact, the original goal of CHARA's Polaris investigation was to map the orbit of the star that circles our North Star once every 30 years. It's the one that's way closer than the other, making the endeavor a complex feat. Not only does this star float very close to Polaris, but the companion is also incredibly faint. It wasn't even confirmed to exist until around 2005, owing its documentation to the Hubble Space Telescope .

"The small separation and large contrast in brightness between the two stars makes it extremely challenging to resolve the binary system during their closest approach," team lead Nancy Evans at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, who also helped with the companion's identification, said in the statement. For that reason, the team dipped into some other astronomy tool boxes as well, such as a speckle interferometer at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico.

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This mission was indeed a success, helping to confirm things like the size of Polaris and suggesting that the star may be about five times more massive than the sun — which is heavier than previously thought. That discovery is important in its own right because, as Evans told ScienceNews , only a few Cepheids have had their masses determined. It also poses some interesting questions to explore in the future. "The mass combined with the distance shows that the Cepheid is more luminous than predicted for this mass from evolutionary tracks," the study authors write, for instance.

Still, the North Star's spotty nature seems to have taken the limelight. Consider how the areas of the star on which spots are seen and the rate at which the star rotates appear to suggest a 120-day radial velocity variation — essentially referring to changes in the object's velocity as seen along an observer's line of sight. That poses yet another puzzle.

"We plan to continue imaging Polaris in the future," John Monnier, an astronomy professor at the University of Michigan and co-author of the study, said in the statement. "We hope to better understand the mechanism that generates the spots on the surface of Polaris."

The study was published on Aug. 20 in The Astrophysical Journal.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Monisha Ravisetti is Space.com's Astronomy Editor. She covers black holes, star explosions, gravitational waves, exoplanet discoveries and other enigmas hidden across the fabric of space and time. Previously, she was a science writer at CNET, and before that, reported for The Academic Times. Prior to becoming a writer, she was an immunology researcher at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She graduated from New York University in 2018 with a B.A. in philosophy, physics and chemistry. She spends too much time playing online chess. Her favorite planet is Earth.

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Sinking of a super yacht adds to questions billionaire Mike Lynch wanted to put behind him

I t was a sunny August morning when software entrepreneur Mike Lynch, 59, gathered ten of his closest friends along with his wife and daughter on the dock of Porto di Milazzo, on the Northern coast of Sicily. They had come to celebrate his freedom. Only months before, several of the guests played crucial roles in persuading a San Francisco jury to acquit Lynch of federal charges related to the sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion. 

Five days after the yacht left port, Lynch, his daughter, four guests, and a hired chef were dead in the Mediterranean Sea after a storm flooded the ship. The drowned included the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, a star witness at Lynch’s trial, as well as one of Lynch’s lead defense attorneys. Among the survivors were a former Autonomy exec who went on to become a partner at Lynch’s venture capital firm, a second member of his defense team, and his wife, who reportedly owns nearly all his fortune. The same day of the drowning, U.K. news outlets reported that Lynch’s co-defendant in the fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, who had also been acquitted, had been fatally run over by a car as he was out jogging—a shocking coincidence.

Less than a week after the tragedy, there are far more questions than answers. Did the yacht named Bayesian—an homage to a statistical theorem for predicting future outcomes—simply fall victim to a terrible storm? How did most of the crew and a few passengers escape, and why couldn’t they reach Lynch and the six others who did not make it out? Italian officials are looking into manslaughter charges, but it’s not yet clear who they may have in their crosshairs. Giovanni Costantino, who runs The Italian Sea Group that owns Perini Navi, the Italian maker of the yacht, had harsh words for the crew, who he blames. "This is the mistake that cries out for vengeance," he told Reuters .

There are also huge questions swirling around the business ventures of the man dubbed the “British Bill Gates.” While the Bayesian excursion was to serve as a celebration of Lynch’s acquittal on all charges in the U.S.—where he had spent months under house arrest—the reality is that his legal troubles were far from over. In a January 2022 civil trial, the UK’s High Court found that HPE had “substantially succeeded” in proving that Autonomy leaders had fraudulently made it look like the company was earning more revenue than it was. In 2019 Autonomy’s CFO was convicted of 16 counts and sentenced to five years in prison. At this time, the UK case is in a holding pattern as the judge determines what damages are owed to HPE. (The company’s spokesperson Adam Bauer says HPE is, “saddened by this tragic event, and our thoughts are with the families and friends of all those who lost their lives.”)

