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Categories: Ecology: Extinction, Space: The Solar System
Published To find life in the universe, look to deadly Venus
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Despite surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead, lava-spewing volcanoes, and puffy clouds of sulfuric acid, uninhabitable Venus offers vital lessons about the potential for life on other planets, a new paper argues.
Published Lemur's lament: When one vulnerable species stalks another
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source What can be done when one threatened animal kills another? Scientists studying critically endangered lemurs in Madagascar confronted this difficult reality when they witnessed attacks on lemurs by another vulnerable species, a carnivore called a fosa.
Published Weather prediction models can also forecast satellite displacements
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have found that modern weather models can accurately predict the energy that Earth emits and reflects into space, which directly affects the movements of low Earth-orbiting (LEO) satellites. By leveraging these models, the researchers gained insights into how LEO satellites respond to weather events below, such as tropical cyclones with tall and reflective clouds.
Published Fourteen years after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, endemic fishes face an uncertain future
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The 2010 Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest accidental spill in history, released almost 100 million gallons of oil, causing significant pollution. A decade later, its long-term effects remain unclear. A study investigating the impact on endemic fish species found 29 of 78 species unreported in museum collections since the spill, suggesting potential loss of biodiversity.
Published Paleontologists unearth what may be the largest known marine reptile
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The fossilized remains of a second gigantic jawbone measuring more than two meters long has been found on a beach in Somerset, UK.
Published Astronomers uncover methane emission on a cold brown dwarf
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have discovered methane emission on a brown dwarf, an unexpected finding for such a cold and isolated world. The findings suggest that this brown dwarf might generate aurorae similar to those seen on our own planet as well as on Jupiter and Saturn.
Published Marine plankton behavior could predict future marine extinctions
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Marine communities migrated to Antarctica during the Earth's warmest period in 66 million years long before a mass-extinction event.
Published 'Tube map' around planets and moons made possible by knot theory
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have developed a new method using knot theory to find the optimal routes for future space missions without the need to waste fuel.
Published Dog attacks on mountain tapirs highlight a growing threat to endangered wildlife
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers who captured footage of dog attacks on endangered mountain tapirs in Colombia are calling for action to protect threatened wildlife.
Published Coral reef microbes point to new way to assess ecosystem health
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study shows that ocean acidification is changing the mix of microbes in coral reef systems, which can be used to assess ecosystem health.
Published No gamma rays seen coming from nearby supernova
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A nearby supernova in 2023 offered astrophysicists an excellent opportunity to test ideas about how these types of explosions boost particles, called cosmic rays, to near light-speed. But surprisingly, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected none of the high-energy gamma-ray light those particles should produce.
Published Most massive stellar black hole in our galaxy found
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have identified the most massive stellar black hole yet discovered in the Milky Way galaxy. This black hole was spotted in data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission because it imposes an odd 'wobbling' motion on the companion star orbiting it. Astronomers have verified the mass of the black hole, putting it at an impressive 33 times that of the Sun.
Published Seed ferns: Plants experimented with complex leaf vein networks 201 million years ago
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source According to a research team led by palaeontologists, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several times. Using new methods, the fossilized plant Furcula granulifer was identified as such an early forerunner. The leaves of this seed fern species already exhibited the net-like veining in the late Triassic (around 201 million years ago).
Published How Pluto got its heart
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The mystery of how Pluto got a giant heart-shaped feature on its surface has finally been solved by an international team of astrophysicists. The team is the first to successfully reproduce the unusual shape with numerical simulations, attributing it to a giant and slow oblique-angle impact.
Published Digging up new species of Australia and New Guinea's giant fossil kangaroos
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Palaeontologists have described three unusual new species of giant fossil kangaroo from Australia and New Guinea, finding them more diverse in shape, range and hopping method than previously thought. The three new species are of the extinct genus Protemnodon, which lived from around 5 million to 40,000 years ago -- with one about double the size of the largest red kangaroo living today.
Published Stellar winds of three sun-like stars detected for the first time
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international research team has for the first time directly detected stellar winds from three Sun-like stars by recording the X-ray emission from their astrospheres, and placed constraints on the mass loss rate of the stars via their stellar winds.
Published Exoplanets true to size
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A star's magnetic field must be considered in order to correctly determine the characteristics of exoplanets from observations by space telescopes such as Kepler, James Webb, or PLATO. Researchers show that the distribution of the star's brightness over its disk depends on the star's level of magnetic activity. This, in turn, affects the signature of an exoplanet in observational data. The new model must be used in order to properly interpret the data from the latest generation of space telescopes pointed at distant worlds outside our Solar System.
Published Tropical coral-infecting parasites discovered in cold marine ecosystems
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Parasites thought only to infect tropical coral reefs have been discovered in a large variety of creatures in cold marine ecosystems along the Northeast Pacific, according to new research.
Published Oxidant pollutant ozone removes mating barriers between fly species
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers show that ozone levels, such as those found in many places on hot summer days today, destroy the sex pheromones of fruit fly species. As a result, some natural mating boundaries maintained by species-specific pheromones no longer exist. The research team has shown in experiments that flies of different species mate when exposed to ozone and produce hybrid offspring. Since most of these offspring are unable to reproduce, the results could provide another explanation for the global decline of insects.
Published The hidden role of the Milky Way in ancient Egyptian mythology
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astrophysicists shed light on the relationship between the Milky Way and the Egyptian sky-goddess Nut. The paper draws on ancient Egyptian texts and simulations to argue that the Milky Way might have shone a spotlight, as it were, on Nut's role as the sky. It proposes that in winter, the Milky Way highlighted Nut's outstretched arms, while in summer, it traced her backbone across the heavens.