The molecule, a type of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), is of significant interest because it offers new clues about the distribution of carbon, a fundamental building block of life, throughout the cosmos. The discovery, published in Science, bridges the gap between ancient interstellar clouds and the materials found in our solar system, providing critical insights into how carbon-rich molecules could have contributed to the formation of planets and life.

Pyrene and Its Importance in Astrochemistry

Pyrene, a molecule composed of four fused carbon rings, is one of the largest PAHs found in space and plays a key role in the carbon cycle of the universe. PAHs are among the most abundant organic molecules in space, accounting for an estimated 10-25% of carbon found in the interstellar medium. Their resilience to ultraviolet radiation and ability to persist in extreme environments make them valuable markers for studying the life cycles of stars and the origins of carbon in the universe.

Researchers detected cyanopyrene, a modified version of pyrene, using the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. This technique allows scientists to observe the characteristic “fingerprints” of molecules as they transition between different energy states, revealing their presence in interstellar clouds. Brett McGuire, assistant professor of chemistry at MIT and co-author of the study, explained the significance of the find: “One of the big questions in star and planet formation is how much of the chemical inventory from that early molecular cloud is inherited and forms the base components of the solar system. What we're looking at is the start and the end, and they're showing the same thing.”

Connecting Ancient Space Clouds to Our Solar System

The detection of pyrene in the Taurus molecular cloud (TMC-1) is notable because this cloud is thought to resemble the type of dust and gas that eventually gave rise to our own solar system. The discovery supports the hypothesis that much of the carbon present in our solar system today, including that found in meteorites and comets, was inherited from ancient interstellar clouds. This idea is bolstered by a recent finding that large amounts of pyrene were detected in samples collected from the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu by the Hayabusa2 mission.

“This is the strongest evidence ever of a direct molecular inheritance from the cold cloud all the way through to the actual rocks in the solar system,” McGuire noted. The presence of pyrene in both the TMC-1 cloud and the Ryugu asteroid suggests that the molecules found in early interstellar clouds were likely incorporated into planetary bodies and asteroids, which eventually contributed to the chemical makeup of planets like Earth.

A Surprise Discovery in Cold Space

The discovery of pyrene in the TMC-1 cloud was unexpected, given that PAHs are typically associated with high-temperature environments, such as those produced by the combustion of fossil fuels on Earth or the death throes of stars. The temperature in the cloud, however, was measured at just 10 Kelvin (-263 degrees Celsius), an extremely cold environment where scientists did not expect to find such complex molecules. This raises new questions about how PAHs form and survive in such conditions.

According to Ilsa Cooke, assistant professor at the University of British Columbia and co-author of the study, “By learning more about how these molecules form and are transported in space, we learn more about our own solar system and so, the life within it.” The resilience of these carbon-rich molecules suggests that they could survive the journey from distant interstellar clouds to regions where stars and planets form, contributing to the chemical inventory of newly born planetary systems.

Implications for the Origins of Life and Future Research

This discovery marks a significant step forward in understanding the chemical processes that precede planet formation. The presence of large PAH molecules like pyrene in both interstellar clouds and asteroids suggests that these compounds could be widespread in the universe, potentially playing a role in the origins of life by delivering essential carbon-based materials to planets in the early stages of their development.

The research team now plans to search for even larger PAH molecules in interstellar clouds, which could provide further insights into how complex organic molecules form and are distributed in space. These findings also prompt further investigation into whether pyrene and other PAHs formed in cold environments like TMC-1 or if they were transported from regions of the universe where high-energy processes, such as supernovae or the winds from dying stars, are more common.

This extraordinary chunk of fossilized tree resin, known as rumanite, is estimated to be worth approximately €1 million (around $1.1 million). Experts believe the amber dates back to between 38 and 70 million years ago, making it a truly ancient relic. The discovery has sent shockwaves through the scientific community and captured the imagination of the public.

Interestingly, this remarkable find echoes another recent celestial event, reminding us of the wonders that can unexpectedly enter our lives from the depths of space and time.

The allure of rumanite : Romania's prized amber

Rumanite, the specific type of amber found in Romania, is highly sought after for its unique characteristics. Here are some key facts about this precious material :

• Mined since the 1920s in the village of Colti
• Found in sandstone along the banks of the River Buzau
• Renowned for its wide array of deep, reddish hues
• Formed from fossilized tree resin over millions of years

The discovery of such a large, intact piece of rumanite is exceptionally rare. Daniel Costache, director of the Provincial Museum of Buzau, emphasized the significance of this find, stating that it holds "great significance both at a scientific level and at a museum level."

From humble beginnings to national treasure

The journey of this extraordinary amber chunk from doorstop to national treasure is nothing short of remarkable. After the relative of the deceased woman realized its potential value, the amber was sold to the Romanian state. Experts at the Museum of History in Krakow, Poland, were called upon to appraise the piece, confirming its authenticity and immense value.

Now classified as a national treasure of Romania, the amber nugget has found a new home at the Provincial Museum of Buzau since 2022. Its presence in the museum serves as a testament to the rich geological history of the region and the potential for extraordinary discoveries in everyday life.

This fascinating tale bears similarities to another recent discovery, where scientists are investigating asteroid material as a potential food source for astronauts, highlighting the unexpected ways in which space-related objects can impact our lives.

Unexpected treasures : A global phenomenon

The story of the million-dollar doorstop is not an isolated incident. Similar tales of everyday objects revealing their true worth have captured public attention worldwide. For instance, a man in Michigan discovered that the rock he had been using as a doorstop for decades was actually a meteorite worth $100,000.

These stories serve as a reminder of the potential value hidden in ordinary objects. Here's a comparison of some unexpected treasures found in recent years :

These incredible finds underscore the importance of curiosity and the potential for hidden treasures in our midst. They encourage us to look at the world around us with fresh eyes, never underestimating the possibility of extraordinary discoveries in the most unexpected places.

These findings not only deepen our understanding of lunar evolution but also provide critical clues to Earth's early solar system environment. Using advanced techniques to examine moon rocks collected over half a century ago, scientists are uncovering the moon’s geologic past and its connection to Earth's history.

Apollo 16 Samples Act As a Time Capsule of Lunar Impacts

Researchers from the University of Glasgow and the University of Manchester have meticulously re-analyzed lunar samples collected during the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. These samples, specifically regolith breccias, were formed when asteroid impacts fused lunar soil into rock. Acting like "geological time capsules," these breccias preserve a record of the moon's surface at the time of their formation, helping scientists reconstruct the moon’s impact history.

Using mass spectrometry to examine trapped noble gases such as argon and xenon, the team discovered how long these samples were exposed to the solar wind before being buried by subsequent asteroid impacts. Dr. Mark Nottingham, who led the research, explained, “Mass spectrometry... can help us determine how much time the samples spent exposed on or near the moon’s surface. That helps give us a clearer idea of the history of impacts on this particular area of the moon.”

The results revealed a complex history of asteroid bombardments stretching over billions of years. Some of the samples date back more than 2.5 billion years, while others appear to have been affected by impacts as recently as 1 billion years ago. These findings allow scientists to piece together how asteroid collisions shaped the moon’s landscape over time. As Dr. Nottingham noted, “The moon’s history is the Earth’s history too—the record of asteroid bombardments etched on its face can help us understand the conditions of the early solar system which formed our planet as well as its closest neighbor.”

The South Pole-Aitken Basin: A Record of the Moon’s Most Ancient Impact

On the lunar far side, the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin—the largest and oldest known impact basin—has long intrigued scientists. Spanning approximately 2,500 kilometers (1,600 miles) in diameter, this vast crater has helped researchers unlock some of the moon’s most ancient secrets. However, accurately dating the SPA basin has remained a challenge, with estimates ranging from 4.2 to 4.3 billion years. A new study, published in Nature Astronomy, has provided a more precise date of 4.33 billion years, making it one of the oldest confirmed lunar impacts.

This impact event, which occurred during a period of intense bombardment in the inner solar system, is believed to have been caused by a massive object—likely an asteroid around 200 kilometers (124 miles) in diameter, far larger than the impactor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs on Earth. The study, led by Professor Katherine Joy from the University of Manchester, used radiometric dating techniques to analyze a lunar meteorite, NWA 2995, believed to have originated from the SPA basin. This meteorite’s age aligns with the ancient history of the South Pole-Aitken basin, allowing scientists to pinpoint the event more accurately.

Dr. Romain Tartese, co-author of the study, emphasized the importance of this discovery: “The implications of our findings reach far beyond the Moon. We know that the Earth and the Moon likely experienced similar impacts during their early history, but rock records from the Earth have been lost.” Because Earth’s geological activity, such as plate tectonics and erosion, has erased much of its own early impact record, the relatively unchanged surface of the moon offers a crucial window into these formative events.

Implications for Future Lunar Missions and Earth’s History

These studies have far-reaching implications for future lunar exploration, particularly for NASA’s Artemis program and other upcoming missions. By better understanding the moon’s impact history, scientists can not only track its evolution but also locate valuable resources like noble gases and other elements that could aid in the sustainability of future lunar bases.

Dr. Nottingham highlighted this potential: “One of the challenges of establishing long-term habitats for humans on the moon is making decisions about how we can use the natural resources which await future missions so they don’t have to carry everything they’ll need with them from Earth.” These findings could directly inform how astronauts of the Artemis program and beyond plan long-term lunar stays, enabling them to exploit natural resources such as water and noble gases.

In addition to aiding future exploration, these studies provide critical insights into Earth’s early solar system environment. The moon’s surface offers a preserved record of asteroid impacts that shaped not only the lunar surface but also Earth’s. As Dr. Joshua Snape from the University of Manchester stated, “Constraining the age of the South-Pole Aitken basin to 120 million years earlier weakens the argument for this narrow period of impact bombardment on the Moon and instead indicates there was a more gradual process of impacts over a longer period.”

The confirmation of a 4.33-billion-year-old impact event in the SPA basin challenges the long-standing theory of a concentrated “late heavy bombardment” period between 4.2 and 3.8 billion years ago. Instead, it points to a more extended and varied history of asteroid impacts. Future lunar missions, such as China’s Chang’e-6 and NASA’s Endurance-A rover, could further refine this timeline by collecting samples from the SPA basin and conducting additional radiometric analyses.

A shared past: connecting lunar and Earth History

The findings from both the Apollo 16 samples and the SPA basin meteorites remind us that the histories of the moon and Earth are deeply intertwined. Both celestial bodies experienced a similar bombardment from asteroids during their early history. While Earth’s active geology has obscured much of its ancient past, the moon has preserved these records, offering us a glimpse into the violent processes that shaped the early solar system and influenced the conditions under which life eventually arose on Earth.

As these studies show, even decades-old lunar samples still have secrets to reveal, and ongoing lunar exploration will likely continue to expand our understanding of both our nearest celestial neighbor and our own planet.

This cosmic impact, now known as the S2 event, left a profound mark on Earth's surface and atmosphere, potentially catalyzing conditions that allowed early microbial life to flourish. Recent studies have revealed the astonishing size of the meteorite—estimated to be four times the size of Mount Everest—and have uncovered surprising evidence that such a catastrophe may have played a critical role in shaping the course of life on Earth.

The Catastrophic Impact and Its Immediate Aftermath

The S2 meteorite, which struck what is now South Africa’s Barberton Greenstone Belt, released energy that triggered a series of catastrophic environmental changes. According to Dr. Nadja Drabon, an early-Earth geologist from Harvard University who led the study, the impact created a massive tsunami that tore through shallow coastal areas, ripping up the seafloor and disturbing the ocean layers. "Picture yourself standing off the coast of Cape Cod, in a shelf of shallow water. It's a low-energy environment without strong currents. Then all of a sudden, you have a giant tsunami, sweeping by and ripping up the sea floor,” Drabon explained.

The devastation went beyond just oceanic upheaval. The meteorite’s impact generated enough heat to boil off the top layers of the ocean and blanket the Earth in a thick cloud of dust, blocking out sunlight and halting photosynthesis. The atmosphere was dramatically altered, and life as it existed at that time faced what appeared to be an insurmountable crisis. Yet, in this chaos, life found a way to adapt and even thrive.

How Primitive Life Survived and Thrived

Despite the widespread destruction, microorganisms—particularly iron-metabolizing bacteria—proved incredibly resilient. In fact, the environmental changes triggered by the meteorite provided these early life forms with new opportunities. The immense tsunami stirred up nutrients from the deep ocean, bringing iron to the surface, while the erosion caused by the impact released phosphorus, another crucial element for microbial metabolism. These nutrients accumulated in coastal waters, creating a nutrient-rich environment where certain bacteria could flourish.

Drabon’s research highlights the adaptability of life, even in the face of disaster. "We think of impact events as being disastrous for life," Drabon noted, "but what this study is highlighting is that these impacts would have had benefits to life, especially early on, and these impacts might have actually allowed life to flourish." This insight challenges the conventional view that meteorite impacts are purely destructive. Instead, these events may have created the conditions necessary for microbial life to expand, playing a critical role in the early development of Earth's biosphere.

Geological Evidence Reveals Ancient Impacts

The evidence for the S2 impact comes from painstaking geological work in South Africa’s Barberton Greenstone Belt, a region rich in some of the oldest rock formations on Earth. By carefully analyzing the geochemistry and sedimentology of rock samples, Drabon’s team identified chemical signatures that correspond to massive tsunamis and other catastrophic events. These layers of ancient sediment contain traces of at least eight meteorite impacts, including the S2 event.

Through these findings, geologists have pieced together a clearer picture of the planet’s ancient past, showing how massive meteorite impacts not only reshaped Earth's surface but also influenced the evolution of early life. Drabon and her team continue to explore the Barberton Greenstone Belt, aiming to deepen their understanding of how these impacts shaped early Earth and the formation of its continents and oceans.

Rethinking the Role of Meteorite Impacts in Life's History

The S2 impact, though devastating in its immediate effects, highlights a broader narrative about the resilience and adaptability of life. While meteorite impacts are often seen as catastrophic events, this new research suggests that they also had a silver lining, contributing to the conditions that allowed life to thrive. The presence of iron and phosphorus after the impact, critical for microbial metabolism, created an environment where iron-metabolizing bacteria could bloom, even if only temporarily.

Drabon’s findings offer a fresh perspective on how meteorite impacts shaped Earth's biological and geological history. By studying these ancient events, scientists can gain insights not only into the history of life on Earth but also into how life might survive and evolve on other planets that experience similar impacts.

The team’s research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, continues to unravel the complex interactions between cosmic events and the evolution of life. As they delve further into the geological record, they hope to uncover even more about how life on Earth began and evolved in the face of such immense forces.

This discovery, outlined in recent research published in Nature and Astronomy and Astrophysics, has transformed our understanding of the origin of these space rocks, providing insights into both their source and the broader dynamics of the solar system.

The Asteroid Families Behind Most Meteorites

For decades, scientists were able to trace the origins of only a small fraction of meteorites that fell to Earth. Until recently, only 6% had been definitively linked to sources such as the Moon, Mars, or the asteroid Vesta. However, this changed dramatically with the new findings. Research led by scientists from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the CNRS has shown that three young asteroid families—Karin, Koronis, and Massalia—are responsible for the majority of meteorites on Earth. These families were formed through catastrophic collisions in the main asteroid belt, occurring 5.8, 7.5, and 40 million years ago, respectively.

The Massalia family stands out as a major contributor, accounting for 37% of known meteorites. These fragments originated from collisions between asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, with some eventually finding their way to Earth.

Understanding the Meteoritic "Flux"

The reason why these particular asteroid families dominate the flow, or "flux," of meteorites to Earth lies in the nature of their age. Younger asteroid families, like those formed in more recent collisions, have an abundance of smaller fragments left over from the original breakups. These fragments are more likely to collide with each other, sending debris toward Earth. This process, called a "collisional cascade," explains why newer asteroid families are still actively sending rocks to Earth, unlike older families, whose fragments have largely been depleted over millions of years.

Michaël Marsset, a research fellow at the European Southern Observatory and the lead author of one of the studies, stated to Gizmodo, “The most recent collisional events that happened in the asteroid belt are completely dominating the flux of material to our planet.” He continued, “You might think that the meteorite flux should be a blend of all the compositional classes we observe in the asteroid belt but it’s not at all the case; it’s dominated by three asteroids that fragmented recently.” Here, “flux” refers to the flow of meteors traveling from space to Earth.

Marsset aimed to trace the origins of the meteorites to address the gap between the space rocks found on Earth and those identified in the asteroid belt. Until now, researchers could only trace the origins of about 6% of meteorites, which mainly came from the Moon, Mars, and Vesta, one of the largest asteroids in the asteroid belt. However, the origins of the remaining meteorites remained a mystery.

New Methods for Tracing Meteorite Origins

The research involved detailed telescopic surveys of the chemical composition of asteroid families in the main belt, combined with advanced computer simulations of the collisional and dynamical evolution of these families. By matching the chemical signatures of meteorites found on Earth with their parent bodies, scientists were able to trace their origins with remarkable accuracy.

This new method has identified the source of more than 90% of known meteorites, a leap from the previous 6% threshold. In addition to identifying the source of ordinary chondrites—the most common type of meteorite—scientists also linked carbonaceous chondrites to specific asteroid families. This method extends beyond small space rocks, helping trace the origins of kilometer-sized asteroids, which pose potential threats to Earth.

Studying Meteorites for Clues about the Early Solar System

Meteorites provide invaluable clues about the early history of the solar system. They are remnants of the protoplanetary disk, the cloud of gas and dust that eventually formed the planets. By studying meteorites in detail, scientists can learn more about the conditions of the early solar system and the processes that shaped it.

The new findings not only enhance our understanding of Earth's cosmic neighborhood but also help reconstruct the compositional and thermal gradients of the protoplanetary disk. This knowledge is crucial for uncovering the mysteries of how planets like Earth came to be.

The study of these fragments continues, as scientists aim to trace the origin of the remaining 10% of meteorites and focus on younger asteroid families formed less than 50 million years ago.

A Novel Approach to Space Nutrition

One of the biggest challenges facing long-term space exploration is the provision of adequate food for astronauts. Traditional methods, such as transporting food from Earth or growing plants aboard spacecraft, have significant limitations, particularly for missions that could last for years. The longer the journey, the more impractical it becomes to carry sufficient food supplies. In this new approach, researchers are turning to the idea of using bacteria to convert asteroid material into a potential food source.

The team from Western University tested this concept by analyzing the composition of certain asteroids, like Bennu, which are known to contain carbon-rich compounds. These compounds can be consumed by bacteria in a controlled process. In a series of experiments, they simulated this by feeding microbes material that mimics what might be found on an asteroid. The result was an edible biomass, with a texture and appearance similar to a "caramel milkshake," according to the researchers. While it may not sound appetizing at first, this biomass offers a balanced nutritional profile, with a composition of roughly one-third protein, one-third carbohydrates, and one-third fat, which makes it almost ideal for human consumption.

Lead researcher Joshua Pearce explained, "When you look at the pyrolysis breakdown products that we know bacteria can eat, and then what’s in asteroids, it matches up pretty reasonably." This is a promising indicator that asteroid material could be processed into a sustainable and nutritious food source for astronauts. The team also experimented with different forms of the biomass, drying it out into a powder or transforming it into a yogurt-like substance, which could provide more variety in texture and form, addressing the potential psychological need for diverse food options during extended space missions.