But Lynch’s passing also looms over Invoke Capital, the venture firm he founded in 2011 and whose managing partner—Charlotte Golunski—survived the yacht disaster and saved her 1-year old baby. One of Invoke’s most prominent bets was a 2013 seed stage investment in Darktrace, a cybersecurity firm on whose board Lynch sat until 2018. Darktrace has developed a reputation as a sleek AI cybersecurity startup with ties to spy agencies like MI5 and the U.S. National Security Agency. It also became the target of short-sellers who in 2023 expressed doubt over Darktrace’s financial filings—the same sort of allegations that plagued Lynch’s Autonomy. 

Darktrace insists that the shortseller’s allegations were baseless, and they say an EY audit it commissioned showed this to be the case. In April Darktrace received a $5.3 billion acquisition offer from the giant private equity firm, Thoma Bravo. The deal, which Fortune reported will likely go forward despite Lynch’s death, stood to help rehabilitate Lynch’s business reputation. As of August 14, he and his wife collectively owned 3.21% of the company, which would be worth some $170 million upon the deal’s completion. Invoke Capital has not responded to multiple requests for comment and Darktrace declined comment.

Following his U.S. acquittal, Lynch was pleased enough with the state of things that he had begun celebrating weeks before the yacht party. In the days following the not-guilty verdict, Lynch, his wife, Stephen Chamberlain and his wife, the attorney Chris Morvillo—who drowned on Bayesian—and 20 other lawyers gathered at a restaurant at a hotel near the San Francisco courthouse.

Brian Heberlig, an attorney at Steptoe who gave the closing argument in Lynch’s trial, recalls that Morvillo gave a moving toast, telling those assembled that the trial was more than just a job, but one of their life’s works. “He really was a brilliant man,” Heberlig told Fortune , fighting back tears as he remembered Lynch. “And he ran his legal defense the same way I imagine he ran Autonomy. He let the experts do their jobs, while still having a strong grasp on the material. As he used to say, ‘Let the brain surgeons do the surgery.’”

That night was the last time Heberlig ever saw Lynch or Morvillo.

A 'virtually unsinkable' boat

The sailing party departed August 14—five days before the storm—and was comprised of 12 guests and 10 crew. The Bayesian was one of the biggest yachts of its kind. Its first stop was a cluster of small islands off the coast of Sicily. Then it jetted across the sea to the Sicilian town of Cefalu, before putting down anchor for the final time on the coast of Palermo, a favorite getaway for the rich and famous, and a former haunt for the mafia.

Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who reportedly held the couple’s entire $1.1 billion fortune, was jolted awake on August 18 as the boat began to tilt. Glass from a shattered window exploded across the deck, according to reports, cutting her feet as she ran to investigate.

Black and white security  footage  appears to show the outline of what is believed to be the 184-foot sailing yacht, which used call sign 2ICB8, slowly disappearing behind a thicker and thicker veil of rain. Nearby villagers and fishermen say they saw a sea tornado, called a waterspout. Soon after, the yacht lay on the ocean floor.

Theories are swirling about why the yacht sank. One holds that a bay door was left open in the storm, causing the ship to flood and sink in minutes. Another holds that the Bayesian’s 246-foot tall aluminum mast—one of the tallest in the world— broke in the wind and took the boat down with it.

Most news reports say the yacht sank almost instantly, but the CEO of the company that bought the boat’s maker after it went bankrupt in 2021 disputes that. In a Financial Times report, he called the boat “virtually unsinkable,” and says that it dragged its anchor for 16 minutes before it sank. 

During those fateful moments, a far older nearby yacht, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, built in 1957, was drifting on a similar course as the Bayesian and not only survived, but came to help. Some onboard saw a red flare shooting across the rainy sky—an emergency signal from those who had fled the doomed yacht, drawing the attention to a life raft filled with 15 of the 22 passengers.

Passenger Golunski, 35, who helped run Autonomy the first year it was at HP, described holding her one-year old daughter Sophia, as she screamed for help. One of Lynch’s most trusted employees, Golunski was a founding partner at Invoke Capital, the London-based firm that backed Darktrace. Lynch’s wife Bacares was also in the life raft along with Clifford Chance lawyer Ayla Ronald, 36, who reportedly texted to her father: “there are deaths.”

