Author: Bryar

If you were a farmer looking for eggs in the chicken coop, you may find an ostrich egg instead of a chicken egg since it is considerably bigger than anything a chicken could lay. That’s how our astronomy team felt, too, when we found earlier this year a gigantic planet, more than 13 times heavier than Earth, orbiting a chilly, dim red star, nine times less massive than the Sun. In addition to being smaller than the Sun in our solar system, the smaller star, known as a M star, is also 100 times less bright. It shouldn’t be possible…

The first seismic data on the Moon since the 1970s may have just been captured by India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft. It may ultimately provide insight into how the Moon’s interior is structured for scientists if it is determined that the seismic data is natural. The Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) on board the Vikram lander captured the tremors. It was able to record the seismic rumbles of the mission’s Pragyan rover moving around on the surface since it was the first Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology-based instrument on the Moon. However, it also detected what might have been a…

Among neurons and their supporting structures, a multidisciplinary team of researchers discovered a brand-new type of brain cell. Surprisingly, the newly discovered cell type possesses both traits, enabling it to participate actively in neurological processes while also supporting the surrounding nerve tissues. Astrocytes are many cells in the brain that act as “glue” for neural synapses. Neuroscientists had long held the belief that these cells were completely inert and only served to safeguard neurons. Evidence that astrocytes may contribute to neuronal “firing” by secreting glutamate, the primary neurotransmitter in the brain, transformed the science. An astrocyte. (Ed Reschke/Getty Images) The role…

Astronomers have discovered the magnetic field of a galaxy so far away that it has taken more than 11 billion years for its light to reach us using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). We see it as it was when the cosmos was only 2.5 billion years old. The outcome gives scientists important hints about how galaxies like our own Milky Way’s magnetic fields formed. There are many astronomical objects in the universe that contain magnetic fields, including planets, stars, and galaxies. “Many people might not be aware that our entire galaxy and other galaxies are laced with magnetic…

A study of SN 1987A (Supernova 1987A), one of the most well-known supernovae, has started using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Since its discovery in February 1987, SN 1987A, which is located 168,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, has been the focus of intensive investigations at wavelengths spanning from gamma rays to radio. New findings from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) offer a critical piece of information for our comprehension of how a supernova evolves over time to form its remnant. This picture shows a keyhole-like core structure. The supernova explosion released clumpy gas and dust, which are abundant…

A pioneer colony of as few as 22 individuals could last long enough to establish a human presence on Mars. That is the finding of a recent study by a group of scientists in the US that calculated the necessary starting population for a Mars colony to succeed and flourish. If there are any fewer, your colony can fail and end up like Lord of the Flies, or worse. This estimate is much lower than the prior one of 110 persons. Perhaps the more the merrier, even though the cost of a voyage to the Red Planet would soar with…

The forefathers of humanity almost perished in a catastrophic tragedy nearly a million years ago. The population was reduced from about 100,000 to just 1,280 breeding individuals around 900,000 years ago, according to genomic data from 3,154 modern humans. That’s a staggering population fall of 98.7% that lasted 117,000 years and might have led to the extinction of humanity. The fact that there are so many of us here now is proof that it wasn’t. The findings, however, would, in the opinion of a team headed by geneticists Haipeng Li of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yi-Hsuan Pan of…

Astronomers believe that a recently discovered exoplanet may have experienced a massive collision in the past because of its unusual properties. Just slightly bigger than Neptune but almost twice as dense as Earth, TOI-1853b is an exoplanet that is difficult to explain through the usual avenues for planet formation and evolution. The heart of a much larger, gassier globe that lost its atmosphere through great violence, according to a team led by physicist Luca Naponiello of the University of Bristol in the UK and the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy. “This planet is incredibly unexpected!” According to physicist…

A scattering of tiny beads found off the coast of Papua New Guinea may have originated from a rock with a fairly interesting past after traveling across light years from its original location around an unrelated star. Even though the conclusions haven’t been properly evaluated, scientists are already debating them as they warn against inferring too much from the study. US government satellites tracked the meteor before it vanished over the Pacific in 2014. The bolide meteor, designated CNEOS 2014-01-08 (or simply IM1), piqued interest as a potential projectile from a distance due to its remarkable velocity. For renowned Harvard…

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched into orbit on December 25th, 2021, after years of preparation and anticipation (what a Christmas present, huh?). The magnificent photographs and data it has provided since then have confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was the best Christmas present ever! After a year of operation, the JWST has met one of its key goals: to view the first stars and galaxies that formed in the Universe. The next-generation observatory has done so by breaking distance records and showing galaxies that lived less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang!…