Feasibility and Challenges of Asteroid Food Production

While the idea of creating food from asteroid material sounds futuristic, the research team has taken the first steps in exploring its feasibility. They calculated that a 500-meter-wide asteroid like Bennu could theoretically provide enough biomass to feed between 600 and 17,000 astronauts for a year. The wide range depends on how efficiently bacteria can break down the asteroid’s carbon compounds into digestible nutrients. This potential solution could drastically reduce the need to carry food on deep space missions, making long-term exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond more sustainable.

However, turning this concept into reality poses significant challenges. One major hurdle is the variability in asteroid composition. While some asteroids are rich in carbon compounds that bacteria can consume, others may lack the necessary materials, making it difficult to ensure a consistent food supply. Furthermore, processing asteroid material into food would require an industrial-scale system to be built and operated in space. Pearce acknowledged that this would be no small feat, explaining that the process would need a “super machine” capable of breaking down asteroid rock and managing the bacterial growth efficiently.

Testing this process on actual asteroid material is another challenge. The team is currently proposing experiments using meteorites that have fallen to Earth, which have a similar composition to many asteroids. However, as Pearce pointed out, "It’s super expensive and we have to destroy [the meteorites], so the people that collect rocks were not happy when we made these proposals." Despite these obstacles, the researchers are optimistic that future developments could refine the process and make asteroid-derived food a practical reality.

Future Prospects for Space Food Innovation

The idea of producing food from asteroid material is still in its infancy, but it represents a bold new approach to solving one of space travel’s most pressing problems. The researchers are already working on ways to improve the efficiency of the bacterial process, and they hope to begin testing the concept with real meteorite material in the near future. The next step would be scaling the process up to industrial levels, where large quantities of asteroid material could be processed into food. This could significantly reduce the logistical burden of supplying food for long-term missions to destinations like Mars.

The success of this concept could also have broader implications for space exploration. If astronauts could harvest food from asteroids, it would open up new possibilities for long-term habitation in space. Missions could be extended, and the reliance on Earth-based resupply missions could be greatly reduced. According to Annemiek Waajen, a researcher at Free University Amsterdam, “There is definitely potential there, but it is still a very futuristic and exploratory idea. It is good to think about these things, but in terms of technique, there is still quite some development necessary to be able to use these methods.” This sentiment highlights the excitement and challenges that lie ahead in the field of space food innovation.

The prospect of asteroid-sourced food could also provide insights into early Earth biology. Previous research has shown that microbes on Earth may have consumed meteorite material during the planet’s early days, supporting the development of early life. Similarly, microbes in space could potentially thrive on asteroid material, offering a way to create biomass in environments where traditional agriculture is impossible.

During its third flyby of the planet in June 2023, BepiColombo gathered critical data, helping scientists unravel the mysteries of the planet’s magnetosphere—a much weaker version of Earth’s magnetic bubble. Though BepiColombo is not yet in its final orbit around Mercury, these flybys are already offering a fascinating glimpse into the dynamic magnetic interactions around the solar system’s smallest and innermost planet.

Mapping Mercury’s Magnetic Landscape in Just 30 Minutes

Mercury, much like Earth, has a magnetic field, albeit about 100 times weaker than Earth's at the surface. This weak field still carves out a protective magnetosphere that shields the planet from the solar wind, a stream of charged particles constantly blowing from the Sun. However, due to Mercury’s proximity to the Sun—just 36 million miles away—its magnetosphere faces a much harsher and more intense bombardment by these solar particles compared to Earth’s.

During the June 2023 flyby, BepiColombo traversed Mercury’s magnetosphere in a rapid 30-minute window, moving from dusk to dawn and flying just 235 kilometers (146 miles) above the planet’s surface. This brief encounter allowed the spacecraft’s scientific instruments to sample the types of particles present, measure their temperatures, and observe their movements, all of which helped map the magnetic environment surrounding Mercury.

As Lina Hadid from the Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas at Paris Observatory, who worked on the data, explained, “These flybys are fast; we crossed Mercury’s magnetosphere in about 30 minutes... enabling us to clearly plot the magnetic landscape during this brief period.” The data collected during this short encounter is providing critical insights into how Mercury’s magnetic field interacts with the solar wind, paving the way for deeper exploration when BepiColombo reaches its final orbit in 2026.

Surprising Discoveries in Mercury’s Magnetic Bubble

BepiColombo’s flyby confirmed several expected features of Mercury’s magnetosphere, including the shock boundary where the solar wind meets the planet's magnetic field, as well as the plasma sheet, a stream of hot, dense, electrically charged gas trailing behind the planet. However, the spacecraft also uncovered some unexpected surprises.

One of the most intriguing discoveries was the detection of energetic hot ions trapped near Mercury’s equatorial plane, which may indicate the presence of a ring current in the planet’s magnetosphere. Ring currents are a type of electric current carried by charged particles that become trapped in a planet’s magnetic field. On Earth, ring currents exist tens of thousands of kilometers above the surface, but Mercury’s compressed magnetosphere—which is squashed close to the planet by the intense solar wind—raises questions about how particles could be trapped so close to the surface, just a few hundred kilometers up.

Hadid, who is also co-investigator of the Mercury Plasma Particle Experiment (MPPE) suite, remarked on the significance of this discovery: “We also observed energetic hot ions near the equatorial plane and at low latitude trapped in the magnetosphere, and we think the only way to explain that is by a ring current... but this is an area that is much debated.” The existence of such a ring current on Mercury could challenge current theories about how magnetospheres function in such extreme environments.

In addition to this, BepiColombo’s instruments also detected turbulent plasma at the low-latitude boundary of Mercury’s magnetosphere, a region where the solar wind interacts directly with the planet’s magnetic field. According to Dominique Delcourt, the former lead of the Mass Spectrum Analyzer on BepiColombo, this turbulent region revealed particles with an unusually broad range of energies, unlike anything previously observed at Mercury. “We detected a so-called low-latitude boundary layer... and here we observed particles with a much wider range of energies than we’ve ever seen before at Mercury,” Delcourt explained.

Linking Mercury’s Surface to Its Plasma Environment

One of the most exciting revelations from the flyby was the detection of ions of oxygen, sodium, and potassium in Mercury’s exosphere. These elements are likely ejected from the planet’s surface by meteorite impacts or solar wind bombardment, and the particles were captured by BepiColombo’s instruments as it passed through the shadow of Mercury. When BepiColombo moved out of the Sun’s direct light and into the shadow, it became possible to detect these ions as the spacecraft itself cooled and became less electrically charged, allowing the detection of colder, heavier ions.

Delcourt described the process as almost seeing the planet’s surface composition in three dimensions. “It’s like we’re suddenly seeing the surface composition ‘exploded’ in 3D through the planet’s very thin atmosphere, known as its exosphere,” he remarked. This detection offers new insights into how Mercury’s surface interacts with its magnetosphere, linking the planet’s physical makeup with the plasma environment that surrounds it.

Looking Ahead: The Promise of Future Discoveries

The June 2023 flyby was just one of six planned Mercury flybys that will help refine BepiColombo’s trajectory and offer a preview of the science to come when the spacecraft reaches its final orbit. According to Go Murakami, JAXA’s BepiColombo project scientist, this dusk-to-dawn sweep across the planet’s magnetosphere is only a “taste of the promise of future discoveries.” The flybys provide unique opportunities to observe regions of Mercury’s magnetosphere that may not be accessible once the spacecraft is in its permanent orbit.

With two more flybys scheduled for December 2024 and January 2025, BepiColombo is expected to continue uncovering the secrets of Mercury’s magnetic field and surface interactions. The mission’s full potential will be unlocked when the spacecraft’s two scientific orbiters—the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio)—begin their joint operations, painting a complete picture of the dynamic space environment around the solar system’s smallest planet.

As Geraint Jones, ESA’s BepiColombo project scientist, noted, “The observations emphasize the need for the two orbiters and their complementary instruments to tell us the full story... we can’t wait to see how BepiColombo will impact our broader understanding of planetary magnetospheres.”

Unveiling the moon's hidden hydration

For decades, scientists believed that water on the Moon was confined to its polar regions, particularly in permanently shadowed craters. However, scientists confirm water exists all over the Moon, not just at the poles. This groundbreaking discovery has been made possible through advanced spectral imaging techniques and data analysis.

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), an instrument aboard the Chandrayaan-1 probe, played a crucial role in this revelation. By capturing infrared light reflected from the lunar surface, M3 detected spectral signatures indicating the presence of water and hydroxyl molecules across various lunar regions.

Roger Clark, a planetologist at the Planetary Science Institute, states, "Future astronauts could find water even near the equator by exploiting these water-rich areas." This expanded availability of water resources could significantly impact future lunar missions and potential colonization efforts.

The lunar water cycle : A complex geological process

The presence of water on the Moon is not a static phenomenon but part of a dynamic geological process. Scientists have observed that water forms on the lunar surface after crater creation and gradually evaporates due to solar wind over millions of years. This process leaves behind hydroxyl, formed when solar wind deposits hydrogen on the surface, which then bonds with oxygen.

The lunar water cycle involves several key components :

• Crater formation
• Volcanic activity
• Solar wind interaction
• Meteorite and asteroid impacts

These processes work in concert to bring water-rich materials to the surface and redistribute them across the lunar landscape. The result is a complex geological tapestry with significant water content in the subsurface and a superficial layer of hydroxyl.

Implications for future lunar missions

The widespread presence of water on the Moon has profound implications for future space exploration endeavors. NASA contracts Intuitive Machines for key lunar south pole mission, highlighting the importance of these water-rich regions for upcoming lunar expeditions.

The potential benefits of lunar water resources include :

These resources could significantly reduce the cost and complexity of lunar missions by enabling in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Astronauts could potentially extract and process water on-site, rather than relying solely on supplies brought from Earth.

Redefining our lunar perspective

The discovery of water across the entire lunar surface marks a paradigm shift in our understanding of Earth's celestial companion. It challenges the long-held image of the Moon as a desolate, waterless world and opens up new avenues for scientific inquiry and exploration.

As we continue to unravel the mysteries of lunar water distribution, several questions emerge :

1. How does the water content vary between different lunar regions ?
2. What is the total volume of water present on the Moon ?
3. How can we efficiently extract and utilize this water for future missions ?
4. What does the presence of water tell us about the Moon's formation and evolution ?

These questions will drive future research and exploration efforts, potentially reshaping our approach to lunar missions and our understanding of the Moon's role in the solar system. As we stand on the brink of a new era of lunar exploration, the discovery of widespread water on the Moon promises to be a game-changer, fueling our ambitions to establish a sustainable human presence beyond Earth.

This mission, building on the success of earlier Chang’e missions, brings new insights into the composition and geological history of the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken basin. Chinese researchers have already made breakthroughs in understanding the formation of this ancient lunar region, shedding light on the Moon’s early volcanic and impact activity.

Chang'e's Historic Collection of Far Side Lunar Samples

The Chang’e-6 mission, launched as part of China’s ambitious lunar exploration program, is the first in history to collect samples from the far side of the Moon. This region, which is never visible from Earth, has long been a subject of intrigue for scientists. Previous missions to the near side of the Moon, including the United States’ Apollo missions, have provided vast amounts of information. However, the far side, and particularly the South Pole-Aitken basin, remained largely unexplored.

The Chang’e-6 spacecraft landed in this unique region and collected approximately 1,935.3 grams of lunar material. These samples include both basaltic and non-basaltic materials, providing key insights into the geological evolution of the Moon's far side. The South Pole-Aitken basin, one of the largest and oldest impact craters in the solar system, has long been suspected of containing remnants from the Moon's early volcanic activity.

New Insights into the Moon's Volcanic and Impact History

The analysis of the samples collected by Chang’e-6 has already begun to offer new understanding of the Moon’s history. Researchers found that the samples contain both volcanic basalt and materials from ancient impact events. This indicates that the South Pole-Aitken basin experienced both significant volcanic activity and meteorite impacts during its formation. According to Chinese researchers, this combination of geological processes provides evidence that the Moon’s far side underwent different evolutionary processes compared to the near side.

In particular, the basaltic materials suggest a period of volcanic activity billions of years ago. This is crucial for understanding the thermal evolution of the Moon, as well as its tectonic history. The discovery of non-basaltic materials, likely originating from meteoritic impacts, further enhances our understanding of the bombardment history in the early solar system.

Geological Differences Between the Near and Far Sides of the Moon

One of the most important findings from the Chang’e-6 mission is the confirmation of significant geological differences between the Moon's near and far sides. The near side, where previous lunar missions have landed, is characterized by large maria—vast plains of solidified lava that are easily visible from Earth. The far side, however, lacks these large volcanic plains, presenting a much more rugged terrain.

The Chang’e-6 samples reveal that the far side’s composition is more complex, with a mixture of volcanic and impact-related materials. This geological diversity supports the hypothesis that the two sides of the Moon evolved differently due to variations in crust thickness, impact frequency, and volcanic activity. The thicker crust on the far side may have limited volcanic eruptions, which could explain the absence of large maria.

Future Implications for Lunar and Planetary Science

The discoveries from Chang’e-6 have far-reaching implications not only for lunar science but also for our broader understanding of planetary formation and evolution. The Moon’s far side offers a unique opportunity to study the history of the solar system, as its surface has remained largely untouched for billions of years. The detailed analysis of these samples could provide insights into the early solar system’s impact history, including the heavy bombardment period that shaped not only the Moon but also Earth and other terrestrial planets.

In addition, the successful landing and sample collection by Chang’e-6 demonstrate China’s growing capabilities in space exploration. With plans to establish a lunar research station and pursue further missions to the Moon and beyond, China is positioning itself as a major player in the global space community.

This new theory challenges long-held assumptions about the sources of essential elements necessary for life. By examining the flow and composition of cosmic dust during Earth’s early history, scientists are uncovering insights that could reshape our understanding of how life began on our planet.

The Vital Role of Cosmic Dust in the Early Earth Environment

For decades, scientists have been exploring how life might have originated on Earth, focusing on the prebiotic chemistry that likely preceded the formation of life. This process involves the formation of simple organic molecules that could combine and self-organize into more complex structures, eventually leading to the emergence of life. However, one major question has always lingered: where did the essential elements like phosphorus, nitrogen, carbon, and sulfur—crucial for prebiotic reactions—come from in such high concentrations on early Earth?

New research now suggests that cosmic dust could have been a significant and steady source of these elements, which were sparse in Earth’s primordial rocks. According to a study published in cosmic dust from asteroid collisions and comet disintegration may have continuously deposited these essential materials on Earth’s surface. Unlike larger meteorites, which often burn up upon entry into the atmosphere, cosmic dust particles are small enough to pass through relatively unscathed. The study’s authors explain, “In contrast to larger objects, the flux of cosmic dust to Earth is essentially constant on yearly timescales.”

This consistent delivery of materials may have played a fundamental role in building the chemical environment necessary for life to develop. By surviving atmospheric entry and spreading across Earth’s surface, cosmic dust could have gradually increased the concentration of vital elements in key locations.

Cosmic Dust: A Constant Source of Essential Elements

Cosmic dust is made up of fine particles produced in space by the collisions of asteroids and the disintegration of comets as they move through the solar system. While larger space rocks, such as meteorites, are usually destroyed by the intense heat and friction as they enter Earth's atmosphere, cosmic dust particles—being much smaller—survive the journey relatively intact. Once they reach the planet’s surface, they deposit a small but significant amount of primitive elements.

What sets cosmic dust apart is its continuous presence. Scientists estimate that Earth receives hundreds of tons of cosmic dust each year. This consistent flow has been happening for billions of years, making cosmic dust a potential key factor in enriching Earth’s surface with the necessary ingredients for life. The study notes, “Some fraction of cosmic dust grains pass relatively gently through the Earth's atmosphere, thereby retaining a greater fraction of primitive elements than large impactors do.”

While cosmic dust spreads thinly over vast areas, it is also subject to various geological processes that help concentrate it in specific locations. For instance, wind and water can transport and accumulate fine-grained materials, concentrating them in places like glacial surfaces, deserts, and deep-sea sediments. This means that in certain areas, such as near melting glaciers, the concentration of cosmic dust could have been high enough to provide the essential elements needed for prebiotic reactions.

Cosmic Dust and the Formation of Life

To investigate how cosmic dust might have contributed to life’s origins, researchers used astrophysical simulations and geological models to study the potential flow of cosmic dust during the first 500 million years of Earth’s history. This period, known as the Hadean Eon, was characterized by frequent asteroid impacts, including the catastrophic collision that likely formed the Moon. During this chaotic time, Earth was bombarded with material from space, including cosmic dust.

The models used in the study indicate that the amount of cosmic dust deposited on Earth during this period could have been 100 to 10,000 times higher than what is observed today. The research also identified specific environments where cosmic dust concentrations would have been especially high. Glacial regions, in particular, showed the highest potential for concentrated dust deposits. This is because glaciers can trap dust particles, which become embedded in the ice. When the glaciers melt, they release the trapped particles, concentrating them in sediments, such as those found in cryoconite holes—small depressions in glaciers where windblown debris, including cosmic dust, accumulates.

“Antarctic-like ice sheets that host cryoconite sediments with high levels of cosmic dust, along with proglacial lakes, seem to provide an excellent environment to support the early stages of life,” the researchers suggested. These environments could have been hotspots for prebiotic chemistry, where high concentrations of essential elements from cosmic dust provided the conditions necessary for life to form.

Rethinking Traditional Theories of Life’s Origins

The idea that cosmic dust played a significant role in the origins of life challenges long-standing theories that attribute life’s building blocks to meteorite impacts. While meteorites undoubtedly contributed to Earth’s supply of organic materials, they are more likely to have been destroyed upon entry into the atmosphere or during violent collisions with Earth’s surface. Cosmic dust, on the other hand, provided a steady, gentle delivery of essential materials over long periods, gradually enriching Earth’s surface with the elements needed for life.

This new perspective raises important questions about where else in the solar system or beyond similar processes might be taking place. For example, many icy moons and planets, including Europa, Enceladus, and Mars, could also be receiving cosmic dust. If cosmic dust played a role in sparking life on Earth, it is possible that similar processes could occur elsewhere, increasing the likelihood that life might exist—or could have existed—on other planets or moons.

Cosmic dust’s role in prebiotic chemistry is still an emerging field of study, but the findings so far are promising. As the authors of the study explain, “There are many planetary processes that can concentrate fine-grained materials from across large surface areas to form concentrated deposits.” This means that cosmic dust could be a key ingredient not just in Earth’s history, but in the search for life beyond our planet.

Cosmic Dust and the Future of Astrobiology

These findings have significant implications for astrobiology—the study of life in the universe. By understanding how cosmic dust contributed to the origins of life on Earth, scientists can develop new strategies for detecting life on other planets. Future missions to planets like Mars or the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn may focus on analyzing the composition of dust deposits in search of the same elements and conditions that may have sparked life on Earth.

As researchers continue to explore the role of cosmic dust in the origins of life, new studies could shed light on the chemical and environmental conditions that favor the development of living organisms. By examining ancient dust deposits on Earth, scientists may uncover further clues about how life began and whether similar processes might be unfolding on other planets.

In summary, the role of cosmic dust in the origins of life on Earth presents an exciting and groundbreaking avenue of research. While more studies are needed, the idea that cosmic dust delivered essential elements for prebiotic chemistry adds a new layer of understanding to how life may have begun on our planet. As scientists continue to investigate this possibility, cosmic dust could prove to be a fundamental piece of the puzzle in our quest to understand life’s beginnings—and its potential existence elsewhere in the universe.

