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Ancient Rocks Reveal the First Signs of Earth’s Structural Activity

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The Pilbara Craton in Western Australia features rocks that date back 3.5 billion years.

Elizabeth Czitronyi / Alamy

Rocks from Australia reveal that tectonic plates were shifting as far back as 3.5 billion years ago, a breakthrough that alters our understanding of the onset of plate tectonics over subsequent hundreds of millions of years.

Currently, along with roughly eight major hard rock plates on Earth’s surface, several smaller plates are interacting with the softer rock layer beneath. When these plates’ edges grind against one another, it can lead to sudden geological upheavals, such as earthquakes, and gradual processes like mountain range formation.

However, there is disagreement among geologists regarding the configurations of these ancient plates and their movements. Some researchers claim to have found indications of tectonic activity as far back as 4 billion years ago when the planet was significantly hotter; others argue that more compelling evidence is noted after 3.2 billion years ago.

Much of this data derives from the chemical compositions of rocks, which suggest past movements. Despite this, records detailing the interactions of early plates remain scarce, which is regarded as critical evidence supporting plate tectonics.

Recently, Alec Brenner and his team from Yale University claim to have uncovered substantial evidence of relative plate movement dating back 3.5 billion years in the eastern Pilbara Craton of Western Australia. They traced the magnetic orientation of rocks aligned with Earth’s magnetic field, observing shifts similar to how a compass needle changes direction when the ground moves.

Brenner and colleagues initially dated the rock using radioisotope analysis, establishing that at certain times, the rock’s magnetism remained unchanged. By observing this magnetization shift, they demonstrated that the rock mass progressively moved at a rate of several centimeters each year. They compared these findings to similarly examined rocks in the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa, which exhibited no such movement.

“This suggests that some type of plate boundary must exist between these two regions to accommodate that relative movement,” remarked Brenner during his presentation at the Goldschmidt Geochemical Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, on July 9.

“Approximately 3.8 billion years ago, the Pilbara plate transitioned from medium to high latitudes, eventually reaching proximity to Earth’s magnetic poles and, possibly millions of years later, to the latitude of Svalbard.”

“If two plates are moving relative to one another, there must be various dynamic interactions happening between them,” noted Robert Hazen from the Carnegie Institute of Science in Washington, DC. “It cannot be an isolated event.”

Nonetheless, multiple interpretations exist regarding the underlying causes of this movement, according to Hazen. The variability in plate movement rates adds to the confusion, and existing data could align with various theories regarding Earth’s interior structure at that time.

At the very least, this discovery indicates the presence of structural boundaries, according to Michael Brown from the University of Maryland. However, he argues that the nature of rock movement appears dissimilar to contemporary understanding of plate tectonics. “Essentially, the Pilbara plate moved to higher latitudes to prevent stagnation, which is atypical within any current plate structural model.”

Brown posits that this aligns with the theory suggesting the Earth’s crust consisted of numerous smaller plates propelled by a thermal mantle plume during that period. He believes the remnants of these small plates examined by Brenner and his team provide evidence of movement; however, due to their limited representation of the crust, they may not accurately reflect broader Earth movements.

Brenner’s team also discovered indications that the Earth’s magnetic field underwent reversals around 3.46 billion years ago. Unlike today’s magnetic field reversals, which occur every million years, these ancient magnetic shifts seemed to happen much more frequently, over spans of tens of millions of years. This could imply a fundamentally different set of energies and mechanisms at play, as noted by Brenner.

Hazen emphasized that the scarcity of magnetic data leads to ongoing debates about the state of Earth’s magnetic field during that era of its evolution. “I believe this discovery raises the bar significantly,” he asserts. “It represents a vital breakthrough in understanding early magnetic reversals, shedding light on the core’s geomechanics in ways previously unexplored.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Scientists Reveal How Bogon Moths Navigate Using the Starry Night Sky as a Compass

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Every spring, billions of Bogong moths (Agrotis infusa) migrate from their breeding grounds in southeastern Australia, covering distances of up to 1,000 km to reach previously unvisited locations.

The Bogong Moth utilizes stellar cues and Earth’s magnetic fields to develop a precise navigation system for long-distance night travel. Image credits: Lucinda Gibson & Ken Walker, Museum Victoria / CC by 3.0.

“While we already knew that certain birds and humans can navigate by stars, this is the first evidence showing that insects can do the same,” noted Professor Eric Warrant from the Australian National University and the University of South Australia.

“Bogong moths are remarkably precise navigators. They use stellar patterns as compasses, adjusting their course according to seasonal changes and the time of night.”

“Each spring, billions of Bogong moths emerge from their breeding sites in southeastern Australia, traveling up to 1,000 km to specific caves and rocky outcrops in the Australian Alps.”

“The moths remain dormant in cool, dark shelters throughout the summer and then return in autumn to breed and die.”

Researchers utilized advanced flight simulators and recorded brain activity in a controlled, magnetically neutral environment to study the moths’ navigation under various conditions.

Even without the natural starry sky or magnetic fields, the moths consistently flew in the correct seasonal direction.

They reversed their flight path when the night sky was rotated by 180 degrees, but became disoriented when the stars were jumbled.

“This demonstrates they aren’t merely flying toward the brightest light or relying on simple visual indicators,” Professor Warrant remarked.

“They interpret specific patterns in the night sky to establish their geographical bearings, similar to migratory birds.”

Remarkably, when the stars were obscured by clouds, the moths relied solely on Earth’s magnetic field for navigation.

This dual navigational system guarantees reliable orientation in diverse conditions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqig_xbufe0

Professor Warrant and his team explored the neurological basis of this behavior and discovered specialized neurons in the moths’ brains that respond to star patterns.

These neurons, located in regions responsible for navigation and steering, are most active when the moth faces south.

“This directional tuning indicates that the Bogong moth’s brain encodes celestial information in an exceptionally sophisticated manner,” added Professor Warrant.

“This discovery exemplifies the complex navigational capabilities inherent in the brains of small insects.”

The findings could have implications for robotics, drone navigation, and conservation strategies for species threatened by habitat destruction or climate change.

Bogong moth populations have dramatically declined in recent years, prompting their listing as vulnerable.

This research underscores the necessity of protecting their migratory paths and the dark skies they depend on.

“This insight isn’t merely academic; it illustrates how animals perceive their surroundings,” Professor Warrant stated.

“The night sky has guided human explorers for millennia, and now we understand it also guides moths.”

This study was published this week in the journal Nature.

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D. Drayer et al. Bogong Moths utilize a star compass for long-distance navigation at night. Nature Published online on June 18th, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09135-3

Source: www.sci.news

Fossils from 73 Million Years Ago Reveal the Earliest Evidence of Bird Nesting in Polar Regions

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Polar ecosystems are bolstered and enriched by birds that nest there seasonally, serving as keystone members of these ecosystems. Despite the significant ecological role of polar birds, the origins of high-center nests remain unclear due to limited fossil evidence. A recent study conducted by paleontologists explored an extensive collection of bird fossils from the late Cretaceous Purine Cream Formation in Alaska.

Illustration of Cretaceous birds alongside other dinosaurs from the same period. Image credit: Gabriel Ugueto.

“Birds have existed for 150 million years,” stated Lauren Wilson, a doctoral candidate at Princeton University.

“For a significant portion of that time, they constructed nests in the Arctic.”

In their research, Wilson and colleagues studied the bones and teeth of fossilized birds from the Alaska Prune Creek Formation, dating back 73 million years.

They identified various bird types, including land birds, seagull-like birds, and diving birds that bear similarities to some modern ducks and geese, all of which were nesting in the Arctic while dinosaurs roamed the same territory.

Before this research, the earliest known evidence of breeding birds in the Arctic or Antarctic was approximately 47 million years ago, following the asteroid impact that wiped out 75% of Earth’s species.

“This will extend the timeline by 25-30 million years for records of birds breeding in the polar regions,” remarked Dr. Pat Druckenmiller, director of the University of Alaska Museum.

“The Arctic is recognized as a modern nursery for birds.”

“Finding bird bones from the Cretaceous period is exceptionally rare,” Wilson noted.

“Discovering baby bird bones is almost unheard of, making these fossils particularly significant.”

“We conducted extensive mapping of Alaska for fossil birds—it wasn’t on anyone’s radar,” added Dr. Druckenmiller.

“Now, we are one of the premier locations in the country for bird fossils from the dinosaur age.”

“Given the richness of this information, these small bones and teeth offer exceptional insights into the fauna from that era.”

It remains uncertain whether these newly discovered specimens are the earliest recognized members of Neornithes, a category that encompasses all modern birds.

Some of the newly unearthed bones exhibit skeletal characteristics exclusive to this group. Additionally, like contemporary birds, some did not possess true teeth.

“If they belong to a modern bird lineage, they would represent the oldest fossils ever found,” explained Dr. Druckenmiller.

“Currently, the oldest such fossils are about 69 million years old.”

“However, establishing that requires the discovery of a partial or complete skeleton.”

Survey results I will be featured this week in the journal Science.

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Lauren N. Wilson et al. 2025. Evidence of bird nesting in the Arctic dates back to the Cretaceous period. Science 388 (6750): 974-978; doi: 10.1126/science.adt5189

Source: www.sci.news

If TED Talks Get Shorter, What Does It Reveal About Our Attention Span?

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Name: Ted Talks

Year: Ted was established in 1984.

And has Ted been sharing ideas ever since? Ted – an abbreviation for Technology, Entertainment, Design – is a non-profit media organization based in the U.S. that hosts its annual conference…

Yes, and they offer motivational online talks. With the powerful tagline “Ideas change everything.”

So, what about them? They are concise.

A lecture? Above all? Historically speaking.

How brief are they? Just 6 minutes.

Who do you refer to? That’s Elif Shafaq.

Turkish and British authors? She’s a novelist, essayist, public speaker, and activist. She spoke at the Hay Festival in Wales.

What did she say? When she first delivered a Ted Talk, she was allowed 19 minutes, but after a decade, the limit was reduced to a strict 13.

Why? That’s what she asked Ted.

And what did Ted reply? According to Shafaq, Ted responded:

How did that make her feel? “It’s disheartening. We can’t engage for more than a few minutes,” she noted, pointing out that we live “in the age of hyperinformation.”

Is it too much to handle? Exactly. “We’re unable to process so much information,” she added. “In the long run, we may lose compassion, leading to fatigue, decreased morale, and paralysis.”

My goodness, sounds severe. Is it true our attention spans have diminished? The absence of longitudinal studies means we can’t be certain, but the public appears to believe so.

Do tell me more. But let’s continue along that line. Research from King’s College London in 2022 found that 49% of individuals think their attention spans are decreasing, while 50% say they can’t stop checking their phones…

Probably young people. Not just them; it’s also a challenge for middle-aged individuals. Moreover, 50% believe the typical adult attention span today is merely 8 seconds.

Sorry, what were we discussing again? The short attention span.

Oh yes, I figured as much. But how about books? Are they getting shorter too? Interestingly, a 2015 survey suggested books are now 25% longer than they were 15 years ago.

I can relate, but something is changing. Nonetheless, this year’s longlist for the international booker prize features eight books with fewer than 200 pages.

What about movies? Surely they’re getting longer? The simple answer is: No. A slightly longer explanation: likely due to marketing strategies, as studios aim to increase ticket sales.

Wait, so it seems our attention is waning while films are getting longer? Very astute. Someone should address this in a Ted Talk.

Say: “Can I make a difference in just 13 minutes?”

Don’t say: “Hurry, you’re running out of time.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Cretaceous Marine Deposits Reveal Evidence of a Massive Ancient Tsunami

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Significant amber deposits found in northern Japan may have been propelled from the forest into the sea by tsunamis occurring between 116 million and 114 million years ago during the early Cretaceous period. This is according to a recent study conducted by geological surveys at Japan and Chuo University.

Amber deposits from Sichuan Quarry in Hokkaido, northern Japan. Image credit: Kubota et al. , doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-96498-2.

Identifying traces of ancient tsunamis can be challenging, as the powerful waves tend to reshape coastlines. The sediment left behind often resembles deposits created by other high-energy events, like storms.

Nevertheless, amber, which originates on land and is then transported to the sea, acts as a historical record of tsunami occurrences, illuminating the physical processes influencing sediment movement during these events.

“A tsunami is a destructive ocean wave primarily caused by significant changes in submarine or coastal crust, as well as impacts from asteroids,” explains Dr. Aya Kubota, a researcher at geological surveys at Japan and Chuo University.

“They have been extensively studied during the Holocene (the last 11,700 years) due to their relevance in disaster prevention.”

“Aside from asteroid sediments, accurately identifying ancient tsunamis before major vegetation growth is extremely difficult for two key reasons.”

“First, coastal tsunami deposits are easily eroded in their dynamic environments. Second, well-defined criteria for identifying tsunami deposits have not been established, as they can be difficult to differentiate from other high-energy coastal events, such as cyclones.”

In their research, Dr. Kubota and colleagues examined amber-rich silica deposits from the Shiko River Quarry in northern Hokkaido, which formed during the early Cretaceous period around 115 million years ago.

Using fluorescence imaging, the authors discovered that the amber samples exhibited clear deformation in what is known as the flame structure. This occurs when the amber is still pliable at the time of deposition, allowing it to change shape before solidifying.

