Science News

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-56662742 From the BBC 1 hour ago.

Beautiful little shark babies have been hatched out of eggs laid at the aquarium.

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-giant-radio-pulses-pulsars-hundreds.html Giant radio pulses from pulsars are hundreds of times more energetic than previously believed: A global science collaboration using data from NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope on the International Space Station has discovered X-ray surges accompanying radio bursts from the pulsar in the Crab Nebula. The finding shows that these bursts, called giant radio pulses, release far more energy than previously suspected. pulsar is a type of rapidly spinning neutron star, the crushed, city-sized core of a star that exploded as a supernova. A young, isolate…

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-stardust-pale-blue-dot-carbon.html We are made of stardust, the saying goes, and a pair of studies including University of Michigan research finds that may be more true than we previously thought. The first study, led by U-M researcher Jie (Jackie) Li and published in Science Advances, finds that most of the carbon on Earth was likely delivered from the interstellar medium, the material that exists in space between stars in a galaxy. This likely happened well after the protoplanetary disk, the cloud of dust and gas that circled our young sun and contained the building blocks of the planets, formed and warmed up. Carbon w…

The prevailing theory among scientists is that roughly three quarters of all the stuff in the universe is made up of “dark matter,” a mysterious substance that interacts with visible matter via gravity. Despite its ubiquitousness, though, scientists have yet to find direct evidence of its existence. According to a new study by an international team of scientists however, this search could be for nothing, NBC News reports. Instead, they argue that our limited scientific understanding of gravity may be unable to account for the strange gravitational behavior of galaxies. In other words, it’s not dark matter causing the behavior — we simply don’t fully understand t…

The authors of PNAS paper, Global hydroclimatic response to tropical volcanic eruptions over the last millennium, believe they may have identified significant and extended effects of tropical eruptions that go beyond those predicted by current climate models. From the paper: Significance: Future large tropical volcanic eruptions will induce global hydroclimatic changes, superimposed on anthropogenic climate change. Understanding how volcanic eruptions affect global hydroclimate is therefore critically important. Tejedor et al. use a new paleoclimatic product, which combines information from high-resolution proxies and climate models, to estimate volcanic impacts on h…

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-astronomers-image-magnetic-fields-edge.html Astronomers image magnetic fields at the edge of M87's black hole: The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, which produced the first-ever image of a black hole, has today revealed a new view of the massive object at the center of the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy: How it looks in polarized light. This is the first time astronomers have been able to measure polarization, a signature of magnetic fields, this close to the edge of a black hole. The observations are key to explaining how the M87 galaxy, located 55 million light-years away, is able to launch energetic jets from its core. …

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56491033 Sounds interesting even though a work in progress. " According to the Standard Model, beauty quarks should decay into equal numbers of electron and muon particles. Instead, the process yields more electrons than muons."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-56462390 For those who might be vulnerable.

The Winchcombe meteorite from a few days ago contains chondrites and possibly simple organics https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56326246

Las Vegas developer, Robert Bigelow, is offering almost $1,000,000 to neurologists or psychologists as follows: "Specifically, the billionaire wants to know if it is possible "the survival of human consciousness beyond bodily death ." To do this, scientists, neurologists and psychologists have until August 1, 2021 to submit a response of up to 25 thousand words. A group of specialist judges will select the winner on November 1. Thus the first place will receive 500 thousand dollars, the second 300 thousand and the third 150 thousand." I think I can answer that question in 1 word but Mr. Bigelow requires 25,000. If you're up for easy money, here's your chance. E…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-56016031 Interestingly there are a couple of photos about the use of solar power in the list and also several other environmental science subjects.

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-discoveries-edge-periodic-table-einsteinium.html https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsteinium

Model of the 2320 hemolithin molecule after MMFF energy minimization. Top: in space-filling mode; Center: ball and stick; Bottom: enlarged view of iron, oxygen and lithium termination. White = H; orange = Li; grey = C; blue = N; red = O and green = Fe. Hydrogen bonds are shown by dotted lines. Credit: arXiv:2002.11688 [astro-ph.EP] https://phys.org/news/2020-03-protein-meteorite.amp?utm_source=quora&utm_medium=referral

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-achieve-transformational-breakthrough-in-scaling-up-quantum-computers

Just when you thought you could sleep at night... An asteroid more than a mile wide will pass by Earth on Wednesday while travelling at a speed of about 19,000 miles (30,578km) an hour. The space rock, known as (52768) 1998 OR2, is expected to make its closest approach at 10.56am BST, when it will be just 3.9m miles (6.3m km) away – about 16 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Although the asteroid is classified as a potentially hazardous object (PHO), scientists have said it will not pose a danger to the planet. Dr Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist at the Australian National University, said: “This asteroid poses no danger to the Earth and…

Hi. News report it is coming with lunar rock samples and will land in Australia in few days... Also, Japanese probe heading back to earth with hopefully samples from meteorite on board.

Prospects for life elsewhere. The candidates are all pretty far away, however the hope is identifying the characteristics of these types of planets would give us clues as to how to locate them more locally.

Just how big Black Holes can get. Massive enough to affect galaxies in a cluster. And possible effects of Dark Matter in their creation. https://www.msn.com/en-ca/weather/topstories/monster-black-hole-is-caught-feeding-off-galaxies-trapped-in-its-spider-s-web/ar-BB19LywO?ocid=msedgntp

https://phys.org/news/2019-05-nasa-unveils-artemis-moon-mission.html NASA on Thursday unveiled the calendar for the "Artemis" program that will return astronauts to the Moon for the first time in half a century, including eight scheduled launches and a mini-station in lunar orbit by 2024. The original lunar missions were named for Apollo—Artemis was his twin sister in Greek mythology, and the goddess of hunting, wilderness and the Moon. Administrator Jim Bridenstine confirmed that Artemis 1 will be an uncrewed mission around the Moon planned for 2020. Next will come Artemis 2, which will orbit Earth's satellite with a crew around 2022; followed finally…

Hours before the rise of the very star it will study, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched from Florida Sunday to begin its journey to the Sun, where it will undertake a landmark mission. The spacecraft will transmit its first science observations in December, beginning a revolution in our understanding of the star that makes life on Earth possible. The mission’s findings will help researchers improve their forecasts of space weather events, which have the potential to damage satellites and harm astronauts on orbit, disrupt radio communications and, at their most severe, overwhelm power grids. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-ula-launch-parker-solar-probe-o…

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2020/hubble-sees-a-molten-ring

https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/bacteria-can-survive-interplanetary-travel-between-earth-and-mars/

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/news/spooky-action-at-a-distance-could-create-a-nearly-perfect-clock/ar-BB1d04gd?ocid=BingNews

https://earthlymission.com/dinosaur-mummy-science-discovery-nodosaur-intact-canada/?fbclid=IwAR2wWqKTY7lykqaIexocCP6L16aepPxOVr1dXe-bVywjNbJldL54l3fjgdM Scientists are hailing it as the best-preserved dinosaur specimen ever discovered. That’s why you cannot see its bones – they remain covered by intact skin and armor. This dinosaur was built like a tank. A member of a newly discovered species called nodosaur, it was an enormous four-legged herbivore protected by a spiky, plated armor. It weighed approximately 3,000 pounds. To give you an idea of how intact the mummified nodosaur is: it still weighs 2,500 pounds! more at link...…