This project, known as the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), is being developed in collaboration with Russia and aims to construct a series of bases both on the lunar surface and in orbit. The base will be built in two phases, with the first phase focused on robotic construction and the second phase creating an extensive lunar network that will support long-term human habitation by the middle of the century.

A Two-Phase Approach to Lunar Colonization

China’s plan for the ILRS follows a two-phase timeline, with completion of the initial phase expected by 2035. This phase will involve the launch of five super heavy-lift rockets between 2030 and 2035, which will deliver the components needed to build a robotic moon base at the lunar south pole. These missions will lay the groundwork for the construction of a more advanced base capable of supporting human life, which is expected to be operational by 2050. During a presentation at the International Deep Space Exploration Conference in Anhui, China, Wu Yanhua, the chief designer of China’s deep space exploration project, provided further details of the plan.

Wu described the extended model of the moon base as a "comprehensive lunar station network that utilizes the lunar orbit station as its central hub and the south pole station as its primary base," adding that this extended network would include exploration nodes at the lunar equator and on the far side of the moon. Power for the base will be supplied by a combination of solar, radioisotope, and nuclear generators, while communication between the moon and Earth will be facilitated by high-speed lunar surface networks.

Wu also emphasized that the ILRS project is not merely about building a lunar base. It is seen as a crucial step toward enabling future human missions to Mars. "The lunar base will provide us with the foundation to test technologies for long-duration space exploration and, eventually, crewed missions to Mars," Wu explained.

During the same conference, Senegal became the latest country to join the ILRS project, bringing the total number of participating nations to 13. This partnership highlights China’s efforts to internationalize its space initiatives, as it continues to attract partners from Asia, Europe, and Africa. However, the ILRS stands in direct competition with NASA’s Artemis program, which also aims to establish a base camp at the lunar south pole and return humans to the moon by the end of the decade.

Lava Tubes: A Key to Sustainable Lunar Habitation?

In addition to its plans for a moon base, China is also investigating the potential of lunar lava tubes as ideal locations for long-term human habitation. Lava tubes, formed by ancient volcanic activity, are tunnels beneath the moon’s surface that offer natural protection from cosmic radiation, micrometeorite impacts, and the extreme temperature fluctuations that occur on the moon. This protection makes lava tubes an attractive option for building lunar bases, especially as China moves toward establishing a more permanent human presence on the moon.

A recent series of papers published in the Journal of Deep Space Exploration detailed China’s interest in lava tubes and their potential as future lunar habitats. The papers propose using mobile robots equipped with 3D imaging and navigation systems to explore the entrances of these lava tubes. The research calls for a multi-stage approach to exploration, starting with surface rovers that would map the entrances to the tubes, followed by smaller robots or drones that could enter and explore the interiors of the tunnels.

"Lava tubes represent almost ideal habitats," said Clive Neal, a professor of lunar science at the University of Notre Dame, in a discussion of China’s research. "They provide protection from micro and some macro meteoroid bombardment, the thermal swings between night and day, and primary and secondary radiation. Any habitat on the Moon must be buried several meters below the surface; otherwise, humans will be at severe risk of harm."

China’s exploration of lava tubes is part of its broader strategy to enhance the sustainability of lunar missions. These natural shelters could enable long-term habitation by using in-situ resources, such as lunar soil, to construct habitats within the tubes. However, challenges remain, including the difficulty of safely entering and exiting these underground tunnels with large equipment and personnel, as well as ensuring the structural integrity of the tubes for human habitation.

China’s Lunar Strategy: A Wake-Up Call for the U.S.?

As China accelerates its lunar ambitions, many experts see this as a direct challenge to the United States’ space leadership. According to Clive Neal, China’s systematic approach to lunar exploration should be a wake-up call for the U.S. space program. "With the cancellation of VIPER, the United States has basically ceded leadership in lunar resource exploration," Neal said. The VIPER mission, which was designed to explore water-ice at the lunar south pole, was seen as a crucial step in NASA’s Artemis program, but its cancellation has left the U.S. behind in the race to develop lunar resources.

In contrast, China is actively preparing for its Chang’e-7 and Chang’e-8 missions, which will focus on prospecting for lunar volatiles and testing 3D printing technologies for building structures on the moon. These missions, scheduled for 2026 and 2028, are part of China’s long-term plan to establish a human-tended lunar outpost.

Neal added, "China will get to set a precedent on how lunar resources are used because they have a plan. If we want to have a vibrant cislunar economy underpinned by lunar resources, VIPER should be the first in a series of rover missions, not only for water ice, but for helium-3, rare earth elements, and platinum group elements."

The Global Race to the Moon

China’s International Lunar Research Station is part of a broader global effort to return to the moon and establish a long-term human presence. As both China and NASA ramp up their lunar ambitions, the moon is quickly becoming a focal point for international competition and collaboration. China’s focus on lava tubes and the development of in-situ resource utilization technologies marks a significant step forward in the effort to make lunar habitation a reality.

With its advanced planning, international partnerships, and focus on sustainability, China is positioning itself as a major player in the new era of lunar exploration. As China moves ahead with its moon base plans, it remains to be seen how the global landscape of space exploration will evolve—and whether the United States can rise to meet the challenge.

The asteroid, roughly 1 meter (3 feet) in size, was spotted by Jacqueline Fazekas of NASA’s Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona only eight hours before impact. This discovery marks only the ninth time that an asteroid has been detected pre-impact, showcasing significant advancements in asteroid tracking and planetary defense.

The European Space Agency (ESA) confirmed that 2024 RW1 would enter Earth's atmosphere at approximately 12:46 p.m. ET (16:46 UTC) and burn up harmlessly over the western Pacific Ocean near Luzon Island. Residents in the Philippines were advised to look out for a bright fireball, although tropical storm Yagi may obstruct visibility.

Discovery and the Importance of Planetary Defense

The late discovery of 2024 RW1 is a milestone for the ongoing efforts to detect and track near-Earth objects (NEOs). Although the asteroid poses no danger due to its small size, its detection highlights the improving capabilities of systems like the Catalina Sky Survey. "We’re getting better at spotting asteroids before they hit us," an ESA spokesperson said, referencing the asteroid's rapid discovery just hours before impact.

While larger, more dangerous asteroids have been the focus of planetary defense initiatives, events like this one illustrate how even small space rocks can be tracked in real-time. NASA’s Asteroid Watch program and ESA’s planetary defense teams are actively monitoring space for more significant threats. In a tweet, NASA Asteroid Watch noted, "2024 RW1 is no threat but gives us another opportunity to refine our detection techniques for future NEOs."

Impact Predicted Over the Philippines

According to ESA’s projections, 2024 RW1 will enter the atmosphere at around 12:46 p.m. ET (16:46 UTC), resulting in a bright fireball over Luzon Island. Though tropical storm Yagi may limit visibility, those in the region could still witness a stunning celestial event. The asteroid will disintegrate harmlessly, leaving no threat to people or property. ESA shared an impact prediction map via social media, showing the exact area of atmospheric entry.

⚠️☄️Incoming!

A roughly 1 metre asteroid will strike Earth’s atmosphere over the Philippines near Luzon Island at 17:08 UTC today, 4 September.

The object is harmless, but people in the area may see a spectacular fireball!

Discovered this morning by the Catalina Sky Survey,… pic.twitter.com/UjQLbh3fFr

— European Space Agency (@esa) September 4, 2024

This kind of event is known as a bolide, where a small asteroid creates a bright fireball in the sky as it burns up. The International Meteor Organization (IMO) noted that this fireball event could also lead to potential meteorite recoveries in the area. "We expect a dramatic and scientifically valuable event," the IMO stated, encouraging observers to report sightings to its network.

A Rare and Valuable Event

This marks only the ninth known instance of an asteroid being detected before its impact, making the event significant in the field of planetary defense. Astronomers and planetary scientists have long worked on improving early detection systems to better monitor potential asteroid threats. NASA’s Catalina Sky Survey is one of the key observatories scanning the skies for small, fast-moving objects like 2024 RW1.

The detection of this asteroid is part of broader global efforts to ensure that larger asteroids—those capable of causing widespread damage—are detected long before potential impacts. ESA and NASA have invested heavily in missions like the DART mission and upcoming NEO Surveyor, both of which are designed to detect and, if necessary, deflect hazardous objects before they reach Earth.

"Small asteroids like this serve as a test for our global network," ESA shared on Twitter, noting that 2024 RW1 provides an opportunity to refine techniques for spotting and tracking these near-Earth objects.

These findings shed new light on the dynamic and violent history of the Red Planet, revealing how massive impacts millions of years ago flung Martian rock into space, eventually landing on Earth. The ability to trace these meteorites back to specific craters has revolutionized our understanding of Martian geology and its volcanic history.

How Martian Meteorites Made Their Journey to Earth

Mars has a history of being bombarded by asteroids and comets, which caused massive impact events that launched debris into space. Some of this debris, particularly from 10 major impacts, had enough velocity to escape Mars' gravitational pull and enter orbit around the Sun.

Over millions of years, some of these rocks collided with Earth, where they were collected as meteorites. These rocks offer a rare glimpse into the geological history of Mars and have become valuable tools for scientists seeking to understand the Red Planet.

A team led by Chris Herd, curator of the University of Alberta's meteorite collection, has now confirmed that a large portion of these meteorites originated from five specific impact craters on Mars. By using advanced modeling techniques and remote sensing data, the researchers were able to reconstruct the conditions that launched these meteorites and identify their points of origin. “Now, we can group these meteorites by their shared history and then their location on the surface prior to coming to Earth,” said Herd in a statement.

These meteorites are believed to have come from the volcanic regions of Tharsis and Elysium, which are home to some of the largest volcanoes in the Solar System. The Tharsis region, in particular, includes Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano on Mars, standing at nearly 13.6 miles high. Understanding the origins of these meteorites not only helps scientists piece together Mars’ history but also offers critical insights into the planet’s volcanic activity.

The Role of Tharsis and Elysium: Unveiling Martian Impact History

The volcanic regions of Tharsis and Elysium have long been of interest to planetary scientists due to their unique geological features. These regions are characterized by vast lava plains and some of the most massive volcanic structures in the Solar System. Researchers have determined that the meteorites found on Earth were ejected from Mars during periods of intense volcanic and impact activity, primarily during the Amazonian period, which began approximately 3 billion years ago.

Identifying the specific craters responsible for these ejections has proven challenging in the past. The traditional method of spectral matching, which compares the composition of meteorites to surface features on Mars, has limitations. Dust coverage and terrain variability on the Martian surface have often skewed results, particularly in younger volcanic regions like Tharsis and Elysium. However, through high-resolution simulations of impacts, Herd’s team was able to overcome these limitations. "One of the major advances here is being able to model the ejection process," Herd explained. This approach allowed the researchers to identify the specific craters from which the meteorites originated and to estimate the size and depth of the craters.

Reconstructing Mars' Geological Past

The ability to trace Martian meteorites back to their original craters allows scientists to recalibrate Mars' geological timeline, giving them a better understanding of the planet’s history. “This will fundamentally change how we study meteorites from Mars,” Herd noted. Knowing where these meteorites came from enables researchers to reconstruct volcanic and impact events on Mars, shedding light on the timing, duration, and nature of significant geological processes. This new data has the potential to reveal the conditions under which certain rocks were formed and ejected from the planet.

In one striking example, researchers were able to trace a meteorite found in Antarctica, known as Allan Hills 84001, back to the Valles Marineris region of Mars. This meteorite is believed to have crystallized from molten rock more than 4 billion years ago when Mars had liquid water on its surface. The identification of its source has helped scientists better understand the ancient environmental conditions on Mars and the processes that shaped the planet’s surface.

The team's research could also help identify different sources of Martian magma and provide insights into how quickly craters formed during periods of low meteorite bombardment. This is particularly important for studying Mars' Amazonian period, which saw lower rates of impact but continued volcanic activity. By identifying the craters responsible for the ejections, scientists can now better understand the geological forces at play during this era.

The Future of Martian Meteorite Research

This discovery marks a significant step forward in planetary science and offers new opportunities for future research. The ability to trace Martian meteorites to their origins opens up new avenues for studying Mars’ geological history without physically sending missions to the surface. “It is really amazing if you think about it,” Herd remarked. “It's the closest thing we can have to actually going to Mars and picking up a rock.”

As more meteorites are discovered and analyzed, scientists will be able to continue piecing together the history of Mars, providing a clearer picture of the processes that have shaped the planet over billions of years. This research will also play a crucial role in supporting future missions to Mars, including potential human missions, by identifying regions of high geological interest and helping scientists prioritize areas for exploration.

A massive six-mile-wide monster of a space rock, this C-type asteroid crashed into Earth with such force that it triggered one of the most devastating mass extinctions in our planet’s history.

This isn't your average meteorite story—no, this one came from the dark, mysterious outskirts of the solar system. Scientists, led by Mario Fischer-Gödde from the University of Cologne, have cracked the case of this ancient killer in new research published in Science.

The shocking conclusion? This asteroid was a projectile sent straight from the outer reaches of the asteroid belt, where chaos and collisions reign supreme.

The Birth of an Extinction-Level Event: How Dinosaurs Met Their Fate

66 million years ago, this monstrous asteroid didn't just crash into Earth; it created the Chicxulub Crater, an impact zone the size of a country, hidden beneath the Yucatan Peninsula. The collision sent shockwaves through the planet, blasting an unimaginable amount of debris into the atmosphere.

What followed was nothing less than planetary chaos—a nuclear winter that froze life in its tracks, with food chains collapsing and temperatures plummeting. The result? 70 percent of all species on Earth perished, including the mighty dinosaurs.

But here’s the twist: this space rock wasn’t just another wanderer from the asteroid belt—it was a rare C-type asteroid, packed with dark, carbon-rich material from the outer solar system. Fischer-Gödde’s team revealed that this specific asteroid’s composition, using advanced ruthenium isotopes, matches up with meteorites that have crashed into Earth from the far reaches of space. This was no ordinary impact; it was an extinction engineered by a rock forged in the cold, distant corners of our cosmic neighborhood.

Where did it come from?

So where did this planet-killer originate? Fischer-Gödde’s research points to the outer asteroid belt—a chaotic ring between Mars and Jupiter. Something—perhaps a collision with another asteroid or the mysterious Yarkovsky effect—gave this deadly asteroid the final push it needed to head straight for Earth. The odds? Unfathomable. But once it was on its way, nothing could stop the devastation.

The key to unraveling this mystery was buried in a thin layer of ruthenium, a rare element scattered around the globe from the impact. Researchers painstakingly analyzed these ruthenium isotopes and made a shocking discovery: nearly 100 percent of this element in the K-Pg boundary—the geological marker of the mass extinction—came from the killer asteroid.

And it wasn’t just any asteroid. The ruthenium samples match carbonaceous meteorites that also hail from beyond Jupiter. This wasn’t a coincidence; this was a cosmic sniper shot aimed right at our planet.

The Next Big One?

This discovery changes everything we thought we knew about extinction-level events. It’s a reminder that the most lethal threats to Earth come from the unknown, far beyond our usual sphere of awareness. And if it happened once, could it happen again?

A recent breakthrough study published in the journal Science sheds new light on the issue, revealing that the asteroid likely formed beyond Jupiter's orbit, far out in the cold, dark reaches of the solar system.

This finding marks a significant step in understanding the event that led to the mass extinction 66 million years ago and reshapes the way we view Earth's interactions with distant cosmic objects.

Tracing the Origins of the Chicxulub Asteroid

The research team, led by Mario Fischer-Godde, a geochemist at the University of Cologne, used innovative techniques to analyze sediment samples taken from the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, a geological marker left by the asteroid’s impact.

This boundary layer records the cataclysmic event that triggered the extinction of nearly 76 percent of Earth’s species, including the non-avian dinosaurs. By examining the isotopic signature of the element ruthenium, researchers were able to link the asteroid to its origins beyond Jupiter, suggesting that it was a C-type (carbonaceous) asteroid.

"Now we can, with all this knowledge, say that this asteroid initially formed beyond Jupiter," said Fischer-Godde. This marks a critical discovery, as C-type asteroids, while common in the outer solar system, rarely impact Earth. The study’s findings refute previous assumptions that the asteroid might have originated in the inner solar system or been a comet.

Advanced Isotope Analysis: A New Frontier in Asteroid Research

The team’s breakthrough came from their use of ruthenium isotopic analysis, a highly sophisticated technique performed at Fischer-Godde’s lab in Cologne. This type of analysis allows scientists to distinguish between different classes of asteroids. Ruthenium is an element found in asteroids but extremely rare on Earth. By inspecting geological layers that contain debris from the Chicxulub impact, researchers were able to confirm that the ruthenium they analyzed came directly from the asteroid itself.

Fischer-Godde’s lab is one of the few in the world equipped to conduct such precise measurements, and this was the first time the technique was used to study impact debris layers. "Our lab in Cologne is one of the rare labs that can do these measurements," Fischer-Godde explained, emphasizing the importance of this method for future planetary science research. The results were conclusive: the Chicxulub asteroid was of C-type composition, a significant revelation given that most meteorites found on Earth are S-type silicate asteroids from the inner solar system.

Ruling Out the Comet Hypothesis

One of the most intriguing aspects of the study is its dismissal of the hypothesis that the Chicxulub impactor was a comet, a theory that gained traction after a 2021 study. This previous research, based on statistical simulations, suggested that a long-period comet could have been the culprit. Comets, composed of icy rock, typically originate from the farthest reaches of the solar system, far beyond the asteroid belt, and have significantly different compositions compared to asteroids.

However, the ruthenium isotopic data collected by Fischer-Godde’s team revealed that the Chicxulub impactor did not resemble comets that have impacted Earth in the past. Instead, the chemical composition matched that of carbonaceous asteroids, effectively ruling out the comet theory. "It's unlikely that the impactor in question was a comet," Fischer-Godde stated. This shift in understanding refocuses attention on C-type asteroids, which are more common beyond Jupiter and have played a pivotal role in shaping Earth’s history.

The Asteroid's Journey: From the Outer Solar System to Earth

While the study confirmed the asteroid’s origin beyond Jupiter, the exact trajectory it took before colliding with Earth remains uncertain. C-type asteroids, which formed in the outer solar system, are known to occasionally migrate inward, passing through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This migration likely contributed to the asteroid’s collision course with Earth.

"We cannot be really sure where the asteroid was hiding just before it impacted on Earth," Fischer-Godde admitted, suggesting that the Chicxulub asteroid may have spent time in the asteroid belt before its fateful encounter with Earth. This would align with the current understanding that many meteorites originate from the asteroid belt, where gravitational interactions can send them towards the inner solar system.

The Role of Asteroids in Earth's Evolution

The implications of the study extend far beyond the Chicxulub event. Fischer-Godde pointed out that understanding the nature of asteroids that have impacted Earth over the last 4.5 billion years could also shed light on how water and other essential components arrived on our planet. Some scientists believe that asteroids, particularly C-type carbonaceous asteroids, played a crucial role in delivering water to Earth during its formative years.

This new research reinforces the theory that water, along with other vital elements, may have been brought to Earth by these ancient cosmic objects. "Studying past asteroids could help solve the enigma of the origin of our planet's water," Fischer-Godde said, highlighting the broader implications of his team’s findings.

Preparing for Future Asteroid Threats

Looking to the future, Fischer-Godde emphasized that this research could be instrumental in preparing for potential asteroid impacts. While impacts like the Chicxulub event are rare, understanding the characteristics of C-type asteroids and their trajectories can help scientists predict and possibly mitigate future threats.

