Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Watery planets orbiting dead stars may be good candidates for studying life -- if they can survive long enough      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The small footprint and dim light of white dwarfs, remnants of stars that have burned through their fuel, may make excellent backdrops for studying planets with enough water to harbor life. The trick is spotting the shadow of a planet against a former star that has withered to a fraction of its size and finding that it's a planet that has kept its water oceans for billions of years even after riding out the star's explosive and violent final throes. A new study of the dynamics of white dwarf systems suggests that, in theory, some watery planets may indeed thread the celestial needles necessary to await discovery and closer scrutiny.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Mysterious mini-Neptunes      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

This study discovered mini-Neptunes around four red dwarfs using observations from a global network of ground-based telescopes and the TESS space telescope. These four mini-Neptunes are close to their parent stars, and the three of them are likely to be in eccentric orbits.

Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Oceanography Paleontology: Climate Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Ancient ocean slowdown warns of future climate chaos      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

When it comes to the ocean's response to global warming, we're not in entirely uncharted waters. A new study shows that episodes of extreme heat in Earth's past caused the exchange of waters from the surface to the deep ocean to decline.

Ecology: Trees Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: Wildfires Geoscience: Geography
Published

New way to spot beetle-killed spruce can help forest, wildfire managers      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new machine-learning system can automatically produce detailed maps from satellite data to show locations of likely beetle-killed spruce trees in Alaska, even in forests of low and moderate infestation where identification is otherwise difficult. The automated process can help forestry and wildfire managers in their decisions. That's critical as the beetle infestation spreads.

Biology: Marine Biology: Zoology Ecology: General Ecology: Research Ecology: Sea Life Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Geography
Published

Pacific coast gray whales have gotten 13% shorter in the past 20-30 years, Oregon State study finds      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Gray whales that spend their summers feeding in the shallow waters off the Pacific Northwest coast have undergone a significant decline in body length since around the year 2000, a new study found.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Geology Geoscience: Oceanography Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology
Published

A mountainous mystery uncovered in Australia's pink sands      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Deposits of deep-pink sand washing up on South Australian shores shed new light on when the Australian tectonic plate began to subduct beneath the Pacific plate, as well as the presence of previously unknown ancient Antarctic mountains.

Biology: Zoology Ecology: Nature Environmental: Biodiversity Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography
Published

Cocaine trafficking threatens critical bird habitats      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In addition to its human consequences, cocaine trafficking harms the environment and threatens habitats important to dozens of species of migratory birds, according to a new study.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Ecology: Animals Ecology: Endangered Species Ecology: General Ecology: Nature Ecology: Research Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography
Published

Humans are the elephant in the room where conservation is debated      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Studies working to map conservation historically have left humans out of the equation. This study proposes ways to build in the outsized footprint created by people in wild places.

Geoscience: Geography
Published

Just thinking about a location activates mental maps in the brain      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers found that mental representations known as cognitive maps, located in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex, are activated when the brain performs mental simulations of a navigational route.

Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geography
Published

Significant increase in nitrous-oxide emissions from human activities, jeopardizing climate goals      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Emissions of nitrous-oxide (N2O) -- a potent greenhouse gas -- have continued to rise unabated over the past four decades, according to an international team of scientists.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

Wind from black holes may influence development of surrounding galaxies      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Clouds of gas in a distant galaxy are being pushed faster and faster -- at more than 10,000 miles per second -- out among neighboring stars by blasts of radiation from the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center. It's a discovery that helps illuminate the way active black holes can continuously shape their galaxies by spurring on or snuffing out the development of new stars.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

How do supermassive black holes get super massive?      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

By combining forefront X-ray observations with state-of-the-art supercomputer simulations of the buildup of galaxies over cosmic history, researchers have provided the best modeling to date of the growth of the supermassive black holes found in the centers of galaxies.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

Scientists spot more Milky Way-like galaxies in early universe      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists are peering into the past and uncovering new clues about the early universe. Since light takes a long time to travel through space, they are now able to see how galaxies looked billions of years ago. The astronomers have discovered that spiral galaxies were more common in the early universe than previously thought. The scientists found that nearly 30% of galaxies have a spiral structure about 2 billion years after the universe formed. The discovery provides a significant update to the universe's origin story as previously told using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

How did a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way come to be?      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Crater 2, located approximately 380,000 light years from Earth, is one of the largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. Extremely cold and with slow-moving stars, Crater 2 has low surface brightness. How this galaxy originated remains unclear. A team of physicists now offers an explanation.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

Lone Star State: Tracking a low-mass star as it speeds across the Milky Way      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Astronomers have discovered a rare hypervelocity L subdwarf star racing through the Milky Way. More remarkably, this star may be on a trajectory that causes it to leave the Milky Way altogether.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

Hubble finds surprises around a star that erupted 40 years ago      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Astronomers have used new data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the retired SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) as well as archival data from other missions to revisit one of the strangest binary star systems in our galaxy -- 40 years after it burst onto the scene as a bright and long-lived nova. A nova is a star that suddenly increases its brightness tremendously and then fades away to its former obscurity, usually in a few months or years.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Webb telescope reveals asteroid collision in neighboring star system      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Astronomers have captured what appears to be a snapshot of a massive collision of giant asteroids in Beta Pictoris, a neighboring star system known for its early age and tumultuous planet-forming activity.

Environmental: General Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Researchers use 3D visualization to predict, prevent hurricane damage      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The researchers say 3D visualization of hurricanes and storm surges allows them to understand how flooding will impact coastal communities by allowing them to vividly see how each building and road might be impacted by a given flood.

Environmental: Biodiversity Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography
Published

Upstream and downstream: River study highlights cross-country inequities      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

New research highlights inequities between downstream and upstream countries that share the same watershed. The study outlines how international agreements can better address shared resource problems and call for greater collaboration and coordination between these international neighbors.