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Next-generation X-ray satellite telescopes such as XRISM, NewAthena and Lynx will enable observations of exotic astrophysical sources at unprecedented spectral and spatial resolution. Proper interpretation of these data demands that the accuracy of the models is at least within the uncertainty of the observations. One set of quantities that might not currently meet this requirement is transition energies of various astrophysically relevant ions. Current databases are populated with many untested theoretical calculations. Accurate laboratory benchmarks are required to better understand the coming data. We obtained laboratory spectra of X-ray lines from a silicon plasma at an average spectral resolving power of 
$\sim$7500 with a spherically bent crystal spectrometer on the Z facility at Sandia National Laboratories. Many of the lines in the data are measured here for the first time. We report measurements of 53 transitions originating from the K-shells of He-like to B-like silicon in the energy range between 
$\sim$1795 and 1880 eV (6.6–6.9 Å). The lines were identified by qualitative comparison against a full synthetic spectrum calculated with ATOMIC. The average fractional uncertainty (uncertainty/energy) for all reported lines is 
${\sim}5.4 \times 10^{-5}$. We compare the measured quantities against transition energies calculated with RATS and FAC as well as those reported in the NIST ASD and XSTAR’s uaDB. Average absolute differences relative to experimentally measured values are 0.20, 0.32, 0.17 and 0.38 eV, respectively. All calculations/databases show good agreement with the experimental values; NIST ASD shows the closest match overall.
We present the first radio–continuum detection of the circumstellar shell around the well-known WN8 type Wolf-Rayet star WR16 at 943.5 MHz using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) survey. At this frequency, the shell has a measured flux density of 72.2
$\pm$7.2 mJy. Using previous Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) measurements at 2.4, 4.8, and 8.64 GHz, as well as the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) observations of the star itself, we determine a spectral index of 
$\alpha\,=\,+0.74\pm0.02$, indicating thermal emission. We propose that the shell and star both exhibit thermal emission, supported by the its appearance in near-infrared and H
$\alpha$ observations. The latest Gaia parallax is used to determine a distance of 2.28
$\pm$0.09 kpc. This star is well known for its surrounding circular nebulosity, and using the distance and an angular diameter of 
$8.^{\prime}42$, we determine the shell size to be 5.57
$\pm$0.22 pc. We use the Gaia proper motion (PM) of WR16 to determine peculiar velocities of the star as 
$V_{\alpha}(pec) =$ –45.3
$\pm$5.4 km s
$^{-1}$ and 
$V_{\delta}(pec) =$ 22.8
$\pm$4.7 km s
$^{-1}$, which indicates that the star is moving in a north-west direction, and translates to a peculiar tangential velocity to be 50.7
$\pm$6.9 km s
$^{-1}$. We also use these proper motion (PM) to determine the shell’s origin, estimate an age of 
$\sim 9500\pm 1300$ yr, and determine its average expansion velocity to be 
$280\pm40$ km s
$^{-1}$. This average expansion velocity suggests that the previous transitional phase is a Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) phase, rather than a Red Super Giant (RSG) phase. We also use the measured flux at 943.5 MHz to determine a mass-loss rate of 
$1.753\times 10^{-5}\,{\rm M}_\odot\,$yr
$^{-1}$, and use this to determine a lower-limit on ionising photons of 
$N_{UV} \gt 1.406\times 10^{47}\,\textit{s}^{-1}$.
