Image: Hubble captures swirling galactic trio
The mass of dust and bright swirls of stars in this image are the distant galaxy merger IC 2431, which lies 681 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cancer......»»
Saturday Citations: Octopuses as shift supervisors for fish; universe confounds standard model; extremely old cheese
This week, biologists tracked down a mysterious group of orcas near Chile; Hubble spotted a black hole jet that causes stars along its trajectory to erupt; and researchers explained mysterious craters that began appearing in Siberian permafrost in th.....»»
AI bots now beat 100% of those traffic-image CAPTCHAs
I, for one, welcome our traffic light-identifying overlords. Enlarge / Examples of the kind of CAPTCHAs that image-recognition bots can now get past 100 percent of the time. (credit: Arxiv, Plesner et al.) Anyone who has.....»»
Black hole jet appears to boost rate of nova explosions
There's a 2.5x boost in nova frequency, and all reasonable explanations fail. Enlarge / One of the jets emitted by galaxy M87's central black hole. (credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)) The intense ele.....»»
Rocket Report: SpaceX salvages Starship wreckage; pessimism for Virgin Galactic
The penultimate flight of Japan's workhorse H-IIA rocket deploys a spy satellite. Enlarge / A salvage ship raises a portion of SpaceX's Super Heavy booster from the Gulf of Mexico. This booster was used on the most recent Starshi.....»»
Hubble finds that a black hole beam promotes stellar eruptions
In a surprise finding, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the blowtorch-like jet from a supermassive black hole at the core of a huge galaxy seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory. The stars, called.....»»
How special is the Milky Way galaxy? Survey team releases new findings
Is our home galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy, a special place? A team of scientists started a journey to answer this question more than a decade ago. Commenced in 2013, the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA) Survey studies galaxy systems like the.....»»
Murine study suggests cosmic radiation in outer space may affect long-term cognition
During missions into outer space, galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) will penetrate current spacecraft shielding and thus pose a significant risk to human health......»»
Ultra-high speed camera for molecules: Attosecond spectroscopy captures electron transfer dynamics
In nature, photosynthesis powers plants and bacteria; within solar panels, photovoltaics transform light into electric energy. These processes are driven by electronic motion and imply charge transfer at the molecular level. The redistribution of ele.....»»
Cricket study suggests mating filter narrows when males are trying to save energy
A trio of biologists at the University of Minnesota has found that when male crickets need to save energy, they narrow their mating filter, to focus more exclusively on females......»»
Quantum sensing approach captures nanoscale electrochemical evolution in battery
Battery performance is heavily influenced by the non-uniformity and failure of individual electrode particles. Understanding the reaction mechanisms and failure modes at nanoscale level is key to advancing battery technologies and extending their lif.....»»
A magnetic halo in the Milky Way: New discoveries about galactic outflows
A new study led by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), and with contributions from Radboud University's Marijke Haverkorn, has unveiled significant insights into the Milky Way: a magnetized galactic halo......»»
Hubble lights the way with new multiwavelength view of galaxy NGC 1559
The magnificent galaxy featured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is NGC 1559. It is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Reticulum, approximately 35 million light-years from Earth. The brilliant light captured in the curre.....»»
See Saturn"s "Ring Spokes" In Amazing Hubble Space Telescope Time-Lapse
See Saturn"s "Ring Spokes" In Amazing Hubble Space Telescope Time-Lapse.....»»
Life imitates xkcd comic as Florida gang beats crypto password from retiree
Group staged home invasions to steal cryptocurrency. Enlarge / Sometimes this is all you need. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Image) Remy Ra St. Felix spent April 11, 2023, on a quiet street in a rented BMW X5, staking o.....»»
London sparkles in astronaut’s gorgeous night shot from the ISS
A gorgeous image captured by a recent arrival at the International Space Station shows the night lights of London gleaming......»»
Observations provide crucial insights into the nature of a white dwarf–brown dwarf binary
Using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), astronomers have performed spectrophotometric observations of an eclipsing white dwarf–brown dwarf binary known as WD1032+011. Results of their observational campaign, published September 10 on the preprint s.....»»
London sparkles in astronaut’s gorgeous night shot from ISS
A gorgeous image captured by a recent arrival at the International Space Station shows the night lights of London gleaming from 250 miles up......»»
Webb Telescope provides another look into galactic collisions
An interaction between an elliptical galaxy and a spiral galaxy, collectively known as Arp 107, seems to have given the spiral a happier outlook thanks to the two bright "eyes" and the wide semicircular "smile." The region has been observed before in.....»»
Patents for software and genetic code could be revived by two bills in Congress
PERA and PREVAIL want to re-enable patents struck down by Supreme Court rulings. Enlarge / An image from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where in 1874, the newest thing was not software or genetic compositions, but shutter.....»»
Researchers spot largest black hole jets ever discovered
The jets are 140 times larger than the Milky Way. Enlarge / Artist's conception of a dark matter filament containing a galaxy with large jets. (Caltech noted that some details of this image were created using AI.) (credit: Martij.....»»