This suggests that a substantial quantity of amber was swiftly transported from land into the open ocean due to the backwash from one or more tsunamis, experiencing minimal exposure to air.

The amber then settled at the seabed, becoming covered with a layer of silt, which helped to preserve it.

“Other terrestrial sediments carried into open water could be instrumental in studying significant ancient catastrophic events, such as tsunamis,” the researchers concluded.

Their study was published in the journal Scientific Reports on May 15th.

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A. Kubota et al. 2025. Amber, a deep-sea sediment from the Cretaceous period, reveals a massive tsunami. Sci Rep 15, 14298; doi:10.1038/s41598-025-96498-2

Source: www.sci.news

Scientists Reveal That Objects in Our Universe Dissipate Faster Than Previously Believed

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A 2023 study by Professor Haino Falk and his team at Ladbou University revealed that not just black holes, but all cosmic entities can “evaporate” through a mechanism akin to Hawking radiation. Following the publication, the researchers were inundated with inquiries regarding the duration of this process. Their latest findings estimate that the universe’s conclusion is approximately 1078 years away. If only radiation, similar to Hawking radiation, is taken into account, the timeline shortens to just a few years. This represents the time required for a white dwarf—the most stable astronomical object—to collapse through a Hawking-like radiation process. Previous research, which overlooked this effect, had estimated the lifespan of white dwarfs to be around 101100 years.

An artistic depiction of neutron stars undergoing gradual ‘evaporation’ through Hawking-like radiation. Image credits: Daniëlle Futselaar/Artsource.nl.

“Thus, the ultimate conclusion of the universe will arrive significantly sooner than anticipated; however, rest assured, it will still take an incredibly long time,” noted Professor Falk.

In 1975, physicist Stephen Hawking proposed that particles and radiation could escape black holes, challenging the conventional framework of relativity.

Near the edge of a black hole, two transient particles emerge; one gets drawn into the black hole while the other successfully escapes.

A notable outcome of Hawking radiation is the gradual disintegration of black holes into particles and radiation.

This finding stands in opposition to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Professor Falk and his co-authors determined that the process of Hawking radiation applies to various objects with theoretically significant gravitational fields.

Their further calculations indicated that the “evaporation time” for an object is contingent entirely upon its density.

Surprisingly, neutron stars and stellar black holes have an identical decay time of 1067 years.

This result was unexpected, given that black holes possess a more intense gravitational field.

“However, black holes lack a surface,” remarked Dr. Michael Wandrack, a postdoctoral researcher at Radboud University.

“They reabsorb parts of their own radiation, which inhibits the process.”

“We also explored how long it would take for humans and the moon to evaporate via Hawking-like radiation: about 1090 years,” the researcher added.

“Naturally, other mechanisms could lead to faster disappearance for humans and the moon.”

“This research exemplifies an exciting interdisciplinary collaboration, merging astrophysics, quantum physics, and mathematics to yield new insights,” stated Professor Walter Van Suisilecom from Radboud University.

“By pursuing these inquiries and examining extreme scenarios, we aim to enhance our understanding of the theory. Hopefully, one day, we will unravel the enigma surrounding Hawking radiation.”

The new paper is set to be published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.

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Haino Falke et al. 2025. The lifetime limit of the star remnants from gravity pair generation. jcap in press; Arxiv: 2410.14734

Source: www.sci.news

What Your Bowel Habits Reveal About Your Health

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As the saying goes, you can’t brush aside the truth, but you can examine it closely—and you definitely should.

Medical professionals have long recognized that the state of our toilets offers valuable insights into our overall health. This wisdom also applies to how frequently we use them.

Discovering the Goldilocks Zone of Bowel Movements

Last year, a team of researchers found a connection between the frequency of bowel movements and long-term health outcomes.

They studied 1,400 healthy adults, excluding those with certain conditions and medications that could alter their stool.

The researchers categorized bowel movement frequency into four groups: constipation (one or two movements per week), low normal (three to six movements per week), high normal (one to three movements per day), and diarrhea.

According to the Bristol Stool Chart—or perhaps suspicious cupcakes—your stool should neither be too hard nor too soft. – Illustration: Lynn Bremner

Within this scale, the team identified a sort of Goldilocks zone.

Ideal bowel movements fall within a high normal range, according to Professor Shawn Gibbons, one of the study’s authors from the Institute of Systems Biology.

“Going every other day is reasonable. Ideally, twice a day is within a safe range,” he explains. “Some people take pride in it; they make a point to go at 10 a.m. every day.”

What Our Stool Reveals About Gut Health

Gibbons’ fascination with our collective bowel habits stems from the increasing understanding of the microorganisms inhabiting our gut.

“Transit time or intestinal motility is a crucial factor in this ecosystem,” he notes.

As stool moves through the intestine, microorganisms utilize available dietary fiber, fermenting it into beneficial fatty acids.

However, if the stool lingers too long, these microorganisms switch to protein, leading to toxin release into the bloodstream.

“Accumulations of toxins, like indoxyl sulfate and trimethylamine, are associated with chronic kidney and cardiovascular diseases,” Gibbons warns.

The average individual produces 3,500-3,800 kilograms (7,700-8,400 pounds) of stool in their lifetime. – Photo credit: Getty

Regular bowel movements lead to similar yet subtly different biological processes.

“Individuals with diarrhea often show elevated levels of systemic inflammation, such as C-reactive protein,” he clarifies. “I noticed a stress marker in the liver that ended up in the bloodstream.”

Of course, there are natural variations in how often people experience bowel movements. Most people recognize when their patterns change, but many healthcare providers aren’t overly concerned.

Gibbons states that the general consensus among clinicians is that unless changes are extreme, treatment may not be necessary.

“However, we argue that variations might be worth investigating,” he says. “Aiming for a consistent schedule of once a day or every other day is important. Deviating from this pattern can raise potential risk factors for chronic illnesses and aging.”

Examining Stool Texture and Consistency

Another way to evaluate your stool is by observing its characteristics. The Bristol Stool Scale serves as a visual guide to assessing stool health and can be quite revealing.

Developed in 1997 as a diagnostic tool, the scale categorizes stool into seven types—from small, hard pellets to watery diarrhea.

In addition to frequency, we should also seek a healthy balance in terms of shape and consistency. A smooth, sausage-like stool that passes easily is considered ideal.

It’s also necessary to notice the effort involved during bowel movements. Stool should not feel like a strenuous ordeal, nor should it feel like it’s happening all at once.

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Emphasizing a Healthy Lifestyle

If you find yourself consistently outside these Goldilocks zones, researchers suggest several strategies.

Gibbons and his colleagues discovered that individuals who fall into the beneficial higher frequency category tend to lead healthier lifestyles.

“They consume more fruits and vegetables, are more physically active, and tend to hydrate better,” he mentions. “These three factors can make a significant difference.”

He also recommends exploring new health trends. “Consider taking dietary fiber supplements or incorporating flaxseed and chia seeds into your meals. These can be quite beneficial.”

Be wary of certain wellness trends as well. Popular weight loss medications like Wegovy and Ozempic may offer multiple health benefits, but Gibbons cautions that they can slow intestinal transit time, potentially affecting frequency.

“High-protein diets can also pose risks due to the byproducts generated from protein fermentation. There is considerable evidence suggesting links to type 2 diabetes, particularly in younger individuals.”

So the next time you find yourself on the throne, consider it your personal health assessment.

Meet Our Experts

Professor Shawn Gibbons is an associate professor at the Institute of Systems Biology and leads the Gibbons Lab, which focuses on microbiology, ecology, and medicine. He earned his PhD in Biophysics from the University of Chicago in 2015. His expertise lies in microbial ecology, evolution, complex adaptive systems, bioinformatics, and the human microbiota.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

What Your Hearing Can Reveal About Your Risk of Heart Failure

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Heart failure affects over 60 million people worldwide, where the heart is unable to properly pump blood due to a weak or stiff heart. Typical causes include coronary heart disease, hypertension, and obesity. However, new research published in the journal heart shows that hearing loss is also linked to an increased risk of heart failure.

Heart failure doesn’t mean the heart stops working completely, but rather needs extra support to function. The study, which evaluated data from over 160,000 people from the UK biobank, found that individuals with hearing loss had a higher risk of developing heart failure over a 5-year follow-up period compared to those with normal hearing.

The study also revealed that individuals with inadequate hearing had a 15% higher risk, while those with inadequate hearing had a 28% higher risk of heart failure. Higher scores on the Audio Reception Threshold test were also associated with a higher risk of heart failure. These findings suggest that hearing health should be considered in cardiovascular risk assessment and prevention strategies.

According to the World Health Organization, 25% of people over 60 suffer from varying levels of hearing loss.

Research suggests that untreated hearing loss can lead to social isolation, psychological distress, and neurosis, all of which increase the risk of heart failure. The study authors also point out biological links between hearing loss and heart problems, emphasizing the importance of addressing hearing health in cardiovascular risk management.

Overall, while hearing loss may be considered a normal part of aging, it may actually indicate underlying issues that can impact heart health. It’s essential to consider hearing health in relation to overall cardiovascular health to reduce the risk of heart failure.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Paleontologists reveal that Extinct North American rhinoceros thrived in large groups

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Paleontologists looked at the teeth Teleoce’s major – Found in an extinct species of nasal bacteria that lived in North America from 17.5 million to 5 million years ago. Ash falling fossil bed Nebraska, USA. Here, over 100 Teleoce’s major The individual in a single hole died and was buried in ashes from the eruption of Yellowstone’s superintendent.

The flock of Teleotheras Sister. Image credit: Jay Matternes/Smithsonian Museum.

Since discovering the rhinoceros at Nebraska’s Ashwood Fossil Bed State Park in 1971, researchers have wondered what attracted so many animals in the same location.

Did they converge from afar? Perhaps they sought shelter from natural disasters that unfolded volcanic eruptions with those asphyxiation ash?

“We found out they weren’t moving much,” said Clark Ward, a researcher at the University of Minnesota.

“We found no evidence of seasonal migration or disaster response.”

Ward and colleagues looked at the ratio of strontium, oxygen and carbon isotopes Teleoce’s major Teeth tracking long, operating animal movements across the landscape.

“By studying the carbon of animals, we can reconstruct the carbon of our environment and understand what kind of vegetation lived there,” Ward said.

“You can use it to reconstruct how wet and dry the environment is.”

“And strontium tells us where the animals are forged because isotopic ratios are associated with soil and supporting bedrock.”

Teleoce’s major It was a one-horned rhino with a barrel-shaped body and sturdy hippo-like legs. Like hippos, they ate grass.

And, like hippos, researchers believe that these rhinoceros have spent a lot of time in and around the water.

Due to their vast size, they had few predators during the Miocene era.

However, their calves would have been vulnerable to predators like hyenas, known as bone-breaking dogs.

In fact, some of the specimens found on the Nebraska site have evidence that the scavenger removed some of the bodies after its death. And ancient trucks from a 45 kg (100 pound) dog are found there.

The giant Yellowstone volcano has erupted many times over the past 12 million years.

“The ashes from the eruption traveled 1,127 km (700 miles) in what is now Nebraska, where they piled up in snow, like snow,” Ward said.

“But the ashes that were blown by the wind continued to fall into Nebraska, long after the first eruption.”

“The ashes would have covered everything: grass, leaves, water.”

“Reconstructing how we equip the ancient landscapes that have disappeared provides an important context for understanding their paleoecology and sociality, and the environment in which they lived,” the scientists concluded.

Their paper Published in the journal Scientific Report.

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CT Word et al. 2025. Enamel carbon, oxygen and strontium isotopes reveal limited mobility in extinct rhinoceros in Ashford Fossil Bed, Nebraska, USA. Sci Rep 15, 11651; doi:10.1038/s41598-025-94263-z

Source: www.sci.news

Proxima Centauri exhibits intense flare activity and recent Alma observations reveal new insights

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While Proxima Centauri’s flaring activity is well known to astronomers using visible wavelengths, new observations on Atacama’s massive millimeter/sub-millimeter arrays (ALMAs) highlight the extreme activity of stars at radio and millimeter wavelengths.

The concept of violent star flare artists from Proxima Centauri. Image credit: S. Dagnello, nrao/aui/nsf.

Proxima Centauri is a red star, about 4.24 light years away from the constellation of Centaurus.

Discovered in 1915 by Scottish astronomer Robert Innes, the star is invisible to the naked eye.

Its average luminosity is very low, very small compared to other stars, only about one eighth of the mass of the sun.

Proxima Centauri is also known as the Alpha Centauri C, as it is actually part of the Triple Star system.

The separation of the stars from their larger companions, Alpha Centauri A and B, is about 0.2 light-years, equivalent to 400 times the orbit of Neptune.

Proxima Centauri hosts the terrestrial exoplanet Proxima B in a habitable zone of 0.0485 Au.

The stars are well-established as highly active stars and are the primary targets for investigating the effects of star activity on the habitability of planets orbiting Red War.

In the new study, astronomer Kiana Burton at the University of Colorado and astronomer Meredith McGregor at Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues used archival data and new Alma observations to study millimeter-wavelength flare activity.

