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Categories: Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology, Space: Structures and Features
Published Scientists unlock secrets of how archaea, the third domain of life, makes energy
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international scientific team has redefined our understanding of archaea, a microbial ancestor to humans from two billion years ago, by showing how they use hydrogen gas. The findings explain how these tiny lifeforms make energy by consuming and producing hydrogen. This simple but dependable strategy has allowed them to thrive in some of Earth's most hostile environments for billions of years.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Published The solar system may have passed through dense interstellar clouds 2 million years ago, altering Earth's climate
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astrophysicists calculate the likelihood that Earth was exposed to cold, harsh interstellar clouds, a phenomenon not previously considered in geologic climate models.
Published Novel Genetic Clock discovers oldest known marine plant
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international research team has discovered the oldest known marine plant using a novel genetic clock. This 1400-year-old seagrass clone from the Baltic Sea dates back to the Migration Period. The research project is a significant step towards better understanding and protecting marine ecosystems.
Published Galactic bloodlines: Many nearby star clusters originate from only three 'families'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have deciphered the formation history of young star clusters, some of which we can see with the naked eye at night. The team reports that most nearby young star clusters belong to only three families, which originate from very massive star-forming regions. This research also provides new insights into the effects of supernovae (violent explosions at the end of the life of very massive stars) on the formation of giant gas structures in galaxies like our Milky Way.
Published Small, cool and sulfurous exoplanet may help write recipe for planetary formation
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers observing exoplanet GJ 3470 b saw evidence of water, carbon dioxide, methane and sulfur dioxide. Astronomers hope the discovery of this exoplanet's sulfurous atmosphere will advance our understanding of how planets forms.
Published Tiny new species of great ape lived in Germany 11 million years ago
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Ancient apes in Germany co-existed by partitioning resources in their environment, according to a new study.
Published Researchers upend theory about the formation of the Milky Way Galaxy
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Research reveals a shocking discovery about the history of our universe: the Milky Way Galaxy's last major collision occurred billions of years later than previously thought.
Published Exotic black holes could be a byproduct of dark matter
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In the first quintillionth of a second, the universe may have sprouted microscopic black holes with enormous amounts of nuclear charge, MIT physicists propose. The gravitational pull from these tiny, invisible objects could potentially explain all the dark matter that we can't see today.
Published Planet-forming disks around very low-mass stars are different
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using the James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers studied the properties of a planet-forming disk around a young and very low-mass star. The results reveal the richest hydrocarbon composition seen to date in a protoplanetary disk, including the first extrasolar detection of ethane and a relatively low abundance of oxygen-bearing species. By including previous similar detections, this finding confirms a trend of disks around very low-mass stars to be chemically distinct from those around more massive stars like the Sun, influencing the atmospheres of planets forming there.
Published Researchers solve 2,000-year-old mystery of the shipworm
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source They bedeviled ancient Greek navies, helped shipwreck Christopher Columbus, aided in the sinking of the Spanish Armada and caused the wharves in San Francisco Bay to collapse into the sea, but until now, scientists have been unable to pinpoint exactly how shipworms -- a family of mollusks -- are able to cause such damage. A team of researchers has discovered that a population of symbiotic microbes, living in an overlooked sub-organ of the gut called the 'typhlosole,' have the ability to secrete the enzymes needed to digest lignin -- the toughest part of wood.
Published Fishy mystery of marine reptile solved
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The identity of a prehistoric marine reptile has finally been revealed after experts discovered that some of its remains actually belonged to fish.
Published Blood sausages and yak milk: Bronze Age cuisine of Mongolian nomads unveiled
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Bronze cauldrons were used by the inhabitants of the Mongolian steppe around 2,700 years ago to process animal blood and milk. This is shown by a protein analysis of archaeological finds from this period.
Published Scientists detect slowest-spinning radio emitting neutron star ever recorded
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have detected what they believe to be a neutron star spinning at an unprecedentedly slow rate -- slower than any of the more than 3,000 radio emitting neutron stars measured to date.
Published 'Missing' early sea sponges discovered
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Geobiologists reported a 550 million-year-old sea sponge that had been missing from the fossil record. The discovery sheds new light on a conundrum that has stumped zoologists and paleontologists for years.
Published 'Weird' new planet retained atmosphere despite nearby star's relentless radiation
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A rare exoplanet that should have been stripped down to bare rock by its nearby host star's intense radiation somehow grew a puffy atmosphere instead -- the latest in a string of discoveries forcing scientists to rethink theories about how planets age and die in extreme environments. Nicknamed 'Phoenix' for its ability to survive its red giant star's radiant energy discovered planet illustrates the vast diversity of solar systems and the complexity of planetary evolution -- especially at the end of stars' lives.
Published Gigantic Jurassic pterosaur fossil unearthed in Oxfordshire, UK
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team of palaeontologists has discovered a fossil of a gigantic flying reptile from the Jurassic period with an estimated wingspan of more than three metres -- making it one of the largest pterosaurs ever found from that era.