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.

Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Cloud study demystifies impact of aerosols      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Aerosol particles in the atmosphere have a bigger impact on cloud cover -- but less effect on cloud brightness -- than previously thought, new research shows.

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.

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.

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.

Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

New method can improve explosion detection      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Computers can be trained to better detect distant nuclear detonations, chemical blasts and volcano eruptions by learning from artificial explosion signals, according to a new method.

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.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers develop novel way to 'see' the first stars through the fog of the early Universe      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A team of astronomers has developed a method that will allow them to 'see' through the fog of the early Universe and detect light from the first stars and galaxies.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Why Jupiter doesn't have rings like Saturn      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Because it's bigger, Jupiter ought to have larger, more spectacular rings than Saturn has. But new research shows Jupiter's massive moons prevent that vision from lighting up the night sky.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Global map of lunar hydrogen: Data confirms role water played in moon's formation      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Using data collected over two decades ago, scientists have compiled the first complete map of hydrogen abundances on the Moon's surface. The map identifies two types of lunar materials containing enhanced hydrogen and corroborates previous ideas about lunar hydrogen and water, including findings that water likely played a role in the Moon's original magma-ocean formation and solidification.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

A new method to detect exoplanets      (via sciencedaily.com) 

In recent years, a large number of exoplanets have been found around single 'normal' stars. New research shows that there may be exceptions to this trend. Researchers suggest a new way of detecting dim bodies, including planets, orbiting exotic binary stars known as Cataclysmic Variables (CVs).

Space: Structures and Features
Published

'Black hole police' discover a dormant black hole outside our galaxy      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A team of international experts, renowned for debunking several black hole discoveries, have found a stellar-mass black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbor galaxy to our own. The researchers found that the star that gave rise to the black hole vanished without any sign of a powerful explosion.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Neutrino factories in deep outer space      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Highly energetic and difficult to detect, neutrinos travel billions of light years before reaching our planet. Although it is known that these elementary particles come from the depths of our Universe, their precise origin is still unknown. Researchers are now shedding light on one aspect of this mystery: neutrinos are thought to be born in blazars, galactic nuclei fed by supermassive black holes.

Geoscience: Earthquakes Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Shockwave caused by Tonga underwater eruption may help scientists predict future tsunami      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Using data from the eruption of the underwater volcano near Tonga in 2022, researchers used disturbances in Earth's upper atmosphere to track the airwaves that cause tsunami. Their findings may lead to speedier predictions of these giant waves.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

NASA Reveals Webb Telescope's first images of unseen universe      (via sciencedaily.com) 

NASA has revealed groundbreaking new views of the cosmos from the James Webb Space Telescope. The images include the deepest infrared view of our universe that has ever been taken.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Undead planets: The unusual conditions of the first exoplanet detection      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The first ever exoplanets were discovered 30 years ago around a rapidly rotating star, called a pulsar. Now, astronomers have revealed that these planets may be incredibly rare.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

The ultimate fate of a star shredded by a black hole      (via sciencedaily.com) 

In 2019, astronomers observed the nearest example to date of a star that was shredded, or 'spaghettified,' after approaching too close to a massive black hole. That tidal disruption of a sun-like star by a black hole 1 million times more massive than itself took place 215 million light years from Earth. Luckily, this was the first such event bright enough that astronomers could study the optical light from the stellar death, specifically the light's polarization, to learn more about what happened after the star was torn apart.

Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Fiber optic sensing detects tremor from Icelandic subglacial volcano      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers used a fiber optic cable on the ice cap of an Icelandic subglacial volcano to detect low-frequency volcanic tremor, suggesting this technology could be useful in monitoring other ice-covered volcano systems.