Showing 20 articles starting at article 101
< Previous 20 articles Next 20 articles >
Categories: Offbeat: Earth and Climate, Space: The Solar System
Published Watery planets orbiting dead stars may be good candidates for studying life -- if they can survive long enough
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The small footprint and dim light of white dwarfs, remnants of stars that have burned through their fuel, may make excellent backdrops for studying planets with enough water to harbor life. The trick is spotting the shadow of a planet against a former star that has withered to a fraction of its size and finding that it's a planet that has kept its water oceans for billions of years even after riding out the star's explosive and violent final throes. A new study of the dynamics of white dwarf systems suggests that, in theory, some watery planets may indeed thread the celestial needles necessary to await discovery and closer scrutiny.
Published Mysterious mini-Neptunes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source This study discovered mini-Neptunes around four red dwarfs using observations from a global network of ground-based telescopes and the TESS space telescope. These four mini-Neptunes are close to their parent stars, and the three of them are likely to be in eccentric orbits.
Published Laser tests reveal new insights into key mineral for super-Earths
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have for the first time observed how atoms in magnesium oxide morph and melt under ultra-harsh conditions, providing new insights into this key mineral within Earth's mantle that is known to influence planet formation.
Published A mountainous mystery uncovered in Australia's pink sands
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Deposits of deep-pink sand washing up on South Australian shores shed new light on when the Australian tectonic plate began to subduct beneath the Pacific plate, as well as the presence of previously unknown ancient Antarctic mountains.
Published Are plants intelligent? It depends on the definition
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Goldenrod can perceive other plants nearby without ever touching them, by sensing far-red light ratios reflected off leaves. When goldenrod is eaten by herbivores, it adapts its response based on whether or not another plant is nearby. Is this kind of flexible, real-time, adaptive response a sign of intelligence in plants?
Published Millions of insects migrate through 30-meter Pyrenees pass
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Over 17 million insects migrate each year through a single mountain pass on the border between France and Spain, new research shows.
Published New biomarker database designed to improve astronaut health may also be useful to earthlings
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source As space travel becomes more frequent, a new biomarker tool was developed by an international team of researchers to help improve the growing field of aerospace medicine and the health of astronauts.
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 Would astronauts' kidneys survive a roundtrip to Mars?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The structure and function of the kidneys is altered by space flight, with galactic radiation causing permanent damage that would jeopardise any mission to Mars, according to a new study led by researchers from UCL.
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 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 In a significant first, researchers detect water frost on solar system's tallest volcanoes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international team of planetary scientists has detected patches of water frost sitting atop the Tharsis volcanoes on Mars, which are not only the tallest volcanic mountains on the Red Planet but in the entire solar system.
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 In new experiment, scientists record Earth's radio waves from the moon
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Odysseus, a tenacious lander built by the company Intuitive Machines, almost didn't make it to the moon. But an experiment aboard the spacecraft managed to capture an image of Earth as it might look to observers on a planet far from our own.
Published Lake under Mars ice cap unlikely
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have provided a simple and comprehensive -- if less dramatic -- explanation for bright radar reflections initially interpreted as liquid water beneath the ice cap on Mars' south pole.
Published Earth and space share the same turbulence
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have discovered that the turbulence found in the thermosphere -- known as the gateway to space -- and turbulence in the troposphere, here closer to sea level, follow the same physical laws despite having drastically different atmospheric compositions and dynamics.
Published A new study reveals that marine cyanobacteria communicate
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A breakthrough study changes the way we understand cyanobacteria, which are essential for the sustenance of life. The study shows that these organisms do not operate in isolation, but rather physically interact through membrane-nanotubes, which function as exchange bridges between cells.
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.