"If we find that earlier mass extinction events could also be related to C-type asteroid impacts, then... if there's ever going to be C-type asteroid on an Earth-crossing orbit, we have to be very careful," Fischer-Godde warned. This study not only contributes to our knowledge of Earth's past but also provides critical data that could be used to protect the planet from future disasters.

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Solar System

In a parallel study, an international team of researchers conducted further analysis on platinum-group elements like iridium, ruthenium, and osmium, found in the boundary layer sediments from five global locations. Their findings confirmed that the Chicxulub asteroid was most consistent with a carbonaceous chondrite, a rare type of asteroid originating from the outer solar system. The team’s work reinforces the conclusions drawn by Fischer-Godde’s group and highlights the importance of studying space rocks to unravel the solar system’s ancient history.

These results not only provide a clearer understanding of the Chicxulub impactor but also illustrate how Jupiter acts as a barrier, deflecting many asteroids and comets from the outer solar system and preventing them from reaching the inner planets. Occasionally, however, as was the case with the Chicxulub asteroid, some manage to slip through, leaving a lasting mark on Earth.

The Discovery of Graphene on the Moon

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) and Jilin University analyzed an olive-shaped sample of lunar soil, measuring approximately 2.9 mm by 1.6 mm, retrieved by the Chang’e 5 mission in 2020.

Using advanced spectroscopic and microscopic techniques, they confirmed the presence of graphene flakes, which are two to seven layers thick. This marks the first time that natural few-layer graphene has been verified in lunar soil samples by examining its microstructure and composition.

The discovery is groundbreaking as it not only highlights the Moon’s rich geochemical diversity but also opens new avenues for understanding extraterrestrial materials.

Formation Mechanisms of Lunar Graphene

The study suggests that the graphene may have formed during volcanic activity in the Moon’s early history. Researchers propose that solar winds, which contain high-energy particles, played a critical role by stirring up lunar soil and iron-containing minerals. These interactions could have catalyzed the transformation of carbon atoms into graphene.

Furthermore, meteorite impacts, which create high-temperature and high-pressure environments, are also believed to have contributed to the formation of graphene. These impacts can cause rapid heating and cooling, essential for graphene’s formation. The presence of iron compounds in the carbon-rich sections of the lunar soil sample further supports this hypothesis, indicating a complex interplay of geological processes that have shaped the Moon’s surface over billions of years.

Implications for Lunar Science

The discovery of graphene in lunar soil has significant implications for our understanding of the Moon’s chemical composition and geological history. It supports the theory that the Moon contains indigenous carbon, challenging previous beliefs that the Moon was largely carbon-depleted, as inferred from Apollo mission samples.

These findings suggest that the Moon’s formation involved complex chemical processes, possibly including the incorporation of carbon from interstellar dust or cometary impacts.

Understanding the presence of carbon in lunar materials can also provide clues about the broader processes of planetary formation and the distribution of carbon in the early solar system. This knowledge can help refine models of the Moon’s origin and evolution, potentially leading to a revised understanding of the Earth-Moon system.

Applications of Graphene in Space Exploration

Graphene’s unique properties, including its exceptional strength, conductivity, and flexibility, make it valuable for various applications. On Earth, graphene is already being investigated for use in electronics, energy storage, and advanced materials.

The discovery of natural graphene on the Moon could lead to new, cost-effective methods for producing high-quality graphene, potentially revolutionizing these fields. For space exploration, graphene could play a crucial role in developing infrastructure on the lunar surface.

Its high conductivity and thermal stability make it an ideal candidate for constructing solar panels and other energy-harvesting systems. Additionally, graphene’s strength and flexibility could be utilized in building durable habitats, spacecraft components, and protective gear for astronauts.

The ability to produce and utilize graphene on the Moon would significantly reduce the cost and complexity of transporting materials from Earth, enhancing the sustainability of long-term lunar missions.

The Role of Chang’e 5 in Lunar Exploration

China’s Chang’e 5 mission, launched in 2020, marked a significant milestone in lunar exploration as it successfully returned lunar samples to Earth for the first time since the 1970s. This mission is part of China’s broader lunar exploration program, which aims to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon.

The samples collected by Chang’e 5 are critical for advancing our understanding of the Moon’s composition and history. The mission’s success demonstrates China’s growing capabilities in space exploration and highlights the importance of international collaboration in scientific research.

By analyzing these samples, scientists can uncover new information about the Moon’s surface processes, volcanic history, and potential resources, paving the way for future exploration and utilization of lunar materials.

Future Research Directions

The findings from the Chang’e 5 mission underscore the importance of further research into the properties and formation mechanisms of natural graphene on the Moon.

Detailed investigations into the structural and environmental dependencies of lunar graphene could provide deeper insights into the Moon’s geologic history and inform future exploration strategies. Future research should focus on characterizing the distribution and abundance of graphene in lunar regolith and understanding the environmental conditions that favor its formation.

Additionally, experiments designed to synthesize graphene using lunar materials could provide valuable data for developing in-situ resource utilization techniques. These studies will not only enhance our understanding of lunar geology but also contribute to the development of new technologies for space exploration.

Broader Impact on Space Science

The identification of natural graphene in lunar soil samples is a groundbreaking achievement that highlights the potential of space exploration to drive scientific and technological advancements. By continuing to explore the Moon’s unique environment and resources, scientists can unlock new opportunities for innovation and expand our understanding of the universe.

The discovery underscores the importance of sustained investment in space missions and international collaboration in scientific research. As we advance our exploration efforts, findings such as these will play a crucial role in shaping the future of space science and technology, paving the way for new discoveries and technological breakthroughs that can benefit humanity both in space and on Earth.

This groundbreaking study, published in Science Advances, provides crucial insights into the processes that have shaped the Moon's atmosphere over billions of years.

Meteorite Impact Vaporization: The Dominant Process

The study, which analyzed lunar soil samples collected during NASA's Apollo missions, determined that the Moon's exosphere is primarily a product of impact vaporization. This process occurs when meteorites collide with the Moon's surface, vaporizing elements in the lunar soil and lofting them into the atmosphere. "We give a definitive answer that meteorite impact vaporization is the dominant process that creates the lunar atmosphere," said Nicole Nie, the study's lead author and an assistant professor at MIT.

Over the Moon's 4.5-billion-year history, its surface has been continuously bombarded by meteorites. Initially, massive meteorites were the primary impactors, but more recently, smaller, dust-sized micrometeoroids have become the main contributors.

These impacts kick up the lunar soil, vaporizing atoms on contact and creating a tenuous atmosphere that is constantly replenished as meteorites continue to strike the surface. This constant bombardment creates a dynamic process where the atmosphere reaches a steady state, balancing between the creation and loss of atmospheric particles.

The Role of Solar Wind and Ion Sputtering

In addition to impact vaporization, the study explored the role of ion sputtering—a process involving the solar wind, which carries energetic charged particles from the sun. When these particles hit the Moon's surface, they can transfer energy to the soil atoms, causing them to be ejected into the atmosphere. "Based on data from NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), it seemed both processes are playing a role," Nie explained.

However, the team's analysis revealed that impact vaporization is the predominant process, contributing approximately 70% to the Moon's atmosphere, while ion sputtering accounts for the remaining 30%. This quantification was achieved by measuring the isotopic ratios of volatile elements, such as potassium and rubidium, in the lunar soil samples.

The findings indicate that lighter isotopes are more likely to be lofted into the atmosphere, while heavier isotopes tend to settle back into the soil. This distinction helps in understanding the specific contributions of each process to the exosphere's formation.

Historical Context and Methodology

NASA's LADEE mission, launched in 2013, initially highlighted the potential roles of impact vaporization and ion sputtering in shaping the Moon's exosphere. The mission's data showed fluctuations in the atmospheric composition during meteorite showers and solar eclipses, suggesting the influence of both meteorite impacts and the solar wind. However, these observations were not quantitative enough to determine the dominant process.

To achieve more precise results, Nie and her colleagues analyzed 10 samples of lunar soil, each weighing about 100 milligrams. They isolated the volatile elements potassium and rubidium, dissolved the soil in acids, and used mass spectrometry to measure the isotopic ratios.

The predominance of heavy isotopes in the soil indicated that impact vaporization is the main contributor to the Moon's atmosphere. This meticulous process involved crushing the soil samples into fine powder, purifying the elements, and using advanced techniques to accurately measure the isotopic compositions, providing definitive evidence of the processes at play.

Broader Implications for Planetary Science

The study's findings have broader implications for understanding the atmospheres of other moons and asteroids in the solar system. "The discovery of such a subtle effect is remarkable, thanks to the innovative idea of combining potassium and rubidium isotope measurements along with careful, quantitative modeling," said Justin Hu, a lunar soils researcher at Cambridge University.

This approach not only clarifies the Moon's atmospheric dynamics but also offers a model that could be applied to other celestial bodies, enhancing our understanding of space weathering and atmospheric formation across the solar system.

Nie emphasized the importance of continuing to bring back samples from the Moon and other planetary bodies to gain a clearer picture of the solar system's formation and evolution. "Without these Apollo samples, we would not be able to get precise data and measure quantitatively to understand things in more detail," she noted. The Apollo program's contributions continue to be invaluable, underscoring the need for future missions to return more samples for detailed analysis.

Future Research Directions

This research sets the stage for future studies aimed at understanding the atmospheric dynamics of other celestial bodies. The techniques and methodologies developed could be applied to upcoming missions targeting other moons and asteroids, providing valuable data that could reshape our understanding of the solar system's history and the processes that govern planetary atmospheres.

Future missions may focus on gathering more diverse samples, employing even more advanced analytical techniques, and integrating data from multiple sources to build a comprehensive picture of how atmospheres are sustained and evolve over time.

Experiments indicate that these organic molecules can withstand radiation just under the ice, making them accessible to future robotic landers without deep drilling.

Potential for Life on Icy Moons

Europa and Enceladus have long intrigued scientists due to the presence of subsurface oceans beneath their ice crusts. These oceans, heated by tidal forces from their host planets and neighboring moons, could harbor life if they contain the necessary elements and compounds. A NASA experiment suggests that if these oceans support life, signatures of that life, such as amino acids, could survive just under the surface ice despite the harsh radiation.

Alexander Pavlov of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, lead author of the study published in the journal Astrobiology, explained, “Based on our experiments, the 'safe' sampling depth for amino acids on Europa is almost 8 inches (around 20 centimeters) at high latitudes of the trailing hemisphere in the area where the surface hasn’t been disturbed much by meteorite impacts.” He further added, “Subsurface sampling is not required for the detection of amino acids on Enceladus—these molecules will survive radiolysis at any location on the Enceladus surface less than a tenth of an inch from the surface.”

NASA's Experimental Approaches and Findings

The research team conducted radiolysis experiments using amino acids as representatives of biomolecules. Amino acids can be created by both biological and non-biological processes. Finding certain types of amino acids on Europa or Enceladus would be a potential sign of life because they are used by terrestrial organisms to build proteins. These proteins are essential for life as they create enzymes that regulate chemical reactions and form structures.

To evaluate the survival of amino acids on these moons, the team mixed samples of amino acids with ice chilled to about minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit (-196 degrees Celsius) in sealed, airless vials and bombarded them with gamma rays. They also tested the survival of amino acids in dead bacteria in ice and in ice mixed with silicate dust, simulating the potential mixing of material from meteorites or the moon’s interior with surface ice.

The experiments provided pivotal data on the rates at which amino acids break down, known as radiolysis constants. Using these rates, the team calculated the drilling depth and locations where 10% of the amino acids would survive radiolytic destruction. Pavlov emphasized the significance of these findings, stating, “Slow rates of amino acid destruction in biological samples under Europa and Enceladus-like surface conditions bolster the case for future life-detection measurements by Europa and Enceladus lander missions.”

Implications for Future Missions

The results indicate that future missions to Europa and Enceladus could detect amino acids without the need for deep drilling, significantly simplifying the search for life. Pavlov noted, “Our results indicate that the rates of potential organic biomolecules’ degradation in silica-rich regions on both Europa and Enceladus are higher than in pure ice and, thus, possible future missions to Europa and Enceladus should be cautious in sampling silica-rich locations on both icy moons.”

These findings highlight the importance of considering the radiation environment and the composition of surface ice when planning future missions. The research underscores the potential for life-detection missions to make significant discoveries with relatively shallow subsurface sampling.

The team found that amino acids degraded faster when mixed with dust but slower when derived from microorganisms. This suggests that bacterial cellular material may protect amino acids from reactive compounds produced by radiation. Pavlov explained the significance of this protective effect: “It’s possible that bacterial cellular material protected amino acids from the reactive compounds produced by the radiation.”

This protective mechanism could be crucial in preserving biomarkers in the harsh environments of Europa and Enceladus, increasing the likelihood of detecting signs of life if they exist.

The study provides a strong foundation for future research and mission planning aimed at detecting life on icy moons. By refining the understanding of how amino acids and other organic molecules survive in these environments, scientists can better design instruments and sampling strategies for upcoming missions. The ongoing exploration of Europa and Enceladus holds great promise for uncovering the secrets of these fascinating worlds and advancing the search for extraterrestrial life.

Sightings and Reports

Several people reported seeing what looked like a meteor streaking through the sky, accompanied by a loud boom and noticeable shaking. NASA's initial reports suggest that this daylight fireball may have passed over the Statue of Liberty before moving west into New Jersey. The American Meteor Society received dozens of reports about the fireball around 11:15 a.m. from the Tri-State Area and parts of Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Videos posted on the American Meteor Society's website show a flash of light streaking through the sky in Northford, Connecticut, and Wayne, New Jersey.

New York City Councilman Justin Brannan commented on the event, stating, "Folks from the Jersey Shore to the West Side of Manhattan reported hearing a sonic boom." Despite the widespread reports, NYC Emergency Management noted, "There is nothing on their radar. USGS says no earthquake. Some say maybe a meteor?"

NASA's Analysis

NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office provided more details, estimating that the fireball was first seen over New York City, then traveled east at 38,000 miles per hour, passing over the Statue of Liberty before heading west into New Jersey. According to Bill Cooke, lead for NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office, the meteor was "a small meteor, about a foot across, traveling at 34,000 miles an hour." Cooke explained, "Something when it's moving that fast it heats up. You expect to see meteors at night not during the day, so this was a rare daylight fireball."

Cooke also addressed the confusion about the source of the loud booms, stating, "It's not entirely clear if the loud booms people heard at the time they saw the fireball was from the fireball itself or from military activities happening simultaneously in New Jersey. So, if the fireball produced a boom it's kind of lost in all the stuff generated by military activity to your south."

Public Reactions

The event sparked numerous reactions from the public. Judah Bergman, who was working at his desk in Lakewood, described his sighting: "It was long and really, really fast. It looked like a flaming, long rod or something on fire and flying through the sky."

Steven Bradley, from Park Ridge, recalled hearing the boom, "Then, less than a second after that, there was a tremble of the house as if something had hit my roof." He noted that the sound and rumbling were enough to scare his pets, saying, "The golden retriever jumped out of his skin and the cat just darted under the sofa."

Investigations and Conclusions

Despite the dramatic nature of the event, NASA noted that no meteorites were found, and the initial trajectory is based on eyewitness accounts that have not been verified by camera or satellite data. The American Meteor Society listed up to 20 possible sightings between 11:16 and 11:20 a.m., further indicating the widespread visibility of the meteor.

The event has highlighted the dynamic and often unpredictable nature of meteoric activity, as well as the significant impact such events can have on the public. The ongoing investigations aim to provide a clearer understanding of what exactly transpired and whether military activities played a role in the perceived impact of the fireball.

As investigations continue, the event serves as a reminder of the fascinating and sometimes startling phenomena that occur in our skies, offering both scientists and the public a glimpse into the dynamic environment beyond our planet.

This finding provides valuable insights into how the ingredients for life might have ended up on our own planet billions of years ago.

Discovery of Organic Material on Mars

A decade ago, a robotic rover on Mars unearthed a crucial piece of evidence by discovering organic material in the sediment of ancient lakebeds. This discovery indicated that Mars has a rich presence of carbon chemistry, raising intriguing questions about the origins of these organic molecules. While the presence of organic material does not necessarily imply the existence of alien life, it opens up fascinating possibilities about the processes that could produce such molecules.

Planetary scientist Yuichiro Ueno of the Tokyo Institute of Technology led the team that made this discovery. The researchers found that carbon dioxide in Mars's atmosphere reacts with ultraviolet sunlight, forming a mist of carbon molecules that descend onto the planet's surface. "Such carbon-based complex molecules are the prerequisite of life, the building blocks of life, one might say," explained chemist Matthew Johnson from the University of Copenhagen. He further clarified that these organic molecules form through atmospheric photochemical reactions without any biological intervention.

The Role of Photolysis

Photolysis, a process where molecules are broken apart by light, plays a significant role in the formation of organic components on Mars. This process produces carbon monoxide and oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide and works faster on lighter isotopes. Consequently, molecules containing carbon-12 deplete faster than those with carbon-13, leaving an 'excess' of carbon-13 dioxide behind. The notion that photolysis contributes to the organic chemistry found on Mars has been supported by simulations and subsequent investigations.

Johnson and his colleagues published a paper in 2013 hypothesizing that photolysis could explain the presence of organic molecules on Mars. The recent findings provide hard evidence that supports this hypothesis. The atmospheric carbon-13 enrichment was first identified a few years ago when researchers analyzed a Martian meteorite that landed in Antarctica. "The smoking gun here is that the ratio of carbon isotopes in it exactly matches our predictions in the quantum chemical simulations," Johnson said.

Confirmation from Martian Meteorite

A critical piece of evidence was found in data obtained by the Curiosity rover in the Gale crater. The rover's samples of carbonate minerals showed a carbon-13 depletion that perfectly mirrored the carbon-13 enrichment found in the Martian meteorite.

This finding confirmed that the organic material on Mars was formed from carbon monoxide produced by photolysis. "There is no other way to explain both the carbon-13 depletion in the organic material and the enrichment in the Martian meteorite, both relative to the composition of volcanic CO2 emitted on Mars," Johnson explained.

The confirmation from the Curiosity rover provides strong evidence that photolysis is responsible for the formation of organic material on Mars. This discovery also hints at a possible origin for organic material on Earth. Billions of years ago, Venus, Earth, and Mars all had very similar atmospheres, suggesting that the same processes likely occurred on our home planet.

Implications for Earth's Origins

The implications of this discovery extend beyond Mars. The study suggests that the organic material found on Mars could provide clues about the origins of life on Earth. During the early stages of the solar system, Earth, Venus, and Mars had similar atmospheric conditions. The processes that led to the formation of organic molecules on Mars could have also occurred on Earth, laying the groundwork for the emergence of life.

"We have not yet found this 'smoking gun' material here on Earth to prove that the process took place. Perhaps because Earth's surface is much more alive, geologically and literally, and therefore constantly changing," Johnson said. "But it is a big step that we have now found it on Mars, from a time when the two planets were very similar."

These intriguing patterns, visible even from a backyard telescope, have defied easy explanation for years. Recent research suggests that the swirls could be magnetized by unseen magmas beneath the lunar surface.

New insights into lunar swirls

Recent modeling and spacecraft data indicate that rocks in the lunar swirls are magnetized, which deflects or redirects solar wind particles that constantly bombard the moon. This redirection causes neighboring rocks to darken due to chemical reactions from the collisions, while the swirls themselves remain light-colored.

