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Categories: Geoscience: Severe Weather, Space: Structures and Features
Published Landscaping for drought: We're doing it wrong



Despite recent, torrential rains, most of Southern California remains in a drought. Accordingly, many residents plant trees prized for drought tolerance, but a new study shows that these trees lose this tolerance once they're watered.
Published Ultracool dwarf binary stars break records


Astrophysicists have discovered the tightest ultracool dwarf binary system ever observed. The two stars are so close that it takes them less than one Earth day to revolve around each other. In other words, each star's 'year' lasts just 20.5 hours.
Published The seven-year photobomb: Distant star's dimming was likely a 'dusty' companion getting in the way, astronomers say


Astronomers were on the lookout for 'stars behaving strangely' when an automated alert from pointed them to Gaia17bpp, a star that had gradually brightened over a 2 1/2-year period. But follow-up analyses indicated that Gaia17bpp wasn't changing. Instead, the star is likely part of a rare type of binary system. Its apparent brightening was the end of a years-long eclipse by an unusual, 'dusty' stellar companion.
Published Planetary system's second Earth-size world discovered


Using data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, scientists have identified an Earth-size world, called TOI 700 e, orbiting within the habitable zone of its star -- the range of distances where liquid water could occur on a planet's surface. The world is 95% Earth's size and likely rocky.
Published Exotic wheat DNA helps breed 'climate-proof' crops


Wheat containing exotic DNA from wild relatives benefits from up to 50 per cent higher yields in hot weather compared with elite lines lacking these genes.
Published Astronomers spotted unusual stellar explosion rich in oxygen and magnesium


Astronomers have discovered a supernova explosion that expands our understanding of the later life stages of massive stars.
Published Shift to ultraviolet-driven chemistry in planet-forming disks marks beginning of late-stage planet formation


The chemistry of planet formation has fascinated researchers for decades because the chemical reservoir in protoplanetary discs -- the dust and gas from which planets form -- directly impacts planet composition and potential for life.
Published Astronomers find the most distant stars in our galaxy halfway to Andromeda


Astronomers have discovered more than 200 distant variable stars known as RR Lyrae stars in the Milky Way's stellar halo. The most distant of these stars is more than a million light years from Earth, almost half the distance to our neighboring galaxy, Andromeda, which is about 2.5 million light years away.
Published Hydrogen masers reveal new secrets of a massive star


While using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study the masers around oddball star MWC 349A scientists discovered something unexpected: a previously unseen jet of material launching from the star's gas disk at impossibly high speeds. What's more, they believe the jet is caused by strong magnetic forces surrounding the star. The discovery could help researchers to understand the nature and evolution of massive stars and how hydrogen masers are formed in space.
Published Scientists find pair of black holes dining together in nearby galaxy merger


While studying a nearby pair of merging galaxies scientists have discovered two supermassive black holes growing simultaneously near the center of the newly coalescing galaxy. These super-hungry giants are the closest together that scientists have ever observed in multiple wavelengths. What's more, the new research reveals that binary black holes and the galaxy mergers that create them may be surprisingly commonplace in the Universe.
Published NASA's retired Compton mission reveals superheavy neutron stars


Astronomers studying archival observations of powerful explosions called short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have detected light patterns indicating the brief existence of a superheavy neutron star shortly before it collapsed into a black hole. This fleeting, massive object likely formed from the collision of two neutron stars.
Published Galactic shock is shaping Stephan's Quintet in mysterious ways



Shockwaves resulting from the violent collision between an intruder galaxy and Stephan's Quintet are helping astronomers to understand how turbulence influences gas in the intergalactic medium. New observations have revealed that a sonic boom several times the size of the Milky Way has kick-started a recycling plant for warm and cold molecular hydrogen gas. What's more, scientists uncovered the break-up of a giant cloud into a fog of warm gas, the possible collision of two clouds forming a splash of warm gas around them, and the formation of a new galaxy.
Published Searching for the earliest galaxies in the universe


Astronomers have used data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Early Release Observations and discovered 87 galaxies that could be the earliest known galaxies in the universe. The finding moves the astronomers one step closer to finding out when galaxies first appeared in the universe -- about 200-400 million years after the Big Bang.
Published NASA's Webb Telescope reveals links between galaxies near and far


A new analysis of distant galaxies imaged by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope shows that they are extremely young and share some remarkable similarities to 'green peas,' a rare class of small galaxies in our cosmic backyard.
Published Physicists confirm effective wave growth theory in space


Physicists have used spacecraft data to confirm an important theory of plasma physics that improves our understanding of space weather.
Published Fathoming the hidden heatwaves that threaten coral reefs


The severity of marine heatwaves (MHWs) that are increasingly impacting ocean ecosystems, including vulnerable coral reefs, has primarily been assessed using remotely sensed sea-surface temperatures (SSTs), without information relevant to heating across ecosystem depths. Here, using a rare combination of SST, high-resolution in-situ temperatures, and sea level anomalies observed over 15 years near Moorea, French Polynesia, we document subsurface MHWs that have been paradoxical in comparison to SST metrics and associated with unexpected coral bleaching across depths. Variations in the depth range and severity of MHWs was driven by mesoscale (10s to 100s of km) eddies that altered sea levels and thermocline depths and decreased (2007, 2017 and 2019) or increased (2012, 2015, 2016) internal-wave cooling.
Published Spring sunny heat waves caused record snow melt in 2021, adding to severe water supply impacts across the Western US


Researchers examine the role of spring heatwaves on the melting rates of mountain snowpacks across the West. They found that in April 2021, record-breaking snowmelt rates occurred at 24% of all mountain snowpack monitoring sites in the region, further compounding the impacts of extended drought conditions.
Published James Webb telescope reveals Milky Way-like galaxies in young universe


New images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal galaxies with stellar bars -- elongated features of stars stretching from the centers of galaxies into their outer disks -- at a time when the universe was a mere 25% of its present age. The finding of so-called barred galaxies, similar to our Milky Way, this early in the universe will require astrophysicists to refine their theories of galaxy evolution.
Published Cyclone researchers: Warming climate means more and stronger Atlantic tropical storms


Tropical cyclone researchers report a warming climate could increase the number of tropical cyclones and their intensity in the North Atlantic, potentially creating more and stronger hurricanes. In a second research paper, researchers examine a possible explanation for the relatively constant number of tropical cyclones around the globe every year.
Published How climate change impacts the Indian Ocean dipole, leading to severe droughts and floods


Researchers now have a much better understanding of how climate change can impact and cause sea water temperatures on one side of the Indian Ocean to be so much warmer or cooler than the temperatures on the other -- a phenomenon that can lead to sometimes deadly weather-related events like megadroughts in East Africa and severe flooding in Indonesia.