The lifeboat survivors were soon plucked from the sea while the Bayesian came to its current resting place 50 meters below the surface. Over the course of the next 72 hours, a team of scuba divers from the Guardia Costiera and specially trained cave divers from the Vigili del Fuoco, the local fire department, used boats and a helicopter to triangulate the yacht’s position. The divers, working in bursts of 8 to 12 minutes, searched the Bayesian’s six guest suites, master suite, multiple living areas, and dining room.

The body of the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, was the first to be found, floating on the water’s surface. On Wednesday, two days after the wreck, four more bodies were discovered, and on Thursday a fifth. Among them were Lynch and Chris Morvillo of the prestigious law firm Clifford Chance, who had made the controversial decision to have Lynch testify, and questioned him on the stand right before he was acquitted. The others discovered were Morvillo’s wife, Neda, as well as the Morgan Stanley banker and key witness, Jonathan Bloomer, who had been a former executive director at Autonomy, and his wife Judy. The body of Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, was pulled from the sea on Friday.

The U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency tells Fortune it is in contact with the Italian authorities but would not provide further information. The UK’s Foreign Office told Fortune it is providing “consular support to a number of British nationals and their families…and are in contact with the local authorities.”

More questions than answers

Even as loved ones and the survivors begin to come to terms with the human toll of the tragedy, the business world has begun assessing Lynch’s complicated past, and his many business dealings. 

Lynch was born of modest means to a nurse and firefighter in a suburb of London. From an early age he showed a proclivity towards technology and a fiery determination. He studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge, then returned for a PhD in artificial neural networks, the building blocks of artificial intelligence. When he was still studying for his PhD, he started his first venture, Cambridge Neurodynamics, monetizing computerized fingerprint recognition, eventually evolving into Autonomy. 

Founded in 1996 with David Tabizel and Richard Gaunt, Autonomy used an early version of artificial intelligence to quickly scan what’s known as “unstructured data,” especially including language. Autonomy quickly became a darling of the UK’s fledgling tech scene, and it was seen as a crowning achievement when, in 2011, the company struck an $11 billion deal to be purchased by HP, now HPE. The deal, however, was quickly engulfed in scandal when a year later the new owner alleged accounting fraud and wrote down its investment by $8.8 billion.

Despite the baggage around Autonomy, Lynch continued to ride high in the tech world through his venture firm, Invoke Capital, which he founded in 2012. One of its most profitable investments was Darktrace, which he backed in 2013 and joined as a board member. By 2016 he told TechCrunch 60 employees from Autonomy were working at Invoke, that he’d raised a billion dollars to invest in startups, and that Darktrace was worth $500 million.

While fighting the legal battle over Autonomy and building Invoke, Lynch enjoyed the trappings of a mogul. The same year he announced his billion-dollar startup fund, he was sailing the Bayesian, worth an estimated $25 million. He reportedly also owned a $6 million, 69-acre Georgian manor.

By early 2020 Darktrace shared deep connections with Autonomy, including half of Darktrace’s board and six of its eight top executives. The following year Darktrace went public, soaring 40% above its pre-market value. But the victory lap was brief. In September 2022, an acquisition talk between private equity firm Thoma Bravo and Darktrace fell through , sending share prices tumbling. In early 2023, the short-selling firm Quintessential Capital Management published a 70-page report accusing Darktrace of similar misconduct that had sunk Autonomy.

“We are deeply skeptical about the validity of Darktrace’s financial statements,” the report read. Darktrace’s shares plunged as much as 17% after the report was published, though the company said at the time that the management team and board had “rigorous controls in place.” Darktrace hired EY to perform an audit, which stabilized its share price after the accounting firm found the company's earlier financial results did not need to be restated. Darktrace never publicly released the report, however, with a spokesperson saying at the time that it contained “commercially sensitive information.”

More recently, Darktrace’s CEO Poppy Gustafsson wrote in the firm’s Q4 trading report of “shareholders voting overwhelmingly in favour” of the acquisition, and added the company is “awaiting the conclusion of the remaining regulatory processes.”