The small size and strong magnetic field of the Proxima Centauri show that its entire internal structure is convection (unlike the sun, which has both convective and non-reliable layers).

The magnetic field will twist and develop tension, and eventually snap, sending energy and particle flow outwards to what is observed as flares.

“Our solar activity does not remove the Earth’s atmosphere and instead creates beautiful auroras because it has a thick atmosphere and a strong magnetic field to protect the planets,” Dr. McGregor said.

“But we know that Proxima Centauri’s flares are much stronger and there are rocky planets in their habitable zones.”

“What are these flares doing to their atmosphere? Are there any large fluxes of radiation and particles that are chemically altered or perhaps completely eroding at the atmosphere?”

This study represents the first multi-wavelength study using millimeter observations to reveal a new appearance in flare physics.

A total of 463 flare events were reported with 50 hours of ALMA observations using both the full 12-meter array and the 7-M Atacama Compact Array (ACA).twenty four On 1027 ERG, and a short period of 3-16 seconds.

“When you see the flare with Alma, you see electromagnetic radiation, that is, light of various wavelengths,” Dr. McGregor said.

“But this radio-wavelength flaring also gives us a way to track the properties of those particles and understand what is free from the stars.”

To this end, astronomers characterized the stars (so-called flare frequency distribution) and mapped the number of flares as a function of energy.

Typically, the gradient of this distribution tends to follow the power law function. More frequent (lower energy) flares occur more frequently, but larger, more energy flares do not occur regularly.

Proxima Centauri experiences so many flares, researchers have detected many flares within each energy range.

Furthermore, they were able to quantify the asymmetry of the highest energy flares of stars, explaining how the attenuation phase of the flare is much longer than the initial burst phase.

Radio and millimeter wavelength observations help to constrain the energy associated with these flares and their associated particles.

“Millimeter flares look much more frequent,” Dr. McGregor said.

“It’s a different power law than what you see at optical wavelengths.”

“Looking only at the optical wavelengths is missing important information.”

“The Alma is the only millimeter interferometer that is sensitive enough to these measurements.”

Team’s Survey results It was published in Astrophysical Journal.

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Kiana Burton et al. 2025. Proxima Centauri Campaign – First constraint on millimeter flare rate from Alma. APJ 982, 43; doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ada5f2

Source: www.sci.news

New discoveries reveal Saturn has 274 months of unseen phenomena

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Teams of astronomers from Taiwan, Canada, the US, and France observe and bring in 128 additional moons orbiting gas giant Saturn The total number of confirmed months has reached 274. International Astronomy confirmed its discovery on March 11, 2025.

This image from Webb's Nircam Instrument shows some of Saturn, Rings and Moons. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI/M. Tiscareno, Seti Institute/M. Hedman, University of Idaho/M. Elmutamide, Cornell University/M. Shorterter, SETI Institute/L. Fletcher, University of Leicester/H. Hammel, AURA/J. DEPASQUALE, STSCI.

Dr. Edward Ashton, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Academia Cynthia, and his colleagues used the Canadian French Hawaii Television Scope (CFHT) to repeatedly monitor the sky around Saturn between 2019 and 2021, combining multiple images with details to enhance the astronomical object.

This first run produced 62 months. And there are even more other objects that were not available at that time.

“I revisited the same empty fields for the third consecutive month in 2023, knowing that these are probably moons and are likely waiting more to be discovered,” Dr. Ashton said.

“Of course, we found 128 new moons. I don’t think Jupiter will catch up based on our predictions.”

All 128 new moons are irregular moons, objects photographed by host planets in the history of the solar system.

“These moons are several kilometers in size and could be all fragments of the originally captured moon that have been broken by violent collisions with other Saturn’s moons and passing comets.”

“The mystery within Saturn’s irregular lunar system was a key motivation for the latest search. Given the small numbers compared to the larger moons, it is possible that there has been a collision somewhere within the Saturn system within the last 100 million years.”

“If not, these moons would have now collided with each other and been blown away by the blacksmith.

In fact, most of the newly discovered moons are located near the Mundirfari subgroup of Saturn’s moon, and may be the location of the collision, taking into account its size, number, and orbital concentration.

“Our carefully planned, multi-year campaign has brought us a new moon jackpot that tells us about the evolution of Saturn’s irregular natural satellite populations,” Dr. Ashton said.

“I don’t think using current technology is much better than what’s already done for the moons around Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.”

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers reveal that new high-speed radio bursts originated from neutron stars’ magnetospheres

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A new study has provided the first definitive evidence that fast radio bursts can originate from the magnetosphere, the highly magnetic environment immediately surrounding very compact objects.

Artist's impression of a neutron star. Image credit: Sci.News.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are short, brilliant bursts of radio waves that originate primarily from extragalactic distances.

These phenomena release as much energy in one millisecond as the sun does in 10,000 years, but the physics that cause them are unknown.

Theories range from a highly magnetized neutron star exploded by a stream of gas near a supermassive black hole to proposals whose outburst characteristics match the signature of technology developed by an advanced civilization.

MIT astronomer Kenzie Nimmo and colleagues focused on the event, dubbed FRB 20221022A, in a new study.

This burst was first detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) in 2022.

The event occurred in a galaxy about 200 million light years away and lasted about 2 milliseconds.

New research suggests that FRB 20221022A emerged from a region extremely close to the rotating neutron star, up to 10,000 km away.

At such close distances, the burst could have originated from the neutron star's magnetosphere, a highly magnetic region immediately surrounding the microstar.

“In a neutron star environment like this, the magnetic field is actually at the limit of what the universe can produce,” Dr. Nimmo said.

“There has been a lot of discussion about whether this bright radio emission can leak out of that extreme plasma.”

“Atoms cannot exist around these highly magnetic neutron stars, also known as magnetars. They are simply torn apart by the magnetic field,” added astronomer Kiyoshi Masui of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“What's interesting here is that we found that the energy stored in magnetic fields gets twisted and rearranged near the source of the magnetic field and is emitted as radio waves visible on the far side of the universe.”

of findings appear in the diary nature.

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K.Nimo others. 2025. Magnetospheric origin of fast radio bursts confined using scintillation. nature 637, 48-51; doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08297-w

Source: www.sci.news

New images of Messier 83 captured by the Dark Energy Camera reveal unexpected discoveries

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The spiral arm of Messier 83, one of the most prominent spiral galaxies in the night sky, exhibits a high rate of star formation, with six supernovae observed, according to astronomers at NSF’s NOIRLab.

This DECam image shows the spiral galaxy Messier 83. Image credits: CTIO / NOIRLab / DOE / NSF / AURA / TA Chancellor, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF NOIRLab / D. de Martin, NSF NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NSF NOIRLab.

Messier 83 is located approximately 15 million light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra.

The galaxy, also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, M83, NGC 5236, LEDA 48082, and UGCA 366, has a diameter of about 50,000 light-years, making it about twice smaller than the Milky Way.

With an apparent magnitude of 7.5, it is one of the brightest spiral galaxies in the night sky. May is the best month to observe with binoculars.

Messier 83 is oriented almost completely face-on from Earth, meaning astronomers can observe its spiral structure in great detail.

This galaxy is a prominent member of a group of galaxies known as the Centaurus A/M83 group, which also counts dusty NGC 5128 and irregular galaxy NGC 5253 as members.

It was discovered on February 23, 1752 by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille.

“Between 1750 and 1754, the French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille studied the night sky with the purpose of determining distances to planets,” NOIRLab astronomers said.

“During this period, he observed and cataloged 10,000 stars and identified 42 nebular objects, including Messier 83, which he discovered during an expedition to the Cape of Good Hope in 1752.”

“In 1781, Charles Messier added it to his famous catalog and described it as a ‘starless nebula’, reflecting the limited knowledge of galaxies at the time.”

“It wasn’t until the 20th century, thanks to the work of Edwin Hubble, that astronomers realized that objects like Messier 83 were actually in another galaxy far outside the Milky Way.”

New images of Messier 83 dark energy camera (DECam), mounted on NSF’s Victor M. Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tororo Inter-American Observatory, a program of the NSF NOIRLab.

“This image shows Messier 83’s distinct spiral arms filled with clouds of pink hydrogen gas where new stars are forming,” the astronomers said.

“Interspersed between these pink regions are bright blue clusters of hot young stars whose ultraviolet radiation has blown away the surrounding gas.”

“At the center of the galaxy, a yellow central bulge is made up of old stars, and weak bars connect spiral arms through the center, funneling gas from the outer regions toward the center.”

“DECam’s high sensitivity captures Messier 83’s extended halo and the countless more distant galaxies in the background.”

“Just as Messier 83 is filled with millions of newly formed stars, this galaxy is also home to many dying stars,” they added.

“Over the past century, astronomers have witnessed a total of six stellar explosions called supernovae in Messier 83. Only two other galaxies can match this number.”

In 2006, astronomers discovered a mysterious feature at the center of Messier 83.

“At the center of this galaxy, we discovered a never-before-seen concentration of mass similar to a secondary nucleus, likely the remains of another galaxy being consumed by Messier 83 in an ongoing collision. , likely the same collision that caused the starburst activity,’ the researchers said.

“The two nuclei, which likely contain the black hole, are expected to coalesce into a single nucleus in another 60 million years.”

Source: www.sci.news

Ancient teeth reveal the variety of theropod dinosaurs in East Sussex during prehistoric times

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Several groups of carnivorous dinosaurs – Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus, and their members Velociraptor The family crept into the Bexhill-on-Sea region of present-day East Sussex, England, about 135 million years ago (early Cretaceous period), according to new research.

Early Cretaceous floodplain in southeastern England, 135 million years ago. A spinosaur (center) takes over the carcass of an ornithopod, tormenting smaller tyrannosaurs (left) and dromaeosaurs (bottom right). Image credit: Anthony Hutchings.

Dr Chris Barker, a palaeontologist at the University of Southampton, said: “Carnivorous dinosaurs are rare in the Cretaceous deposits of southern England.”

“Normally it is the Isle of Wight dinosaurs that attract our attention. Little is known about the older Cretaceous specimens recovered from mainland sites.”

In this study, Barker and his colleagues examined assemblages of theropod teeth taken from animals. Wadhurst Clay Formationmainly collected from the Ashdown Brickworks area near Bexhill, East Sussex.

Theropod teeth are complex and vary in size, shape, and serrated edge anatomy.

The authors used several techniques to analyze the fossils, including phylogenetic methods, discriminant methods, and machine learning methods.

“Dinosaur teeth are durable fossils and are typically preserved more frequently than bones, so they are often important when you want to rebuild ecosystem diversity,” Dr. Barker said. .

“There are rigorous methods that help identify teeth with high accuracy.”

“Our findings suggest the presence of spinosaurs, medium-sized tyrannosaurs, and small dromaeosaurs. Velociraptor-There are some theropods in these deposits. ”

A theropod tooth excavated from the Wadhurst Clay Formation. Scale bar – 10 mm. Image credit: Barker others., doi: 10.1002/spp2.1604.

The discovery of Tyrannosaurus is particularly noteworthy. This is because this group has not been previously identified in sediments of this age and region.

These tyrannosaurs would have been about one-third the size of their more famous cousins. tyrannosaurus rexand likely hunted small dinosaurs and other reptiles in floodplain habitats.

“Assigning isolated teeth to a group of theropods can be difficult, especially since many traits evolve independently between different lineages,” says Dr. Lucy Handford. Student at York University.

“Therefore, we employed a variety of methods to refine our findings, leading to a more reliable classification.”

“It is very likely that further discoveries will be made by re-evaluating the theropod teeth elsewhere in the museum.”

Dr Darren Naish, a palaeontologist at the University of Southampton, said: 'Southern England has an extremely good record of Cretaceous dinosaurs, and the various sedimentary layers here are among the world's best in terms of geological age and the fossil content they contain. It's also unique.”

“These East Sussex dinosaurs are older, more mysterious, and less well known than the better-known Cretaceous deposits of the Isle of Wight.”

“We've been hoping to find out for decades which groups of theropods lived here, so the new study's conclusions are really interesting.”

of findings appear in the diary paleontology papers.

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Chris T. Barker others. 2024. Theropod dinosaur diversity of Lower Wealden, England: analysis of the tooth-based fauna of the Wadhurst Clay Formation (Lower Cretaceous: Valanginian) through phylogenetic, discriminant, and machine learning methods. paleontology papers 10 (6): e1604;doi: 10.1002/spp2.1604

Source: www.sci.news

Ancient Footprints Reveal Two Human Relative Species Coexisted Together

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overview

  • Ancient footprints discovered in Kenya belong to two different species of human relatives who walked on the same ground at the same time, a study has found.
  • This coat of arms is thought to belong to the species Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei.
  • This discovery raised questions about what kind of relationship and interaction the two species had.

A newly discovered set of footprints in Kenya provides the first evidence that two different species of ancient human relatives walked on the same ground at the same time 1.5 million years ago.

Researchers involved in the discovery say the footprints belong to the species Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei, and were left within hours to days of each other, meaning that when the two crossed paths, reveals new mysteries about what happened.

According to research on this discovery, Published in Science on Thursdaythe footprints were buried in dry mud near a lake in northern Kenya, and were buried in deposits of prominent fossil sites. By analyzing the print shapes and strike patterns, the researchers found that the two sets were different. They concluded that the best explanation was that two different species left the footprints.

