Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Simultaneous extreme weather created dangerous cascades in U.S.      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Intense heat in the southwestern United States broke records last summer partly because it hit in tandem with an unusually severe drought, finds a new study measuring for the first time how the two extreme weather events dangerously interacted in real time.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Long-term liquid water also on non-Earth-like planets?      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Liquid water is an important prerequisite for life to develop on a planet. As researchers report in a new study, liquid water could also exist for billions of years on planets that are very different from Earth. This calls our currently Earth-centred idea of potentially habitable planets into question.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Insight into past--and future--of Western US wildfires      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study examines the context surrounding the fires and offers insight into the historical role of large, high-severity fires -- and the future of wildfires -- west of the Cascades.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Flicker from the dark: Reading between the lines to model our galaxy's central black hole      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have shown in a single model the full story of how gas travels in the center of the Milky Way -- from being blown off by stars to falling into the black hole.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Martian meteorite upsets planet formation theory      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study of an old meteorite contradicts current thinking about how rocky planets like the Earth and Mars acquire volatile elements such as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and noble gases as they form.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Wildfire smoke exposure negatively impacts dairy cow health      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Increasing frequency and size of wildfires in the United States over the past several decades affect everything from human life and health to air quality, biodiversity, and land use. The US dairy industry is not exempt from these effects. The Western states, where wildfires are especially prevalent, are home to more than two million dairy cows that produce more than 25% of the nation's milk. A new report examines how dairy cattle in the Western United States may be affected by unique air pollutants from wildfire smoke.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Dead star's cannibalism of its planetary system is most far-reaching ever witnessed      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The violent death throes of a nearby star so thoroughly disrupted its planetary system that the dead star left behind -- known as a white dwarf -- is sucking in debris from both the system's inner and outer reaches, astronomers report.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers find evidence for most powerful pulsar in distant galaxy      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers using data from the VLA Sky Survey have discovered one of the youngest known neutron stars -- possibly as young as only 14 years. The dense remnant of a supernova explosion was revealed when bright radio emission powered by the pulsar's powerful magnetic field emerged from behind a thick shell of debris from the explosion.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

NASA telescope to help untangle galaxy growth, dark matter makeup      (via sciencedaily.com) 

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will study wispy streams of stars that extend far beyond the apparent edges of many galaxies. Missions like the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes would have to patch together hundreds of small images to see these structures around nearby galaxies in full. Roman will do so in a single snapshot. Astronomers will use these observations to explore how galaxies grow and the nature of dark matter.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Scientists on the hunt for planetary formation fossils reveal unexpected eccentricities in nearby debris disk      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have imaged the debris disk of the nearby star HD 53143 at millimeter wavelengths for the first time, and it looks nothing like they expected. Based on early coronagraphic data, scientists expected ALMA to confirm the debris disk as a face-on ring peppered with clumps of dust. Instead, the observations took a surprise turn, revealing the most complicated and eccentric debris disk observed to date.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers discover a multiplanet system nearby      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers discovered a multiplanet system just 33 light-years from Earth, making it one of the closest known multiplanet systems. The system likely hosts at least two terrestrial, Earth-sized planets.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

The tarantula's cosmic web: Astronomers map violent star formation in nebula outside our galaxy      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have unveiled intricate details of the star-forming region 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula, using new observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Now we can see the nebula in a new light, with wispy gas clouds that provide insight into how massive stars shape this region.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

To find a planet, look for the signatures of planet formation      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Finding forming planets is a tough but important job for astronomers: Only three planets have ever been discovered caught in the process of forming, and the most recent of these was found just weeks ago.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Earliest record of wildfires provide insights to Earth's past vegetation and oxygen levels      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

While wildfires over recent years have raged across much of the western United States and pose significant hazards to wildlife and local populations, wildfires have been a long-standing part of Earth's systems without the influence of humans for hundreds of millions of years.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

New fire shelter prototypes could buy time for wildfire firefighters      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Temperatures inside new wildfire shelter prototypes remained within survival limits for longer, and the shelters took longer to break open, compared with an industry standard.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Wandering star disrupts stellar nursery      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New study finds star-forming cloud's magnetic field is curiously twisted. Researchers believe a newborn star moved into another young star's stellar envelope to form a binary star system. The interloper shifted the cloud's dynamics, twisting its magnetic field. The new findings provide insight into binary star formation and how magnetic fields influence the earliest stages of developing stars.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Simulations reveal hydrodynamics of planetary engulfment by expanding star      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study using hydrodynamical simulations reveals the forces acting on a planet when it is swallowed by an expanding star. The results show that the interactions of a substellar body (a planet or brown dwarf) with the hot gas in the outer envelope of a sun-like star can lead to a range of outcomes depending on the size of the engulfed object and the stage of the star's evolution. The dynamics and possible outcomes of planetary engulfment are poorly understood, but it is thought to be a relatively common fate for planetary systems.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers may have detected a 'dark' free-floating black hole      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have discovered what may be a free-floating black hole by observing the brightening of a more distant star as its light was distorted by the object's strong gravitational field -- so-called gravitational microlensing.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Ground-breaking number of brown dwarfs discovered      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Brown dwarfs, mysterious objects that straddle the line between stars and planets, are essential to our understanding of both stellar and planetary populations. However, only 40 brown dwarfs could be imaged around stars in almost three decades of searches. An international team has directly imaged a remarkable four new brown dwarfs thanks to a new innovative search method.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Particle accelerator region revealed inside a solar flare      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study offers direct evidence showing where near-light speed particle acceleration occurs inside the largest explosion known in the solar system, the solar flare.