Michael J. Krawczynski, an associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis, explains, “Impacts could cause these types of magnetic anomalies. But there are some swirls where we're just not sure how an impact could create that shape and that size of thing.” This observation points to a more complex process behind the swirls' formation, suggesting that surface impacts alone cannot account for their unique shapes and sizes.

Krawczynski and his team propose that underground lavas cooling slowly in a magnetic field might be responsible for the magnetic anomalies observed in the swirls. Their experiments, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, focused on the mineral ilmenite, which is abundant on the moon.

They found that under lunar conditions, ilmenite can react to form magnetizable iron metal particles, potentially explaining the swirls' magnetization. Yuanyuan Liang, a co-author of the study, noted, “The smaller grains that we were working with seemed to create stronger magnetic fields because the surface area to volume ratio is larger for the smaller grains compared to the larger grains. With more exposed surface area, it is easier for the smaller grains to undergo the reduction reaction.” This finding suggests that the size and distribution of mineral grains play a critical role in the magnetization process.

Implications for lunar exploration

Determining the origin of lunar swirls is crucial for understanding the processes that have shaped the lunar surface and the history of the moon's magnetic field. Future missions, such as NASA's planned rover mission to the Reiner Gamma swirl in 2025, will help gather more data to confirm these findings. “If you're going to make magnetic anomalies by the methods that we describe, then the underground magma needs to have high titanium,” Krawczynski stated. “We have seen hints of this reaction creating iron metal in lunar meteorites and in lunar samples from Apollo.

But all of those samples are surface lava flows, and our study shows cooling underground should significantly enhance these metal-forming reactions.” This insight could reshape our understanding of lunar geology and the role of magnetic fields in shaping planetary surfaces.

This research will aid in interpreting data from future lunar missions, particularly those exploring magnetic anomalies. For now, Krawczynski emphasizes the need for more direct sampling: “If we could just drill down, we could see if this reaction was happening. That would be great, but it's not possible yet. Right now, we're stuck with the surface.” As technology advances, future missions might eventually provide the capability to drill beneath the moon’s surface, offering a more comprehensive understanding of these enigmatic features.

The findings from these studies will be instrumental as NASA and other space agencies prepare for upcoming lunar missions, aiming to uncover the mysteries of lunar swirls and their implications for the moon's geological history. By understanding the magnetization process and the role of underground magma, scientists hope to unlock new insights into the moon’s past and its evolution. This research not only sheds light on lunar phenomena but also enhances our broader understanding of planetary magnetism and geological processes in our solar system.

Transporting construction materials from Earth to the Moon is not only impractical but also prohibitively expensive. Consequently, ESA scientists are exploring ways to utilize the Moon’s natural resources to develop sustainable construction methods, a strategy that could revolutionize how we approach space habitation.

ESA's Innovative Approach to Lunar Construction

The Moon's surface is covered with regolith, a layer of loose, fragmented material produced by billions of years of meteoroid impacts. This abundant resource provides a potential solution for construction needs. However, acquiring actual lunar regolith for testing is challenging due to limited quantities returned by missions such as NASA's Apollo and China's Chang'e 6. To circumvent this limitation, ESA scientists created an artificial version of lunar regolith by grinding up a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite. This material was then used to 3D print LEGO-style bricks, which ESA refers to as "space bricks."

The space bricks are designed to click together like regular LEGO bricks, offering flexibility in constructing various structures. Despite their rough texture and uniform space grey color, these bricks serve as a practical tool for testing building techniques in a simulated lunar environment. The idea behind this approach is to allow ESA's space engineers to experiment with and refine their construction methods before actual lunar missions.

Testing and Display of Space Bricks

Fifteen of these space bricks are set to be displayed at the Lego House in Billund, Denmark, and select Lego stores worldwide. This exhibition aims to engage the public and demonstrate the potential of using extraterrestrial materials for future space exploration projects.

The ability to construct habitats and other necessary infrastructure on-site could significantly reduce the need for Earth-based supplies, making long-term lunar exploration and eventual colonization more feasible.

ESA's initiative also underscores the collaborative spirit of space exploration, drawing on past missions' insights and advancing new technologies to address contemporary challenges.

The Broader Implications for Lunar Exploration

This innovative use of meteorite dust highlights the importance of in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) in space exploration. By leveraging materials found on the Moon, ESA is paving the way for more sustainable and cost-effective lunar missions. The success of projects like ESA's space bricks will play a crucial role in turning the vision of building sustainable habitats on other celestial bodies into reality.

The development of space bricks is just one step toward establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon. Future research and testing will need to address various challenges, including the durability of these structures in the harsh lunar environment, the logistics of large-scale construction, and the potential health impacts on astronauts working with regolith-based materials.

Continued innovation and international cooperation will be essential in overcoming these hurdles. The insights gained from ESA's space bricks project will not only contribute to lunar exploration but also provide valuable lessons for future missions to Mars and beyond.

As space agencies worldwide push the boundaries of what is possible, the dream of building sustainable habitats on other celestial bodies is becoming increasingly attainable. The success of projects like ESA's space bricks will play a crucial role in turning this vision into reality.

This discovery provides new insights into the geological history of Mars and has significant implications for future exploration missions.

Frequent Impacts on Mars

The Mars InSight lander, which operated from 2018 until the end of 2022, was equipped with a highly sensitive seismometer capable of detecting the faint tremors caused by meteorite impacts. These seismic signals revealed that space rocks hit Mars almost daily, a rate about five times higher than previous estimates based solely on orbital imagery.

Planetary scientist Géraldine Zenhäusern of ETH Zurich, co-lead author of the study, stated, “This rate was about five times higher than the number estimated from orbital imagery alone.” This discovery underscores the value of seismology in measuring impact rates on planetary surfaces.

Contributions of Insight to Martian Geology

InSight's data showed that Mars experiences between 280 and 360 significant impacts annually, each creating craters larger than eight meters in diameter. These findings challenge previous estimates based on satellite imagery, which could only detect new craters on flat and dusty terrain covering less than half of Mars' surface.

The sensitive seismometer on InSight, however, could detect impacts across all terrains, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the frequency of these events. Natalia Wójcicka of Imperial College London explained the importance of this data, saying, “By using seismic data to better understand how often meteorites hit Mars and how these impacts change its surface, we can start piecing together a timeline of the red planet's geological history and evolution.

“You could think of it as a sort of ‘cosmic clock’ to help us date Martian surfaces, and maybe, further down the line, other planets in the Solar System.”

Understanding Mars' Geological History

The high frequency of meteorite impacts has significant implications for our understanding of Mars' geological history. By determining the rate at which craters form, scientists can better estimate the age of different surfaces on Mars. Surfaces with more craters are thought to be older, while those with fewer craters are younger.

This method, described by Wójcicka as a "cosmic clock," allows researchers to date Martian surfaces more accurately. The data from InSight not only enhances our knowledge of Mars but also provides a new tool for dating surfaces on other planets in the Solar System.

Challenges of Mars' Thin Atmosphere

Mars' thin atmosphere, which is over 100 times thinner than Earth's, offers little protection against meteorite impacts. As a result, space rocks can fall to the Martian surface largely unimpeded, creating a high impact rate. This is compounded by Mars' proximity to the asteroid belt, which increases the likelihood of impacts.

Previous methods of estimating the impact rate relied heavily on satellite imagery, which had limitations in detecting new craters on less visible terrains. The integration of seismic data from InSight has allowed scientists to overcome these limitations and gain a more accurate picture of Mars' impact history.

Implications for Future Exploration

The implications of these findings extend to future human exploration of Mars. Understanding the frequency and distribution of meteorite impacts is crucial for the safety and planning of future missions.

Domenico Giardini of ETH Zurich highlighted the significance of this research, stating, “This is the first paper of its kind to determine how often meteorites impact the surface of Mars from seismological data – which was a level one mission goal of the Mars InSight Mission.” The high rate of impacts suggests that Mars' surface is much more dynamic than previously thought, which is important for both robotic and human missions.

Advancing Planetary Science through Seismology

The success of InSight's seismometer in detecting meteorite impacts opens up new possibilities for planetary science. Deploying smaller, more affordable seismometers on future Mars landers could further enhance our understanding of the planet's impact rates and internal structure.

By capturing more seismic signals, these instruments would provide a richer dataset, improving our knowledge of Mars and other planets. As Wójcicka noted, “To understand the inner structure of planets, we use seismology. This is because as seismic waves travel through or reflect off material in planets’ crust, mantle, and core, they change. By studying these changes, seismologists can determine what these layers are made of and how deep they are.”

The integration of seismic data with other methods of planetary observation represents a significant advancement in our ability to study planetary surfaces and their histories. The insights gained from InSight's mission have laid the groundwork for future research and exploration, providing a clearer picture of Mars' geological activity and the challenges that lie ahead for human explorers.

This new understanding of Mars' impact history is not only crucial for scientific knowledge but also for the practical aspects of planning and executing missions to the red planet.

This remarkable footage, created using data from ESA’s Mars Express orbiter, provides an intricate view of the Martian surface, revealing the geological history of the Red Planet through its diverse and rugged terrain.

The video, constructed from high-resolution images captured by the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), offers a detailed exploration of one of Mars' most scientifically intriguing regions.

Ancient Impact and Geological Features

The Nili Fossae trenches are located along the eastern edge of the massive Isidis Planitia impact crater, one of the largest impact basins on Mars, measuring about 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) in diameter. These trenches, known as graben, are hundreds of meters deep and stretch for several hundred kilometers.

They were formed by the colossal impact of a meteorite billions of years ago, which fractured the Martian crust and caused the ground between parallel faults to drop down, creating the deep trenches observed today. ESA explains, "The trenches of Nili Fossae are believed to have formed following a colossal meteorite impact some 4 billion years ago.

This impact also created the 1,200-mile-wide Isidis Planitia crater." Similar geological features, known as Amenthes Fossae, can be found on the opposite side of the Isidis Planitia crater.

ESA Highlights Mineral Diversity and Water History at Nili Fossae on Mars

Nili Fossae has garnered significant scientific interest due to its rich diversity of minerals, including silicates, carbonates, and clays, which were discovered by Mars Express’s OMEGA instrument. These minerals form in the presence of water, indicating that the region was once very wet. This suggests that there was likely a river, lake, or other body of water here at some point in Mars' history.

ESA officials stated, "Scientists have focused on Nili Fossae in recent years due to the impressive amount and diversity of minerals found in this area. These minerals form in the presence of water, indicating that this region was very wet in ancient Martian history." The presence of these minerals points to a complex geological past and potential habitability conditions that could have supported microbial life.

Creating the Flyover Video

The video was produced using images captured by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) aboard Mars Express, combined with digital terrain models to create a 3D rendering of the landscape. These models provide an accurate representation of the topography, allowing for a realistic flyover experience.

The video first shows the detailed view of the trenches before pulling back to provide a broader perspective of the surrounding area, including the Jezero Crater, where NASA's Perseverance rover is currently exploring. The flyover offers a dynamic and immersive view of the Martian terrain, providing valuable insights into the planet's geological processes. This visualization helps scientists and the public alike to understand the scale and complexity of Mars' surface features.

Geological Insights and Future Exploration

The data from Mars Express not only enhances our understanding of Mars’ geological past but also aids in planning future exploration missions. By studying regions like Nili Fossae, scientists can identify promising landing sites for future missions, where signs of past water activity and diverse minerals suggest a higher potential for finding evidence of past life.

The diversity of minerals and the evidence of past water activity make Nili Fossae an intriguing target for continued study. "Much of the ground here formed over 3.5 billion years ago, when surface water was abundant across Mars," ESA officials noted, emphasizing the importance of this region in understanding Mars' history. The insights gained from these studies can help refine our search for ancient life and guide the selection of future mission targets.

The 120m (394ft) asteroid, technically titled 2024 JZ, will travel by the planet at a breathtaking 56,000 mph (90,123), 65 times quicker than a bullet.

However, there is no need panic just yet, as this asteroid will pass Earth at a safe distance of 2.6 million miles (4.2 million km).

NASA Warns of Near-Earth Asteroid Flyby

NASA classifies the asteroid as a 'near-Earth object' (NEO). Dr. Edward Bloomer, senior astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, told MailOnline: "Today's passing is not a concern at all, this is not the kind of thing we should be worrying about."

According to NASA: 'NEOs are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth's neighbourhood.

'Composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles, comets originally formed in the cold outer planetary system while most of the rocky asteroids formed in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.'

A NEO is defined as any object that is within 1.3 astronomical units (AU) (120.8 million miles) of the sun, and thus within 0.3 AU (27.8 million miles) of Earth's orbit.

Asteroids are considered 'possibly hazardous' if they pass within 0.05 astronomical units (4.65 million miles) of Earth and have a diameter of more than 140 metres (459 feet).

Even though 2024 JZ will be a completely safe distance of only 0.028 AU from Earth, this is regarded quite close in astronomical terms.

This tonight, a minor asteroid known as 2024 JT3 will pass within 12,000 miles (19,300 km) of Earth.

However, Juan Luis Cano from the ESA's Planetary Defence Office assured MailOnline that Earth is 'absolutely' safe.

Mr Cano claims that there is 'no possibility of striking the Earth.'

He continues: "In any case, a 5-10 m object would typically disintegrate in the atmosphere, releasing some small meteorites to the ground."

Exploring the Differences Between NEOs and Meteors

A network of professional and volunteer astronomers monitors NEOs as they move through the solar system.

Every month, they discover dozens of NEOs and accurately anticipate their courses.

In fact, huge objects like 2024 JZ going through Earth's orbit are so common that the ESA classifies it as a'very regular event'.

The vast majority of these items burn up in the planet's atmosphere and appear to us as shooting stars rather than landing on the ground.

Each year, the Earth passes through many intense clouds of debris left by comets, resulting in meteor showers like this month's Eta Aquariids.

NEOs vary from meteors in that they are large enough to transit through the atmosphere without being destroyed.

While today's close encounter is not cause for fear, Dr. Bloomer believes there is a risk of an impact in the future.'We're kind of gambling every day,' he admitted.

If 2024 JZ were on a threat intercept course, that would be a big problem because it's a big old chunk of rock moving pretty quickly.'

During the 1908 Tunguska Event, an asteroid less than half the size of 2024 JZ erupted over an area of Siberian woodland, destroying 830 square miles of trees.

Similarly, Dr. Bloomer points out that the Chelyabinsk meteor, which damaged 7,200 structures and injured 1,491 people in Russia, had a diameter of only 20 metres (65 feet).

Most concerning was the fact that the Chelyabinsk meteor had previously gone undetected when it struck with Earth.

As Mr Cano clarifies, while there is currently no relevant threat, 'the actual problem resides on the fact that there are still many NEOs to be found.'

How Does NASA Safeguard Earth from NEOs?

Fortunately, NASA has already invested in ways for protecting the planet from incoming asteroids.

In November 2021, the space agency conducted the DART mission, which sent a satellite into the side of Dimorphos, an asteroid approximately 6.8 million miles (10.9 million km) from Earth.

This experiment demonstrated that by hitting an asteroid with a small satellite early enough, the little impact could propel it into a safe orbit by the time it reaches Earth.

Dr Bloomer states: 'If you can get to it faster and further in advance then you actually need to make a smaller impact to make a bigger deflection over time.

'Whereas if you've got something that you don't detect until particularly late, then you've got to make more efforts to deflect it in time.'

While this operation was simply a rehearsal, it demonstrated that the planet could be rescued with enough advance notice.

Today’s stories include the Great Filter means we could die out before we discover alien life to White dwarf study suggests planets are as old as their stars to Early meteorites brought enough water to Mars to create a global ocean, and much more.

Why This Universe? A New Calculation Suggests Our Cosmos Is Typical, reports Charlie Wood for Quanta.com–Two physicists have calculated that the universe has a higher entropy — and is therefore more likely — than alternative possible universes.

Roger Penrose: “Consciousness must be beyond computable physics”–The mathematician shares his latest theories on quantum consciousness, the structure of the universe and how to communicate with civilizations from other cosmological aeons, reports New Scientist.

Will Galaxies and Intelligences They Host Beyond the Observable Universe Evolve Like Our Own? asks The Daily Galaxy. “The volume of space-time within range of our telescopes—what astronomers have traditionally called ‘the universe’—is only a tiny fraction of the aftermath of the big bang,” says astrophysicist Martin Rees. “We’d expect far more galaxies located beyond the horizon, unobservable, each of which –along with any intelligences it hosts– will evolve rather like our own.”

NASA’s Webb Draws Back Curtain on Universe’s Early Galaxies, reports NASA. “Everything we see is new. Webb is showing us that there’s a very rich universe beyond what we imagined,” said Tommaso Treu of the University of California at Los Angeles, principal investigator on one of the Webb programs. “Once again the universe has surprised us. These early galaxies are very unusual in many ways.”

No, there isn’t a hole in the Universe–The image you’re seeing isn’t a hole in the Universe, and the cosmic voids that do exist aren’t hole-like at all, reports Big Think. “The picture that normally accompanies it is wildly misleading, showing a dark cloud of gas and dust just a few hundred light-years away, not a large-scale cosmic structure. But the claim itself isn’t true; even in the deepest depths of the largest cosmic voids, lots of matter still remains, and so do stars, galaxies, and numerous electromagnetic signatures.”

Dark matter may be information itself, reports Melvin Vopson is Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Portsmouth for iAiTV. “Some have proposed that “information” is the 5th state of matter along solid, liquid, gas and plasma and possibly the dominant form of matter in the universe.”

Giant satellite outshines stars, sparking fresh concerns for astronomers–Transmissions from BlueWalker 3 also pose threat to radio observatories, reports Science.com. “It’s like exactly what astronomers don’t want,” says astronomer Meredith Rawls of the University of Washington, Seattle, who helps run the International Astronomical Union’s Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference. “It’ll show up as a superbright streak in images and potentially saturate camera detectors at observatories.”

The hunt for habitable ocean worlds beyond our solar system–Astronomers think that planets covered in water, with oceans hundreds of meters deep, could be relatively common in our galaxy. Now the race is on to find one, reports New Scientist.

Early meteorites brought enough water to Mars to create a global ocean–“Meteorites bombarding the Red Planet may have carried so much water that it could have covered the planet in a layer 300 metros deep if spread out, while also depositing molecules essential for life, reports New Scientist.

How to tell the difference between a regular black hole and a wormhole–Physicists have worked out how to see whether a black hole is actually a wormhole that could theoretically be travelled through – but we can’t tell yet with the black holes we have observed, reports New Scientist.

Sun-like star found orbiting closest black hole to Earth, reports Astronomy.com–“Located just under 1,600 light-years away, the discovery suggests there might be a sizable population of dormant black holes in binary systems.”

White dwarf study suggests planets are as old as their stars.–“Astronomers have long known how planets form, but the when of it has always been unclear. If a Cambridge University team’s conclusion from a study of white dwarf stars proves correct, that question has been answered,” reports The Register.

A Better Way To Search for Extraterrestrial Life–An airborne chemical sends a distinctive biological signal, reports SciTechDaily, “Broccoli, along with many other plants and microorganisms, release gases to aid in the removal of toxins. These gases, according to scientists, might provide strong evidence that there is life on other planets.”

What’s the real reason you can’t go faster than the speed of light? asks Big Think. “Space and time are unified into a single entity known as spacetime. And every object travels through spacetime at the speed of light. Even a stationary object is moving at the speed of light, but it is moving only through time and not space.”

