Radioactive meteorites could have brought life to Earth The gamma rays produced by carbonaceous chondrites, radioactive meteorites that contain water and organic compounds, could have been sufficient to spark the chemical reactions that created amino acids, the building blocks of life on Earth, researchers have concluded. The study is based on observations from bombarding chemicals […]
Flash thought to result from black hole swallowing a star Two separate teams of scientists, who have published papers in Nature and Nature Astronomy, have concluded that a flash of light that appeared in February was the astrophysical jet that erupted from a massive black hole as it swallowed a star. “From the data we […]
Best-explored planet outside our solar system WASP-39b, a boiling Saturn-like planet 700 light-years away from the sun has become the best-explored planet outside our solar system, as the James Webb Space Telescope’s observations have yielded a trove of information about the exoplanet’s atmosphere. Laura Kreidberg, director of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, said the […]
Meteorites may have brought water to Earth Analysis of fragments of a meteorite that landed in the driveway of a British home in 2021 revels the space debris originated in the outer solar system and held water chemically similar to the water found on Earth. The meteorite came from an asteroid in Jupiter’s orbit some […]
Layered rocks may be Earth’s oldest known fossils Researchers have found fossil evidence of what may be the first known life on Earth with the discovery of stromatolites, layered rocks formed by photosynthetic microbes, in Western Australia’s Dresser Formation that date back 3.48 billion years. Full Story: Live Science Sharks face rising extinction risk, other […]
Gene editing to combat the negative effect of climate change in plants Plant biology experts agree that gene editing is a tool that has great potential for use in combating the negative effect of climate change in plants and that the technology “will be a relevant approach as soon as the genetic determinants of this […]
Magma may bubble below Mars’ surface A new study of quake data from Mars rover InSight suggests the red planet may experience underground volcanism. Characteristics of 20 quakes in the Cerberus Fossae region of the planet are consistent with movement generated in a warm subsurface locale. Full Story: Space Spiderwebs do more than simply catch […]
Mutation found to affect circadian rhythm Researchers have discovered genetic mutations in hamsters that speed up the animals’ internal clock and affect circadian rhythms. “We suspect this might be relevant in understanding the effects of jet lag and shift work,” said neurobiologist Eric Bittman, a co-author of the study. Full Story: ScienceDaily Viruses found active […]
Black hole collision behaves as Einstein predicted Scientists studying the collision of two huge black holes observed massive gravitational waves and a phenomenon known as precession, which resembles the wobbling motion of a spinning top. Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicted a century ago that precession would occur in massive objects — but this […]
Long-lost moon may have been cause of Uranus’ stark tilt Astronomers have long suspected that a series of giant impacts early in the planet’s formation flipped Uranus on its side, but new research suggests the planet’s 98-degree-tilt could have been caused by a long-lost moon. It is possible that the tilt was caused by the […]