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Categories: Ecology: Extinction, Space: Cosmology

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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.

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Every giant was once a baby, though you may never have seen them at that stage of their development. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has begun to shed light on formative years in the history of the universe that have thus far been beyond reach: the formation and assembly of galaxies. For the first time, a protocluster of seven galaxies has been confirmed at a distance that astronomers refer to as redshift 7.9, or a mere 650 million years after the big bang. Based on the data collected, astronomers calculated the nascent cluster's future development, finding that it will likely grow in size and mass to resemble the Coma Cluster, a monster of the modern universe.

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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.

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An LMU team has studied the biodiversity of larvae from the insect order neuroptera over the past 100 million years.

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In autumn 2022 and winter 2023, a total of 20 cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa were introduced to Kuno National Park in India to establish a free-ranging population -- for the first time since their extinction in India 70 years ago. Although the idea may be commendable, getting it right is not so easy. Scientists see shortcomings in the reintroduction plan: In southern Africa, cheetahs live in a stable socio-spatial system with widely spread territories and densities of less than one individual per 100 km².

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Anthropogenic climate change has, together with the intensive use and destruction of natural ecosystems through agriculture, fishing and industry, sparked an unprecedented loss of biodiversity that continues to worsen. In this regard, the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis are often viewed as two separate catastrophes. An international team of researchers calls for adopting a new perspective.

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Imagine the view from the western coastline of southern Africa during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) over twenty thousand years ago: in the distance you would see at least fifteen large islands -- the largest 300 square kilometers in area -- swarming with hundreds of millions of marine birds and penguin colonies.

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A new global survey of 1000 forest areas shows how climate change since the peak of the last ice age has had a major impact on the diversity and distribution of tree species we see today. The results can help us predict how ecosystems will react to future changes, thus having an impact on conservation management around the globe.

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A star's chemical composition strongly influences the ultraviolet radiation it emits into space and thus the conditions for the emergence of life in its neighborhood.

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The diverse swimming techniques of the ancient reptiles that ruled the Mesozoic seas have been revealed.

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Studying mass extinction events from the past can build our understanding of how ecosystems and the communities of organisms within them respond. Researchers are looking to the Late Devonian mass extinction which happened around 370 million years ago to better understand how communities of organisms respond in times of great upheaval.

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Astronomers find that six of the earliest and most massive galaxy candidates observed by the James Webb Space Telescope so far appear to have converted nearly 100% of their available gas into stars, a finding at odds with the reigning model of cosmology.

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Using new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers looked more than 13 billion years into the past to discover a unique, minuscule galaxy that could help astronomers learn more about galaxies that were present shortly after the Big Bang.

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A study of Britain's native flowering plants has led to new insights into the mysterious process that allows wild plants to breed across species -- one of plants' most powerful evolutionary forces.  When wild flowering plants are sizing up others they may often end up in a marriage between close relatives rather than neighbors, a new study has revealed.

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Research by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope collaboration has culminated in a groundbreaking new image that reveals the most detailed map of dark matter distributed across a quarter of the entire sky, reaching deep into the cosmos. Findings provide further support to Einstein's theory of general relativity, which has been the foundation of the standard model of cosmology for more than a century, and offers new methods to demystify dark matter.

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An interdisciplinary team of researchers is advocating for convergent research that integrates the fields of biogeography and behavioral ecology to more rapidly respond to challenges associated with climate change and biodiversity loss.

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Most conservation efforts are reactive. Typically, a species must reach threatened status before action is taken to prevent extinction, such as establishing protected areas. A new study shows that we can use existing conservation data to predict which currently unthreatened species could become threatened and take proactive action to prevent their decline before it is too late.

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The explosion of a star is a dramatic event, but the remains the star leaves behind can be even more dramatic. A new mid-infrared image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope provides one stunning example. It shows the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), created by a stellar explosion seen from Earth 340 years ago. Cas A is the youngest known remnant from an exploding, massive star in our galaxy, which makes it a unique opportunity to learn more about how such supernovae occur.

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Astrophysicists have measured a value for the 'clumpiness' of the universe's dark matter (known to cosmologists as 'S8') of 0.776, which does not align with the value derived from the Cosmic Microwave Background, which dates back to the universe's origins. This has intriguing implications for the standard cosmological model.

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A new look at decades of data from museum collections and surveys of leaf-litter ants in Florida reveals a steady decline in native ants and simultaneous increase in nonnative ants -- even in protected natural areas of the state, researchers report.