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Categories: Biology: Botany, Space: Structures and Features
Published We now know exactly what happens in nature when we fell forests
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Deforestation is the biggest threat to the planet's ecosystems, and new research has now mapped out exactly what happens when agriculture replaces forestry.
Published Astronomers observe the first radiation belt seen outside of our solar system
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have described the first radiation belt observed outside our solar system, using a coordinated array of 39 radio dishes from Hawaii to Germany to obtain high-resolution images. The images of persistent, intense radio emissions from an ultracool dwarf reveal the presence of a cloud of high-energy electrons trapped in the object's powerful magnetic field, forming a double-lobed structure analogous to radio images of Jupiter's radiation belts.
Published Astronomers reveal the largest cosmic explosion ever seen
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have uncovered the largest cosmic explosion ever witnessed. The explosion is more than ten times brighter than any known supernova and three times brighter than the brightest tidal disruption event, where a star falls into a supermassive black hole.
Published Hidden supermassive black holes brought to life by galaxies on collision course
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have found that supermassive black holes obscured by dust are more likely to grow and release tremendous amounts of energy when they are inside galaxies that are expected to collide with a neighbouring galaxy.
Published Celestial monsters at the origin of globular clusters
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Globular clusters are the most massive and oldest star clusters in the Universe. They can contain up to 1 million of them. The chemical composition of these stars, born at the same time, shows anomalies that are not found in any other population of stars. Explaining this specificity is one of the great challenges of astronomy. After having imagined that supermassive stars could be at the origin, a team believes it has discovered the first chemical trace attesting to their presence in globular proto-clusters, born about 440 million years after the Big Bang.
Published Hidden views of vast stellar nurseries
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have created a vast infrared atlas of five nearby stellar nurseries by piecing together more than one million images. These large mosaics reveal young stars in the making, embedded in thick clouds of dust. Thanks to these observations, astronomers have a unique tool with which to decipher the complex puzzle of stellar birth.
Published Like ancient mariners, ancestors of Prochlorococcus microbes rode out to sea on exoskeleton particles
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Throughout the ocean, billions upon billions of plant-like microbes make up an invisible floating forest. As they drift, the tiny organisms use sunlight to suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Collectively, these photosynthesizing plankton, or phytoplankton, absorb almost as much CO2 as the world’s terrestrial forests. A measurable fraction of their carbon-capturing muscle comes from Prochlorococcus — an emerald-tinged free-floater that is the most abundant phytoplankton in the oceans today. New research suggests the microbe's ancient coastal ancestors colonized the ocean by rafting out on chitin particles.
Published Measurement of the Universe's expansion rate weighs in on a longstanding debate in physics and astronomy
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team used a first-of-its-kind technique to measure the expansion rate of the Universe, providing insight that could help more accurately determine the Universe's age and help physicists and astronomers better understand the cosmos.
Published Astronomers find no young binary stars near Milky Way's black hole
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists analyzed over a decade's worth of data about 16 young supermassive stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Supermassive stars typically are formed in pairs, but the new study found that all 16 of the stars were singletons. The findings support a scenario in which the supermassive black hole drives nearby stars to either merge or be disrupted, with one of the pair being ejected from the system.
Published Crops evolved by swapping genetic modules between cells
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Comparing individual cells across corn, sorghum, and millet reveals evolutionary differences among these important cereal crops, according to a new study. The findings bring researchers closer to pinpointing which genes control important agricultural traits such as drought tolerance, which will help scientists faced with a changing climate adapt crops to drier environments.
Published Researchers measure the light emitted by a sub-Neptune planet's atmosphere
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers observed exoplanet GJ 1214b's atmosphere by measuring the heat it emits while orbiting its host star. Astronomers directly detected the light emitted by a sub-Neptune exoplanet -- a category of planets that are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune.
Published Exploring the underground connections between trees
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Fungal networks interconnecting trees in a forest is a key factor that determines the nature of forests and their response to climate change. These networks have also been viewed as a means for trees to help their offspring and other tree-friends, according to the increasingly popular 'mother-tree hypothesis'. An international group of researchers re-examined the evidence for and against this hypothesis in a new study.
Published Galactic bubbles are more complex than imagined
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have revealed new evidence about the properties of the giant bubbles of high-energy gas that extend far above and below the Milky Way galaxy's center.
Published Researchers close to unleashing rapeseed's protein power for human consumption
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Half of plant proteins in the EU come from rapeseed plants. Until now, the plant has only been used for oil and animal feed, as it is both bitter and unsafe for human consumption. In a new study, researchers have gotten closer to removing the plant's bitter substances, and in doing so, are paving the way for a new protein source to support the green transition.
Published Biofortification of microgreens with zinc could mitigate global 'hidden hunger'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source When the seeds of plants such as pea and sunflower are biofortified with zinc, the seedlings they quickly produce -- harvested as microgreens -- could both help to mitigate global malnutrition and boost the odds of people surviving a catastrophe.
Published Neutron star's X-rays reveal 'photon metamorphosis'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A 'beautiful effect' predicted by quantum electrodynamics (QED) can explain the puzzling first observations of polarized X-rays emitted by a magnetar -- a neutron star featuring a powerful magnetic field, according to an astrophysicist.
Published Hubble follows shadow play around planet-forming disk
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The young star TW Hydrae is playing 'shadow puppets' with scientists observing it with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. In 2017, astronomers reported discovering a shadow sweeping across the face of a vast pancake-shaped gas-and-dust disk surrounding the red dwarf star. The shadow isn't from a planet, but from an inner disk slightly inclined relative to the much larger outer disk -- causing it to cast a shadow. One explanation is that an unseen planet's gravity is pulling dust and gas into the planet's inclined orbit. The young star TW Hydrae is playing 'shadow puppets' with scientists observing it with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Now, a second shadow -- playing a game of peek-a-boo -- has emerged in just a few years between observations stored in Hubble's MAST archive. This could be from yet another disk nestled inside the system. The two disks are likely evidence of a pair of planets under construction.
Published Astronomers spot a star swallowing a planet
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have observed a star swallowing a planet for the first time. Earth will meet a similar fate in 5 billion years.
Published Scientists find link between photosynthesis and 'fifth state of matter'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study has found links at the atomic level between photosynthesis and exciton condensates -- a strange state of physics that allows energy to flow frictionlessly through a material. The finding is scientifically intriguing and may suggest new ways to think about designing electronics, the authors said.
Published Astronomers find distant gas clouds with leftovers of the first stars
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), researchers have found for the first time the fingerprints left by the explosion of the first stars in the Universe. They detected three distant gas clouds whose chemical composition matches what we expect from the first stellar explosions. These findings bring us one step closer to understanding the nature of the first stars that formed after the Big Bang.