Invisible Numbers Are the Most Beautiful Part of Every ‘Space’ Image–We are drawn to breathtaking images of the heavens, but there is beauty in the numbers those images hold, reports Fabio Pacucci for Scientific American.

Highlights From NASA’s Artemis Moon Rocket Launch--The uncrewed mission overcame scrubbed launches, hurricanes and late launchpad drama to kick off a key test of America’s ability to send astronauts back to the moon, reports The New York Times.

Great Filter means we could die out before we discover alien life, reports The Times of London. “Threats such as nuclear war, climate change and pandemics could finish off humanity before we have a chance to discover other intelligent life, continuing a cycle that scientists say may account for why extraterrestrials have not been found despite decades spent looking.”

Would Global Conflict Follow Alien Contact? asks Supercluster.com –“Anthropologist John Traphagan and geothermal physicist and former United States Air Force Major General, Ken Wisian, published a paper in the journal Space Policy, suggesting that SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, could be dangerous. However, the threat wouldn’t come from invading aliens, but from ourselves and our messy geopolitics.” 

Meteorite that landed in Cotswolds may solve mystery of Earth’s water–“a 4.6bn-year-old rock that crashed on to a driveway in Gloucestershire last year has provided some of the most compelling evidence to date that water arrived on Earth from asteroids in the outer solar system,” reports The Guardian.

Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

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Today’s stories include The Time Oxygen Almost Killed Everything to Could You Survive the Quietest Place on Earth to Are We About to Find Alien Life? and much more.

How will the space economy change the world? asks McKinsey. “Pharmaceutical companies might establish a lab on a space station to study cell growth, for instance, or semiconductor companies might manufacture chips in extraterrestrial factories to determine whether any aspects of the space environment, such as the lack of gravity, improve the process. Such possibilities, which might have seemed like the stuff of science fiction a few years ago, could become an essential part of a business across multiple industries in the near future.”

Rise of Oxygen –An Evolutionary Moment that Shaped Our Planet, reports The Daily Galaxy. “Oxygen flooded into the atmosphere as a pollutant, even a poison, until natural selection shaped living things to thrive on the stuff and, indeed, suffocate without it,” wrote evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins.

Unique features of octopus create ‘an entirely new way of designing a nervous system’, reports the University of Chicago Medical Center. “A new study has described something new and totally unexpected about the octopus nervous system: a structure by which the intramuscular nerve cords (INCs), which help the animal sense its arm movement, connect arms on the opposite sides of the animal. The startling discovery provides new insights into how invertebrate species have independently evolved complex nervous systems. 

A New Brain Model Could Pave the Way for Conscious AI, reports SciTechDaily. “Our model demonstrates how the neuro-AI convergence highlights biological mechanisms and cognitive architectures that can fuel the development of the next generation of artificial intelligence and even ultimately lead to artificial consciousness,” said team member Guillaume Dumas, an assistant professor of computational psychiatry at the University of Montreal.

What Octopus and Human Brains Have in Common--“Octopuses have a massively expanded repertoire of miRNA in their neural tissue, reflecting a similar development to that which occurred in vertebrates. Findings suggest miRNA plays a significant role in the development of complex brains,” reports Neuroscience News.

The World Could Be Entering a New Era of Climate War–Runaway climate change once seemed like it could spur violence. Now a different risk has emerged, reports Robinson Meyer for The Atlantic.

Could I Survive the ‘Quietest Place on Earth’?–Legends tell of an echoless chamber in an old Minneapolis recording studio that drives visitors insane. I figured I’d give it a whirl,  reports Caity Weaver for New York Times Science.

Survival of the friendliest: How dogs evolved to be man’s best friend | 60 Minutes–Anderson Cooper reports on the evolution of dogs from wild wolves to domesticated pets and what this might tell us about human evolution.

Mauna Loa Volcano in Hawaii Erupts for the First Time in Nearly 40 Years--No evacuation orders were issued, but officials advised residents to review their preparedness plans. The volcano last erupted in 1984, reports The New York Times. 

The evolution of Asia’s mammals was dictated by ancient climate change and rising mountains, reports The Field Museum.

Scientists Revive 48,500-Year-Old ‘Zombie Virus’ Buried in Ice, reports NDtv –“The revived virus has been given the name Pandoravirus yedoma, based on its size and the permafrost soil it has been found in.”

Physicists Debunk Myths About Quantum Theory including one that stumped Einstein. Debates about quantum mechanics can often get muddled, reports Inverse.

Hidden Ecosystems? NASA’s New Evidence of Vast Life Lurking Beneath Antarctic Ice, reports SciTechNews.

The Brain Uses Calculus to Control Fast Movements–Researchers discover that to sharpen its control over precise maneuvers, the brain uses comparisons between control signals — not the signals themselves, reports Quanta.com.

North Africa’s Covid ‘black hole’ reports BBC Future. “Last year Morocco – which has recorded more than 1.2 million cases of Covid-19, more than any other in Africa except for South Africa – boasted the highest vaccination rate on the continent. “

The search for Britain’s lost rainforests and the battle to save them--Fragments of temperate rainforest grow in parts of England, Wales and Scotland, and with the right action we could help them thrive, reports New Scientist.

Einstein didn’t think time was an illusion, reports iAiTV–“Despite Einstein revolutionizing our understanding of time, nothing in his theory of relativity suggests that the distinction between past, present, and future is an illusion.” 

The Visions of Octavia Butler–As a science fiction writer, Butler forged a new path and envisioned bold possibilities. On the eve of a major revival of her work, this is the story of how she came to see a future that is now our present, reports Lynell George for The New York Times.

Researchers discover two new minerals on meteorite grounded in Somalia–Canadian scientists hail ‘phenomenal’ finds from iron-based 15-ton meteorite elaliite and elkinstantonite, reports The Guardian. 

525-Million-Year-Old Fossil Defies Common Explanation for Brain Evolution, reports SciTechDaily. “Fossils of a tiny sea creature that died more than half a billion years ago may compel a science textbook rewrite of how brains evolved.”

Dolphins Whistle Their Names with Complex, Expressive Patterns–A new study quantifies how dolphins vary their “signature whistles”, reports Rebecca Dzombak for Scientific American.

San Francisco considers allowing law enforcement robots to use lethal force, reports NPR.

Can This Man Stop Lying?--Christopher Massimine, whose compulsive lying derailed a promising career in theater, maintains that it’s a mental illness that has dogged him since childhood, reports Ellen Barry and Dave Sanders for The New York Times.

Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

Your free daily fix of  stories of space and science –a random journey from Planet Earth through the Cosmos– that has the capacity to provide clues to our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our Anthropocene epoch.

Yes, Sign Me Up for “The Galaxy Report” Newsletter

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories range from Ancient source of oxygen for life discovered hidden deep in the Earth’s crust to A biochemist’s view of life’s origin reframes cancer and aging, and much more.

Ancient source of oxygen for life hidden deep in the Earth’s crust, reports Newcastle University. “Scientists at Newcastle University have uncovered a source of oxygen that may have influenced the evolution of life before the advent of photosynthesis.”

A Biochemist’s View of Life’s Origin Reframes Cancer and Aging, reports Quanta. –“The biochemist Nick Lane,  a professor of evolutionary biochemistry at University College London, thinks life first evolved in hydrothermal vents where precursors of metabolism appeared before genetic information. What if life arose in a geological environment where electrochemical gradients across tiny barriers occurred naturally, supporting a primitive form of metabolism while cells as we know them evolved?” His ideas could lead us to think differently about aging and cancer. See the Nick Lane video below.

Salt Might Be the Key to Extraterrestrial Life, reports SciTech Daily. ” Purdue University researchers led by Stephanie Olson, assistant professor of earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences, have discovered that the presence of salt in seawater can also have a significant impact on the habitability of Earth and other planets.”

Newly Discovered Super-Earth ‘Ross 508b’, Located Just 37 Light-Years Away, May Possess Potential to Support Life, reports Weather.com. “Tthis ‘super-Earth’ is a rocky world with a mass around four times that of our Earth. And a year on Ross 508b lasts for just 11 Earth-days! This, of course, means that its orbit is not very large — which is understandable because red dwarfs are a lot smaller than the Sun that centers our solar system

A.I. Is Not Sentient. Why Do People Say It Is? “Robots can’t think or feel, despite what the researchers who build them want to believe,” reports  Cade Metz for New York Times Technology.

The Human Brain Did Not Shrink 3,000 Years Ago –In new paper, UNLV-led anthropology team balks at a widely held belief that modern humans experienced an evolutionary decrease in brain size. 

This Robot Dog Has an AI Brain and Taught Itself to Walk in Just an Hour, reports Singularity Hub.

When the Surgeon Was an Uneducated Barber–-A medical student confronts the history of surgery, reports Michael Denham for Nautilus.

NASA on UFOs –In the three decades since the discovery of the first exoplanets, science has gradually been overtaking science fiction. As noted recently at Scientific American, thinking about UFOs is no longer presumptive evidence of membership in the lunatic fringe, reports Mind Matters.

Earth broke the record for the shortest day since atomic clocks were invented, reports Megan Marples for CNN. “The atomic clock is a standardized unit of measurement that has been used since the 1950s to tell time and measure the Earth’s rotation, said Dennis McCarthy, retired director of time at the US Naval Observatory.”

An Interstellar Object May Have Struck Earth. Scientists Plan to Search The Ocean, reports Science Alert. “Back in 2014, an object crashed into the ocean just off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Data collected at the time indicated that the meteorite just might be an interstellar object, and if that’s true, then it’s only the third such object known (after ‘Oumuamua and Borisov), and the first known to exist on Earth.”

How the Ocean Sustains Complex Life –Detailed data about a host of physical and chemical forces are shaping a new view of the sea, reports Scientific American.

Scientists Invent a Paper Battery—Just Add Water, reports Scientific American. A new disposable battery is made of paper and other sustainable materials and is activated with a few drops of water

What Science Says About the Exercise Habits That Slow Aging–Want to slow aging? Make your body and brain 10 years younger with these exercise tips, reports Eat This Not That.

Is Earth getting closer to the sun, or farther away? asks Charles Q. Choi for LiveScience. And will this change in distance affect our planet’s climate?

The Guardian view on accelerating global heating: follow the science. “The scientists behind a new database of more than 400 extreme weather attribution studies have performed an essential service. This piece of work, drawing together every study of this type, ought to galvanize a greater sense of urgency around policymaking and campaigning. It spells out the alarming unpredictability as well as the extent of global heating’s consequences.

‘What a Horrible Place This Would Have Been’ –Archaeologists found the remains of 14 soldiers who died in a pivotal Revolutionary War battle — a fresh reminder of the violence of war, reports New York Times Science. “On Oct. 22, 1777, the army repelled a major assault by Hessian forces. Little-known today, the Battle of Red Bank was brief and ferocious, marking one of the worst defeats the Hessians suffered in the war.”

A brief history of Esperanto, the 135-year-old language hated by Hitler and Stalin–Can a shared language promote peace? Some people think so, reports Big Think.

How Darkness Can Illuminate the Insect Apocalypse –Insects may have been evolving to avoid light. So maybe we need to look harder for them, reports Nautilus.

The unexpected evolutionary benefits of celibacy--While becoming a monk is an evolutionary dead end for the individual, celibacy reaps benefits for the group as a whole, reports Big Think. “A new study in Tibet finds that men with monk brothers have more children and more wealth. The authors propose that sending some children into the abbey reduces sibling competition for resources and improves outcomes for the group.”

The Mysterious Dance of the Cricket Embryos--A team of biologists and mathematicians studied hours of video to learn how insects take shape in the egg. The secret is geometry, reports New York Times Science.

Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

Recent Planet Earth Reports:

NASA Zooms in on UFOs to Is Life the Result of Entropy?

James Webb Space Telescope’s Super-Secret Targets to Is Geometry a Language Only Humans Know?

Critics Horrified by World’s First Octopus Farm to Quest for Immortality

China’s One-of-a-Kind Cyber-Espionage to Multiverse of Universes All with Randomly Dialed Higgs Masses Virus from

Age of Dinosaurs Found in Human Genome to Is Earth’s Core a Weird State of Matter?

Why are NASA Spaceships Exploring Earth’s Deepest Oceans to Is Reality a Wavefunction? 

The Terrifying Message Lurking in Earth’s Ancient Record to Robots Evolving Autonomously

The Quantum Century to Events That Could Have Ended Humanity

The ‘Douglas Adams Epoch’ to Earth’s Earliest Life May Owe Existence to Viruses

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you daily news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories include Why Do Humans Die to The Moon Stole Something From Deep Inside Earth Eons Ago and How is it that  a Nuclear Weapon Never Accidentally Detonated? The Planet Earth Report brings you news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and the future of our planet.Why Do Humans Die? asks the BBC Future. “Certain jellyfish and their relatives offer tantalizing clues as to whether immortality is possible – so why does death become the rest of us?”

The Big Bang didn’t happen –What do the James Webb images really show? reports iAi TV. “The Big Bang Hypothesis – which states the universe has been expanding since it began 14 billion years ago in a hot and dense state – is contradicted by the new James Webb Space Telescope images, writes Eric Lerner. Why do the JWST’s images inspire panic among cosmologists? And what theory’s predictions are they contradicting?”

The Moon Stole Something From Deep Inside Earth Eons Ago, and Scientists Can Prove It, reports Science Alert. “Earth and its Moon are unique in the Solar System. Earth is the only planet with just one moon, and that Moon is pretty influential. In fact, without the Moon, life on Earth may not have emerged, some research suggests.” 

Researchers discover an immense hydrocarbon cycle in the world’s ocean –Hydrocarbons that trace their origin to biological sources may play a large role in ocean ecology, reports the National Science Foundation. 

The language that doesn’t use ‘no’, reports BBC Future– “Nepal’s Kusunda language has no known origin and a number of quirks, like no words for “yes” or “no”. It also has only one fluent speaker left, something linguists are racing to change.”

The power of quiet: The mental and physical health benefits of silence –In an increasingly noisy world, neuroscientists are discovering exactly what kind of silence has the most dramatic impact on your mental health – from flotation tanks to guided meditation – and how much you really need, reports New Scientist.

The Boy Bosses of Silicon Valley Are on Their Way Out--They rode their unicorns to fame and fortune. In a rocky market, it got a little less fun, reports New York Times Technology.

The crab invading the Mediterranean Sea, reports BBC Future. “Almost a thousand alien, or non-native species have been listed in Mediterranean waters. Some of these pests are becoming a surprising source of opportunity.”

Wildlife under stress as dry spell shrinks rivers, reports The BBC. nic species such as the salmon, kingfisher and otter, are of particular concern, according to the Rivers Trust

Interstellar meteorite may be awaiting discovery on the sea floor –A pair of astronomers say that classified US government sensors detected an interstellar meteor hitting Earth in 2014. Now they want to mount a $1.6 million expedition to find fragments of it on the sea floor, reports New Scientist.

How has a nuclear weapon never accidentally detonated? –reports Ross Pomeroy for Big Think. “They’re called “broken arrows“: unexpected events involving nuclear weapons that result in “accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft, or loss.” Ever since nuclear weapons came into existence over 75 years ago, there have been at least 32 such events, yet none has resulted in a calamitous atomic explosion. This begs the simple question: how? Because there certainly have been close calls.”

Ice core taken in Antarctica contains sample of atmosphere from five million years ago, reports Bob Yirka for Phys.org.

Compared with the lightning that is recorded over the continents, only about one-tenth as many strikes occur at sea. One of nature’s most intense spectacles can be tamed with humble sea salt, the same stuff that graces some dinner tables. Researchers recently found that the frequency of lightning decreases by up to 90 percent in the presence of salty sea spray, reports Katherine Cornei for the New York Times.

Giant yellow crustacean in an aquarium turns out to be new species –A new species of creamy-yellow isopod was hiding in plain sight in Japan’s Enoshima Aquarium. It was first found in the Gulf of Mexico and mistaken for another species, reports New Scientist.

Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

Recent Planet Earth Reports:

NASA Zooms in on UFOs to Is Life the Result of Entropy?

James Webb Space Telescope’s Super-Secret Targets to Is Geometry a Language Only Humans Know?

Critics Horrified by World’s First Octopus Farm to Quest for Immortality

China’s One-of-a-Kind Cyber-Espionage to Multiverse of Universes All with Randomly Dialed Higgs Masses Virus from

Age of Dinosaurs Found in Human Genome to Is Earth’s Core a Weird State of Matter?

Why are NASA Spaceships Exploring Earth’s Deepest Oceans to Is Reality a Wavefunction? 

The Terrifying Message Lurking in Earth’s Ancient Record to Robots Evolving Autonomously

The Quantum Century to Events That Could Have Ended Humanity

The ‘Douglas Adams Epoch’ to Earth’s Earliest Life May Owe Existence to Viruses

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you daily news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

This weekend’s stories include There Could Be 42,777 Intelligent Alien Civilizations In Our Galaxy to Would the ‘Human Evolutionary Niche’ Be Filled If We Go Extinct to Why Earth Just Had Its Shortest Day on Record, and much more.

There Could Be 42,777 Intelligent Alien Civilizations In Our Galaxy,  according to a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal “sometime in the next 2,000 years. It’s a decent explanation for the Fermi Paradox, which asks why we still haven’t received any messages from other civilizations despite there being a high probability of them existing,” reports Jamie Carter for Forbes.

China now insists the pandemic didn’t start within its borders. Its scientists are publishing a flurry of papers pointing the finger elsewhere, reports Science. “A team of 21 researchers from the country’s leading academic institutions had trapped more than 17,000 bats, from the subtropical south to the frigid northeast, and tested them for relatives of SARS-CoV-2. The number they found: zero.”

Planet of Apes Hypothesis: Would the ‘Human Evolutionary Niche’ Be Filled If We Go Extinct? reports The Daily Galaxy. “A mutation in the brain of a single human being 200,000 years ago turned intellectually able primates into a super-intelligent species that would conquer the world. Homo sapiens appears to be a genetic accident. We failed to build a radio during the first 99% of our 7 million year existence.”

Earth’s Orbital Shifts May Have Triggered Ancient Global Warming –“A new study combining astronomical and geologic data hints at an extraterrestrial cause for extreme climate change 56 million years ago,” reports Scientific American.

New Evidence Points to the Moon Once Being Part of Earth –Gases trapped in lunar meteorites hint that the moon was formed out of material displaced from Earth after a planetary collision, reports Wired. 

Scientists are asking the public to name 20 exoplanetary systems observed by the Webb telescope. Here’s how to submit your idea, reports CNN. “The International Astronomical Union, the organization in charge of naming celestial objects, is launching the NameExoWorlds 2022 Competition to give the public a chance to christen some of the first exoplanetary systems to be seen by the telescope.”

The Fermi Paradox Revisited and Resolved? asks The Daily Galaxy. “It’s possible that the Milky Way is partially settled, or intermittently so; maybe explorers visited us in the past, but we don’t remember, and they died out,” says Jonathan Carroll-Nellenback, an astronomer at the University of Rochester and his collaborators in a 2019 study that suggests it wouldn’t take as long as thought for a space-faring civilization to planet-hop across the galaxy, because the orbits of stars can help distribute life, offering a new solution to the Fermi paradox.”

Million-Year-Old Ice in Antarctica. “Scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division are getting so close to discovering how to predict the earths climate changes that are coming.”

