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Categories: Paleontology: General, Space: Structures and Features
Published Oldest bat skeletons ever found described from Wyoming fossils
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have described a new species of bat based on the oldest bat skeletons ever recovered. The study on the extinct bat, which lived in Wyoming about 52 million years ago, supports the idea that bats diversified rapidly on multiple continents during this time.
Published Starting small and simple -- key to success for evolution of mammals
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The ancestors of modern mammals managed to evolve into one of the most successful animal lineages -- the key was to start out small and simple, a new study reveals.
Published How did Earth get its water?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Our planet's water could have originated from interactions between the hydrogen-rich atmospheres and magma oceans of the planetary embryos that comprised Earth's formative years.
Published New findings that map the universe's cosmic growth support Einstein's theory of gravity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Research by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope collaboration has culminated in a groundbreaking new image that reveals the most detailed map of dark matter distributed across a quarter of the entire sky, reaching deep into the cosmos. Findings provide further support to Einstein's theory of general relativity, which has been the foundation of the standard model of cosmology for more than a century, and offers new methods to demystify dark matter.
Published Scientists map gusty winds in a far-off neutron star system
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have mapped the 'disk winds' associated with the accretion disk around Hercules X-1, a system in which a neutron star is drawing material away from a sun-like star. The findings may offer clues to how supermassive black holes shape entire galaxies.
Published Navigating the cosmos with CHARA Array
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New instruments and plans for a seventh telescope at Georgia State's CHARA Array will allow scientists to see the stars in greater detail than ever before. The update comes after a group of international scientists gathered in Atlanta to take part in the 2023 CHARA Science Meeting to share the latest developments in high-resolution astronomical imaging using the CHARA Array.
Published Webb reveals never-before-seen details in Cassiopeia A
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The explosion of a star is a dramatic event, but the remains the star leaves behind can be even more dramatic. A new mid-infrared image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope provides one stunning example. It shows the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), created by a stellar explosion seen from Earth 340 years ago. Cas A is the youngest known remnant from an exploding, massive star in our galaxy, which makes it a unique opportunity to learn more about how such supernovae occur.
Published How to see the invisible: Using the dark matter distribution to test our cosmological model
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astrophysicists have measured a value for the 'clumpiness' of the universe's dark matter (known to cosmologists as 'S8') of 0.776, which does not align with the value derived from the Cosmic Microwave Background, which dates back to the universe's origins. This has intriguing implications for the standard cosmological model.
Published Woolly mammoths evolved smaller ears and woolier coats over the 700,000 years that they roamed the Siberian steppes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team of researchers compared the genomes of woolly mammoths with modern day elephants to find out what made woolly mammoths unique, both as individuals and as a species. The investigators report that many of the woolly mammoth's trademark features -- including their woolly coats and large fat deposits -- were already genetically encoded in the earliest woolly mammoths, but these and other traits became more defined over the species' 700,000+ year existence. They also identified a gene with several mutations that may have been responsible for the woolly mammoth's miniscule ears.
Published Hubble sees possible runaway black hole creating a trail of stars
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source There's an invisible monster on the loose, barreling through intergalactic space so fast that if it were in our solar system, it could travel from Earth to the Moon in 14 minutes. This supermassive black hole, weighing as much as 20 million Suns, has left behind a never-before-seen 200,000-light-year-long 'contrail' of newborn stars, twice the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. It's likely the result of a rare, bizarre game of galactic billiards among three massive black holes.
Published Twinkling stars fuel interstellar dust
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Of the many different kinds of stars, asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, usually slightly larger and older than our own sun, are known producers of interstellar dust. Dusty AGBs are particularly prominent producers of dust, and the light they shine happens to vary widely. For the first time, a long-period survey has found the variable intensity of dusty AGBs coincides with variations in the amount of dust these stars produce. As this dust can lead to the creation of planets, its study can shed light on our own origins.
Published Hubble unexpectedly finds double quasar in distant universe
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The early universe was a rambunctious place where galaxies often bumped into each other and even merged together. Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and other space and ground-based observatories, astronomers investigating these developments have made an unexpected and rare discovery: a pair of gravitationally bound quasars, both blazing away inside two merging galaxies. They existed when the universe was just 3 billion years old.
Published Ice sheets can collapse faster than previously thought possible
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Ice sheets can retreat up to 600 meters a day during periods of climate warming, 20 times faster than the highest rate of retreat previously measured. An international team of researchers used high-resolution imagery of the seafloor to reveal just how quickly a former ice sheet that extended from Norway retreated at the end of the last Ice Age, about 20,000 years ago.
Published Do Earth-like exoplanets have magnetic fields? Far-off radio signal is promising sign
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Earth's magnetic field does more than keep everyone's compass needles pointed in the same direction. It also helps preserve Earth's sliver of life-sustaining atmosphere by deflecting high energy particles and plasma regularly blasted out of the sun. Researchers have now identified a prospective Earth-sized planet in another solar system as a prime candidate for also having a magnetic field -- YZ Ceti b, a rocky planet orbiting a star about 12 light-years away from Earth.
Published Analysis of dinosaur eggshells: Bird-like Troodon laid 4 to 6 eggs in a communal nest
(via sciencedaily.com) An international research team has determined that Troodon, a dinosaur very close to modern birds, was a warm-blooded animal (an endotherm), but had a reproductive system similar to that of modern reptiles. The scientists applied a new method which allowed for accurate determination of the temperature when the egg's carbonate shell was formed. Furthermore, the researchers showed that Troodon laid 4 to 6 eggs per clutch. As nests with up to 24 Troodon eggs had been found, the scientists conclude that several Troodon females laid their eggs in communal nests.
Published Galaxy clusters yield new evidence for standard model of cosmology
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study probing the structure and evolution of galaxy clusters shows good agreement with the predictions of standard cosmological models.
Published Molecules precursors to life discovered in the Perseus Cloud
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A study has detected the presence of large quantities of complex organic molecules in one of the nearest star forming regions to the solar system.
Published Scientists observe flattest explosion ever seen in space
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have observed an explosion 180 million light years away which challenges our current understanding of explosions in space, that appeared much flatter than ever thought possible.
Published Predatory dinosaurs such as T. rex sported lizard-like lips
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study suggests that predatory dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, did not have permanently exposed teeth as depicted in films such as Jurassic Park, but instead had scaly, lizard-like lips covering and sealing their mouths.
Published 'Taffy galaxies' collide, leave behind bridge of star-forming material
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF's NOIRLab, captured a dazzling image of UGC 12914 and UGC 12915, which are nicknamed the Taffy Galaxies. Their twisted shape is the result of a head-on collision that occurred about 25 million years prior to their appearance in the image. A bridge of highly turbulent gas devoid of significant star formation spans the gap between the two galaxies.