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Categories: Offbeat: Space, Paleontology: Climate

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

NASA's Hubble watches 'spoke season' on Saturn      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new photo of Saturn was taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on October 22, 2023, when the ringed planet was approximately 850 million miles from Earth. Hubble's ultra-sharp vision reveals a phenomenon called ring spokes.

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

Supernova encore: Second lensed supernova in a distant galaxy      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In November 2023, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope observed a massive cluster of galaxies named MACS J0138.0-2155. Through an effect called gravitational lensing, first predicted by Albert Einstein, a distant galaxy named MRG-M0138 appears warped by the powerful gravity of the intervening galaxy cluster. In addition to warping and magnifying the distant galaxy, the gravitational lensing effect caused by MACS J0138 produces five different images of MRG-M0138.

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

Ringing in the holidays with ringed planet Uranus      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope recently trained its sights on unusual and enigmatic Uranus, an ice giant that spins on its side. Webb captured this dynamic world with rings, moons, storms, and other atmospheric features -- including a seasonal polar cap. The image expands upon a two-color version released earlier this year, adding additional wavelength coverage for a more detailed look.

Biology: Botany Paleontology: Climate Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Mysterious fruit shown to be the oldest known fossils of the Frankincense and Myrrh family      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Early in the 1970s, paleontologists discovered strange fossilized fruits between hardened rock from one of the largest volcanic eruptions in Earth's history. The identity of these fossils remained elusive for the next several decades. Using CT scanning, scientists have now determined they are the oldest fossils from species in the Frankincense and Myrrh family.

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

Scientists measure the distance to stars by their music      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A team of astronomers has used asteroseismology, or the study of stellar oscillations, to accurately measure the distance of stars from the Earth. Their research examined thousands of stars and checked the measurements taken during the Gaia mission to study the near Universe.

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

Astronomers discover first population of binary stripped stars      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Astronomers have discovered a population of massive stars that have been stripped of their hydrogen envelopes by their companions in binary systems. The findings shed light on the hot helium stars that are believed to be the origins of hydrogen-poor core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers.

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

Reaching for the (invisible) stars      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Supernovae -- stellar explosions as bright as an entire galaxy -- have fascinated us since time immemorial. Yet, there are more hydrogen-poor supernovae than astrophysicists can explain. Now, scientists may have found the missing precursor star population.

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

Unexpected chemistry reveals cosmic star factories' secrets      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Two galaxies in the early universe, which contain extremely productive star factories, have been studied by a team of scientists. Using powerful telescopes to split the galaxies' light into individual colors, the scientists were amazed to discover light from many different molecules -- more than ever before at such distances. Studies like this could revolutionize our understanding of the lives of the most active galaxies when the universe was young, the researchers believe.

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

Tiniest free-floating brown dwarf      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Brown dwarfs are objects that straddle the dividing line between stars and planets. They form like stars, growing dense enough to collapse under their own gravity, but they never become dense and hot enough to begin fusing hydrogen and turn into a star. At the low end of the scale, some brown dwarfs are comparable with giant planets, weighing just a few times the mass of Jupiter.

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

Some icy exoplanets may have habitable oceans and geysers      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study expands the search for life beyond our solar system by indicating that 17 exoplanets (worlds outside our solar system) could have oceans of liquid water, an essential ingredient for life, beneath icy shells. Water from these oceans could occasionally erupt through the ice crust as geysers. The science team calculated the amount of geyser activity on these exoplanets, the first time these estimates have been made. They identified two exoplanets sufficiently close where signs of these eruptions could be observed with telescopes.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Ecology: Animals Ecology: Endangered Species Ecology: Extinction Environmental: Ecosystems Geoscience: Environmental Issues Paleontology: Climate Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Best areas for rewilding European bison      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Simulations integrate historical records, fossils, and ancient DNA to reveal why the European bison nearly went extinct, and pinpoint optimal areas for conservation.   Since the near-extinction of the European bison, enormous conservation efforts have helped to restore wild populations, and its numbers are on the rise. However, the study authors argue that ensuring the species's long-term protection and recovery requires understanding why they nearly went extinct in the first place.    'Our study also suggests areas where rewilding attempts are most likely to be successful,' said lead author July Pilowsky, currently a disease ecologist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Pilowsky completed the research while working on their PhD at University of Adelaide and University of Copenhagen.   

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

14-inch spacecraft delivers new details about 'hot Jupiters'      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) spacecraft is about the size of a cereal box. It has also recorded incredibly detailed measurements of the atmospheres of planets hundreds of light-years from Earth.

Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geomagnetic Storms Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Exploration Space: General Space: The Solar System
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When is an aurora not an aurora?      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

While auroras occur at high latitude, the associated phenomena Steve and the picket fence occur farther south and at lower altitude. Their emissions also differ from aurora. A physics graduate student has proposed a physical mechanism behind these emissions, and a rocket launch to test the theory. She argues that an electric field in the upper atmosphere parallel to Earth's magnetic field could explain the green picket fence spectrum and perhaps Steve and the enhanced aurora.

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

Scholars say it's time to declare a new epoch on the moon, the 'lunar Anthropocene'      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

According to anthropologists and geologists, it's time to acknowledge humans have become the dominant force shaping the moon's environment by declaring a new geological epoch for the moon: the Lunar Anthropocene. They argue the new epoch may have dawned in 1959 when the USSR's unmanned spacecraft Luna 2 alighted on the lunar surface.

Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geology Paleontology: Climate Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
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Geoscientists map changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide over past 66 million years      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An international consortium of geoscientists has reconstructed atmosphereric levels of carbon dioxide going back 66 million years using proxies in the geoloogical record. Today's concenteration, 420 parts per million, is higher than it's ever been in 14 million years.

Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Oceanography Paleontology: Climate
Published

Climate change shown to cause methane to be released from the deep ocean      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

New research has shown that fire-ice -- frozen methane which is trapped as a solid under our oceans -- is vulnerable to melting due to climate change and could be released into the sea.

Paleontology: Climate Space: Exploration Space: General Space: The Solar System
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Limitations of asteroid crater lakes as climate archives      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In southern Germany just north of the Danube, there lies a large circular depression between the hilly surroundings: the Nördlinger Ries. Almost 15 million years ago, an asteroid struck this spot. Today, the impact crater is one of the most useful analogues for asteroid craters on early Mars. Studying the deposits of the former lake that formed in the crater is particularly informative. These deposits have been of great interest ever since NASA began exploring Martian craters for signs of water and life on Mars.

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

Unlocking neutron star rotation anomalies: Insights from quantum simulation      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A collaboration between quantum physicists and astrophysicists has achieved a significant breakthrough in understanding neutron star glitches. They were able to numerically simulate this enigmatic cosmic phenomenon with ultracold dipolar atoms. This research establishes a strong link between quantum mechanics and astrophysics and paves the way for quantum simulation of stellar objects from Earth.

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

Astronomers determine the age of three mysterious baby stars at the heart of the Milky Way      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Through analysis of high-resolution data from a ten-meter telescope in Hawaii, researchers have succeeded in generating new knowledge about three stars at the very heart of the Milky Way. The stars proved to be unusually young with a puzzling chemical composition that surprised the researchers.