Oldest Homo sapiens fossil claim rewrites our species’ history, reports Ewen Callaway for Nature. “Remains from Morocco dated to 315,000 years ago push back our species’ origins by 100,000 years — and suggest we didn’t evolve only in East Africa.”

Here’s Why Earth Just Had Its Shortest Day on Record –Earth’s rotation speeds up and slows down, shaving off or adding milliseconds to our 24-hour count. Beyond just being a quirk of a rotating planet, these variations in day length are also affected by ancient ice sheets, powerful winds and the dynamics of our planet’s core, reports Scientific American.

Self-Taught AI Shows Similarities to How the Brain Works–Self-supervised learning allows a neural network to figure out for itself what matters. The process might be what makes our own brains so successful, reports Quanta, 

Humans Contribute to Earth’s Wobble, Scientists Say–Droughts, melting ice and rising seas linked to anthropogenic climate change are altering the planet’s motions, reports Scientific American.

Mathematical model of animal growth shows life is defined by biology, not physics. “Despite the fact that living organisms cannot break the laws of physics, evolution has shown itself to be extraordinarily adept at finding loopholes,” said lead study author Professor Craig White, from the Monash University School of Biological Sciences, and the Center for Geometric Biology.”

How Chewing Shaped Human Evolution –An experiment revealed that chomping on slightly tougher material requires markedly more energy. Spending less time on mastication may go hand in hand with human evolution, reports New York Times Science.

Ancient Coin Discovery With An Astronomical Mystery--What does the ancient coin found recently off the shores of Israel depict? reports Universe Today. “It all started with the recent amazing discovery of the ancient Roman coin off the coast of Haifa, Israel in the Mediterranean Sea. The bronze coin depicts the zodiac sign of Cancer, along with the Moon goddess Selene and crescent Moon. The ancient coin would have been part of a set of twelve, depicting the houses of the zodiac.

The Megalodon Was Bigger, Faster and Even Hungrier –A 3-D model developed by researchers suggests that the extinct megashark was fiercer than paleontologists previously imagined reports New York Times Science. “There are other fossilized vertebrae that are 50 percent larger than those used in the model, suggesting a maximum length of 65 feet, which is longer than a modern humpback whale. The model megalodon’s jaws could open wide enough to gobble a 26-foot orca in as few as five bites.”

Sharpest Image Ever of Universe’s Most Massive Known Star –Groundbreaking observation from Gemini Observatory suggests this and possibly other colossal stars are less massive than previously thought, reports NOIR Lab.

Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you twice-weekly news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Recent Galaxy Reports:

Unmistakable Signal of Alien Life to What Happens if China Makes First Contact?

Clues to Alien Life to A Galaxy 100 x Size of Milky Way 

Cracks in Einstein’s Theory of Gravity to Colossal Shock Wave Bigger than the Milky Way 

Monster Comet Arriving from the Oort Cloud to Black Hole Apocalypse 

Enigmas of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist 

Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids of the Milky Way 

Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter to Are Black Holes Holograms

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories range from China rejects NASA accusation it will take over the moon to The Large Hadron Collider will embark on a third run to uncover more cosmic secrets to Scientists find new “exotic” configurations of quarks that may explain how our Universe is formed, and much more.

China rejects NASA accusation it will take over the moon –The U.S. space agency chief said China’s space program was a military one and that China had stolen ideas and technology from others, reports NBC News. “We must be very concerned that China is landing on the moon and saying: ‘It’s ours now and you stay out’,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told German newspaper Bild in an interview published on Saturday. China replied saying it has always called for the building of a community of nations in outer space.

How the Multiverse could break the scientific method –There is nothing more important to science than its ability to prove ideas wrong. “The Multiverse is the fascinating hypothesis that ours is not the only Universe.  We can never be certain that the Multiverse exists. Still, we need to venture into the unknown if we are to make any progress. At the core of the debate is the authority of the scientific method itself,” reports Big Think.

Unusual Fossil Galaxy Discovered on Outskirts of Andromeda – Could Reveal History of the Universe, reports SciTechDaily. “A unique ultra-faint dwarf galaxy has been discovered on the outer fringes of the Andromeda Galaxy thanks to the discerning eyes of an amateur astronomer examining archival data processed by NSF’s NOIRLab’s Community Science and Data Center. The dwarf galaxy — Pegasus V — was revealed to contain very few heavier elements and is likely to be a fossil of the first galaxies.”

The Large Hadron Collider will embark on a third run to uncover more cosmic secrets, reports NPR. “Ten years ago, scientists were able to discover the Higgs Boson particle and help make sense of the our universe using the Large Hadron Collider. They did it again in 2018, unlocking new insights on protons. Now, with a new host of questions, they plan to restart the particle accelerator this month to possibly better understand cosmic unknowns like dark matter.”

Icy Water worlds are exoplanets with enough water to form a hydrosphere. “EARTH’S OCEANS ARE one huge, uniform electrolyte solution. They contain salt (sodium chloride) and other nutrients like magnesium, sulfate, and calcium. We can’t survive without electrolytes, and life on Earth might look very different without the oceans’ electrolyte content. It might even be non-existent.”

Pentaquarks: scientists find new “exotic” configurations of quarks that may explain how our Universe is formed, reports The BBC. “Scientists have found new ways in which quarks, the tiniest particles known to humankind, group together. The new structures exist for just a hundred thousandth of a billionth of a billionth of a second but may explain how our Universe is formed.”

10 surprising facts about the Big Bang Theory–It’s the origin of our entire observable Universe, but it’s still not the very beginning of everything, reports Big Think. “The Big Bang was a simple idea that goes back all the way to the 1920s: that the Universe is expanding and cooling now, and therefore, was hotter and denser in the past. Having made a series of successful predictions that no other theory can match, it’s widely accepted as the origin story for our Universe. But the Big Bang is so much more than that.”

Search for habitable exoplanets included in China’s upcoming space missions, reports Brett Tingley for Space.com. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has selected candidates for its next round of space missions, which are projected to launch between 2026 and 2030.

Ancient galaxy’s spin suggests universe’s first stars quickly coalesced into disks, reports Science.com. Result suggests NASA’s Webb telescope will have plenty of galactic targets from the baby universe.

Carbon may not be the only basis for life. We need to look harder. On Earth, carbon can form millions of compounds, while silicon is largely stuck inside rocks. But elsewhere, silicon could form the basis of life, reports Big Think. Science fiction narratives often posit the existence of silicon-based life forms elsewhere in the Universe. We need to be more open-minded and less Earth-centric in our hunt for life in the Cosmos.

Stunning images from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year shortlist revealed, reports Metro.com– “‘Awe-inspiring scenes of the Milky Way rising, galaxies colliding, stellar nurseries, the luminous Aurora Borealis dancing across the night’s sky and Saturn balanced by its moons all feature in the shortlist for this year’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year,’ said a spokesperson from the award.”

The futuristic South Pole Telescope looks far back in time reports the Argonne National Laboratory. “Surveying the cosmos from its isolated position in Antarctica, a collaborative project aims to reveal insights about the universe’s beginnings.”

Ancient meteorite upends our ideas of how Mars formed –Meteorite analysis hints that early Mars got important volatile elements like hydrogen and oxygen from meteorite collisions rather than a cloud of gases, reports New Scientist.

The Largest Alcohol Molecule in Space Near the Center of the Milky Way Has Been Identified, May Lead to a  a New Star Formation. “Researchers may have discovered the largest alcohol in space in the form of propanol. For the first time, normal-propanol has been detected in a star-forming region, along with isopropanol that has never been seen in the interstellar form before, according to Science Alert.”

What If the Large Hadron Collider Doesn’t Find Anything Else? asks Nature.com. “On the tenth anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs boson, it’s worth emphasizing that there’s a lot more to particle physics than particle hunting.”Many are disappointed that the LHC hasn’t yet found any hints of something at odds with the standard model that could represent a step towards a more complete theory.”

Who owns Einstein? The battle for the world’s most famous face–Thanks to a savvy California lawyer, Albert Einstein has earned far more posthumously than he ever did in his lifetime. But is that what the great scientist would have wanted, asks Simon Parkin for The Guardian.

Powerful radio pulses originating deep in the cosmos can be used to study hidden pools of gas cocooning nearby galaxies, according to a new study appearing in the journal Nature Astronomy.

10 surprising facts about the Big Bang Theory--It’s the origin of our entire observable Universe, but it’s still not the very beginning of everything, reports Ethan Siegel for Big Think. “The Big Bang was a simple idea that goes back all the way to the 1920s: that the Universe is expanding and cooling now, and therefore, was hotter and denser in the past. Having made a series of successful predictions that no other theory can match, it’s widely accepted as the origin story for our Universe.”

Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you twice-weekly news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Recent Galaxy Reports:

Unmistakable Signal of Alien Life to What Happens if China Makes First Contact?

Clues to Alien Life to A Galaxy 100 x Size of Milky Way 

Cracks in Einstein’s Theory of Gravity to Colossal Shock Wave Bigger than the Milky Way 

Monster Comet Arriving from the Oort Cloud to Black Hole Apocalypse 

Enigmas of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist 

Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids of the Milky Way 

Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter to Are Black Holes Holograms

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories range from  to is the Metaverse Science Fiction or Reality to Seven Spectacular Lessons from Webb’s First Image to the Quantum Theory of Consciousness Put in Doubt, and much more.

Seven spectacular lessons from James Webb’s first deep-field image –Even with only 12.5 hours of exposure time, James Webb’s first deep-field image taught us lessons we’ve never realized before, reports Big Think. “Despite devoting just 1/50th of the time that went into Hubble’s deepest image of the Universe, the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field, JWST has revealed details we’ve never seen before.”

Webb Telescope Reveals a New Vision of an Ancient Universe, reports The New York Times, “The universe was born in darkness 13.8 billion years ago, and even after the first stars and galaxies blazed into existence a few hundred million years later, these too stayed dark. Their brilliant light, stretched by time and the expanding cosmos, dimmed into the infrared, rendering them — and other clues to our beginnings — inaccessible to every eye and instrument. Until now.

Organic molecules found in a Mars rock were probably not from Martian life, reports Phil Plait for SyFy Wire. “In the last days of 1984, a team of meteorite hunters spotted a dark rock in the ice of Antarctica. Fifteen centimeters long and tipping the scale at nearly 2 kilos, it’s a big space rock, and analysis of gases trapped in bubbles in the rock showed beyond doubt that it came from Mars. “

Why we shouldn’t fear the search for alien life–But rather than hope that the extraterrestrials have launched signals our way, let’s knock on their door — and get their attention, reports Seth Shostak for NBC “Think.” 

The Metaverse: Science Fiction or Reality? –We tend to overestimate a technology’s abilities in the near term, and massively underestimate what it can do in the long term., reports Quillette.com. “In Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash, he envisaged the metaverse (meta + universe) as a 3D virtual world that existed parallel to the real world, similar to a simulation where people can use avatars or virtual humans to interact with each other.”

Imaginary numbers are real –These odd values were long dismissed as bookkeeping. Now physicists are proving that they describe the hidden shape of nature, reports Aeon.com. “Though imaginary numbers have been integral to quantum theory since its very beginnings in the 1920s, scientists have only recently been able to find their physical signatures in experiments and empirically prove their necessity.”

Are cryptocurrencies a Ponzi scheme? Here’s the view from two sides, reports Interesting Engineering. One side predicts the crypto cycle will ‘collapse instantaneously and the value will be zero.’ Bitcoin and cryptocurrency have faced a $2 trillion crash over the last six months, and some experts fear worse is to come. As Forbes points out, China’s Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) has had its say on the current situation, calling bitcoin and cryptocurrency “the biggest Ponzi scheme in human history.”

Physicists Find The ‘Missing Link’ That Could Provide Quantum Internet Technology, reports Science Alert–“new research shows is that certain defects in the silicon – known as T centers – can act as photonic (or light-based) links between qubits.”

Quantum theory of consciousness put in doubt by underground experiment, reports Physics World. “Based on results from an experiment done under Gran Sasso mountain in Italy, the new work concludes that Roger Penrose’s and Stuart Hameroff’s Orchestrated Objective Reduction theory (Orch OR) is “highly implausible” when based on the simplest type of gravity-related wavefunction collapse – although they point out that more complex collapse models leave some wiggle room.

If Octopuses are Really Smart, Should We Eat Them, asks Mind Matters–“Extraordinary recent science discoveries re octopus intelligence have created an ethical dilemma: Octopus arms (tentacles) are gourmet delicacies in Korea, Japan, and the Mediterranean countries and many poor people make a living providing them. Factory farming is of octopuses is slowly becoming practical. But should we do to them what we wouldn’t do to dogs?

Mysterious artifacts hint at ‘another realm’ of ancient China–Bronze Age artifacts found in China were burned to commune with ‘another realm,’ reports Live Science.

40 facts about Earth to deepen your knowledge of the planet. Want to know more about planet Earth? Here are some surprising facts about it, reports Interesting Engineering. For example, “The Earth is made mostly of just four elements to The vast majority of fresh water on Earth is frozen.”

Protecting planet Earth from asteroids–“The threat of asteroids is real,” NASA scientist Elena Adams said during a panel discussion June 28 on international cooperation for planetary defense. Adams is the systems engineer for the first planetary defense mission, known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). The DART mission is a collaboration among NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency.

Robot that can perceive its body has self-awareness, claim researchers –The team claims to have given a robot self-awareness of its location in physical space, but others are skeptical, reports New Scientist.

The Case for Popularizing Ocean Science –Why Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Carlie Wiener thinks octopuses and science fiction matter to ocean conservation, reports Nautilus.

A company aims to power the world for millions of years by digging the deepest holes ever. And it utilizes a nuclear fusion technology, reports Interesting Engineering. “An MIT spinout aims to use X-rays to melt rock and repurpose coal and gas plants into deep geothermal wells – effectively transforming dirty fossil-fuel plants into clean ones.”

Why spending time near water gives us a powerful mental health boost–We have long known that connecting with nature in green spaces is great for our mental health. Now fresh research is showing that time near water – by the coast, rivers and even fountains in the park – is even more restorative, reports New Scientist.

The unseen whale killer–Ocean noise pollution is terrible for sealife. Reducing it could be an easy win. “Over the past 50 years, increased shipping has contributed to a 30-fold increase in the low-frequency noise present along major shipping routes – Lucille Chapuis.”

Astrophysicist Paul Sutter explains the world’s seeming lack of trust in science, reports astrophysicist Paul Sutter for Ars Technica. “The public has a very strange relationship with science. Perennial issues of public mistrust like evolution and climate change have recently been joined by a range of conspiracy theories about the COVID pandemic—even the shape of the Earth has become an issue.”

James Webb’s first science images: before-and-after –Now that it’s fully commissioned, the James Webb Space Telescope begins its exploration of the Universe, reports Big Think.

Webb’s Record-Breaking First Image Shows Why We Build Telescopes –A new galaxy-packed picture from the James Webb Space Telescope offers a chance to rekindle our wonder about the universe, reports  Grant Tremblay for Scientific American.

The Explosive Ambitions of Kate the Chemist –At the lecture halls of the University of Texas or on TV, Kate Biberdorf is working to catalyze more people into careers in science, reports The New York Times. “The dream is Vegas.That is not a typical aspiration of someone who teaches chemistry to undergraduates. For Dr. Biberdorf — better known as Kate the Chemist — that dream is part of her goal to capture the fun of scientific exploration and to entice children, especially girls, to consider science as their life’s calling.”

Eight Superfoods That Could Future-Proof Our Diet –These climate-resilient crops could find more prominent placement on our plates in the next few decades, reports The Smithsonian.

When does the fetus become a “person”? The philosophy of gradualism provides a moral guide. Gradualism rejects the idea of a “bright line” in the abortion debate, reports Big Think.

Here’s what we know sex with Neanderthals was like, reports BBC Future. “Scientists know a surprising amount about the titillating episode in human history when our species got together, including whether we kissed and the nature of their sexual organs.”

Microparticles could be used to deliver “self-boosting” vaccines –With particles that release their payloads at different times, one injection could provide multiple vaccine doses, reports MIT News.

Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

Recent Planet Earth Reports:

NASA Zooms in on UFOs to Is Life the Result of Entropy?

James Webb Space Telescope’s Super-Secret Targets to Is Geometry a Language Only Humans Know?

Critics Horrified by World’s First Octopus Farm to Quest for Immortality

China’s One-of-a-Kind Cyber-Espionage to Multiverse of Universes All with Randomly Dialed Higgs Masses Virus from

Age of Dinosaurs Found in Human Genome to Is Earth’s Core a Weird State of Matter?

Why are NASA Spaceships Exploring Earth’s Deepest Oceans to Is Reality a Wavefunction? 

The Terrifying Message Lurking in Earth’s Ancient Record to Robots Evolving Autonomously

The Quantum Century to Events That Could Have Ended Humanity

The ‘Douglas Adams Epoch’ to Earth’s Earliest Life May Owe Existence to Viruses

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you daily news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories from our amazing Universe range from Two Weeks In, the Webb Space Telescope Is Reshaping Astronomy to How did Earth avoid a Mars-like fate? to We are Not the First Technological Civilization, and much more.

Could we use quantum communication to talk to aliens? asks Big Think. “Quantum communication offers a surer path to sending an interstellar message, as well as receiving one. But can we do it? We have yet to hear from any civilization outside planet Earth. Maybe there’s nothing out there. But maybe we are not listening in the right way. Quantum communication uses the quantum nature of light to send a message. Whether we can use such a communication method remains to be seen.”

Schrödinger and the conscious universe. The total number of minds in the universe is one, reports iAi. “Most assume that matter is fundamental, and that consciousness arises out of the complexity of matter. But Nobel Prize winning quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger does not share that assumption. For him, the universe contains a single mind, writes Robert Prentner and Donald D. Hoffman.”

Two Weeks In, the Webb Space Telescope Is Reshaping Astronomy –In the days after the mega-telescope started delivering data, astronomers reported exciting new discoveries about galaxies, stars, exoplanets and even Jupiter, reports Quanta.

The Extraterrestrials Before Us –“We are Not the First Technological Civilization” (Or, are We?) reports The Daily Galaxy. “Are we an aberration, an evolutionary accident, or are we one of millions of evolving beings scattered throughout the distant reaches of the cosmos?

James Webb telescope finds oldest galaxy in the universe –-The James Webb Telescope has hit upon another marvel in the universe — the oldest galaxy that ever existed, reports India Today. “The light from GLASS-z13 took 13.4 billion years to hit the mirrors of James Webb Telescope.”

Could Ultra-Massive Black Holes Threaten Their Host Galaxies? asks The Daily Galaxy. ““We do know that black holes are extraordinary phenomena,” said Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo, professor in the Department of Physics at Université de Montréal about the ultra-massive behemoths lurking at most galaxy centers. “So it’s no surprise that the most extreme specimens defy the rules that we have established up until now.”

JWST finds galaxies may adopt Milky Way-like shape faster than thought –“Astronomers thought that galaxies in the early universe would mostly be shapeless blobs, but an analysis of data from the James Webb Space Telescope suggests around half are disc-shaped like the Milky Way,” reports New Scientist.

Alien hunters should look for city lights from ‘urbanized planets,’ study suggests, reports Leonard David for Space.com. Lights from alien cities are an intriguing potential technosignature. “For example, sharp-eyed aliens scrutinizing Earth’s nightside might be able to deduce our presence via the emissions from city lights here, even though such emissions are relatively concentrated. And advanced civilizations on exoplanets may have built cities over significantly more of their planets’ surfaces.”

