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Categories: Geoscience: Geology, Offbeat: Space

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Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: Space Space: Exploration Space: General Space: The Solar System
Published

Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumb trick inspires robotic exploration of caves on Mars and beyond      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Future space missions likely will send robots to scout out underground habitats for astronauts. Engineers have now developed a system that would enable autonomous vehicles to explore caves, lava tubes and even oceans on other worlds on their own.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

Ultracool dwarf binary stars break records      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astrophysicists have discovered the tightest ultracool dwarf binary system ever observed. The two stars are so close that it takes them less than one Earth day to revolve around each other. In other words, each star's 'year' lasts just 17 hours.

Chemistry: General Geoscience: Geology
Published

New study could help pinpoint hidden helium gas fields -- and avert a global supply crisis      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Helium -- essential for many medical and industrial processes -- is in critically short supply worldwide. Production is also associated with significant carbon emissions, contributing to climate change. This study provides a new concept in gas field formation to explain why, in rare places, helium accumulates naturally in high concentrations just beneath the Earth's surface. The findings could help locate new reservoirs of carbon-free helium -- and potentially also hydrogen.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Baby star near the black hole in the middle of our Milky Way: It exists after all      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists have detected the heaviest and youngest infant star ever discovered close to the black hole at the center of our Galaxy. They also identified the region where this 'impossible star' may have formed.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Exploration Space: General Space: The Solar System
Published

Liquid nitrogen spray could clean up stubborn moon dust      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A liquid nitrogen spray can remove almost all of the simulated moon dust from a space suit, potentially solving what is a significant challenge for future moon-landing astronauts.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

Galactic explosion offers astrophysicists new insight into the cosmos      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope's first year of interstellar observation, an international team of researchers was able to serendipitously view an exploding supernova in a faraway spiral galaxy.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers discover metal-rich galaxies in early universe      (via sciencedaily.com) 

While analyzing data from the first images of a well-known early galaxy taken by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers discovered a companion galaxy previously hidden behind the light of the foreground galaxy -- one that surprisingly seems to have already hosted multiple generations of stars despite its young age, estimated at 1.4 billion years old.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geology Geoscience: Oceanography Paleontology: Climate
Published

Climate trends in the west, today and 11,000 years ago      (via sciencedaily.com) 

What we think of as the classic West Coast climate began just about 4,000 years ago, finds a study on climate trends of the Holocene era.

Geoscience: Geology Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

Mysteries of the Earth: Researchers predict how fast ancient magma ocean solidified      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Previous research estimated that it took hundreds of million years for the ancient Earth's magma ocean to solidify, but new research narrows these large uncertainties down to less than just a couple of million years.

Anthropology: Early Humans Anthropology: General Biology: Biotechnology Biology: Evolutionary Biology: Genetics Biology: Molecular Geoscience: Geology Paleontology: Fossils
Published

Ancient proteins offer new clues about origin of life on Earth      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

By simulating early Earth conditions in the lab, researchers have found that without specific amino acids, ancient proteins would not have known how to evolve into everything alive on the planet today -- including plants, animals, and humans.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

A mysterious object is being dragged into the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's center      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An object near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy has drawn the interest of scientists because it has evolved dramatically in a relatively short time. A new study suggests that the object, called X7, could be a cloud of dust and gas that was created when two stars collided. The researchers believe it will eventually be drawn toward the black hole and will disintegrate.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

New discovery sheds light on very early supermassive black holes      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have discovered a rapidly growing black hole in one of the most extreme galaxies known in the very early Universe. The discovery of the galaxy and the black hole at its center provides new clues on the formation of the very first supermassive black holes.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

Discovery of massive early galaxies defies prior understanding of the universe      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Six massive galaxies discovered in the early universe are upending what scientists previously understood about the origins of galaxies in the universe.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Exploration Space: General Space: The Solar System
Published

How one of Saturn's moons ejects particles from oceans beneath its surface      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Enceladus, the sixth largest of Saturn's moons, is known for spraying out tiny icy silica particles -- so many of them that the particles are a key component of the second outermost ring around Saturn. Scientists have not known how that happens or how long the process takes. A study now shows that tidal heating in Enceladus' core creates currents that transport the silica, which is likely released by deep-sea hydrothermal vents, over the course of just a few months.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geology Paleontology: Climate Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Early Cretaceous shift in the global carbon cycle affected both land and sea      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Geologists doing fieldwork in southeastern Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation found carbon isotope evidence that the site, though on land, experienced the same early Cretaceous carbon-cycle change recorded in marine sedimentary rocks in Europe. This ancient carbon-cycle phenomenon, known as the 'Weissert Event' was driven by large, sustained volcanic eruptions in the Southern Hemisphere that greatly increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and produced significant greenhouse climate effects over a prolonged time.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

'Forbidden' planet orbiting small star challenges gas giant formation theories      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have discovered an unusual planetary system in which a large gas giant planet orbits a small red dwarf star called TOI-5205. Their findings challenge long-held ideas about planet formation.

Geoscience: Earthquakes Geoscience: Geology
Published

Deep earthquakes could reveal secrets of the Earth's mantle      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study suggests there may be a layer of surprisingly fluid rock ringing the Earth, at the very bottom of the upper mantle.

Geoscience: Geology Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: Plants and Animals Offbeat: Space Space: General Space: The Solar System
Published

Meteorite crater discovered in French winery      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Countless meteorites have struck Earth in the past and shaped the history of our planet. It is assumed, for example, that meteorites brought with them a large part of its water. The extinction of the dinosaurs might also have been triggered by the impact of a very large meteorite. It turns out that the marketing 'gag' of the 'Domaine du Météore' winery is acutally a real impact crater. Meteorite craters which are still visible today are rare because most traces of the celestial bodies have long since disappeared again.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: General Space: The Solar System
Published

James Webb spots super old, massive galaxies that shouldn't exist      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A team of international researchers have identified six candidate galaxies that existed roughly 500 to 700 million years after the Big Bang and are about as big as the modern Milky Way Galaxy -- a feat that scientists didn't think was possible.

Offbeat: Space Space: Exploration Space: General Space: The Solar System
Published

Better tools needed to determine ancient life on Mars      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Current state-of-the-art instrumentation being sent to Mars to collect and analyze evidence of life might not be sensitive enough to make accurate assessments, according to new research.