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Categories: Paleontology: Climate, Space: Astrophysics

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New observations have brought to light that stars can form through the dynamic interaction of gas within interstellar gas clouds. This process unfolds faster than previously assumed, research within the FEEDBACK programme on board the flying observatory SOFIA revealed.

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A peculiar cloud of gas, nicknamed the Tadpole due to its shape, appears to be revolving around a space devoid of any bright objects. This suggests that the Tadpole is orbiting a dark object, most likely a black hole 100,000 times more massive than the Sun. Future observations will help determine what is responsible for the shape and motion of the Tadpole.

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56 million years ago, the Earth experienced one of the largest and most rapid climate warming events in its history: the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which has similarities to current and future warming. This episode saw global temperatures rise by 5-8°C. It was marked by an increase in the seasonality of rainfalls, which led to the movement of large quantities of clay into the ocean, making it uninhabitable for certain living species. This scenario could be repeated today.

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Ice cores are a unique climate archive. Thanks to a new method, greenhouse gas concentrations in 1.5 million year old ice can be measured even more accurately.

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The 2015--2018 summer droughts have been exceptional in large parts of Western and Central Europe over the last 400 years, in terms of the magnitude of drought conditions. This indicates an influence of human-made global warming. However, multi-year droughts have occurred frequently in the 17th and 18th century, although not as severe.

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If you want to build a habitable planet, ice is a key ingredient. The ice can be found in enormous clouds in the Universe and it is the main carrier of the necessary elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur. These elements are part of the atmosphere around planets and part of molecules like sugar, alcohols and simple amino acids as well. The new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has contributed to the discovery of different ices in a molecular cloud, 'Chameleon 1' -- one of the coldest and darkest regions to have ever been explored. Astronomers assume that these types of molecules were also present in the cold cloud of gas and dust forming our own solar system.

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Researchers have released their findings on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the interstellar medium of nearby galaxies.

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A new technique provides fresh insight into the process by which the materials that formed Earth's core descended into the depths of our planet, leaving behind geochemical traces that have long mystified scientists.

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A review article addresses a conflict between models and evidence, known as the Holocene global temperature conundrum.

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There is currently less sea ice in the Antarctic than at any time in the forty years since the beginning of satellite observation: in early February 2023, only 2.20 million square kilometers of the Southern Ocean were covered with sea ice.

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The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) announced their first publicly released catalog of astronomical objects. Over 200,000 astronomical objects including distant stars and galaxies have been mapped in 3D for the first time. Astronomers will use the data to better determine the Hubble constant, used to gauge the expansion of the universe. Possible 'naked black hole' early highlight of science results from HETDEX survey. TACC systems Corral, Stampede2, and Maverick were used in the data analysis and storage. Data publicly available through JupyterHub notebooks.

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Since their discovery by NASA's Voyager mission in the 1980s, temporary 'spoke' features across Saturn's rings have fascinated scientists, yet eluded explanation. They have been observed in the years preceding and following the planet's equinox, becoming more prominent as the date approaches. Saturn's upcoming autumnal equinox of the northern hemisphere on May 6, 2025, means that spoke season has come again. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope will be on the job studying the spokes, thanks to time dedicated to Saturn in the mission's ongoing Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program. Are the smudgy features related to Saturn's magnetic field and its interaction with the solar wind, as prevailing theory suggests? Confirmation could come in this spoke season, as scientists combine archival data from NASA's Cassini mission with new Hubble observations.

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Dust launched from the moon's surface or from a space station positioned between Earth and the sun could reduce enough solar radiation to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

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Astronomers have uncovered striking new evidence for a mass migration of stars into the Andromeda Galaxy. Intricate patterns in the motions of stars reveal an immigration history very similar to that of the Milky Way.

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New research reveals that artificial intelligence can be used to find planets outside of our solar system. The recent study demonstrated that machine learning can be used to find exoplanets, information that could reshape how scientists detect and identify new planets very far from Earth.

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Researchers have pinpointed two intervals when ice and ocean conditions would have been favorable to support early human migration from Asia to North America late in the last ice age, a new paper shows.

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The universe's carbon atoms complete a journey that spans eons -- forming in the hearts of dying stars, then becoming a part of planets and even living organisms. Now, a team has uncovered the chemistry behind one tiny, but critical, step in this process.

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Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope's first images of galaxy clusters, researchers have, for the very first time, been able to examine very compact structures of star clusters inside galaxies, so-called clumps.

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Roughly 500 million light-years away, near the constellation Delphinus, two galaxies are colliding. Known as merging galaxy IIZw096, the luminous phenomenon is obscured by cosmic dust, but researchers first identified a bright, energetic source of light 12 years ago. Now, with a more advanced telescope, the team has pinpointed the precise location of what they have dubbed the 'engine' of the merging galaxy.

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Rocks, rain and carbon dioxide help control Earth's climate over thousands of years -- like a thermostat -- through a process called weathering. A new study may improve our understanding of how this thermostat responds as temperatures change.