This research advances anthropologists and paleontologists’ understanding that ancient human relatives likely interacted and coexisted. This also raises the question of what kind of relationship these species had.

“We think these individuals, the two species that were there, were probably aware that there were members of another species nearby. They saw each other and thought each other was a member of another species. “This raises the question of what that interaction was,” said Kevin Hatala, an associate professor of biology at Chatham University and lead author of the study. “Were they competitors? Were they totally okay with each other there?”

Previously discovered fossil skeletons of Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei indicated that both species lived in the area at some point, but the new discovery provides evidence of a direct duplication.

Research team members excavate to reveal footprints.
Neil T. Roach / Harvard University

It also shows that the two species walked on two legs in very different ways.

Although both Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei are related to humans, they have very different characteristics and their fates in the human evolutionary tree took very different paths.

Homo erectus had an anatomy similar to humans from the neck down. This species may have used stone tools and cooked over fire. Its members probably had a varied diet that included meat.
The species eventually spread to Asia, Indonesia, and other regions, and survived for more than a million years after the newly discovered footprints were made.It last appeared in the fossil record just over 100,000 years ago..

“Many have considered themselves to be as good candidates as our direct ancestors,” Hatala said. “They seem to be a very successful species.”

Paranthropus boisei, on the other hand, featured a smaller brain, huge masticatory muscles, and large molar teeth. William Harcourt Smith, an associate professor of anthropology at Lehman College who was not involved in the study, said the species eats difficult-to-eat foods like hard nuts or grinds hard, poor-quality foods like shrubs. It is highly likely that they evolved in this way.

This species did not persist on Earth as long as Homo erectus.

“They probably went extinct not very long after that, within the next few hundred thousand years,” Hatala said, referring to the time of the footprints. He added that no one knows exactly what happened, but it’s possible that environmental changes may have restricted the animal’s specialized diet.

The footprints were first discovered in 2021 at a site called Koobi Fora while researchers were excavating other fossils. This location has become a fossil hotspot. The uplifted rocks expose older sedimentary layers on the surface, giving researchers access to the bones of ancient humans and other animals.

The following year, researchers unearthed about a dozen footprints that appeared to be walking in a line, and later discovered other footprints running at right angles.

“We think these footprints were created in the mud of this lakeshore environment. Something happened that brought sediment on top of it. It could have been deposited by a small flood or by rising water levels. “It’s possible that something was brought in and the footprints were formed and quickly buried,” Hatala said.

The muddy footprints were not trampled by other animals and showed no signs of cracking before being buried in the sand. Researchers said that means they were separated from each other within hours or days.

“The sediment protected them, prevented them from cracking, and allowed them to remain in the geological record,” Hatala said.

He and his co-authors believe that the two species may have been able to coexist in this region because their diets were very different. It is possible that they competed for resources and were in a hostile relationship. This species appears to have lived in the same area for hundreds of thousands of years.

Harcourt Smith, a research paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, said the researchers’ analysis was sound and the site was unique.

“I want to emphasize how unusual it is that a site like this exists, how special it is, and the great opportunity we have to find out more,” he said.

Broadly speaking, over the past seven million years of evolution, it has become increasingly clear that different ancient human species interacted in different habitats, Harcourt-Smith added. The evolutionary path to modern humans is full of side branches and species, such as Paranthropus boisei, which represent evolutionary dead ends.

“Human evolution is complex and messy, and there are many experiments being done. It’s not a straight line,” he said.

Over the past few decades, scientists have developed genetic and archaeological evidence showing that: Humans, Denisovans, and Neanderthals overlapped and sometimes interbred. Although the new study does not mention interbreeding, it does provide a clearer picture that even older species overlapped and had more interactions than previously understood.

The researchers completed their work at the Koobi Fora site, photographing and recording the footprints in a variety of ways before concealing them for future generations, said Craig, another author of the research paper.・Mr. Feibel said.

“The footprints need to be carefully refilled with non-damaging sediment to prevent erosion,” he says.


Source: www.nbcnews.com

Ancient footprints reveal how early human species lived together

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Footprints thought to have been left by an individual of Paranthropus boisei

Neil T. Roach

Preserved footprints in Kenya appear to record two different species of ancient humans walking along the same muddy lake shore, perhaps within days of each other. This is one of the most dramatic pieces of evidence ever discovered that multiple human species once coexisted in the world.

“It's really unusual to find evidence of two different species walking on that surface,” he says. Kevin Hatala at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

footprints Discovered in 2021 Kobi Fora, Kenya, near the eastern shore of Lake Turkana. They were first discovered by team member Richard Loki. Turkana Basin Research Institute“Originally, there was a team of Kenyans working there,” Hatala says.

The researchers discovered a track consisting of 12 footprints preserved in a layer of dry sand and silt (see image above). This was apparently left behind by one person walking in a straight line. Near the main group were also three isolated prints that appeared to have been made by three different individuals. The lack of mud cracks or signs of overprinting with other tracks indicates that these prints were all made at about the same time. “These sites are probably capturing times ranging from minutes to days,” Hatala says.

This deposit was determined to be approximately 1.52 million years old. Isolated footprints are similar to footprints left by modern humans. Your heel touches the ground first, then your foot rolls forward and you push off with the sole of your foot. Hatala and his colleagues suggest that these may have been fabricated. homo erectusis known to have lived in this area.

In contrast, continuous trajectories were created by flatter-footed hominins. Hatala and his colleagues suggest that this could be Paranthropus boiseianother type of hominin that lived in this area.

The footprint fossil on the left, with its deeper heel marks, is thought to have been made by Homo erectus, and the more flat-footed fossil on the right is thought to have been made by Paranthropus boisei.

Kevin Hatala/Chatham

“With footprints, you can never be 100% sure who made them,” he says. Ashley Wiseman from University College London was not involved in the study but, H. erectus and P.Boisei. They are the only humans whose remains have been found preserved in this area, “so we can make an informed guess that it is these two individuals.”

If the track was really made by humans, P.Boisei Wiseman said the specimen appears to have been walking on two legs. The bones of the skull, arms, and legs are paranthropus“We've never found a skull associated with the rest of the skeleton,” she says, meaning little is known about their bodies beyond their heads, and the way they walk remains a mystery. The trajectory will be changed, saying, “This is clear evidence that it was walking on two legs.''

These two species were very different. H. erectus It was one of the earliest members of our genus, homo. They had larger brains than early humans and were the first clade to travel outside of Africa. in contrast, P.Boisey They had large teeth and jaws, small brains, and were apparently adapted to eating chewy foods like grasses and sedges.

Hatala and his team then looked at other known footprints found in the same area and at the same time and found that they appeared to match either species. “Similar patterns have been seen at other sites, which may span more than 100,000 years,” he says. “These two species appear to have coexisted with each other in this same familiar landscape for a very long time.”

“If they were able to coexist for more than 100,000 years, we speculate that there was probably a low to neutral level of competition,” Hatala says. Previous research suggests that the two people were eating different foods. Unlike P.Boisei, H. erectus It is thought that they had a varied diet, including hunting large animals.

“Both could carve out their own existence within this shared landscape,” Hatala says. Subsequent changes in the environment may have had an effect. P.Boisei Potentially extinct, yet more adaptable H. erectus Survived.

topic:

  • evolution/
  • evolution of humanity

Source: www.newscientist.com

Astronomers reveal new main-belt comet mistaken for active asteroid

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456P/Panstars, an active main-belt asteroid first discovered in 2021, is repeatedly active, and its activity is linked to volatile ice formations, according to new observations from the Magellan-Baade and Lowell Discovery telescopes. It is likely that this is caused by sublimation.

456P/PanSTARS image taken on October 3, 2024 with the Magellan Baade Telescope in Chile and with the Lowell Discovery Telescope in Arizona on October 26, 2024. At the center of each image is the comet’s head or nucleus, the tail extends to the right. Image credits: Scott S. Sheppard / Carnegie Institution for Science / Audrey Thirouin, Lowell Observatory / Henry H. Hsieh, Planetary Science Institute.

“Main-belt comets are icy objects found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, rather than outside the cold solar system, where icy objects would normally be expected,” said Henry Hsieh, senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute.

“They have comet-like features, such as tails that extend away from the sun and fuzzy clouds as the sun’s heat evaporates the ice.”

These objects were first discovered in 2006 at the University of Hawaii by Dr. Hsieh and his then-doctoral supervisor, Professor David Jewitt.

“Main-belt comets belong to a larger group of Solar System objects known as active asteroids, which look like comets but have asteroid-like orbits in the warm inner Solar System,” the astronomers said.

“This large group includes not only objects that emit dust from evaporated ice, but also objects that have clouds or tails of ejected dust from collisions or rapid rotation.”

“Both main-belt comets and active asteroids in general are still relatively rare, but scientists are discovering them.”

456P/PANSTARRS was discovered as P/2021 L4 (PANSTARRS) through observations by Pan-STARRS1 on June 9 and 14, 2021, and observations by Canada, France, and Hawaii telescopes on June 14, 2021.

Dr. Hsieh and his co-authors observed the object twice in October 2024 using the Magellan-Baade Telescope and the Lowell Discovery Telescope, establishing its status as a main-belt comet.

“This object is not just an asteroid that experienced a one-off event, but is essentially an active icy object, like other comets in the outer solar system,” Hsieh said.

If 456P/PANSTARRS’s activity is due to something other than ice evaporation, its tail would be expected to appear only once, randomly, and not repeatedly as it approaches the Sun.

On the other hand, icy objects heat up every time they approach the sun, and the evaporated ice is carried away with the dust.

As the object moves away from the sun and cools, it ceases to be active.

Observations of repeated dust ejection activity during their approach to the Sun are currently considered the best and most reliable method of identifying main-belt comets.

“Confirmed main-belt comets are still largely unknown,” Dr. Xie said.

“We want to grow the population so we can understand more clearly what its broader characteristics are, such as its size, active period, and distribution within the asteroid belt. We will be able to better utilize them to track ice within the asteroid belt and across the solar system.”

of findings Published in American Astronomical Society Research Notes.

_____

Henry H. Shea others. 2024. Recurrence activity of main belt comet 456P/Panstars (P/2021 L4) confirmed. Resolution memo AAS 8,283;doi: 10.3847/2515-5172/ad90a6

This article is a reprint of a press release provided by the Planetary Science Institute.

Source: www.sci.news

Hikers and melting snow reveal ancient ecosystem in the Alps before dinosaurs

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Deep beneath the snow-covered slopes lie prehistoric wonders waiting to be discovered. Recently, hikers in the Italian Alps stumbled upon an ancient ecosystem that predates even the dinosaurs, thanks to melting snow.

The groundbreaking discovery was announced on Wednesday, revealing well-preserved reptile and amphibian footprints dating back 280 million years to the Permian period, according to scientists.

Cristiano Dal Sasso, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of Milan, described the impressive footprints left by animals at that time, with some measuring 2 to 3 inches long. These fascinating finds are now on display at the museum.

The fossil was unearthed in the mountains of Lombardy, Italy, where the melting snow and ice exposed these ancient treasures due to the ongoing climate crisis.

Researchers move rocks containing fossil footprints in the Italian Alps.
Elio della Ferrera / Milan Museum of Natural History

In the summer of 2023, Claudia Steffensen stumbled upon one of these fossils while hiking in the Valtellina Orobie mountains. This discovery led to a series of investigations by experts like Orsonio Ronchi and Lorenzo Marchetti, unraveling the mysteries of this ancient ecosystem.

Researchers were amazed by the abundance and preservation of the fossils, which provide valuable insights into the Permian period just before the dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Computer-generated images show what prehistoric reptiles looked like.
Fabio Manucci / Milan Natural History Museum

The rapidly changing climate has played a significant role in revealing these fossils, as rising temperatures have caused snow and ice to melt, exposing the long-hidden remains.

As more footprints and fossils emerge from the mountains in the coming years, researchers warn that studying the past can shed light on the environmental challenges we face today. It serves as a stark reminder of the impact our actions can have on the world.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Intricate bird fossils reveal insights into the development of avian brains

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Skeleton of Nabaornis Hestia, an 80-million-year-old bird fossil

S. Abramowitz/Dinosaur Institute/Los Angeles County Natural History Museum

An 80-million-year-old fossil bird skull is so well preserved that scientists were able to study the detailed structure of its brain.

In both age and evolutionary development, new species Nabaornis Hestiae, It falls about halfway between the earliest known bird-like dinosaurs. ArcheopteryxBirds that lived 150 million years ago and modern birds. They lived along with dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period. tyrannosaurus and triceratops.

The fossil, which superficially resembles a pigeon, was discovered in 2016 near Presidente Prudente, Brazil, and quickly became important because of the rarity of complete bird skeletons, especially those from the same period. recognized as something.

but daniel field It wasn't until 2022 that Cambridge University professors realized that the skull was so intact that it could be scanned to create a 3D model of the brain.

High-resolution CT scans allow paleontologists to see inside fossils. “This involves careful 'digital dissection' – separating the individual components of the skull and reassembling them to create a complete, undistorted three-dimensional reconstruction,” Field said. says Mr.

“This new fossil provides unprecedented insight into the patterns and timing of the evolution of specialized brain functions in living birds.”

