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Categories: Paleontology: General, Space: General
Published The corona is weirdly hot: Parker Solar Probe rules out one explanation
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source By diving into the sun's corona, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has ruled out S-shaped bends in the sun's magnetic field as a cause of the corona's searing temperatures.
Published Dark matter: A camera trap for the invisible
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source AI-powered image recognition could give researchers a new tool in hunt for dark matter.
Published Scientists untangle interactions between the Earth's early life forms and the environment over 500 million years
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The atmosphere, the ocean and life on Earth interacted over the past 500-plus million years in ways that improved conditions for early organisms to thrive. Now, an interdisciplinary team of scientists has produced a perspective article of this co-evolutionary history.
Published The ancestor of all modern birds probably had iridescent feathers
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Birds tend to be more colorful in the tropics, and scientists wanted to find out how they got there: if colorful feathers evolved in the tropics, or if tropical birds have brightly-colored ancestors that came to the region from somwhere else. Scientists built a database of 9,409 birds to explore the spread of color across the globe. They found that iridescent, colorful feathers originated 415 times across the bird tree of life, and in most cases, arose outside of the tropics -- and that the ancestor of all modern birds likely had iridescent feathers, too.
Published NASA's Fermi finds new feature in brightest gamma-ray burst yet seen
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In October 2022, astronomers were stunned by what was quickly dubbed the BOAT -- the brightest-of-all-time gamma-ray burst (GRB). Now an international science team reports that data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals a feature never seen before.
Published Space-trekking muscle tests drugs for microgravity-induced muscle impairment
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A gentle rumble ran under a researcher's feet as a rocket carrying her research -- live, human muscle cells grown on scaffolds fixed on tiny chips -- lifted off, climbed, and disappeared into the sky to the International Space Station National Laboratory. These chips would help her better understand muscle impairment, often seen in astronauts and older adults, and test drugs to counter the condition.
Published Dark matter flies ahead of normal matter in mega galaxy cluster collision
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have untangled a messy collision between two massive clusters of galaxies in which the clusters' vast clouds of dark matter have decoupled from the so-called normal matter.
Published Komodo dragons have iron-coated teeth to rip apart their prey
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have discovered that the serrated edges of Komodo dragons' teeth are tipped with iron. The study gives new insight into how Komodo dragons keep their teeth razor-sharp and may provide clues to how dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex killed and ate their prey.
Published Scientists assess how large dinosaurs could really get
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A study looks at the maximum possible sizes of dinosaurs, using the carnivore, Tyrannosaurus rex, as an example. Using computer modelling, experts produced estimates that T. Rex might have been 70% heavier than what the fossil evidence suggests.
Published Images of nearest 'super-Jupiter' open a new window to exoplanet research
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers imaged a new exoplanet that orbits a star in the nearby triple system Epsilon Indi. The planet is a cold super-Jupiter exhibiting a temperature of around 0 degrees Celsius and a wide orbit comparable to that of Neptune around the Sun. This measurement was only possible thanks to JWST's unprecedented imaging capabilities in the thermal infrared. It exemplifies the potential of finding many more such planets similar to Jupiter in mass, temperature, and orbit. Studying them will improve our knowledge of how gas giants form and evolve in time.
Published Taco-shaped arthropod fossils gives new insights into the history of the first mandibulates
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Palaeontologists are helping resolve the evolution and ecology of Odaraia, a taco-shaped marine animal that lived during the Cambrian period. Fossils reveal Odaraia had mandibles. Palaeontologists are finally able to place it as belonging to the mandibulates, ending its long enigmatic classification among the arthropods since it was first discovered in the Burgess Shale over 100 years ago and revealing more about early evolution and diversification.
Published Nanoscopic imaging aids in understanding protein, tissue preservation in ancient bones
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A pilot study shows that nanoscopic 3-D imaging of ancient bone not only provides further insight into the changes soft tissues undergo during fossilization, it also has potential as a fast, practical way to determine which specimens are likely candidates for ancient DNA and protein sequence preservation.
Published Expiring medications could pose challenge on long space missions
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study shows that over half of the medicines stocked in space -- staples such as pain relievers, antibiotics, allergy medicines, and sleep aids -- would expire before astronauts could return to Earth.
Published Researchers explore the effects of stellar magnetism on potential habitability of exoplanets
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A study extends the definition of a habitable zone for planets to include their star's magnetic field.
Published Astrophysicists uncover supermassive blackhole/dark matter connection in solving the 'final parsec problem'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have found a link between some of the largest and smallest objects in the cosmos: supermassive black holes and dark matter particles. Their new calculations reveal that pairs of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can merge into a single larger black hole because of previously overlooked behavior of dark matter particles, proposing a solution to the longstanding 'final parsec problem' in astronomy.
Published Ore-some: New date for Earth's largest iron deposits offers clues for future exploration
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Research reveals that Earth's largest iron ore deposits -- in the Hamersley Province of Western Australia -- are about one billion years younger than previously believed, a discovery which could greatly boost the search for more of the resource.
Published Life signs could survive near surfaces of Enceladus and Europa
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Europa and Enceladus, icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn respectively, have evidence of oceans beneath their crusts. A NASA experiment suggests -- if these oceans support life -- signatures of that life in the form of organic molecules (like amino acids and nucleic acids) could survive just under the surface ice despite the harsh, ionizing radiation on these worlds. If robotic landers were to go to these moons to look for life signs, they would not have to dig very deep to find amino acids that have survived being altered or destroyed by radiation.
Published New snake discovery rewrites history, points to North America's role in snake evolution
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new species of fossil snake unearthed in Wyoming is rewriting our understanding of snake evolution. The discovery, based on four remarkably well-preserved specimens found curled together in a burrow, reveals a new species named Hibernophis breithaupti. This snake lived in North America 34 million years ago and sheds light on the origin and diversification of boas and pythons.
Published Early riser! The Sun is already starting its next solar cycle -- despite being halfway through its current one
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The first rumblings of the Sun's next 11-year solar cycle have been detected in sound waves inside our home star -- even though it is only halfway through its current one. This existing cycle is now at its peak, or 'solar maximum' -- which is when the Sun's magnetic field flips and its poles swap places -- until mid-2025.
Published New dawn for space storm alerts could help shield Earth's tech
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Space storms could soon be forecasted with greater accuracy than ever before thanks to a big leap forward in our understanding of exactly when a violent solar eruption may hit Earth. Scientists say it is now possible to predict the precise speed a coronal mass ejection (CME) is travelling at and when it will smash into our planet -- even before it has fully erupted from the Sun.