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Categories: Offbeat: Earth and Climate, Space: The Solar System
Published Space travel influences the way the brain works
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have found how the human brain changes and adapts to weightlessness, after being in space for 6 months. Some of the changes turned out to be lasting -- even after 8 months back on Earth.
Published Tadpole playing around black hole
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source 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.
Published Keeping drivers safe with a road that can melt snow, ice on its own
(via sciencedaily.com) Slipping and sliding on snowy or icy roads is dangerous. Salt and sand help melt ice or provide traction, but excessive use is bad for the environment. And sometimes, a surprise storm can blow through before these materials can be applied. Now, researchers ave filled microcapsules with a chloride-free salt mixture that's added into asphalt before roads are paved, providing long-term snow melting capabilities in a real-world test.
Published Study quantifies global impact of electricity in dust storms on Mars
(via sciencedaily.com) Mars is infamous for its intense dust storms, some of which kick up enough dust to be seen by telescopes on Earth. When dust particles rub against each other, as they do in Martian dust storms, they can become electrified. New research shows that one particularly efficient way to move chlorine from the ground to the air on Mars is by way of reactions set off by electrical discharge generated in dust activities.
Published Four classes of planetary systems
(via sciencedaily.com) Astronomers have long been aware that planetary systems are not necessarily structured like our solar system. Researchers have now shown that there are in fact four types of planetary systems.
Published Upsurge in rocket launches could impact the ozone layer
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have summarized the threats that future rocket launches would pose to Earth's protective ozone layer.
Published Kangaroo fecal microbes could reduce methane from cows
(via sciencedaily.com) Baby kangaroo feces might help provide an unlikely solution to the environmental problem of cow-produced methane. A microbial culture developed from the kangaroo feces inhibited methane production in a cow stomach simulator. After researchers added the baby kangaroo culture and a known methane inhibitor to the simulated stomach, it produced acetic acid instead of methane. Unlike methane, which cattle discard as flatulence, acetic acid has benefits for cows as it aids muscle growth.
Published Better understanding on the way to a carbon-neutral economy
(via sciencedaily.com) What role could rifted margins play in the transition to a carbon-neutral economy? Researchers summarize the current state of knowledge about the so-called rifting of continents. Rifting is the term researchers use to describe the process by which continental plates break and new oceans are formed.
Published Hubble captures the start of a new spoke season at Saturn
(via sciencedaily.com) 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.
Published Space dust as Earth's sun shield
(via sciencedaily.com) 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.
Published Spanish lagoon used to better understand wet-to-dry transition of Mars
(via sciencedaily.com) In the ongoing search for signs of life on Mars, a new study proposes focusing on 'time-resolved analogs' -- dynamic and similar Earth environments where changes can be analyzed over many years.
Published A new ring system discovered in our Solar System
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists have discovered a new ring system around a dwarf planet on the edge of the Solar System. The ring system orbits much further out than is typical for other ring systems, calling into question current theories of how ring systems are formed.
Published New Zealand one of few island nations with potential to produce enough food in a nuclear winter, researchers say
(via sciencedaily.com) New Zealand is one of only a few island nations that could continue to produce enough food to feed its population in a nuclear winter, researchers have found.
Published Why icicles are rippled
(via sciencedaily.com) Winter is coming to an end; the last nights of below zero temperatures are here. In the morning, one still spots the occasional icicle on a gutter or car bumper. When you look at these icicles carefully, you may notice that they show a characteristic pattern of ripples -- always around one centimetre wide. What causes these ripples? Using an icicle machine of their own design, physicists and chemists investigated this question, and discovered that salt plays an important part in the formation process of the ripples.
Published New models explain canyons on Pluto moon
(via sciencedaily.com) In 2015, when NASA's New Horizons spacecraft encountered the Pluto-Charon system, scientists discovered interesting, geologically active objects instead of the inert icy orbs previously envisioned. Scientists have revisited the data to explore the source of cryovolcanic flows and an obvious belt of fractures on Pluto's large moon Charon. These new models suggest that when the moon's internal ocean froze, it may have formed the deep, elongated depressions along its girth but was less likely to lead to cryovolcanoes erupting with ice, water and other materials in its northern hemisphere.
Published Nematodes can help us detect indoor air impurities
(via sciencedaily.com) Good quality indoor air is crucial to our well-being, while impurities in the air can compromise our working capacity and health. Researchers have developed a new method for measuring indoor air quality, making use of fluorescent strains of nematodes.
Published Hubble directly measures mass of a lone white dwarf
(via sciencedaily.com) Astronomers have directly measured the mass of a single, isolated white dwarf -- the surviving core of a burned-out, Sun-like star. Researchers found that the white dwarf is 56 percent the mass of our Sun. This agrees with earlier theoretical predictions of the white dwarf's mass and corroborates current theories of how white dwarfs evolve as the end product of a typical star's evolution. The unique observation yields insights into theories of the structure and composition of white dwarfs.
Published Thin, lightweight layer provides radiation barrier for perovskites in space, protection from elements on Earth
(via sciencedaily.com) An ultrathin protective coating proves sufficient to protect a perovskite solar cell from the harmful effects of space and harden it against environmental factors on Earth, according to newly published research.
Published Far-off storms fuel sneaker waves along Pacific Northwest coast, new research suggests
(via sciencedaily.com) Sneaker waves are likely fueled by a specific type of wave condition generated by far-off storms and paired with just the right conditions closer to shore, a new study has found.
Published Researchers complete first real-world study of Martian helicopter dust dynamics
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have completed the first real-world study of Martian dust dynamics based on Ingenuity's historic first flights on the Red Planet, paving the way for future extraterrestrial rotorcraft missions. The work could support NASA's Mars Sample Return Program, which will retrieve samples collected by Perseverance, or the Dragonfly mission that will set course for Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in 2027.