Professor Field said that based on the brains his team reconstructed, human cognitive and flight abilities: nabaornis It was probably inferior to most living birds.

Artist's impression of Nabaornis Hestia

J. D'Oliveira

The parts of the brain responsible for complex cognition and spatial awareness are not as enlarged as they are in modern birds, he says.

“It’s cerebral, but nabaornis greatly expanded compared to more archaic bird conditions such as . Archeopteryx, It is not as expanded as we see in living birds. ”

Professor Field said the enlarged brains of modern birds support a wide range of complex behaviors, but there is a lack of sufficiently complete and well-preserved fossil bird skulls from early bird relatives. This makes it difficult to understand how their brains evolved.

“nabaornis This fills an approximately 70 million-year gap in our understanding of how the distinctive brains of modern birds evolved. ”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Pompeii Burials Reveal New Insights Through DNA Analysis

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Plaster statues of those who died at Pompeii. DNA testing revealed that the adult on the right was a man unrelated to the young child in his lap.

Pompeii Archaeological Park

Genetic testing has revealed that a plaster cast in Pompeii was not the person it was assumed to be, highlighting how idealized narratives can be projected onto archaeological evidence.

The analysis also revealed that Pompeii's demographics were also much more complex and diverse than previously thought.

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, several Roman towns were buried, including Pompeii. Many of Pompeii's inhabitants were completely suffocated by the compressed ash during the eruption, and as their bodies decomposed, cavities formed, perfectly preserving their positions in their final moments.

in 19 yearsth In the century, archaeologists developed a method of pouring plaster into cavities to create lifelike castings. Since then, more than 100 of these castings have been made, preserving the victims' shapes and bones that have remained undecomposed for centuries.

But it says it has long been known that many of the plaster statues were worked into different poses, sometimes placed together, to add drama to the story of Pompeii. Valeria Amoretti At the Archaeological Park of Pompeii in Naples, Italy.

To learn more about who these people were, Amoretti and colleagues examined 14 plaster casts and extracted DNA from the bones of five of them.

What they discovered completely changed the established interpretation of who they were. It was long believed that an adult wearing a gold bracelet and carrying a child on her lap was the child's mother. DNA analysis revealed that they were actually adult males and were not biologically related to the child. A nearby person previously interpreted to be the father was also unrelated to the child, who was assumed to be the mother.

Another pair, believed to be sisters or mother and daughter who died in an embrace, also included at least one genetic male, making them unlikely to be related.

Genetic analysis further revealed that the people of Pompeii had a diverse ancestry, including elements related to modern-day Jewish populations in the eastern Mediterranean, the Levant, and North Africa.

Amoretti says it's no surprise that the Roman world was multicultural and that the Mediterranean Sea and its ports brought people together.

“But discovering the extent of this melting pot, even in an average provincial city like Pompeii, and getting scientific evidence of it from ancient DNA is very interesting,” she says.

Alyssa Mitnik Researchers at Harvard University say the study highlights the importance of applying science before interpreting archeology at face value.

“Ultimately, it reminds us that the most intuitive, dramatic, sensational explanations aren't always the truth, and encourages us to recognize and question our preconceptions,” she says. .

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Hubble observations reveal Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is wobbling and changing in size

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Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope detected Jupiter’s most distinctive feature, the Great Red Spot, on eight dates over a single 90-day oscillation period from December 2023 to March 2024. I observed it.

simon others. measured the size, shape, brightness, color, and vorticity of the Great Red Spot over one complete oscillation cycle. Image credit: NASA/ESA/Amy Simon, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

“We knew its motion varied slightly with longitude, but we didn’t expect it to oscillate in magnitude,” said Dr. Amy Simon, an astronomer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

“As far as we know, it has never been identified before.”

“This is really the first time we’ve had a proper imaging rhythm for the Great Red Spot.”

“Using Hubble’s high resolution, we can say that the Great Red Spot is steadily moving in and out at the same time as it moves faster and slower.”

“This was very unexpected. There is no hydrodynamic explanation at this time.”

Dr. Simon and colleagues used Hubble to zoom in on the Great Red Spot and closely observe its size, shape, and subtle color changes.

“If you look closely, you can see that many things are changing every day,” Dr. Simon said.

“This includes ultraviolet observations showing that the clear center of the storm is brightest when the Great Red Spot is at its maximum magnitude during its oscillation period.”

“This indicates less absorption of haze in the upper atmosphere.”

“As the Great Red Spot accelerates and decelerates, it’s working against the jet stream, which has strong north and south winds,” said Dr. Mike Wong, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.

“It’s similar to how having too many ingredients in the middle of a sandwich forces a slice of bread to expand.”

The authors contrasted this with Neptune. On Neptune, dark spots can drift violently within their latitudes without a strong jet stream to hold them in place.

The Great Red Spot is held at southern latitudes trapped between the jet stream, with limited telescopic observations of Earth.

Astronomers predict that the star will continue to shrink and then assume a stable, less elongated shape.

“Currently, we’re overfilling that latitudinal band compared to wind fields,” Dr. Simon said.

“Once it contracts within that band, the wind actually holds it in place.”

“We predict that the size of the Great Red Spot will probably stabilize, but so far Hubble has only observed it for one oscillation period.”

team’s result Published in Planetary Science Journal.

_____

Amy A. Simon others. 2024. A detailed study of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot over a 90-day oscillation period. planet. Science. J 5,223;doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ad71d1

Source: www.sci.news

Colombian fossils reveal a new species of ichthyosaur

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Paleontologists say they have identified a new species of marine reptile in the ophthalmosaurid family Platypterygius. It lived about 125 million years ago.

a pair of Platypterygius sp. Image credit: Dmitry Bogdanov / CC BY 3.0.

Ophthalmosauridae is a family of ichthyosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

These ichthyosaurs appeared around the world during the early Bajosian period, about 170 million years ago, after which most other ichthyosaur lineages disappeared during the late Toarthian period, 174 million years ago.

Two lineages of Ophthalmosauridae are known. One contains two genera, Agilosaurus and Ophthalmosaurus, and the other contains three genera: Brachypterygius, Caprisaurus, and Platypterygius.

The newly identified species is Platypterygius elsuntuoso, belonging to the latter genus.

This marine reptile swam in the early Barremian seas, about 125 million years ago.

“The morphology of the new specimen is consistent with diagnostic features of Platypterygius, supporting its inclusion in this genus,” said lead author Dr. María Paramo Fonseca and colleagues from the National University of Colombia and the National Geological Museum José Royo y Gómez.

“The difference between this specimen and all others in the Platypterygius genus supports the establishment of the new species, Platypterygius elsuntuoso.”

Platypterygius elsuntuoso holotype. Scale bar – 10 cm. Image credit: Paramo Fonseca others, doi: 10.15446/esrj.v28n2.112332.

Fossilized remains of a juvenile or subadult Platypterygius elsuntuoso were collected in 1999 by researchers at the Columbia Geobiological Foundation.

The specimen consists of a nearly complete skull, several axial elements including the atlantoaxial and several cervical vertebrae, the left coracoid, and several phalanges.

“This specimen was discovered in a concretion in the La Cabrera hill northwest of Villa de Leyva (Boyaca, Colombia), where the Arcilolitas Abigaladas Formation of the Paja Formation is exposed,” the paleontologists said.

“Because its exact geographic origin is unknown, its exact stratigraphic position could not be determined.”

“However, numerous ammonoid specimens have been extracted from the same stone, some of which have been preliminarily identified as ammonoid specimens of Acanthopticoceras.”

The researchers made morphological comparisons of Platypterygius elsuntuoso with ophthalmosaur ichthyosaurs of the Cretaceous and Late Jurassic periods.

They also revised the genus Platypterygius based on published descriptions and first-hand observations of Colombian materials.

“We have come to the conclusion that Platypterygius is a genus distinguished by a distinctive forelimb structure and a specific combination of cranial features,” they said.

“We revised that diagnosis to accept that Barremian to lower Cenomanian species are valid: Platypterygius platydactylus, Platypterygius americanus, Platypterygius australis, Platypterygius hercinus, Platypterygius sachicarum, Platypterygius virjucobi, and the new species Platypterygius elsuntuoso.”

“Therefore, Platypterygius was a cosmopolitan genus that diversified as it conquered oceans from the Early Cretaceous to the Early Late Cretaceous.”

The discovery of Platypterygius elsuntuoso is reported in a paper in Earth Science Research Journal.

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Maria E. Paramo-Fonseca others. 2024. new species Platypterygius Evaluation of the species composition of (Ophthalmosauridae) and their genera from the Lower Barremian of Columbia. Earth Science Resolution J 28 (2): 103-126;doi: 10.15446/esrj.v28n2.112332

Source: www.sci.news

Carbonate minerals in Gale Crater reveal insights into the climate of ancient Mars

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Carbonate minerals are an integral part of the carbon and water cycles, both of which are implicated in habitability, making them of particular interest in paleoenvironmental studies. In the new study, planetary scientists focused on carbon and oxygen isotope measurements of carbonate minerals detected by NASA’s Curiosity rover inside Mars’ Gale Crater.

An artist’s concept of an early Mars with liquid water (blue area) on its surface. Image credit: NASA / MAVEN / Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Isotopes are versions of an element that have different masses. As the water evaporates, the lighter ones, carbon and oxygen, are more likely to escape into the atmosphere, while the heavier ones are more likely to be left behind, accumulating in larger quantities, and in this case eventually incorporated into carbonate rocks.

Scientists are interested in carbonates because they have been shown to act as climate records.

These minerals may retain traces of the environment in which they formed, such as the temperature and acidity of the water and the composition of the water and atmosphere.

“The isotopic values ​​of these carbonates indicate extreme amounts of evaporation, suggesting that these carbonates likely formed in climates where only ephemeral liquid water could exist. ‘ said Dr. David Burt, a researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

“Our samples do not match an ancient environment in which life (biosphere) existed on the surface of Mars. However, it does not match the subterranean biosphere or the surface environment that began and ended before these carbonates formed. This does not exclude the possibility of a biosphere.

Dr. Burt and his colleagues propose two formation mechanisms for the carbonates found in Gale Crater.

In the first scenario, carbonates form through a series of dry-wet cycles within the crater.

In the second, carbonates form in extremely salty water under cold ice-forming (cryogenic) conditions inside the crater.

“These formation mechanisms represent two different climate regimes that could indicate different habitation scenarios,” said Dr. Jennifer Stern, also of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

“Wetting and drying cycles would indicate alternations between more and less habitable environments, while the extremely low temperatures in the mid-latitudes of Mars mean that most of the water is trapped in ice. “And what’s there would be very salty and unpleasant to live in.” “

These climate scenarios for ancient Mars have been previously proposed based on the presence of certain minerals, global modeling, and the identification of rock formations.

The results are the first to add isotopic evidence from rock samples to support the scenario.

The heavy isotope values of carbonates on Mars are significantly higher than carbonate minerals observed on Earth, and are the heaviest carbon and oxygen isotope values ​​ever recorded in Martian material.

In fact, both wet-dry and cold-saline climates are required to form carbonates, which are extremely rich in heavy carbon and oxygen.

“The fact that these carbon and oxygen isotope values ​​are higher than any other measured on Earth or Mars indicates that the process is extreme,” Dr. Burt said.

“While evaporation can cause significant oxygen isotope changes on Earth, the changes measured in this study were two to three times larger.”

“This means two things: (i) there was an extreme degree of evaporation that made these isotope values ​​very heavy, and (ii) these heavier values ​​were conserved so that the lighter isotopes The process that generated the body value must have significantly reduced its size.””

team’s paper Published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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David G. Burt others. 2024. High concentrations of carbon and oxygen isotopes in carbonate-derived CO2 At Gale Crater on Mars. PNAS 121 (42): e2321342121;doi: 10.1073/pnas.2321342121

This article is based on a press release provided by NASA.

Source: www.sci.news

Video games found to have positive effects on health, scientists reveal

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If you like video games, playing them might not be something you need to worry about.

Asia Vision/Getty Images

Despite being an oft-maligned pastime, playing video games actually seems to make people happier, a finding that comes from a unique study taking advantage of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think that if you enjoy a hobby, it has a positive effect on your health.” Hiroyuki Egami At Nihon University in Japan.

In 2019, The World Health Organization has added “gaming disorder” It violates the International Classification of Diseases. However, studies on the effects of playing video games have produced mixed results when it comes to mental health outcomes, with many studies unable to prove causation. Studies that aim to prove causation are usually conducted in controlled laboratory environments, which “are far removed from the experience of actually playing video games,” the researchers say. Peter Etchells The researchers are from Bath Spa University in the UK but were not involved in the latest study.

But between 2020 and 2022, Egami and his colleagues had a rare opportunity to investigate the causal effects of video games on people's happiness in the real world. At the time, game consoles were in short supply, so lotteries were held in parts of Japan where people could enter to receive either a PlayStation 5 or a Nintendo Switch console.

The researchers surveyed 8,192 people aged between 10 and 69 who had entered such lotteries. Respondents answered questions about their gambling habits and levels of psychological distress, an indicator of mental health.

Egami and his colleagues found that people who won the lottery had slightly higher mental health scores than those who didn't, but that their scores plateaued once they exceeded about three hours of total play time per day.

