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Hubble views of the Carousel Lens. Image credit: William Sheu/UCLA =================================================================== Astronomers have found an incredible gravitational lens. Thanks to a chance alignment, a foreground cluster of galaxies has magnified the light of not one, but seven background galaxies, creating a gravitational lens that has been described as “most exquisitely aligned”. It has been dubbed the Carousel Lens. Gravitational lenses are created by the gravity of massive objects, usually galaxies or clusters of galaxies. Their density is such that they warp spacetime, creating a lens that can magnify and change the shape of distant objects. In this case, there are...

Explanation: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is now visible in the early morning sky. Diving into the inner Solar System at an odd angle, this large dirty iceberg will pass its closest to the Sun -- between the orbits of Mercury and Venus -- in just two days. Long camera exposures are now capturing C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS), sometimes abbreviated as just A3, and its dust tail before and during sunrise. The featured image composite was taken four days ago and captured the comet as it rose above Lake George, NSW, Australia. Vertical bands further left are images of the comet as the rising...

A potential 370-mile-wide crater in Australia, known as MAPCIS, may reshape our understanding of Earth’s geological history. Researchers found geological evidence, including shocked minerals and melt rock, suggesting a massive impact at the end of the Ediacaran period. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com =========================================================================== Research team is delving into history, exploring events that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago. A potential crater over 370 miles (600 kilometers) wide in central Australia may transform our knowledge of Earth’s geological past. Researcher Daniel Connelly and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Arif Sikder, Ph.D., believe they have found evidence to support the existence of MAPCIS...

Explanation: This dusty region is forming stars. Part of a sprawling molecular cloud complex that resembles, to some, a rampaging baboon, the region is a relatively close by 500 light-years away toward the constellation Corona Australis. That's about one third the distance of the more famous stellar nursery known as the Orion Nebula. Mixed with bright nebulosities, the brown dust clouds effectively block light from more distant background stars in the Milky Way and obscure from view embedded stars still in the process of formation. The eyes of the dust creature in the featured image are actually blue reflection nebulas...

(Image Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU) NASA’s Perseverance Rover has made a striking new discovery—a black-and-white striped rock on the Martian surface dubbed “Freya Castle,” unlike anything previously seen on the Red Planet. This unique find has sparked excitement among scientists and space enthusiasts, offering a fresh puzzle in the ongoing quest to understand Mars’ geological history. “Team scientists and the internet alike were amazed when Perseverance spotted a black-and-white striped rock unlike any seen on Mars before,” Athanasios Klidaras, a Perseverance team member and doctoral student at Purdue University, wrote in an update published by NASA. “Is this a sign of exciting...

A storm could be-fall us. Colorful leaves and cooler temperatures aren’t the only thing autumn is potentially bringing. Meteorologists predict that Earth could be blasted by a geomagnetic storm on Wednesday due to its timing with the autumnal equinox. A coronal mass ejection (CME) — when plasma and magnetic particles burst forth from the sun’s surface — occurred on Sunday, the same day as the official start of fall, Space.com reported. It reportedly occurred when a sunspot called AR3835 unexpectedly spouted an M-class solar flare — something scientists hadn’t predicted as said sunspot had appeared stable.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) has the potential to put on a stellar showThere's a new comet in the sky that has gained a lot of attention lately over its potential to become visible to the naked eye. Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) was discovered by observatories in China and South Africa in early 2023. Believed to have originated from the Oort Cloud — a giant spherical shell that surrounds our solar system and contains billions of icy objects — this little comet has been slowly making its way into our solar system. At the moment, Comet C/2023 A3 is roughly 175...

New measurements of Neptune's atmosphere by a European space telescope suggest that a comet may have crashed into the gas giant about 200 years ago.Scientists analyzed the composition of Neptune's atmosphere using data from the Herschel space observatory. They found a peculiar distribution of carbon monoxide in the gas giant's atmosphere, which could be an indication of an earlier comet impact...Other similar collisions between comets (or asteroids) and planets helped the astronomers detect the telltale signs of cometary impacts.When pieces of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into Jupiter in 1994, scientists were able to examine the trajectory and debris to...

Dutch researchers have found evidence of approximately 20 mysterious, large-scale structures hidden beneath the sediment of an ancient lost ocean on Mars. The team also reports the discovery of evidence that an active Martian crust is pushing against Olympus Mons, elevating the solar system’s largest volcano. Previous scientific efforts have found hidden ice deposits and other unexpected structures on the red planet. However, the researchers behind this latest discovery say these mysterious, large-scale structures are particularly perplexing because they appear hidden beneath the sedimentary layers of an ancient ‘lost’ Martian ocean. “These dense structures could be volcanic in origin or...

Shock Scientific Study Reveals that Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ is scientifically accurate. How did he do it? Read on to find out. Apparently, Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ is not only one of art’s great masterpieces, but it is also scientifically accurate. Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ has inspired poetry, theatre, books, and even legendary artists like the iconic Tupac Shakur and Don Mclean. If that wasn’t enough, a recent scientific study has finally revealed that Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ is not just an artistic masterpiece but also a scientifically accurate depiction of atmospheric turbulence. Van Gogh’s brushstrokes...