Until very recently, Darktrace had sought to distance itself from Lynch and his VC firm. In December, shareholders passed a resolution that rejected Invoke executive Patrick Jacob's reappointment to its board. This April, Invoke lost the right to that same board seat when it was discovered its shares had fallen below the required 10% threshold. Nonetheless, in a memorial to Lynch, Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson wrote : “Without Mike, there would be no Darktrace. We owe him so much.”

While the Italian authorities continue to investigate the crash site, one thing is certain: the swirl of legal and business battles that surrounded Lynch during his lifetime are likely to continue after his death. A local Italian news site reports that the public prosecutor's office in a nearby town, Termini Imerese, is looking into allegations of manslaughter surrounding the sunken boat. And two months before Lynch died, former UK secretary of state David Davis reportedly said he was working with Lynch to scrap U.S./U.K extradition agreements that allowed Lynch’s trial to happen in the first place. 

On Wednesday, August 21, Davis told GB News he would continue that fight in memory of Lynch. “We need to get a grip of this,” said Davis. “Mike, when he’d won his case, almost the first thing he did was ring me up and say, ‘we’re going to have to defeat this treaty, we’re going to have to overcome this treaty and get it changed for the better.'"

“I am looking forward to returning to the U.K. and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field,” Lynch said after the verdict.

Lynch’s desire to extend the legal fight even after his not-guilty verdict reflects the scrappiness he displayed throughout his life. This helped him ascend to the highest rungs of business and moguldom—but the success also came with a tenuous quality as questions about his business dealings dogged him for years. The not-guilty verdict and the pending Darktrace sale meant Lynch was in position to finally cast off that shadow. But now his ultimate legacy is poised to be tied forever to a mysterious and tragic hour on the Mediterranean Sea.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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‘I woke the captain’: Watchman recounts final moments before Sicily yacht sank, say media reports

Sunday, 01 Sep 2024

FILE PHOTO: Rescue personnel operate in search for the missing, including British entrepreneur Mike Lynch, in the area where a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo, Italy, August 21, 2024. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo

Rome (AFP): The sailor on duty the night a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily last month, killing seven people, had sounded an alarm and woke the captain, the Italian press reported Sunday (Sept 1).

Prosecutors on the Italian island have been investigating possible shipwreck and manslaughter charges after the Bayesian sank in a pre-dawn storm on August 19, killing British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, his daughter and five others.

"I monitored the weather conditions all evening" including wind that was coming in around 40 kilometres per hour (25 mph), Matthew Griffiths was quoted by news agency Ansa, which did not provide a source.

"I then immediately woke the captain who took charge of operations. He gave the order to wake the others," he said.

Captain James Cutfield, a 51-year-old New Zealand national, was one of 15 people who survived -- nine of the 10 crew members and six of the 12 passengers.

He has been the focus of the investigation along with engineer Tim Parker Eaton, who was in charge of the engine room that night, and Griffith, the crewman on lookout.

Cutfield confirmed he was woken by the lookout and had ordered "to inform the others because I didn't like the situation", he was quoted saying in the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The crew said the vessel then suddenly tilted and several crew members found themselves at sea.

"We managed to get back on board and tried to form a human chain to save those who made it to the deck," Griffith said.

He added that the captain was the first in the chain and he helped everyone.

Lynch, 59, had invited friends and family onto the boat to celebrate his recent acquittal in a huge US fraud case.

But the 56-metre (185-foot) yacht was struck by a storm as it was anchored off Porticello, near Palermo, and sank within minutes.

The bodies of Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and friends were recovered over the subsequent days in a major search operation.- AFP

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The superyacht tragedy will likely spark legal drama

• A deadly superyacht sinking off the coast of Italy during a storm will likely spark legal drama, experts said.
• Maritime legal experts say lawsuits are likely, but negligence would need to be established.
• "I would not be optimistic about the chances for any claims," one expert said.

The operator of the superyacht that sank during a violent storm off the coast of Italy this week is likely to face legal troubles over the tragedy that left UK billionaire tech tycoon Mike Lynch and others dead, according to maritime law experts.

But the success of any potential lawsuit is up for debate.

Three maritime legal experts told Business Insider that the operator and owner behind the now-sunken luxury sailing yacht called the Bayesian should lawyer up in anticipation of possible claims from families of the dead or the survivors themselves.