The team also used machine learning models to analyze the data and found that the effects varied by console type and owner demographics. For example, younger people who own a Nintendo Switch saw greater benefits compared to older people. The team also found that people without children saw greater benefits from owning a PlayStation 5 than those with children.

“This highlights the need to be nuanced and specific about what we measure and how we measure it if we want to understand how video games affect us,” Etchells said, though he said participants self-reported the amount of time they played, which may not be accurate.

Etchells and Egami also note that the data was collected during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have influenced people's video game habits and health. Further research using this methodology could reveal whether the trends hold in other contexts.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

New study suggests Gobekli Tepe carvings reveal the world’s oldest solar calendar

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Göbekli Tepe, an archaeological site in southern Turkey, features several Neolithic temple-like enclosures decorated with many intricately carved symbols.

Göbekli Tepe, Enclosure D, Pillar 43. Image courtesy of Alistair Coombs.

Göbekli Tepe (Turkish for “Pot-bellied Hill”) is one of the oldest known examples of an artificial megalithic structure constructed by prehistoric builders specifically for ritual purposes.

Its impressive monumental architecture was built by a group of hunter-gatherers during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period between 9600 and 8200 BC.

Göbekli Tepe was discovered towards the end of the last century in a hillside overlooking the Harran Plain.

It lies between the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, about 12 km northeast of the modern city of Şanlıurfa, known as Ancient Urfa and said to be the birthplace of the biblical Abraham.

Excavations at Göbekli Tepe, which began in 1994, have uncovered four large, nearly circular enclosures and a number of smaller, generally rectangular, buildings.

Each circular enclosure consists of rough stone walls with T-shaped megalithic pillars inset around two centrally located tall T-shaped pillars, which are usually fixed within stone sockets.

Archaeologists initially thought that Göbekli Tepe was merely a religious center, but recent excavations have revealed that it also contained a settlement of rectangular buildings, now thought to be homes.

The large enclosures are still considered “special” buildings, although there is debate as to whether they had a specific religious purpose or were large homes for powerful families.

In the context of this debate, it is debated whether the largest pillars represent gods or even worshipped ancestors.

In any case, it is generally believed that these large enclosures were roofed, but hard evidence is elusive.

A round-elliptical monumental structure with a distinctive T-shaped monolithic pillar at Göbekli Tepe, Turkey. Image credit: Nico Becker, Göbekli Tepe Archive, German Archaeological Institute.

“The largest complete enclosure discovered so far, Enclosure D (30 metres, 98 feet wide), has the oldest radiocarbon date yet obtained from the site, dating to 9530 BC,” said archaeologist David Schneider of the University of Edinburgh. paper Published in the journal Time and Heart.

“This date corresponds roughly to the end of the Younger Dryas period, at the boundary between the Epipaleolithic and Neolithic, when the Northern Hemisphere climate suddenly warmed after a near-glacial Younger Dryas climate that lasted for more than 1,200 years.”

“However, the date of the earliest occupation of Göbekli Tepe is unknown,” he added.

“Ground penetrating radar scans indicate that there appear to be several other large structures near the center of the main trail, waiting to be discovered.”

“Since only a small portion of the site's surface has been excavated, and even less has been excavated down to bedrock, the origins of Göbekli Tepe may ultimately be dated back to a time closer to the beginning of the Younger Dryas period, around 10,800 BC.”

“In fact, scientists have suggested it may have originated in the Paleolithic period.”

In a new analysis of the V-shaped symbols carved into the pillars at Göbekli Tepe, Dr Sweatman found that each V likely represents a day.

This interpretation allowed researchers to count a 365-day solar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months and 11 extra days on one of the pillars.

The summer solstice was considered a special day, and a V was drawn around the neck of a bird-like beast, which was thought to represent the summer solstice constellation at the time.

Other statues believed to represent gods were found nearby, all with similar V-shaped markings around their necks.

As both lunar and solar cycles are depicted, the carving may represent the world's oldest known lunisolar calendar, based on the phases of the moon and the position of the sun, predating any other known calendar of this type by thousands of years.

Detail of the center section of Pillar 43 at Göbekli Tepe. Image courtesy of Martin B. Sweatman, doi: 10.1080/1751696X.2024.2373876.

“Ancient people may have created these carvings at Göbekli Tepe to record the date when a swarm of cometary fragments hit Earth about 13,000 years ago, i.e. in 10,850 BC,” the scientists said.

“The cometary impact is thought to have caused a mini-glacial period lasting more than 1,200 years and led to the extinction of many large animal species.”

“It may also have triggered changes in lifestyle and agriculture that are associated with the emergence of civilisations in the Fertile Crescent of Western Asia shortly thereafter.”

Another pillar at the site appears to depict the Taurid meteor shower, which emanated over a 27-day period from the direction of Aquarius and Pisces, and is thought to be the source of cometary debris.

The discovery also appears to confirm that ancient peoples were able to use precession — the wobble of the Earth's axis that affects the movement of the constellations in the sky — to record dates at least 10,000 years before it was recorded by the ancient Greek Hipparchus in 150 BC.

The carvings appear to have been important to the people of Göbekli Tepe for thousands of years, suggesting that the impact event may have sparked new cults and religions that influenced the development of the civilization.

The discovery also supports the theory that Earth's orbit crosses the path of orbiting cometary debris that we normally experience as meteor showers, increasing the chances that Earth will face cometary impacts.

“The inhabitants of Göbekli Tepe are likely to have been avid skywatchers, which is not surprising given that their world was devastated by a cometary impact,” Dr Sweatman said.

“This event may have marked the beginning of a new religion and may have sparked civilization by encouraging the development of agriculture to cope with the cold climate.”

“Perhaps their attempt to record what they saw was the first step towards the development of writing thousands of years later.”

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Martin B. Sweatman. The representations of calendar and time at Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe support an astronomical interpretation of their symbols. Time and HeartPublished online July 24, 2024, doi: 10.1080/1751696X.2024.2373876

Source: www.sci.news

Ancient fossils reveal slower growth rates in mammals compared to modern species from Jurassic period

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Cruxatodon kiltlingtonensisA small mammal from the Jurassic period

Maiya Carrara

During the Middle Jurassic, small mammals lived much longer than modern ones and received parental care for years rather than weeks, suggesting that at some point there was a major change in the growth rates of small mammals, although the exact cause is unknown.

The discovery is based on two fossil skeletons of extinct mouse-sized creatures. Cruxatodon kiltlingtonensis, It lived on the Isle of Skye in Scotland about 166 million years ago, and its fossils were unearthed decades apart, the first in the 1970s and the second in 2016.

The unusual discovery of two fossils of the same species, one adult and one juvenile, allowed the team to compare the specimens to study how the animals grew and developed. “That meant we could ask questions we never dreamed of with just one specimen,” he says. Elsa Panciroli At the National Museum of Scotland.

First, the scientists used X-ray images to count the growth rings on the specimens' teeth, which are similar to growth rings on tree trunks and can be used to estimate age. They found that the adult specimens were about 7 years old, and the juvenile specimens were between 7 months and 2 years old.

Panciroli said he expected the fossil to be much younger, since the pup still had its baby teeth. “This was quite surprising, as this animal is about the size of a squirrel or a shrew,” Panciroli said. “We would have expected its teeth to grow back within a few weeks or months, so we could see straight away that it must have been developing quite differently. [than modern species].”

This discovery K. Quiltrington Mice took up to two years to wean from their mothers, a big jump from the few weeks most small mammals require today. Analysis of the length and size of the fossil bones reveals that the animals “grew throughout their lives,” Panchiroli says. Today, small mammals like mice grow rapidly when they're young but then stop growing as adults.

It's unclear exactly when and why small mammals evolved this way, but Panchiroli said it could be linked to environmental changes or it could be the result of mammals having warmer blood and a faster metabolism.

Panciroli and her team return to Skye every year, and are optimistic that they will be able to better understand these changes: “Hopefully in the coming years we'll find more fossils and new ways to ask these questions,” she says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

New Hubble Space Telescope Images Reveal Classic Spiral Structure in NGC 3810

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Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to create a stunningly detailed image of NGC 3810, a spiral galaxy hosting a supernova.

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows NGC 3810, a spiral galaxy about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. The color image is composed of infrared, visible, and ultraviolet observations from both the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instruments. Nine filters were used to sample different wavelengths. Color is achieved by assigning a different hue to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Sand / RJ Foley.

NGC 3810 It is located in the constellation Leo, about 50 million light years from Earth.

Also known as IRAS 11383+1144, LEDA 36243 and UGC 6644, the galaxy has a diameter of 60,000 light years.

NGC 3810 discovered It was discovered on March 15, 1784 by German-born British astronomer William Herschel.

The galaxy belongs to a small group of galaxies called the NGC 3810 group.

The bright central region of NGC 3810 thought Many new stars are forming and outshining the outer regions of the galaxy by a significant amount.

Even more distant galaxies show surprisingly abundant dust clouds along their spiral arms.

Far from the center, hot, young blue stars appear in huge clusters, with bright red giants scattered throughout the arms.

In 2022, a Type Ia supernova event called SN 2022zut was observed in NGC 3810.

“In early 2023, the Hubble Space Telescope will focus on this and several other galaxies to take a closer look at recent Type Ia supernovae,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.

“These types of supernovae are produced by the explosion of a white dwarf star, and all of them maintain a very stable brightness.”

“This allows us to measure distances. We know how bright a Type Ia supernova is, so we can tell from how faint it appears how far away it is.”

“One uncertainty with this method is that intergalactic dust between Earth and the supernova will block some of the light.”

“How do we know how much of the light reduction is due to distance and how much is due to dust?”

“With the help of Hubble, we have a clever workaround: we can image the same Type Ia supernova in ultraviolet light, which is almost completely blocked by the dust, and in infrared light, which passes through the dust almost unaffected.”

“By carefully recording how much light is transmitted at each wavelength, we can calibrate the relationship between the supernova's brightness and distance, and take dust into account.”

“Hubble can observe both of these wavelengths of light in incredible detail with the same instrument.”

“That makes it the perfect tool for this experiment. In fact, some of the data used to create this beautiful image of NGC 3810 was focused on the SN 2022zut supernova, which you can see as a point of light just below the galactic nucleus.”

Source: www.sci.news

Colombian family genetics may reveal secret to delaying Alzheimer’s disease

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Research on families with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease has revealed a genetic abnormality that can delay early symptoms by five years. This finding paves the way for a new approach to combating the disease by potentially leveraging the protective effects of this gene mutation. A very rare genetic mutation offers some hope in the fight against Alzheimer’s.

Scientists first noticed this genetic protection in a Colombian family afflicted with a hereditary form of Alzheimer’s disease. They identified a woman, Aliria Piedrahita de Villegas, who should have developed symptoms in her 40s but remained symptom-free well into her 70s. She carried an unusual genetic combination, including two copies of the APOE3 gene with a mutation known as Christchurch, which seemed to provide her with protection against Alzheimer’s.

Further research identified 27 individuals with one copy of the Christchurch variant, showing that having one copy delayed the onset of cognitive impairment by an average of five years compared to their relatives. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and involving researchers from various institutions, provided hope that correcting this gene could potentially slow the progression of Alzheimer’s.

Notably, Alzheimer’s typically affects older individuals, with risk increasing with age. The APOE gene has long been associated with the disease, with certain variants like APOE4 increasing risk. However, the Christchurch variant appears to play a protective role, potentially preventing the accumulation of the proteins amyloid and tau that are linked to Alzheimer’s.

The study included brain scans and autopsy results from individuals with the Christchurch gene, shedding light on its potential impact on Alzheimer’s progression. While there is still much to learn about this rare mutation and its effects, there is optimism that it could offer insights into treating Alzheimer’s and potentially delaying its onset.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Startling photos reveal the terrifying mouth of a deep-sea anglerfish

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Solvin Zankl/Nature Picture Library

This humpback whale (with its wide-open jaws and sharp teeth)Melanocetus johnsonii) looks even more terrifying when its internal complexity is revealed. Also known as Johnson’s Deep Sea Monster, this deep sea monster is Solvin Zankl.

This image shows the fish after a lengthy cleaning and staining process to reveal its internal structure. Scientists used digestive enzymes to remove the soft tissues, exposing the bones and collagen, which they then stained. Blue indicates cartilage, and red indicates bone. Not all tissues become transparent during the chemical processing; for example, the black mass (left) is the fish’s stomach.

The technique offers a glimpse inside the anglerfish, from its gills to its two fearsomely impressive pairs of jaws. It’s just one of the incredible adaptations that have evolved in this deep-sea species, Zankl says. But don’t worry: Females, like the one shown here, can grow to about 153 millimeters in length, while males are just 28 millimeters.

This fish lives at depths of about 900 metres in tropical oceans. The specimen was collected from the Benguela upwelling system, a very fertile deep water area of the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Africa and Namibia, during a research expedition to document the wildlife in the region.

