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

Reinventing cosmology: New research puts age of universe at 26.7 -- not 13.7 -- billion years      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Our universe could be twice as old as current estimates, according to a new study that challenges the dominant cosmological model and sheds new light on the so-called 'impossible early galaxy problem.'

Space: Astrophysics Space: Structures and Features
Published

Record-breaking team of citizen scientists contribute data on pinwheel galaxy supernova      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Citizen scientists have set a new record for the SETI Institute and Unistellar, comprising the highest number of observers providing data on a single event. Amateur astronomers conducted a groundbreaking observation of supernova (SN) 2023ixf. The observations, which began just one hour after the supernova's first known appearance, have generated the longest continuous light curve of this supernova gathered by citizen scientists.

Biology: Microbiology
Published

Ticks may be able to spread chronic wasting disease between Wisconsin deer      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study finds that ticks can harbor transmissible amounts of the protein particle that causes Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), implicating the parasites as possible agents in the disease's spread between deer in Wisconsin.

Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Webb Telescope detects most distant active supermassive black hole      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have discovered the most distant active supermassive black hole to date with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The galaxy, CEERS 1019, existed about 570 million years after the big bang, and its black hole is less massive than any other yet identified in the early universe.

Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Webb locates dust reservoirs in two supernovae      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have made major strides in confirming the source of dust in early galaxies. Observations of two Type II supernovae, Supernova 2004et (SN 2004et) and Supernova 2017eaw (SN 2017eaw), have revealed large amounts of dust within the ejecta of each of these objects. The mass found by researchers supports the theory that supernovae played a key role in supplying dust to the early universe.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

New image from James Webb Space Telescope reveals astonishing Saturn and its rings      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Saturn's iconic rings seem to glow eerily in this incredible infrared picture, which also unveils unexpected features in Saturn's atmosphere. This image serves as context for an observing program that will test the telescope's capacity to detect faint moons around the planet and its bright rings. Any newly discovered moons could help scientists put together a more complete picture of the current system of Saturn, as well as its past.

Space: Cosmology Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Astrophysicists propose a new way of measuring cosmic expansion: Lensed gravitational waves      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The universe is expanding; we've had evidence of that for about a century. But just how quickly celestial objects are receding from each other is still up for debate.

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

First 'ghost particle' image of Milky Way      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have revealed a uniquely different image of our galaxy by determining the galactic origin of thousands of neutrinos -- invisible 'ghost particles' which exist in great quantities but normally pass straight through Earth undetected. The neutrino-based image of the Milky Way is the first of its kind: a galactic portrait made with particles of matter rather than electromagnetic energy.

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

Earliest strands of the cosmic web      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Galaxies are not scattered randomly across the universe. They gather together not only into clusters, but into vast interconnected filamentary structures with gigantic barren voids in between. This 'cosmic web' started out tenuous and became more distinct over time as gravity drew matter together.

Offbeat: Space Space: Structures and Features
Published

Unveiling the origins of merging black holes in galaxies like our own      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Black holes, some of the most captivating entities in the cosmos, possess an immense gravitational pull so strong that not even light can escape. The groundbreaking detection of gravitational waves in 2015, caused by the coalescence of two black holes, opened a new window into the universe. Since then, dozens of such observations have sparked the quest among astrophysicists to understand their astrophysical origins. Thanks to the POSYDON code's recent major advancements in simulating binary-star populations, a team of scientists predicted the existence of merging massive, 30 solar mass black hole binaries in Milky Way-like galaxies, challenging previous theories.

Offbeat: Space Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Gravitational waves from colossal black holes found using 'cosmic clocks'      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

You can't see or feel it, but everything around you -- including your own body -- is slowly shrinking and expanding. It's the weird, spacetime-warping effect of gravitational waves passing through our galaxy. New results are the first evidence of the gravitational wave background -- a sort of soup of spacetime distortions pervading the entire universe and long predicted to exist by scientists.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

ALMA digs deeper into the mystery of planet formation      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An international research team has observed disks around 19 protostars with a very high resolution to search for the earliest signs of planet formation. This survey was motivated by the recent findings that planet formation may be well-underway in the more-evolved proto-planetary disks, but until now there had been no systematic study to search for signs of planet formation in younger protostellar systems.

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

Life after death: Astronomers find a planet that shouldn't exist      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The star would have inflated up to 1.5 times the planet's orbital distance -- engulfing the planet in the process -- before shrinking to its current size at only one-tenth of that distance.

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

Starlight and the first black holes: researchers detect the host galaxies of quasars in the early universe      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

For the first time, the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed starlight from two massive galaxies hosting actively growing black holes -- quasars -- seen less than a billion years after the Big Bang.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

A surprise chemical find by ALMA may help detect and confirm protoplanets      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists studying the protoplanetary disk around a young star have discovered the most compelling chemical evidence to date of the formation of protoplanets. The discovery will provide astronomers with an alternate method for detecting and characterizing protoplanets when direct observations or imaging are not possible.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Biotechnology Biology: Cell Biology Biology: General Biology: Genetics Biology: Microbiology Biology: Molecular
Published

Researchers develop digital test to directly measure HIV viral load      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A milliliter of blood contains about 15 individual drops. For a person with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), each drop of blood could contain anywhere from fewer than 20 copies of the virus to more than 500,000 copies. Called the viral load, this is what is measured to allow clinicians to understand how patients are responding to anti-viral medications and monitor potential progression. The time-consuming viral load testing needs to be repeated several times as a patient undergoes treatment. Now, a research team has developed a time and cost-efficient digital assay that can directly measure the presence of HIV in single drop of blood.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Biology: Microbiology
Published

Some black truffles grown in eastern U.S. may be less valuable lookalike species, study finds      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Black truffle growers are unintentionally growing less-expensive winter truffles, which may lead to mix-ups in the market as well.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Evolutionary Biology: Microbiology Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

50-million-year-old katydid fossil reveals muscles, digestive tract, glands and a testicle      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

50 million years ago in what is now northwestern Colorado, a katydid died, sank to the bottom of a lake and was quickly buried in fine sediments, where it remained until its compressed fossil was recovered in recent years. When researchers examined the fossil under a microscope, they saw that not only had many of the insect's hard structures been preserved in the compressed shale, so had several internal organs and tissues, which are not normally fossilized.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Biology: Microbiology
Published

Groundbreaking bacterial discovery      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A team of researchers discover viruses impact the genetic coding of purple (PSB) and green (GSB) sulfur bacteria.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry: Organic Chemistry Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

First detection of crucial carbon molecule      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists detect a new carbon compound in space for the first time. Known as methyl cation (pronounced cat-eye-on) (CH3+), the molecule is important because it aids the formation of more complex carbon-based molecules. Methyl cation was detected in a young star system, with a protoplanetary disk, known as d203-506, which is located about 1,350 light-years away in the Orion Nebula.