Category: Cosmos

nasa.gov

Massive amounts of water and organic molecules, never before seen, discovered in swirling, disk-shaped clouds surrounding young stars.
Young stars are produce life-inducing molecules, and It probably also happened during the formation of the sun and the inner planets of our solar system.
It was discovered through infrared observations of NASA’s airplane telescope, which demonstrates the power of infrared observatories to find simple organic compounds.
Celestial clouds collapse into a rotating disc of gas and dust to form stars, the chemical soup of organic molecules was found in the inner regions of these discs.
Further studies of massive young stars will help scientists understand the processes creating organic molecules.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on October 16, 2020

24 “superhabitable” planets have been identified outside our solar system, all more than 100 light years away.
Some of them are older, a bit bigger, a bit warmer, and might have more water than Earth.
Since new space telescopes are being finalized, these planets might be good candidates for observation.
The planets were chosen by geobiologists and astronomers from 4,500 potentially habitable planets, but we don’t know if they have life yet - only conditions for life.
One of the 24 planets meets four critical characteristics of a superhabitable planet - energy from a sun-like star, the right size, the right mass, and water.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on October 9, 2020

phys.org

Scientists found evidence of a supernova explosion near the Earth around 2.5 million years ago.
The conclusion is based on using accelerator mass spectrometry to analyse manganese crust samples that are around 2.5 million years old.
A supernova causes the formation of iron, manganese and other heavy elements, and scientists can identify a supernova by finding just a few of the right atoms.
They found manganese-53 which comes from cosmic dust that rains down on Earth, as opposed to manganese-55 that occurs on Earth.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on October 2, 2020

Tiny groups of bacteria as thin as five sheets of paper survived outside the International Space Station for 3 years.
This finding suggests that bacteria in groups might be able to drift in space and spread life on planets.
Study authors estimate that 1,000-micrometer pellets of bacteria could survive 8 years in space, which could be enough to potentially reach Mars.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on August 28, 2020

hawaii.edu

The Earth’s entire atmosphere has rings similarly to a bell - at a low-pitched fundamental tone and many higher-pitched overtones.
We can’t hear it, but it happens in the form of large-scale waves of atmospheric pressure travelling east-to-west and vice-versa around the equator.
It is the first time that these waves have been observed, but the theory behind them has been refined over the past two centuries.
This opens up a new avenue of research that will lead to a better understanding of how this atmospheric ringing happens.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on July 17, 2020

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