Zankl says working with scientists allows him to visit places that are normally inaccessible, because photographing the deep sea is a huge challenge. Documenting these organisms can shed light on their ecology and broader ecological processes in fragile ecosystems, he says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Paleontologists reveal ancient Triassic thalattosaurus could move both on land and in water

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Pachystropheus reticulum One of the last thalattosaurs, it was a large marine lizard with otter-like behaviour that could move on land, but was likely a primarily marine predator with a different ecological niche from contemporary marine reptiles (placodonts, ichthyosaurs) and carnivorous fishes (hybodont sharks, actinopterygii).

Restoration of Life Thalattosaurus alexandraePhoto courtesy of: Nobu Tamura, translation:.

Pachystropheus reticulum It is a type of thalattosaur that lived in the Late Triassic deposits of Britain and continental Europe.

Although known for a long time, this ancient reptile still remains shrouded in mystery.

For many years, is assumed Pachystropheus reticulum the first chorusAnother group of marine reptiles similar to crocodiles.

In the new study, paleontologist Jacob Quinn of the University of Bristol and his colleagues Pachystropheus reticulum Since 1935.

They called this PachistropheusKnown as Annie, the cave contains hundreds of bones from several different humans.

“Thalattosaurs existed throughout the Triassic Period, some of which reached lengths of up to four metres (13 feet) and would have been terrors of the seas,” Quinn said.

“But our Pachystropheus reticulum Its body was just over a metre (3.3 feet) long, half of which was its long tail.”

“It had a long neck, a tiny head the size of a matchbox (which has yet to be found) and four paddles.”

“If it was like its relatives, it would have had lots of sharp little teeth that were ideal for catching fish and other small, mobile prey.”

“Before Pachystropheus reticulum “This dinosaur was the first to be identified as a member of the Choristoderes, another group of crocodile-like marine reptiles, and was held in great importance because it was the oldest,” said Professor Mike Benton, from the University of Bristol.

“Jacob said some of the bones were from fish and others were actually Pachystropheus reticulum “That indicates that it was in fact a small thalattosaur.”

“So what was thought to be the first of the choristoderes has now been identified as the last of the thalattosaurs.”

“Pachystropheus reticulum “It probably lived a similar lifestyle to modern otters, feeding on small fish, shrimp and other invertebrates,” said Dr David Whiteside.

“This slender reptile had a long neck, a flattened tail for swimming, and surprisingly strong forelimbs for a marine animal. Pachystropheus reticulum They may have come onto land to feed or to avoid predators.”

“At the time, the Bristol area, and much of Europe, was covered by shallow waters and these animals likely lived in large populations in the warm, shallow waters around the islands.”

of result Appears in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

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Jacob G. Quinn othersRelationships and paleoecology Pachystropheus reticuluman enigmatic marine reptile (diapsid: Thalattosaurinae) from the Late Triassic period. Journal of Vertebrate PaleontologyPublished online June 4, 2024; doi: 10.1080/02724634.2024.2350408

Source: www.sci.news

Ancient Mayan ball fields reveal presence of psychoactive and ceremonial plants, say researchers

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A research team led by University of Cincinnati archaeologists has found evidence of an assemblage of four species of ceremonial plants beneath the endfield of a late Preclassic ball field at the Helena complex in Mexico’s ancient Mayan city of Yaxnoca. Plants included Ipomoea corymbosa (xtabentun in Mayan), Capsicum sp. (chili pepper or ic in Mayan), Hampea Trilobata (Joel), and Oxandra lanceolata (Chilkahuit). Two of these plants, jor and Cirkawit, are involved in the production of ritually related crafts, while chili pepper and Stabentun are associated with divination rituals. Extaventun (known to the Aztecs as oloruqui) produces a highly effective hallucinogenic compound.

Map of the Helena complex showing excavation locations in relation to the baseball field structures (Structures H-4 to H-7). Image credit: Lenz other., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301497.

The ancient Mayans played several ball games, including pokatok, which had rules similar to soccer and basketball. Players tried to pass the ball through rings and hoops on the wall.

“The ancient Mayans likely made ceremonial offerings during the construction of their ball courts,” said University of Cincinnati professor David Lentz.

“When they built a new building, they asked for God’s goodness to protect the people living there.”

“Some people call this a soul-entering ritual to obtain blessings from the gods and appease them.”

From 2016 to 2022, Professor Lentz and colleagues worked in the ancient Mayan city of Yaxnoca, in the state of Campeche, about 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) north of the Guatemalan border.

They discovered 2,000-year-old Mayan ceremonial deposits beneath the early piazza floor of the civil ceremonial platform on which the ball court was built in Yaxnoca’s Helena complex.

“Just like with baseball stadiums, when a building was expanded or reused, the ancient Mayans made offerings to bless the site,” said Nicholas Dunning, a professor emeritus at the University of Cincinnati.

“Archaeologists sometimes find ceramics and jewelry among these offerings, along with culturally significant plants.”

“We’ve known for years from ethnohistorical sources that the Maya also used perishable materials in these offerings, but finding them archaeologically is nearly impossible and That’s what makes this discovery using eDNA so special.”

“In tropical climates, ancient plant remains are rarely found and quickly decompose.”

However, using environmental DNA, scientists were able to identify several types known for their ritual significance.

They found evidence of a morning glory called stabentun, known for its hallucinogenic properties, lancewood, chili pepper, and jowl, whose leaves were used to wrap ritual offerings.

“It’s significant that we found evidence that these plants exist together in the same small sediment sample,” said Dr. Eric Tepe, a botanist at the University of Cincinnati.

“The fact that these four plants, known to be culturally important to the Maya, were found in concentrated samples indicates that they were intentionally and purposefully collected under this platform. I think that says a lot.”

“Interpreting a botanical collection through the opaque lens of 2,000 years of prehistory is a challenge, but this discovery helps further deepen the story of this sophisticated culture,” Professor Lenz said.

The ancient Mayans devised water filtration systems and adopted forest practices with conservation in mind.

However, they were powerless against years of drought and are thought to have cleared vast areas of forest for agriculture.

“We see the yin and yang of human existence in the ancient Maya. To me, that’s why they’re so fascinating,” Professor Lentz said.

of findings It was published in the magazine PLoS ONE.

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DL Lenz other. 2024. Psychotropic drugs and other ceremonial plants unearthed from a 2,000-year-old Mayan ritual deposit at Yaxnoca, Mexico. PLoS ONE 19 (4): e0301497; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301497

Source: www.sci.news

Strong winds have the power to generate massive waves, scientists reveal

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A rogue wave is a single swell that is much higher than nearby waves and can cause damage to ships and coastal infrastructure. Ocean waves are one of the most powerful natural forces on Earth, and they could become even more powerful as global trends suggest ocean winds will blow even stronger with climate change. there is. Scientists at the University of Melbourne have discovered in a new study that rogue waves are generated by strong winds and unpredictable wave patterns, confirming an idea previously only proven in the lab.

Toffoli other.We report direct observations of surface waves from a stereo camera system and simultaneous measurements of wind speed during an expedition across the Southern Ocean during the Antarctic winter aboard a South African icebreaker. SA Agulhas II. Image credit: Alessandro Toffoli.

“Rogue waves are huge, twice as tall as nearby waves, and appear out of nowhere,” said University of Melbourne’s Professor Alessandro Toffoli, lead author of the study.

Using cutting-edge technology and embarking on an expedition to one of the most unstable ocean regions on Earth, Professor Toffoli and colleagues have introduced a new technique for 3D imaging of ocean waves.

Operating a stereo camera on a South African icebreaker SA Agulhas II During their 2017 Antarctic expedition, they captured valuable insights into the behavior of waves in this remote region.

Their method, which mimics human vision through continuous imaging, allowed researchers to reconstruct the wavy ocean surface in three dimensions, providing unprecedented clarity into ocean wave dynamics. Ta.

The first scientific measurement of a rogue wave was the 25.6 m Draupner wave recorded in the North Sea in 1995. Since the beginning of the 21st century, 16 cases of suspected rogue waves have been reported to him.

“Scientists have long theorized that Antarctica’s rough seas and fierce winds can cause large waves to ‘self-amplify’, resulting in rogue wave frequencies. “However, this has not yet been tested underwater,” Professor Toffoli said.

The team’s observations, using numerical and laboratory studies that suggested the role of wind in the formation of rogue waves, provided validation of these theories in a real marine environment.

“Our observations show that unique sea conditions with rough waves occur during the ‘young’ stage of the waves, when they are most susceptible to wind effects. This suggests that wind parameters are the missing link,” Professor Toffoli said.

“Wind creates a chaotic situation where waves of different dimensions and directions coexist.”

“The wind causes young waves to grow higher, longer and faster.”

“During this self-amplification, waves grow disproportionately at the expense of neighboring waves.”

“We show that young waves are showing signs of self-amplification and are likely to be wind-driven.”

“Once every six hours, we recorded waves that were twice as high as nearby waves.”

“This reflects laboratory models. The theory is that sea conditions are more likely to self-amplify, creating more rogue waves.”

“In contrast, no rough waves were detected in mature oceans that are not influenced by winds.”

The authors highlight the critical importance of integrating wind dynamics into predictive models for rough sea prediction.

“This shows that scientists need to take wind into account thoroughly when developing tools to predict rogue waves,” Professor Toffoli said.

of findings It was published in the magazine physical review letter.

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A. Toffoli other. 2024. Observation of the bad waters of the Southern Ocean. Physics.pastor rhett 132 (15): 154101; doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.154101

Source: www.sci.news

Neuroscientists reveal the overlooked senses that go beyond the traditional five

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What is the total number of senses that an average human possesses? When we consider senses as receptors like the retina of the eye and the cochlea of the ear, the usual response would be seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. That makes a total of five senses.

These senses are known as “exteroceptive” as they provide information about the external environment.

Aside from these, the body also has receptors that detect internal activities such as the heartbeat, lung expansion, stomach movements, and various other bodily functions that go unnoticed. These internal senses are collectively known as “interoception.”

However, the answer to the question is actually more intricate and fascinating. Apart from the traditional senses, the body also has receptors that transmit different types of information which are not commonly categorized as sensations, like temperature.

Furthermore, certain receptors serve multiple sensory functions. For instance, the retina not only processes light for vision but also informs the brain about the transition from day to night. This “day/night sensation” forms the foundation of circadian rhythms which impact metabolism and sleep patterns.

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Even a basic sense like vision is intricately connected to other senses that are perceived independently.

For instance, our visual perception and how we perceive things are interconnected with the brain’s monitoring of our heart rate as part of interoception.

As the heart contracts and pumps blood, the brain receives reduced visual input from the surroundings.

The brain also synthesizes sensations for which there are no specific receptors. For instance, the perception of taste is constructed by the brain combining gustatory (taste) and olfactory (smell) signals, while the sensation of wetness is a blend of touch and temperature information.

©Getty

In essence, the brain constructs all our perceptions of vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch based solely on sensory input from the body’s receptors. For instance, light waves don’t simply enter the eye; they travel to the brain as electrical signals that are then interpreted by the eye.

Moreover, the brain predicts in advance what we will perceive based on past experiences, current circumstances, and the body’s condition, blending these predictions with sensory input from the retina to create our visual perception of the world.

Similarly, when we touch our wrist to feel our pulse, we are essentially experiencing a mental construct based on the brain’s predictions and the actual sensory signals received. Our sensations are not solely experienced through our sense organs but are perceived in the brain.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Brain recordings reveal that playing with dogs enhances focus and induces relaxation

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During the activities, participants wore headsets that detected brain waves and filled out questionnaires detailing their emotional states afterward.

Researchers discovered that when playing with Aro using sound-producing toys or taking him for a walk along a park path, participants’ alpha brain waves, indicating stability and relaxation, were more pronounced. This suggests an increased sense of rest and relaxation.

Engaging with Alo, brushing, and giving gentle massages to the dog strengthened beta brain waves associated with attention and concentration. This indicates improved concentration without added stress.

After completing all eight activities, participants reported feeling less stressed, tired, and depressed.

Studies have shown that activities like massaging Aro, offering treats, and hugs can enhance people’s moods. Participants also felt more at ease and relaxed while walking and massaging the dog.

“This study illustrates that certain activities with dogs can boost relaxation, emotional stability, alertness, concentration, and creativity by stimulating increased brain activity,” said Yoo. “Interacting with dogs can reduce stress and evoke positive emotional responses.”

Past studies indicate that dogs may help alleviate symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, although the efficacy of the intervention remains ambiguous.

A 2022 survey revealed that veterans and first responders with service dogs experienced fewer PTSD symptoms than those without. However, having a dog as a pet had a minimal impact.

A 2020 clinical trial indicated that service dogs were slightly more effective in improving PTSD symptoms in veterans compared to emotional support dogs. Regardless, both types of dogs demonstrated some improvement in PTSD symptoms.

Therapy dogs from an organization called UCLA People-Animal Connection shake hands.
Provided by Jennifer Dobkin

Research also suggests that for “pet therapy” to be effective, individuals must have a liking for animals.

“I was actually traumatized by dogs when I was younger, so I never fully embraced them to know if I would feel the same level of comfort,” stated Kathryn Magruder, a professor of psychiatry at the university and author of the 2020 clinical trial.

Jennifer Dobkin manages an animal therapy program called UCLA People-Animal Connection for medical patients and staff and has witnessed firsthand how interactions with dogs can aid in focus and relaxation.

“Staff members who are stressed and having a rough day visibly relax their posture. They smile. They tell us things like ‘You have no idea how much I needed this,'” she remarked.

