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Categories: Geoscience: Geology, Offbeat: Space
Published New clues about the rise of Earth's continents
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research deepens the understanding of Earth's crust by testing and ultimately eliminating one popular hypothesis about why continental crust is lower in iron and more oxidized compared to oceanic crust. The iron-poor composition of continental crust is a major reason why vast portions of the Earth's surface stand above sea level as dry land, making terrestrial life possible today. The study uses laboratory experiments to show that the iron-depleted, oxidized chemistry typical of Earth's continental crust likely did not come from crystallization of the mineral garnet, as a popular explanation proposed in 2018.
Published Neutron star's X-rays reveal 'photon metamorphosis'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A 'beautiful effect' predicted by quantum electrodynamics (QED) can explain the puzzling first observations of polarized X-rays emitted by a magnetar -- a neutron star featuring a powerful magnetic field, according to an astrophysicist.
Published Astronomers spot a star swallowing a planet
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have observed a star swallowing a planet for the first time. Earth will meet a similar fate in 5 billion years.
Published Astronomers find distant gas clouds with leftovers of the first stars
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), researchers have found for the first time the fingerprints left by the explosion of the first stars in the Universe. They detected three distant gas clouds whose chemical composition matches what we expect from the first stellar explosions. These findings bring us one step closer to understanding the nature of the first stars that formed after the Big Bang.
Published What would the Earth look like to an alien civilization located light years away?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source What would the Earth look like to an alien civilization located light years away? A team of researchers has used crowd-sourced data to simulate radio leakage from mobile towers and predict what an alien civilization might detect from various nearby stars, including Barnard's star, six light years away from Earth.
Published A stormy, active sun may have kickstarted life on Earth
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The first building blocks of life on Earth may have formed thanks to eruptions from our Sun, a new study finds. A series of chemical experiments show how solar particles, colliding with gases in Earth's early atmosphere, can form amino acids and carboxylic acids, the basic building blocks of proteins and organic life.
Published Webb finds water vapor, but from a rocky planet or its star?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to study a rocky exoplanet known as GJ 486 b. It is too close to its star to be within the habitable zone, with a surface temperature of about 800 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius). And yet, their observations show hints of water vapor.
Published Astronomers detect 'nearby' black hole devouring a star
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have discovered a new 'tidal disruption event,' in which the center of a galaxy lights up as its supermassive black hole rips apart a passing star. The outburst is the closest tidal disruption event observed to date, and one of the first to be identified at infrared wavelengths.
Published Most massive touching stars ever found will eventually collide as black holes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study looked at a known binary star (two stars orbiting around a mutual center of gravity), analyzing starlight obtained from a range of ground- and space-based telescopes. The researchers found that the stars, located in a neighboring dwarf galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud, are in partial contact and swapping material with each other, with one star currently 'feeding' off the other. They orbit each other every three days and are the most massive touching stars (known as contact binaries) yet observed.
Published Direct image of a black hole expelling a powerful jet
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have observed, in one image, the shadow of the black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87 (M87) and the powerful jet expelled from it. Thanks to this new image, astronomers can better understand how black holes can launch such energetic jets.
Published Astronomers solve the 60-year mystery of quasars -- the most powerful objects in the Universe
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have unlocked one of the biggest mysteries of quasars -- the brightest, most powerful objects in the Universe -- by discovering that they are ignited by galaxies colliding.
Published Medium-sized black holes eat stars like messy toddlers
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In new 3D computer simulations, astrophysicists modeled black holes of varying masses and then hurled stars (about the size of our sun) past them to see what might happen. If they exist, intermediate-mass black holes likely devour wayward stars like a messy toddler -- taking a few bites and then flinging the remains across the galaxy.
Published Astrophysicists reveal the nature of dark matter through the study of crinkles in spacetime
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astrophysicists have provided the most direct evidence yet that Dark Matter does not constitute ultramassive particles as is commonly thought but instead comprises particles so light that they travel through space like waves. Their work resolves an outstanding problem in astrophysics first raised two decades ago: why do models that adopt ultramassive Dark Matter particles fail to correctly predict the observed positions and the brightness of multiple images of the same galaxy created by gravitational lensing?
Published Scientists detect seismic waves traveling through Martian core
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New NASA InSight research reveals that Mars has a liquid core rich in sulfur and oxygen, leading to new clues about how terrestrial planets form, evolve and potentially sustain life.
Published Pioneering research sheds new light on the origins and composition of planet Mars
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study has uncovered intriguing insights into the liquid core at the centre of Mars, furthering understanding of the planet's formation and evolution.
Published Making better measurements of the composition of galaxies
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A study using data from telescopes on Earth and in the sky resolves a problem plaguing astronomers working in the infrared and could help make better observations of the composition of the universe with the James Webb Space Telescope and other instruments.
Published Ridgecrest faults increasingly sensitive to solid Earth tides before earthquakes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Faults in the Ridgecrest, California area were very sensitive to solid earth tidal stresses in the year and a half before the July 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence.
Published Turkey's next quake: Research shows where, how bad -- but not 'when'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using remote sensing, geophysicists have documented the massive Feb. 6 quake that killed more than 50,000 people in Eastern Turkey and toppled more than 100,000 buildings. Alarmingly, researchers found that a section of the fault remains unbroken and locked -- a sign that the plates there may, when friction intensifies, generate another magnitude 6.8 earthquake when it finally gives way.
Published Plate tectonic processes in the Pacific and Atlantic during the Cretaceous period have shaped the Caribbean region to this day
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Earthquakes and volcanism occur as a result of plate tectonics. The movement of tectonic plates themselves is largely driven by the process known as subduction. The question of how new active subduction zones come into being, however, is still under debate. An example of this is the volcanic Lesser Antilles arc in the Caribbean. A research team recently developed models that simulated the occurrences in the Caribbean region during the Cretaceous, when a subduction event in the Eastern Pacific led to the formation of a new subduction zone in the Atlantic. The computer simulations show how the collision of the old Caribbean plateau with the Greater Antilles arc contributed to the creation of this new Atlantic subduction zone. Some 86 million years ago, the triggered processes subsequently resulted in a major mantle flow and thus to the development of the Caribbean large igneous province.
Published Could this copycat black hole be a new type of star?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source It looks like a black hole and bends light like a black hole, but it could actually be a new type of star. Though the mysterious object is a hypothetical mathematical construction, new simulations by Johns Hopkins researchers suggest there could be other celestial bodies in space hiding from even the best telescopes on Earth.