Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Scientists provide explanation for exceptional Tonga tsunami      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists say they have identified the exact mechanism responsible for the exceptional tsunami that spread quickly across the world after the colossal eruption of the Tonga volcano earlier this year.

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.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Yoyo stars responsible for off-center bubbles      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have developed a new code to simulate the formation of a cluster of baby stars. Comparison with the well-known real case of the Orion Nebula shows that its off-center bubble of ionized gas was caused by a massive star that was pushed out of the newborn cluster but is now falling back in.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Detecting new particles around black holes with gravitational waves      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Clouds of ultralight particles can form around rotating black holes. A team of physicists now show that these clouds would leave a characteristic imprint on the gravitational waves emitted by binary black holes.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Colossal collisions linked to solar system science      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study shows a deep connection between some of the largest, most energetic events in the universe and much smaller, weaker ones powered by our own Sun.

Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Great timing, supercomputer upgrade lead to successful forecast of volcanic eruption      (via sciencedaily.com) 

In the fall of 2017, a team of geologists had just set up a new volcanic forecasting modeling program on the Blue Waters and iForge supercomputers. Simultaneously, another team was monitoring activity at the Sierra Negra volcano in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. The teams shared their insights and what happened next was the fortuitous forecast of the June 2018 Sierra Negra eruption five months before it occurred.

Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

The weird musical dynamics of a lava lake on Kilauea volcano      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Before its big burst in 2018, Kilauea spent ten years erupting more gently. Research gives new insights into the volcano's longstanding lava lake, one feature of this eruption.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Supermassive black holes inside of dying galaxies detected in early universe      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An international team of astronomers used a database combining observations from the best telescopes in the world, including the Subaru Telescope, to detect the signal from the active supermassive black holes of dying galaxies in the early Universe. The appearance of these active supermassive black holes correlates with changes in the host galaxy, suggesting that a black hole could have far reaching effects on the evolution of its host galaxy.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Why haven't we discovered co-orbital exoplanets? Could tides offer a possible answer?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

So far, we haven't discovered any exoplanets with co-orbital objects. A new study suggests tides could be causing oscillations that remove co-orbitals before we can find them.

Mathematics: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

AI reveals unsuspected math underlying search for exoplanets      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The astronomers' goal: find an artificial intelligence algorithm to interpret microlensing events captured by the upcoming Roman Space Telescope and speed detection of exoplanets around other stars. They achieved that, but the AI told them something unexpected and deep: the theory used to infer stellar and exoplanetary masses and orbits from observations was incomplete. Digging into the mathematics, they uncovered a theory that explains all types of microlensing events and possible ambiguities in interpreting them.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers find hidden trove of massive black holes      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have found a previously overlooked treasure trove of massive black holes in dwarf galaxies. The newly discovered black holes offer a glimpse into the life story of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Ghostly 'mirror world' might be cause of cosmic controversy      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research suggests an unseen 'mirror world' of particles that interacts with our world only via gravity that might be the key to solving a major puzzle in cosmology today -- the Hubble constant problem. The Hubble constant is the rate of expansion of the universe today. Predictions for this rate are significantly slower than the rate found by our most precise local measurements. This discrepancy is one that many cosmologists have been trying to solve by changing our current cosmological model.

Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Validation brings new predictive capability to global megafire smoke impacts      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research modeling smoke from two recent megafires sets the stage for better forecasting of how emissions from these global-scale events will behave and impact temperatures. As huge wildfires become more common under climate change, increased attention has focused on the intensity and duration of their emissions, which rival those of some volcano eruptions.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Extraterrestrial stone brings first supernova clues to Earth      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The extraterrestrial Hypatia stone found in Egypt could be the first tangible evidence on Earth of a supernova type Ia explosion. These rare supernovas are some of the most energetic events in the universe. If the hypothesis is correct, Hypatia would be a 'forensic' clue of an epic cosmic story started sometime in the early formation of our solar system.

Geoscience: Earthquakes Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Hunga volcano eruption provides an explosion of data      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The massive Jan. 15, 2022, eruption of the Hunga submarine volcano in the South Pacific Ocean created a variety of atmospheric wave types, including booms heard 6,200 miles away in Alaska. It also created an atmospheric pulse that caused an unusual tsunami-like disturbance that arrived at Pacific shores sooner than the actual tsunami.

Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Ice-capped volcanoes slower to erupt, study finds      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The Westdahl Peak volcano in Alaska last erupted in 1992, and continued expansion hints at another eruption soon. Experts previously forecasted the next blast to occur by 2010, but the volcano -- located under about 1 kilometer of glacial ice -- has yet to erupt again. Using the Westdahl Peak volcano as inspiration, a new volcanic modeling study examined how glaciers affect the stability and short-term eruption cycles of high-latitude volcanic systems -- some of which exist along major air transportation routes.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

In a pair of merging supermassive black holes, a new method for measuring the void      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have devised a potentially easier way of gazing into the abyss. Their imaging technique could allow astronomers to study black holes smaller than M87's, a monster with a mass of 6.5 billion suns, harbored in galaxies more distant than M87, which at 55 million light-years away, is still relatively close to our own Milky Way.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Research breakthrough means warp speed 'Unruh effect' can finally be tested in lab settings      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A major hurdle for work at the forefront of fundamental physics is the inability to test cutting-edge theories in a laboratory setting. But a recent discovery opens the door for scientists to see ideas in action that were previously only understood in theory or represented in science fiction.