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New study of comets provides insight into chemical composition of early solar system

A new study from the University of Central Florida has found strong support that the outgassing of molecules from comets could be the result of the composition from the beginning of our solar system.

The results were published today in The Planetary Science Journal.

The study was led by Olga Harrington Pinto, a doctoral candidate in UCF’s Department of Physics, part of the College of Sciences.

Astronomers just discovered 10 billion-year-old planetary debris with Earth-like properties

One of the oldest stars in the Milky Way has been located by astronomers from the University of Warwick.

The oldest rocky and icy planetary system identified is from the oldest white dwarf star in our galaxy and is accreting debris from circling planetesimals, according to a new study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on Saturday.

NASA rocket launch from Wallops site may be visible from N.J., N.Y. and Pa

If you wake up early Sunday morning and see a small, bright object streaking through the sky, it could be a rocket that is being launched from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia.

NASA officials say the rocket may be visible from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, along with Connecticut and lower New York state, shortly after liftoff — scheduled for 5:50 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 6.

The Northrop Grumman Antares rocket will be delivering supplies and science experiments to the International Space Station, NASA said. It will be the agency’s 18th resupply mission for the space station.

Mars Is Alive!

Until now, Mars.

Mars is the second smallest planet in our solar system and the fourth planet from the sun. It is a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere. Iron oxide is prevalent in Mars’ surface resulting in its reddish color and its nickname “The Red Planet.” Mars’ name comes from the Roman god of war.

Astronomers find a giant new galaxy concealed within a puzzling region of the Milk Way

Nobody has known what exists in this region of space known as the “Zone of Avoidance.” Now astronomers edge one step closer.

Astronomers have found a giant “extragalactic structure” concealed behind the Milky Way, according to a new study published in Arxiv.

The study explained that the zone of avoidance (ZOA) does not allow clear optical observations of extragalactic sources behind the Milky Way.


Genty/Pixabay.

The discovery of the structure, which appears to be a colossal galaxy cluster, contributes to filling in this mysterious region of our cosmic map, known as the “zone of avoidance.” Nobody has known what exists in this region which obscures 10 to 20 percent of the sky-until now.

Does free will violate the laws of physics? | Sean Carroll

Sean Carroll: We might solve free will one day. But here’s why I doubt it.

Up next, The great free will debate ► https://youtu.be/3O61I0pNPg8

Debates about the existence of free will have traditionally been fought by two competing camps: those who believe in free will and those who don’t because they believe the Universe is deterministic.

Determinism is the thesis that every event — from when a volcano erupts to what cereal you buy at the supermarket — is a theoretically predictable result of the long chain of events that came before it. Free will, it was long thought, cannot exist in a world where all events are already causally determined.

But free will and determinism aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. As physicist Sean Carroll told Big Think, the compatibilist conception of free will argues that it makes sense to conceptualize ourselves as able to make free decisions, regardless of whether the Universe is deterministic or indeterministic.

Why? The main argument centers on the phenomenon of emergence.

Are Newton’s Laws of Gravity Wrong: Observation Puzzles Researchers

With the new observations we are seeing a mixture of particle physics being the new physics governing even long standing laws like gravity. Also that string theory is still alive and well. I think we may never know everything unless we essentially get to a type 5 civilization or beyond.


Finding cannot be explained by classical assumptions.

An international team of astrophysicists has made a puzzling discovery while analyzing certain star clusters. The finding challenges Newton’s laws of gravity, the researchers write in their publication. Instead, the observations are consistent with the predictions of an alternative theory of gravity. However, this is controversial among experts. The results have now been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The University of Bonn played a major role in the study.

In their work, the researchers investigated the so-called open star clusters, which are loosely bound groups of a few tens to a few hundred stars that are found in spiral and irregular galaxies. Open clusters are formed when thousands of stars are born within a short time in a huge gas cloud. As they “ignite,” the galactic newcomers blow away the remnants of the gas cloud. In the process, the cluster greatly expands. This creates a loose formation of several dozen to several thousand stars. The cluster is held together by the weak gravitational forces acting between them.

Astronomers get a rare glimpse of the exposed core of a star

Sometimes astrophysics gets super weird.


A recent study of the star’s surface, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, says that we’re seeing Gamma Columbae in a short, deeply weird phase of a very eventful stellar life, one that lets astronomers look directly into the star’s exposed heart.

What’s New – The mix of chemical elements on the surface of Gamma Columbae look like the byproducts of nuclear reactions that should be buried in the depths of a massive star, not bubbling on its surface.

AI Helped Design a Clear Window Coating That Can Cool Buildings Without Using Energy

Demand is growing for effective new technologies to cool buildings, as climate change intensifies summer heat. Now, scientists have just designed a transparent window coating that could lower the temperature inside buildings, without expending a single watt of energy. They did this with the help of advanced computing technology and artificial intelligence. The researchers report the details today (November 2) in the journal ACS Energy Letters.

Cooling accounts for about 15% of global energy consumption, according to estimates from previous research studies. That demand could be lowered with a window coating that could block the sun’s ultraviolet and near-infrared light. These are parts of the solar spectrum that are not visible to humans, but they typically pass through glass to heat an enclosed room.

Energy use could be even further reduced if the coating radiates heat from the window’s surface at a wavelength that passes through the atmosphere into outer space. However, it’s difficult to design materials that can meet these criteria simultaneously and at the same time can also transmit visible light, This is required so they don’t interfere with the view. Eungkyu Lee, Tengfei Luo, and colleagues set out to design a “transparent radiative cooler” (TRC) that could do just that.