Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Discovery could dramatically narrow search for space creatures      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An Earth-like planet orbiting an M dwarf -- the most common type of star in the universe -- appears to have no atmosphere at all. This discovery could cause a major shift in the search for life on other planets.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Looking to move to a galaxy far, far away? Innovative system evaluates habitability of distant planets      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The research framework developed, along with observational data from the Webb Space Telescope, will enable scientists to efficiently assess the atmospheres of many other planets without having to send a space crew to visit them physically. This will help us make informed decisions in the future about which planets are good candidates for human settlement and perhaps even to find life on those planets.

Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Unprecedented glimpse of merging galaxies      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Using the James Webb Space Telescope to look back in time at the early universe, astronomers discovered a surprise: a cluster of galaxies merging together around a rare red quasar within a massive black hole. The findings offer an unprecedented opportunity to observe how billions of years ago galaxies coalesced into the modern universe.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

New way to make telescope mirrors could sharpen our view of the universe      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed a new way to use femtosecond laser pulses to fabricate the high-precision ultrathin mirrors required for high-performance x-ray telescopes. The technique could help improve the space-based x-ray telescopes used to capture high-energy cosmic events involved in forming new stars and supermassive black holes.

Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

NASA's Webb takes star-filled portrait of pillars of creation      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured a lush, highly detailed landscape -- the iconic Pillars of Creation -- where new stars are forming within dense clouds of gas and dust. The three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations, but are far more permeable. These columns are made up of cool interstellar gas and dust that appear -- at times -- semi-transparent in near-infrared light.

Paleontology: Dinosaurs
Published

Ostrich-like dinosaurs from Mississippi are among the world's largest at over 800 kilograms      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Ostrich-like dinosaurs called ornithomimosaurs grew to enormous sizes in ancient eastern North America, according to a new study.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

The most precise accounting yet of dark energy and dark matter      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Analyzing more than two decades' worth of supernova explosions convincingly bolsters modern cosmological theories and reinvigorates efforts to answer fundamental questions.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

NASA's Swift, Fermi missions detect exceptional cosmic blast      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers around the world are captivated by an unusually bright and long-lasting pulse of high-energy radiation that swept over Earth Sunday, Oct. 9. The emission came from a gamma-ray burst (GRB) -- the most powerful class of explosions in the universe -- that ranks among the most luminous events known.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Heaviest element yet detected in an exoplanet atmosphere      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have discovered the heaviest element ever found in an exoplanet atmosphere -- barium. They were surprised to discover barium at high altitudes in the atmospheres of the ultra-hot gas giants WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b -- two exoplanets, planets which orbit stars outside our Solar System. This unexpected discovery raises questions about what these exotic atmospheres may be like.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Hubble spots ultra-speedy jet blasting from star crash      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have made a unique measurement that indicates a jet, plowing through space at speeds greater than 99.97 percent of the speed of light, was propelled by the titanic collision between two neutron stars.

Paleontology: Dinosaurs
Published

Dinosaur 'mummies' might not be as unusual as we think      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A process of desiccation and deflation explains why dinosaur 'mummies' aren't as exceptional as we might expect, according to a study.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

'Wobbling black hole' most extreme example ever detected      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have identified a peculiar twisting motion in the orbits of two colliding black holes, an exotic phenomenon predicted by Einstein's theory of gravity. Their study reports that this is the first time this effect, known as precession, has been seen in black holes, where the twisting is 10 billion times faster than in previous observations.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Black hole spews out material years after shredding star      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have observed a black hole burping up stellar remains years after it shredded and consumed the star.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Black hole discovered firing jets at neighboring galaxy      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A team of astronomers has discovered a unique black hole spewing a fiery jet at another galaxy. The black hole is hosted by a galaxy around one billion light years away from Earth named RAD12.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Cosmic ray protons reveal new spectral structures at high energies      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Discovered in 1912, cosmic rays have been studied extensively and our current understanding of them is compiled into what is called the Standard Model. Recently, this understanding has been challenged by the detection of unexpected spectral structures in the cosmic ray proton energy spectrum. Now, scientists take this further with high-statistics and low-uncertainty measurement of these protons over a broader energy range using the CALorimetric Electron Telescope, confirming the presence of such structures.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Potential first traces of the universe's earliest stars      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Astronomers may have discovered the ancient chemical remains of the first stars to light up the Universe. Using an innovative analysis of a distant quasar observed by the 8.1-meter Gemini North telescope on Hawai'i, the scientists found an unusual ratio of elements that, they argue, could only come from the debris produced by the all-consuming explosion of a 300-solar-mass first-generation star.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Webb reveals a galaxy sparkling with the universe's oldest star clusters      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers have identified the most distant globular clusters ever discovered. These dense groups of millions of stars may be relics that contain the first and oldest stars in the universe. The early analysis of Webb's First Deep Field image depicts some of the universe's earliest galaxies.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Milky Way's graveyard of dead stars found      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The first map of the 'galactic underworld' -- a chart of the corpses of once massive suns that have since collapsed into black holes and neutron stars -- has revealed a graveyard that stretches three times the height of the Milky Way, and that almost a third of the objects have been flung out from the galaxy altogether.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers map distances to 56,000 galaxies, largest-ever catalog      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have assembled the largest-ever compilation of high-precision galaxy distances, called Cosmicflows-4.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Mysterious ripples in the Milky Way were caused by a passing dwarf galaxy      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Using data from the Gaia space telescope, a team has shown that large parts of the Milky Way's outer disk vibrate. The ripples are caused by a dwarf galaxy, now seen in the constellation Sagittarius, that shook our galaxy as it passed by hundreds of millions of years ago.