Scientists finally re-analyzed the study and found that it was riddled with errors—but that didn’t matter then because it furthered the narrative. In America, an inordinate number of so-called “scientific” studies are subject to what’s called the “replication (or reproducibility) crisis.” If someone publishes a study that feeds into leftist shibboleths, no matter how poorly done the study is (small sampling, foolish assumptions, bad math, etc.), the results are widely trumpeted and become embedded in the popular consciousness. That the study cannot be replicated (run again from scratch) or reproduced (subject to a new analysis of the study’s data)—and often...

Scientists have for the first time observed quantum entanglement — a state in which particles intermingle, losing their individuality so they can no longer be described separately — between quarks. The feat, achieved at CERN, Europe’s particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, could open the door to further probes of quantum information in particles at high energies. Entanglement has been measured in particles such as electrons and photons for decades, but it is a delicate phenomenon and easiest to measure in low-energy, or ‘quiet’, environments, such as in the ultracold refrigerators that house quantum computers. Particle collisions, such as those between...

This is a new image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. By comparing Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 near-infrared exposures taken in 2009, 2012, and 2023, astronomers found evidence for flickering supermassive black holes in the hearts of early galaxies. One example is seen as a bright object in the inset. Some supermassive black holes do not swallow surrounding material constantly, but in fits and bursts, making their brightness flicker. Credit: NASA, ESA, Matthew Hayes (Stockholm University), Steven V.W. Beckwith (UC Berkeley), Garth Illingworth (UC Santa Cruz), Richard Ellis (UCL), Joseph DePasquale (STScI) =========================================================================== A Survey of Hubble’s Deepest Look...

"The next fight of Starship is ready to fly. We are waiting on regulatory approval. It shouldn’t be possible to build a giant rocket faster than the paper can move from one desk to another."US Congress, NASA is NOW Forcing FAA for Starship Soaring! Here's Why | 10:00ALPHA TECH | 96.1K subscribers | 9,367 views | September 17, 2024

A recent study led by a Kansas State University engineer has provided evidence that supports the "Tired Light" theory, a century-old concept that challenges the widely accepted Big Bang theory. ... Shamir's findings align with the long-standing "Tired Light" theory, originally proposed in the 1920s. "In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble and George Lemaitre discovered that the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it appears to move away from Earth," Shamir explained. "That discovery led to the Big Bang theory, which suggests that the universe began expanding approximately 13.8 billion years ago. Around the same time, astronomer Fritz Zwicky proposed...

Light smoking is also tied to poor birth outcomes, even if the mother quits during pregnancy. Smoking even one or two cigarettes a day before or during pregnancy can lead to serious health problems for newborns, according to a new analysis of more than 12 million families. Globally, an estimated 1.7 per cent of pregnant women smoke, though that rate is 8.1 per cent in Europe and 5.9 per cent in the Americas. Smoking during pregnancy can negatively affect the newborn’s health, increasing their risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, restricted infant growth, and death. In the study, which...

Over the past several years, scientists have repeatedly demonstrated that the cells of various organisms can be repurposed into biological robots, representing stunning advancements in the field of synthetic biology.Some types, like anthrobots, used human cells that could self-assemble into small, hairy structures capable of moving by themselves. Others, like xenobots, are a bit freakier: scientists created these from the cells of already dead frogs, which seemingly cheated death by remaining capable of performing simple tasks and even self-replication.Now, in a new review published in the journal Physiology, researchers are contemplating the implications of taking cells — from organisms dead...

Webb Telescope observations reveal that supermassive black holes starve galaxies of star-forming gas, as seen in ‘Pablo’s Galaxy’, where high-speed gas expulsion by the black hole has ceased new star formation. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com ================================================================================= Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered that supermassive black holes can exhaust the resources necessary for star formation in their host galaxies, effectively starving them. This was observed in a galaxy similar in size to the Milky Way, located in the early universe. The discovery reveals that the black hole is actively preventing star formation by expelling essential star-forming gas at...

Artistic view of the imploding wire: a strong current of high-energy electrons (pink) heats up the surface, thus driving subsequent shockwaves that compress the wire radially. Credit: HZDR / T. Toncian, edited Using a novel laser method, scientists mimicked the extreme environments of stars and planets, enhancing our understanding of astrophysical phenomena and supporting nuclear fusion research. Extreme conditions prevail inside stars and planets. The pressure reaches millions of bars, and it can be several million degrees hot. Sophisticated methods make it possible to create such states of matter in the laboratory – albeit only for the blink of an...

Araneiform features on the surface of Mars, as imaged by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2009. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona) ====================================================================== Mars has spiders unlike anything else in the Solar System. Between the ocher dunes, across the scars of impacts, long-legged shadows appear to scuttle across the dust. They aren't actual, living spiders. These tendrilled shapes that appear in satellite images of the red planet are made, like almost everything on Mars, from dust. They're known as araneiforms, small systems of dark troughs that appear only in the southern polar region of Mars in the planet's spring. Exactly how the araneiforms...