Researchers have doubled the number of known dark comets, identifying two distinct types: larger ones in the outer solar system and smaller ones in the inner solar system.
This discovery raises new questions about their origins and their role in delivering life-sustaining materials to Earth.
Dark Comet Discoveries
Could there be billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy? A groundbreaking study by researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) estimates that the Milky Way might host as many as 6 billion planets similar to Earth. This calculation is based on data collected during NASA’s Kepler mission, which observed over 200,000 stars from 2009 to 2018.
High overhead, there is a layer of the atmosphere called the mesosphere. It is located roughly 31 to 55 miles above ground.
The mesosphere might seem pretty far removed from everyday concerns. Still, it can be disturbed by severe weather far below.
On the day Helene hit, NASA’s instruments captured signs of a type of atmospheric wave, not related to the space-time ones Einstein predicted, but rather ones formed by events like hurricanes.
A NASA study using a series of supercomputer simulations reveals a potential new solution to a longstanding Martian mystery: How did Mars get its moons? The first step, the findings say, may have involved the destruction of an asteroid.
The research team, led by Jacob Kegerreis, a postdoctoral research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, found that an asteroid passing near Mars could have been disrupted—a nice way of saying “ripped apart”—by the red planet’s strong gravitational pull.
The paper is published in the journal Icarus.
Recent studies have successfully observed magnetic shockwaves in the cosmic web by examining radio emissions between galaxy clusters.
This achievement, confirmed by comparing polarized light patterns with advanced simulations, opens new avenues for understanding cosmic magnetic fields and their role in the Universe’s structure.
Understanding the Cosmic Web.
Imagine humanity achieving type 7 civilization – a level beyond our wildest dreams. What does it mean to be in control of not just our galaxy, but the entire universe? Would we become gods – or bring about our own demise?
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Blog post with audio player, show notes, and transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/12/09/298-…the-brain/
The number of neurons in the human brain is comparable to the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Unlike the stars, however, in the case of neurons the real action is in how they are directly connected to each other: receiving signals over synapses via their dendrites, and when appropriately triggered, sending signals down the axon to other neurons (glossing over some complications). So a major step in understanding the brain is to map its wiring diagram, or connectome: the complete map of those connections. For a human brain that’s an intimidatingly complex challenge, but important advances have been made on tinier brains. We talk with Jeff Lichtman, a leader in brain mapping, to gauge the current state of progress and what it implies.
Jeff Lichtman received an MD/PhD from Washington University in St. Louis. He is currently the Jeremy R. Knowles Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Santiago Ramón y Cajal Professor of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. He is co-inventor of the Brainbow system for imaging neurons. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Sean Carroll channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/seancarroll.
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These findings dispute the former theory, suggesting the organic materials come from within the dwarf planet or are “endogenous.”
“The significance of this discovery lies in the fact that, if these are endogenous materials, it would confirm the existence of internal energy sources that could support biological processes,” team leader and Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía researcher Juan Luis Rizos said in a statement.
To investigate the organic compounds found on Ceres, the team used a new approach that examined the dwarf planet’s surface and the distribution of organic matter at the highest possible resolution.
US space company Virgin Galactic announced Thursday it is exploring the possibility of opening a new base in Italy, potentially bringing suborbital flights to tourists in Europe for the first time.
Founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, the company is currently in a two-year hiatus to upgrade its fleet, following seven commercial flights to the edge of space from its US base at Spaceport America in New Mexico.
Virgin Galactic said it had signed an agreement with Italy’s ENAC civil aviation authority to study the feasibility of operating missions from Grottaglie Spaceport, located in the Puglia region of southern Italy.
By searching sparsely populated regions of the galaxy, astronomers have for the first time found the source of a kind of signal that has puzzled them for years.