Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers confirm star wreck as source of extreme cosmic particles      (via sciencedaily.com) 

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope confirms one supernova remnant as a launch site for some of our galaxy's highest-energy protons.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

First stars and black holes      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Just milliseconds after the universe's Big Bang, chaos reigned. Atomic nuclei fused and broke apart in hot, frenzied motion. Incredibly strong pressure waves built up and squeezed matter so tightly together that black holes formed, which astrophysicists call primordial black holes. Did primordial black holes help or hinder formation of the universe's first stars, eventually born about 100 million years later?

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Stars determine their own masses      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Using new simulations, astrophysicists discovered that star formation is a self-regulatory process. In other words, stars themselves set their own masses. This helps explain why stars formed in disparate environments still have similar masses.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Planet formation: ALMA detects gas in a circumplanetary disk      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study planet formation have made the first-ever detection of gas in a circumplanetary disk. What's more, the detection also suggests the presence of a very young exoplanet.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Dry lightning sparks some of the most destructive and costly wildfires in California      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed the first long-term climatology of dry lightning -- lightning which occurs with less than 2.5mm of rainfall -- in central and northern California.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Signs of disturbance in nearby dwarf galaxies indicate an alternative gravity theory      (via sciencedaily.com) 

According to the standard model of cosmology, the vast majority of galaxies are surrounded by a halo of dark matter particles. This halo is invisible, but its mass exerts a strong gravitational pull on galaxies in the vicinity. A new study challenges this view of the Universe. The results suggest that the dwarf galaxies of Earth's second closest galaxy cluster -- known as the Fornax Cluster -- are free of such dark matter halos.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Air pollution, including during wildfires, shows ill effects in children      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research linking air pollution data from federal monitors in the Sacramento area of California, including during significant fires, is showing ill effects of pollution exposure among children, a new study suggests.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Out with a bang: Explosive neutron star merger captured for the first time in millimeter light      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists have recorded millimeter-wavelength light from a fiery explosion caused by the merger of a neutron star with another star. The team also confirmed this flash of light to be one of the most energetic short-duration gamma-ray bursts ever observed, leaving behind one of the most luminous afterglows on record.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Wildfires disproportionately affect the poor      (via sciencedaily.com) 

With fires raging from California to Alaska, the 2022 wildfire season is off to a violent start. It's an ominous sign of what promises to be another record-breaking fire season in the U.S. Roughly 2 million acres burned last month. And major fires are currently scorching Idaho, Utah and California, threatening tens of thousands of Americans' homes and livelihoods. Many of those at risk are lower-income Americans who face canceled homeowners insurance policies and rising premiums, according to new research.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Scientists reveal distribution of dark matter around galaxies 12 billion years ago -- further back in time than ever before      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Using Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation instead of visible light allows scientists to determine the distribution of dark matter several billion years earlier than previously possible.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Super-Earth skimming habitable zone of red dwarf      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A super-Earth planet has been found near the habitable zone of a red dwarf star only 37 light-years from the Earth. This is the first discovery by a new instrument on the Subaru Telescope and offers a chance to investigate the possibility of life on planets around nearby stars. With such a successful first result, we can expect that the Subaru Telescope will discover more, potentially even better, candidates for habitable planets around red dwarfs.

Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Smoke from Western wildfires can influence Arctic sea ice      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Sea ice and wildfires may be more interconnected than previously thought, according to new research.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Western U.S. wildfire smoke plumes are getting taller, researchers find      (via sciencedaily.com) 

In recent years the plumes of smoke crawling upward from Western wildfires have trended taller, with more smoke and aerosols lofted up where they can spread farther and impact air quality over a wider area. The likely cause is climate change, with decreased precipitation and increased aridity in the Western U.S. that intensifies wildfire activity.

Environmental: Wildfires Geoscience: Landslides
Published

New model developed to predict landslides along wildfire burn scars      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have augmented a physics-based numerical model to investigate and predict areas susceptible to debris flows. This augmented model eventually could be used in an early warning system for people living in high-risk areas, enabling them to evacuate before it's too late. Information from model simulations also could be used to design new infrastructure -- such as diversion bars that deflect fast-moving water away from homes and roads -- for high hazard zones.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Space study offers clearest understanding yet of the life cycle of supermassive black holes      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Supermassive black holes with varying light signatures are actually in different stages of the life cycle.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Heaviest neutron star to date is a 'black widow' eating its mate      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Millisecond pulsars spin far more rapidly than expected for a collapsed star. The best chance to study these neutron stars is to find a black widow system where the pulsar has evaporated and eaten much of its companion star. The Keck I telescope was just able to capture spectra of one such companion, allowing astronomers to weigh its pulsar. It's the heaviest found to date, and perhaps near the upper limit for a neutron star.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

New methodology helps predict soil recovery after wildfires      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A team of investigators devised a new methodology to enable predictions of how plant growth and water quality would change in the wake of wildfires.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Halos and dark matter: A recipe for discovery      (via sciencedaily.com) 

About three years ago, a team of astronomers went looking for the universe's missing mass, better known as dark matter, in the heart of an atom. Their expedition didn't lead them to dark matter, but they still found something that had never been seen before, something that defied explanation. Well, at least an explanation that everyone could agree on.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Measuring the universe with star-shattering explosions      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have analyzed archive data for powerful cosmic explosions from the deaths of stars and found a new way to measure distances in the distant Universe.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Wildfire-smoke observations fill gap in estimating soot's role in climate change      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research refining the amount of sunlight absorbed by black carbon in smoke from wildfires will help clear up a long-time weak spot in earth system models, enabling more accurate forecasting of global climate change.