Dobkin recounted a situation where her terrier mix dog, Toto, helped a grieving family find solace amid the sorrow and stress of losing a loved one.

Children at Stuart House in Santa Monica, Calif., also engaged with therapy dogs like a golden retriever and Labrador named North, bringing comfort and support to those coping with traumatic experiences.

“Our dogs are present to help children navigate discussions about extraordinarily stressful events they have endured. I believe it aids in concentration and provides a sense of comfort,” Dobkin concluded.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

NASA Scientists Reveal Plan for European Clipper’s ‘Golden Record’

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NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will be launched in October 2024 and will carry a triangular metal plate with a special message written on it as it heads towards Jupiter’s moon Europa.

This side of a commemorative plaque on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft features the handwriting of U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. Mystery Praise: Poem to Europa. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Measuring approximately 18 x 28 cm (7 x 11 inches), the Europa Clipper’s metal plate, made from tantalum metal, features graphic elements on both sides.

At its center is a handwritten engraving of U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon. Mystery Praise: Poem to Europaalong with a silicon microchip stenciled with the names of more than 2.6 million people submitted by the public.

A microchip will be the centerpiece of an illustration of a bottle inside the Jupiter system, a reference to NASA’s Message in a Bottle campaign.

The outward-facing panels feature art that emphasizes Europe’s connection to the Earth.

Linguists gathered Recording of the word “water” It is spoken in 103 languages ​​from language families around the world.

The audio file was converted into a waveform (a visual representation of a sound wave) and etched into the plate.

The waveform radiates from the symbol for “water” in American Sign Language.

Based on the spirit of Voyager spacecraft golden recordconveys sounds and images that convey the richness and diversity of life on Earth, while Europa Clipper’s multi-layered message aims to stimulate the imagination and provide a unifying vision.

“The content and design of the European Clipper vault plate is imbued with meaning,” said Dr. Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters.

“This plate combines the best of what humanity has to offer to the entire universe: science, technology, education, art and mathematics.”

“The message of connection through water, which is essential to all forms of life as we know it, perfectly illustrates the connection between Earth and this mysterious ocean world that we seek to explore.”

In 2030, after a 2.6 billion km (1.6 billion mile) journey, Europa Clipper will begin orbiting Jupiter and make 49 close-bys to Europa.

To determine whether conditions are conducive to life, the spacecraft’s powerful suite of scientific instruments will collect data about the moon’s subsurface ocean, icy crust, thin atmosphere, and space environment.

The electronics of these devices are stored in giant metal vaults designed to protect them from Jupiter’s harsh radiation. A commemorative plate seals off the vault opening.

Because the mission is to find habitable conditions, drake equation It is also etched on the inside of the plate.

Astronomer Frank Drake developed a mathematical formulation in 1961 to estimate the possibility of advanced civilizations existing beyond Earth.

This equation has continued to inspire and guide research in astrobiology and related fields ever since.

In addition, the artwork on the inside of the plate includes references to radio frequencies that could be used for interstellar communications, symbolizing how humans use this radio band to listen to messages from space. Masu.

These particular frequencies correspond to radio waves emitted into space by water components and are known to astronomers as the “water hole.” On the plate, they are depicted as radio emission lines.

Finally, this plate includes a portrait of Ron Greeley, one of the founders of planetary science. Ron Greeley worked on the early efforts to develop the Europa mission 20 years ago, laying the foundation for the Europa Clipper.

“A lot of thought and inspiration went into the design of this plate, as did the mission itself,” said Robert Pappalardo, project scientist for Europa Clipper and a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. says.

“It’s been a long journey over many decades, and I can’t wait to see what the European Clipper has to show us in this world of water.”

Source: www.sci.news

Webb’s stunning images reveal the beauty of NGC 604

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NGC604 is comparable to renowned star-forming regions in the Milky Way, like the Orion Nebula, but is significantly larger and contains more recently created stars.

This image from the NIRCam instrument in Webb’s star-forming region NGC 604 shows how stellar winds from bright, hot young stars form cavities in the surrounding gas and dust. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI.

NGC 604 is a star-forming region situated 2.73 million light-years away in the Triangulum Galaxy.

Also identified as RX J0134.5+3047. discovered It was discovered by German-born British astronomer William Herschel on September 11, 1784.

NGC 604 is believed to be approximately 3.5 million years old and spans about 1,300 light years in diameter.

In the recent image, near infrared camera (NIRCam) and Mid-infrared measuring instrument The (MIRI) experiment aboard NASA/ESA/CSA’s NGC 604 James Webb Space Telescope reveals cavernous bubbles and elongated filaments of gas that reveal a more detailed and complete representation of a star than ever seen before. Etched birth tapestry.

Sheltered within NGC 604’s dusty gases are more than 200 of the hottest and most massive types of stars, all in the early stages of their lives.

These types of stars include type B and type O, the latter of which can have a mass more than 100 times that of the Sun.

It is extremely rare to find such a large concentration of them in nearby space. In fact, there is no similar region within our Milky Way galaxy.

This concentration of massive stars, combined with its relatively close distance, means that NGC 604 offers astronomers the opportunity to study these objects early in their lives.

This image from NGC 604’s Webb MIRI instrument shows how large clouds of cooler gas and dust glow at mid-infrared wavelengths. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI.

“The most striking features in Webb’s near-infrared NIRCam images are bright red-appearing tendrils or clumps of luminescence extending from areas that appear to be open spaces or large bubbles in the nebula,” Webb astronomers said. Ta.

“Stellar winds from the brightest and hottest young stars carve out these cavities, and ultraviolet light ionizes the surrounding gas. This ionized hydrogen appears as a ghostly glow of white and blue.”

“The bright orange streaks in Webb’s near-infrared images indicate the presence of carbon-based molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).”

“This material plays an important role in the interstellar medium and in the formation of stars and planets, but its origin is a mystery.”

“If you move away from where the dust was immediately removed, a deeper red color represents hydrogen molecules. This cooler gas is the perfect environment for star formation.”

“Webb’s superior resolution also provides insight into functionality previously thought to be irrelevant to the main cloud,” they added.

“For example, the Webb image shows two bright, young stars burrowing into the dust above the central nebula, connected by a diffuse red gas.”

“These appeared as separate spots in visible-light images taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.”

Webb’s observations at mid-infrared wavelengths also offer new perspectives on the region’s diverse and dynamic activities.

“MIRI observations of NGC 604 show a significantly lower number of stars,” the astronomers said.

“This is because hot stars emit much less light at these wavelengths, while large clouds of cooler gas and dust glow.”

“Some of the stars seen in this image belong to surrounding galaxies and are red supergiants. These stars are cold but very large, hundreds of times the diameter of the Sun.”

“Additionally, some of the background galaxies that appeared in the NIRCam images have also dimmed.”

“In the MIRI image, blue tendrils of material indicate the presence of PAHs.”

Source: www.sci.news

Stunning, enduring pictures reveal Kazakhstan’s abandoned nuclear testing grounds

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Ruins of the observation tower of Opitnoe pole

Eddo Hartmann, Netherlands, Finalist, Professional Competition, Landscape, Sony World Photography Awards 2024

These photos, all shortlisted for the 2024 Sony World Photography Awards, get to the heart of human vulnerability and the fragility of nature.

Eddo Hartmann was selected as a finalist in the Landscape category for his series. sacrifice zoneA remote area in Kazakhstan that was the main Soviet nuclear testing site from 1949 to 1989.

The image above shows a dosimeter measuring radiation levels at Lake Shagan in Kazakhstan. The area remains highly contaminated from around 450 nuclear tests conducted there. The featured photo (above) shows the remains of an observation tower at Russia's Opitnoye Pole, another area used for Soviet nuclear tests.

Hartmann photographed these landscapes using infrared light, whose red tint was reminiscent of radioactive contamination that is invisible to the naked eye. “Local scientists are using infrared technology to monitor the current status of contaminated sites,” he says. “Chlorophyll found in green plants reflects significant amounts of infrared radiation. The different shades of reflection provide valuable insight into the overall environmental health of a given area.”

Jonas Kako, finalist, professional competition, environment, Sony WPA 2024

In the Albanian village of Zales, a girl climbs onto an old oil tank (pictured above). This image, taken by Jonas Kakó, was shortlisted in the Environment category. The photo below was taken by wildlife and nature finalist Jasper Dost of an elephant charging through Livingstone, Zambia.

Jasper Dost, Finalist, Professional Contest, Wildlife and Wildlife Nature, Sony WPA 2024

The winner of the competition will be announced on April 18th, before the exhibition opens at Somerset House, London, from April 19th to May 6th.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Shrinking glaciers reveal desolate mountain landscape in Canada

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This frigid landscape in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, is a sight to behold, but it may not stay like this for long, so enjoy it while you can.

When snow falls in these places, it hardens into thick ice that flows over the land, forming glaciers, and when it melts, it creates huge reservoirs of water that sustain life. These are ancient and important resources.

Ice age processes have occurred throughout most of Earth's history. However, many of these icy relics are at risk. Photographer and artist Edward Burtynsky says he feels lost.. That's the message behind this photo. New work exhibition at Flower Gallery, London, February 28th to April 6th.

Photographing from a helicopter, Burtynsky was shocked to see that the glacier had retreated dramatically since his last visit 20 years ago. The history of glaciers in this range dates back 150,000 years, he said, but they are rapidly shrinking due to global warming caused by human activity.

“When it's gone, it's gone, and the whole ecosystem and the whole living system is changed forever,” Burtynsky says. His images, he says, are designed to remind us of what has been lost. New work It also focuses on soil erosion in Turkey and the impact of coal mining on Australia.

Burtynsky is currently exhibiting in another exhibition in London. extraction/abstraction. It also explores the impact humans have on the planet and is on display at Saatchi's gallery until May 6th.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Google to reveal oil and gas methane leak detected from space

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Google and the Environmental Defense Fund on Wednesday announced a partnership to uncover the sources of climate-warming emissions from oil and gas operations that will be detected from space by a new satellite.

MethaneSAT is scheduled to launch next month and is one of several satellites being deployed to monitor methane emissions around the world to identify the main sources of the invisible but powerful greenhouse gas. There is one. The partnership is led by EDF, the New Zealand Space Agency, Harvard University and others.

Data from the satellite will be available later this year, and Google Cloud will provide the computing power to process the information.

Google also announced that it will use artificial intelligence to map oil and gas infrastructure by identifying components such as oil tanks. MethaneSAT emissions data is overlaid with Google Maps to help you understand which types of oil and gas equipment are most likely to leak.

This information will be made available through Google Earth Engine, a geospatial analytics platform, later this year. Earth Engine is free to researchers, nonprofit organizations, and news organizations.

The satellite image above shows a map of points, correctly identified as oil well pads. Google used satellite and aerial imagery to apply AI to detect infrastructure components. Well pads are shown in yellow, oil pump jacks in red, and storage tanks in blue.
Google

“For energy companies, researchers, and the public sector, it's generally helpful to predict methane emissions in the most sensitive components,” Yael Maguire, Google's vice president of geographic sustainability, said on a call with reporters. “We believe this information is extremely valuable for mitigation efforts.”

The launch comes as governments crack down on short-lived sources of greenhouse gases and more than 50 major state-owned and independent oil and gas operators, from ExxonMobil to Saudi Aramco, pledge to reduce methane leakage to near zero at the COP28 climate change summit. This was done amid a promise to reduce the number of By the end of this decade.

The United States is one of the largest emitters of methane and has proposed enforcement measures to stop leaks from oil and gas operations. A new rule by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will allow the public to report large methane leaks to federal regulators if they have access to methane detection technology.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

British Safety Council’s findings reveal that AI safety devices are easily susceptible to breaches

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The UK’s new Artificial Intelligence Safety Authority has discovered that the technology can mislead human users, produce biased results, and lacks safeguards against the dissemination of harmful information.

Announced by the AI Safety Research Institute, initial findings of research into advanced AI systems, also known as large language models (LLMs), revealed various concerns. These AI systems power tools like chatbots and image generators.

The institute found that basic prompts can bypass LLM safeguards and be used to power chatbots such as ChatGPT for “dual-use” tasks, which refers to using a model for both military and civilian purposes.

According to AISI, “Using basic prompting techniques, users were able to instantly defeat the LLM’s safeguards and gain assistance with dual-use tasks.” The institute also mentioned that more advanced “jailbreak” techniques could be used by relatively unskilled attackers within a few hours.

The research showed that LLM models can be useful for beginners planning cyberattacks and are capable of creating social media personas for spreading disinformation.

When comparing AI models to web searches, the institute stated that they provide roughly the same level of information, but AI models tend to produce “hallucinations” or inaccurate advice.

The image generator was found to produce racially biased results. Additionally, the institute discovered that AI agents can deceive human users in certain scenarios.

AISI is currently testing advanced AI systems and evaluating their safety, while also sharing information with third parties. The institute focuses on the misuse of AI models, their impact on humans, and their ability to perform harmful tasks.

AISI clarified that it does not have the capacity to test all released models and is not responsible for declaring these systems “secure.”

The institute emphasized that it is not a regulator but conducts secondary checks on AI systems.

Source: www.theguardian.com