"There's always the possibility of claims when there's a casualty," said Martin Davies, the director of the Maritime Law Center at Tulane University School of Law in Louisiana. But based on what is currently known about the incident, Davies said it is "unlikely that any claims would succeed."

Michael Sturley, an expert in maritime law and professor at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Law, agreed. "Based on what we know now, I would not be optimistic about the chances for any claims," he said.

However, Sturley noted, "There is still a lot that we don't know."

Bad weather does not automatically absolve a party of liability, but it would be challenging to make a wrongful death or personal injury claim as negligence would need to be established, according to the experts.

"Under English law, they'd have to prove fault and I don't think there's much prospect of anyone proving fault," said Davies.

"Bad weather at sea is not at all unexpected, which is why you can't just simply say bad weather and hope to get off the hook," Davies said. "What seems different about this case is that it came suddenly."

Still, said Oregon-based maritime lawyer Gordon Carey, "It doesn't spell defeat" for a potential legal claim "just because it's a weather event."

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The yacht was carrying 22, including UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch and a Morgan Stanley exec

The British-registered 184-foot yacht was anchored about a half-mile off the Italian port of Porticello near Palermo, Sicily, and carrying 22 people when a fierce storm hit and quickly sank the vessel just after 4 a.m. on Monday, according to reports.

The body of the yacht's chef, Recaldo Thomas, was found on Monday. Six other passengers — Lynch; his 18-year-old daughter Hannah; Lynch's friend and Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer; Bloomer's wife, Judy; Lynch's attorney Christopher Morvillo and Morvillo's wife Neda — went missing during the disaster.

Divers on Wednesday found the bodies of Lynch and four of the missing inside the sunken yacht that was around 164 feet below the surface. Sky News reported that Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, was unaccounted for.

Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares , was among the 15 people who were rescued in the aftermath of the tragedy. Reports said Lynch had been on the boat celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges in the US.

According to the Associated Press , documents show Bacares as the sole owner of Revtom Ltd., the Isle of Man-registered company that the online international maritime database Equasis lists as the owner of the Bayesian.

The Bayesian was being managed by the global yachting company Camper & Nicholsons. In a statement posted to its website, the company said it can "confirm that the vessel encountered severe weather conditions and subsequently sank near Palermo, Italy."

There were a total of 10 crew members and 12 guests on board, it said.

"Our priority is assisting with the ongoing search and providing all necessary support to the rescued passengers and crew," the company said.

It was not immediately clear who the captain and crew of the vessel were employed by. Camper & Nicholsons declined to comment beyond the statement posted online.

The maritime legal experts BI spoke to said that the operator of the Bayesian could potentially face liability claims, depending on the circumstances, if it hired the captain and crew and managed the vessel.

Davies said a boat like the Bayesian is bound to have "all kinds of insurance."

"And so someone may make a claim in the hope of getting some money from the insurance," he said.

English law would likely apply if any claims were made

According to Davies, it is more likely that English law would apply should the family of any of the victims or a survivor try to take legal action since the yacht was a UK-flagged vessel. US law could be applied if jurisdiction could be established, said Davies and others.

Under US law, crew members, not passengers, could potentially make an "unseaworthiness" claim, according to the maritime experts.

"The advantage of unseaworthiness is it's a strict liability claim," said Sturley. "You don't have to prove negligence. For other losses, you'd have to prove negligence."

To make an unseaworthiness claim, Davies explained, "you'd have to argue that there's something about the vessel that makes it unfit to withstand a sudden storm like this."

However, he said, "I find it hard to see there was any unseaworthiness of the vessel here."

Also under US law, the families of the dead could potentially make a legal claim under the Death on the High Seas Act, the experts said.

"People are supposed to take precautions against weather, but you take precautions that are reasonable under the circumstances, and sometimes you have a freak weather event that nobody could see coming, and it would not have been reasonable to have guarded against that," Sturley said.

He added, "Nobody prepares for hurricanes in the Sahara Desert. And if a hurricane happens to hit the Sahara Desert, that doesn't mean that people who didn't guard against it were negligent."

The AP reported that Italian civil protection officials believe that a tornado-like waterspout hit where the yacht was anchored, likely causing it to capsize.

"If it was a water spout, which it appears to be, it's what I would class as like a 'black swan' event," Matthew Schanck, chair of the UK-based Maritime Search and Rescue Council told the AP.

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