Earth’s ‘black hole police’ discover gravitational singularity near Milky Way –The team behind the discovery describe finding the aftermath of a star that vanished without any sign of a powerful explosion as like finding “a needle in a haystack,” reports Sky News.

Will the James Webb Space Telescope Reveal Unknown, Hidden Objects at the Milky Way’s Center? asks The Daily Galaxy. “NASA’s recently launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), designed to view the universe in infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye, but is very important for looking at astronomical objects hidden from our view, obscured by vast swaths of interstellar dust at the galactic center in unprecedented detail.

Astronomers have found an especially sneaky black hole – The discovery of VFTS 243, a binary system, sheds light on star death, black hole formation and gravitational waves, reports Idan Ginsburg for The Conversation. 

TRAPPIST-1 Star System is the Ultimate James Webb Space Telescope Target, reports The Daily Galaxy. “How frequently is life found elsewhere?” asked the research teams at the University of Cambridge and the University of Liège in Belgium. This simple change of words means that we should also be investigating planetary systems unlike the solar system. It would be disappointing and surprising if Earth were the only template for habitability in the Universe.”

How did Earth avoid a Mars-like fate? Ancient rocks hold clues, reports The University of Rochester. “New paleomagnetic research suggests Earth’s solid inner core formed 550 million years ago and restored our planet’s magnetic field.”

Uranus: 15 amazing facts about the bull’s eye planet–Think you know about the planet Uranus? Think again, reports Interesting Engineering. “The seventh planet from the Sun, Uranus is one of the strangest and least understood planets in the Solar System. Four times bigger than Earth, this planet has both short days and incredibly long years.

Disco-ball satellite will put Einstein’s theory to strictest test yet –A newly launched satellite aims to measure how Earth’s rotation drags the fabric of space-time around itself — an effect of Einstein’s general theory of relativity — ten times more accurately than ever before. The Laser Relativity Satellite 2 (LARES-2) launched from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 13 July, reports Davide Castelvecchi for Nature. “

Mars rocks photographed today give a glimpse into a fascinating world. The red planet is finally coming into clear view, reports Interesting Engineering. “Thanks to instruments aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover, we finally have images of the Martian landscape to see how an intrepid hiker might see it. And it’s beautiful.”

Russia Says It Will Quit the International Space Station After 2024. “The announcement could lead to the end of two decades of post-Cold War cooperation in space between the United States and Russia, which built the station together and operate it jointly,” reports The New York Times.

50,000-year-old meteorite could revolutionize electronics and fast-charging –The “Diablo Canyon” meteorite is a gift from the past, reports Interesting Engineering.

New Phase of Matter Opens Portal to Extra Time Dimension–Physicists have devised a mind-bending error-correction technique that could dramatically boost the performance of quantum computers, reports Scientific American.

How Earth’s 23.4° tilt makes life beautiful –-Many of humanity’s cultural traditions are based upon the movement of our planet around the Sun. The summer and winter solstices and the spring and autumn equinoxes take on special significance, reports this Big Think audio.

Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you twice-weekly news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Recent Galaxy Reports:

Unmistakable Signal of Alien Life to What Happens if China Makes First Contact?

Clues to Alien Life to A Galaxy 100 x Size of Milky Way 

Cracks in Einstein’s Theory of Gravity to Colossal Shock Wave Bigger than the Milky Way 

Monster Comet Arriving from the Oort Cloud to Black Hole Apocalypse 

Enigmas of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist 

Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids of the Milky Way 

Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter to Are Black Holes Holograms

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories range from Could the Blueprint for Life Have Been Generated in Asteroids to Do AI Systems Really Have Their Own Secret Language to How Plate Tectonics, Mountains, and Deep-Sea Sediments Have Maintained Earth’s ‘Goldilocks’ Climate, and much more.

Could the Blueprint for Life Have Been Generated in Asteroids? asks NASA. While it is unlikely that DNA could be formed in a meteorite, this discovery demonstrates that these genetic parts are available for delivery and could have contributed to the development of the instructional molecules on early Earth. The discovery, by an international team with NASA researchers, gives more evidence that chemical reactions in asteroids can make some of life’s ingredients, which could have been delivered to ancient Earth by meteorite impacts or perhaps the infall of dust.

Do AI Systems Really Have Their Own Secret Language? asks Singularity Hub. ” AI language models don’t read text the way you and I do. Instead, they break input text up into “tokens” before processing it.

James Webb Space Telescope Set to Study Two Strange Super-Earths –Space agency officials promise to deliver geology results from worlds dozens of light-years away, reports Elizabeth Howell, at Space.com

Is life the result of the laws of entropy? –Nearly 80 years ago, Erwin Schrödinger used the physics of the day to try to understand the origins of life. Now, Stephon Alexander and Salvador Almagro-Moreno try to do the same with modern science, reports New Scientist.

NASA is putting together a research team to study UFOs. Still not saying it’s aliens, though, reports The Verge. “The study team, to be led by astrophysicist David Spergel under NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, will attempt to identify what data is out there on UAPs and figure out how to best capture data on UAPs in the future. NASA noted that the limitations in sightings make it hard to come to logical conclusions about where UAPs come from.”

Why haven’t plastic-eating bacteria fixed the ocean plastic pollution problem? Scientists have discovered enzymes from several plastic-eating bacteria. So, why are our oceans still full of plastic pollution? asks Big THink.

Could we live without plastic? –How our lives would change if we lost access to plastic, reports BBC Future. “Of the 8,300 million tons of virgin plastic produced up to the end of 2015, 6,300 million tons has been discarded. In fact, plastic waste is now so widespread that researchers have suggested it could be used as a geological indicator of the Anthropocene.”

How the universe got its magnetic field –Where did the “seed” magnetic field come from in the first place? asks Big Think. “Professor Ellen Zweibel of the University of Wisconsin at Madison notes that “despite decades of remarkable progress in cosmology, the origin of magnetic fields in the universe remains unknown. It is wonderful to see state-of-the-art plasma physics theory and numerical simulation brought to bear on this fundamental problem.”

Can gravity batteries solve our energy storage problems? asks BBC Future. “Could a cutting-edge technology that harnesses one of the universe’s fundamental forces help solve our energy storage challenge?”

What Is It About the Human Brain That Makes Us Smarter Than Other Animals? asks Singularity Hub. “Our understanding of brain function has changed over the years. But current theoretical models describe the brain as a “distributed information-processing system.” This means it has distinct components that are tightly networked through the brain’s wiring. To interact with each other, regions exchange information though a system of input and output signal.”

How Plate Tectonics, Mountains, and Deep-Sea Sediments Have Maintained Earth’s ‘Goldilocks’ Climate, reports Singularity Hub. “New research published in Nature shows how tectonic plates, volcanoes, eroding mountains, and seabed sediment have controlled Earth’s climate in the geological past. Harnessing these processes may play a part in maintaining the “Goldilocks” climate our planet has enjoyed.”

Pandemic, war, and climate change have brought matters to a head. The world faces what the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, this week called “an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution.”

Scientists Have Established a Key Biological Difference Between Psychopaths and Normal People, reports SciTechDaily. “The research found that the striatum region of the brain was on average ten percent larger in psychopathic individuals compared to a control group of individuals that had low or no psychopathic traits.”

Geology from 50 Light-Years: Webb Gets Ready to Study Rocky Worlds, reports NASA. “Among the investigations planned for the first year are studies of two hot exoplanets classified as “super-Earths” for their size and rocky composition: the lava-covered 55 Cancri e and the airless LHS 3844 b. Researchers will train Webb’s high-precision spectrographs on these planets with a view to understanding the geologic diversity of planets across the galaxy, and the evolution of rocky planets like Earth.”

Can humanity leave nature behind? asks BBC Future. “In the face of environmental collapse, humanity may need to turn to artificial replacements for nature – how might we avoid the most dystopian of these futures? Researcher Lauren Holt makes the case for a broader form of “offsetting” to help balance technology with natural systems.”

Notes on “E.T.,” now that we are both in our 40s. In a never-ending homage economy, the lack of a sequel doesn’t necessarily mean a story can be at rest, reports Salon.com. 

Galapagos tortoise thought extinct for 100 years has been found alive –A single female of the Fernandina Island tortoise species that was thought to be extinct for a century has been found in the Galapagos Islands, reports New Scientist. 

Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

Recent Reports:

James Webb Space Telescope’s Super-Secret Targets to Is Geometry a Language Only Humans Know?

Critics Horrified by World’s First Octopus Farm to Quest for Immortality

China’s One-of-a-Kind Cyber-Espionage to Multiverse of Universes All with Randomly Dialed Higgs Masses Virus from

Age of Dinosaurs Found in Human Genome to Is Earth’s Core a Weird State of Matter?

Why are NASA Spaceships Exploring Earth’s Deepest Oceans to Is Reality a Wavefunction? 

The Terrifying Message Lurking in Earth’s Ancient Record to Robots Evolving Autonomously

The Quantum Century to Events That Could Have Ended Humanity

The ‘Douglas Adams Epoch’ to Earth’s Earliest Life May Owe Existence to Viruses

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you daily news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories range from Why Einstein is a “peerless genius” and Hawking is an “ordinary genius” to Bizarre dwarf galaxy discovery to Superweapon of the Cosmos that could melt you from 1,000 km away, and much more.

China’s FAST Telescope Did Not Find an Alien Signal. The Search Continues, reports The New York Times. China’s astronomers have been initiated into the search for extraterrestrial intelligence with the kind of false alarm that others in the field have experienced for decades.

The universe is surprisingly lopsided and we don’t know why –Two analyses of a million galaxies show that their distribution may not be symmetrical, which may mean that our understandings of gravity and the early universe are incorrect, reports New Scientist.

Why Einstein is a “peerless genius” and Hawking is an “ordinary genius” –You’ve heard of Stephen Hawking. Ever heard of Renata Kallosh? Didn’t think so, reports this Big Think podcast.

Seven newfound dwarf galaxies sit on just one side of a larger galaxy –The satellites should surround the larger galaxy, but they don’t. “This satellite distribution is just weird,” astronomer Eric Bell said June 13 at the American Astronomical Society meeting. “The part that’s just bananas,” Bell said, is that the newfound satellite galaxies all sit on one side of M81.”

Behold the Magnetar, nature’s ultimate superweapon–Their magnetic fields—the strongest we’ve observed—could melt you from 1,000 km away, reports Paul Sutter for Ars Technica. “There are balls of dead matter no bigger than a city yet shining a hundred times brighter than the Sun that send out flares of X-rays visible across the galaxy. Their interiors are made of superfluid subatomic particles, and they have cores of exotic and unknown states of matter. Their lifetime is only a few thousand years.”

The James Webb Space Telescope: Prepare for a New Way To See the Universe, reports SciTechDaily. 

Astronomers discover a multiplanet system nearby--Astronomers at MIT and elsewhere have discovered a new multiplanet system within our galactic neighborhood that lies just 10 parsecs, or about 33 light-years, from Earth, making it one of the closest known multiplanet systems to our own.

US Congress House Intelligence Committee on unidentified aerial phenomena –“We now have dozens of instances of weird aerial objects that have been picked up on “multiple instruments,” not to mention spotted by trained pilots. In 18 of them, the phenomena seemed to move with no evident source of propulsion or seemed to be masking the way they move — their “signature” — in ways we do not think any country on earth has the technology to do,” reports Ezra Klein for the New York Times.

Ancient meteorite upends our ideas of how Mars formed–Meteorite analysis hints that early Mars got important volatile elements like hydrogen and oxygen from meteorite collisions rather than a cloud of gases, reports New Scientist.

Using the Sun as a Gravitational Lens Would Let Us See Exoplanets With Incredible Resolution, reports Universe Today. “A group of researchers are working on plans to build a spacecraft that could apply this quirk by using our Sun as a gravitational lens. Their goal is to see distant exoplanets orbiting other stars, and to image an Earth-like exoplanet, seeing it in exquisite detail, at a resolution even better than the well-known Apollo 8 Earthrise photo.”

Hubble spies stellar ‘ghost’ wandering the Milky Way galaxy, reports CNN. “Astronomers believe that 100 million free-floating black holes roam our galaxy. Now, researchers believe they have detected such an object. The detection was made after dedicating six years to observations — and astronomers were even able to make a precise mass measurement of the extreme cosmic object.”

Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you twice-weekly news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Recent Galaxy Reports:

Unmistakable Signal of Alien Life to What Happens if China Makes First Contact?

Clues to Alien Life to A Galaxy 100 x Size of Milky Way 

Cracks in Einstein’s Theory of Gravity to Colossal Shock Wave Bigger than the Milky Way 

Monster Comet Arriving from the Oort Cloud to Black Hole Apocalypse 

Enigmas of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist 

Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids of the Milky Way 

Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter to Are Black Holes Holograms

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories range from The James Webb is About to Take Us to the “Edge of Time” to 4 Signs of Alien Tech That Could Lead Us to Extraterrestrial Life, and much more. “The Galaxy Report” brings you news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

A blueprint for life forms on Mars? reports McGill University. “if you want to learn more about the kinds of life forms that could once have existed—or may still exist—on Mars, the Arctic’s Lost Hammer Springs is a good place to look. After much searching under extremely difficult conditions, McGill University researchers have found microbes that have never been identified before. Moreover, by using state-of-the-art genomic techniques, they have gained insight into their metabolisms.”

What if the aliens we are looking for are AI?, asks Richard Hollingham for The BBC Future. “or more than a century we have been broadcasting our presence to the cosmos. This year, the faintest signals from the world’s first major televised event – the Nazi-hosted 1936 Olympics – will have passed several potentially habitable planets. The first season of Game of Thrones has already reached the nearest star beyond our Solar System. So why hasn’t ET called us back?”

“New Inflation” and the Many Worlds of the Multiverse

In a Parallel Universe, Another You. As they probe the secrets of the cosmos, scientists question whether our reality is but one in a multiverse, reports physicist Michio Kaku for The New York Times. “Today, many of the world’s top physicists are embarking on this cosmic quest, whose far-reaching reverberations span our understanding of reality and the meaning of existence. It would be the crowning achievement of thousands of years of scientific investigation, since ancient civilizations also wondered how the universe was created and what it is made of.”

These 4 signs of alien technology could lead us to extraterrestrial life, reports Marcus Chown for BBC Science Focus. Pioneering scientists think we should start looking for extraterrestrials in a whole new way: by seeking out alien technology.

Betelgeuse ‘Great Dimming’ Mystery Solved by Satellite Photobomb–Images from Japan’s Himawari-8 spacecraft shed light on the red supergiant star’s remarkable fading, reports Scientific American. 

Something Strange is Impacting the Atmosphere of Venus: Is it Life?, asks The Daily Galaxy. “Researchers from the University of Cambridge have concluded: “If life was responsible for the sulphur (SO2) levels we see on Venus, it would break everything we know about Venus’s atmospheric chemistry.” 

Water-rich exoplanets and icy Moons like Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus are potential targets for astrobiologists looking for signs of life elsewhere in the cosmos, reports Yahoo News. But until recently it was assumed that for many water-rich exoplanets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, ice forming deep in the planet would keep important minerals in their rocky core from water closer to the surface.

How Does NASA Get Back to the Moon? Practice, Practice, Practice, reports The New York Times. The agency mostly completed a dress rehearsal of the fueling and countdown of its rocket, a crucial step before it can launch an uncrewed capsule around the moon.

Ancient meteorite upends our ideas of how Mars formed--Meteorite analysis hints that early Mars got important volatile elements like hydrogen and oxygen from meteorite collisions rather than a cloud of gases, reports New Scientist.

The gaming tech that may help find alien life, reports The BBC Future. “An iconic Australian telescope has begun a major new search for ET – using some everyday tech to help locate signals.”

Astronomer Feryal Özel on what the first two pictures of black holes tell us. Feryal Özel is one of the pioneers of black hole photography. With two pictures in the album, she explains what we have learned about these gravitational monsters – and what comes next.

James Webb is about to take us to the “edge of time”. Here’s why that’s even cooler than it sounds, reports Dr Katie Mack for BBC Science Focus. NASA’s newly launched space telescope is a spectacular upgrade, allowing us to see deeper into the past than ever before.

Will we ever unite physics? Clocks in superposition could offer clues –Physicists have long sought to marry general relativity and quantum mechanics – now some reckon experiments that probe the way each theory treats time could finally make it happen.

Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you twice-weekly news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Recent Galaxy Reports:

Unmistakable Signal of Alien Life to What Happens if China Makes First Contact?

Clues to Alien Life to A Galaxy 100 x Size of Milky Way 

Cracks in Einstein’s Theory of Gravity to Colossal Shock Wave Bigger than the Milky Way 

Monster Comet Arriving from the Oort Cloud to Black Hole Apocalypse 

Enigmas of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist 

Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids of the Milky Way 

Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter to Are Black Holes Holograms

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories range from “They are Not Ours” Says Michio Kaku –Over 400 declassified UFO sightings defy the ‘normal laws of physics’ to Webb telescope is set to solve mysteries of our solar system, and much more. “The Galaxy Report” brings you news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Webb telescope is nearly set to solve mysteries of our solar system, reports Thaddeus Cesari, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “The Webb team recently completed the first test to track a moving object. The test verified that Webb could conduct moving target science! As we move forward through commissioning, we will test other objects moving at various speeds to verify we can study objects with Webb that move throughout the solar system.”

Shards of the Planet Mercury May Be Hiding on Earth--New research explains how meteorites called aubrites may actually be shattered pieces of the planet closest to the sun from the early days of the solar system, reports Jonathan O’Callaghan for The New York Times.

Pulitzer Prize for Staff of Quanta Magazine, notably Natalie Wolchover for coverage that revealed the complexities of building the James Webb Space Telescope, designed to facilitate groundbreaking astronomical and cosmological research.

World’s Astronomers on the Significance of the First Image of Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole–“Several of the world’s leading astronomers and scientists emailed their thoughts to The Daily Galaxy on the significance of the fist image by the Event Horizon Collaboration of our Galaxy’s supermassive black hole. Their comments validate Albert Einstein’s observation that “the scientific imagination is a preview of coming attractions,” reports The Daily Galaxy.

Pairs of giant planets may make their star systems ultra-habitable –Simulations of more than 140,000 possible planetary systems show that pairs of giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn may make their star systems more hospitable to habitable Earth-like worlds, reports New Scientist.

Milky Way’s black hole was the ‘birth cry’ of radio astronomy, reports the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. “he first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy brings radio astronomy back to its celestial birthplace. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) made the new, landmark image of the same region from which came the first cosmic radio waves ever detected. That detection, by Bell Telephone Laboratories engineer Karl Jansky in 1932, was the beginning of radio astronomy.”

Seventy-Year-Old Astronomy Photos May Be Clues to Alien Visitors, reports Inverse. ““We found one image where nine stars were out there, and they vanished. And they are not there half an hour earlier, and they are not there six days later,” says Beatriz Villarroel, a postdoctoral researcher at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics. ‘And you wonder, ‘Is this real?’”

“They are Not Ours” Michio Kaku –Over 400 declassified UFO sightings defy the ‘normal laws of physics. — Theoretical physics professor Michio Kaku discusses the hundreds of UFO encounters that Pentagon officials recently unveiled, on ‘Cavuto Live.’

What would an antimatter black hole teach us?–Everything is made of matter, not antimatter, including black holes. If antimatter black holes existed, what would they do? asks Ethan Siegel in his podcast for Big Think.

Hubble Peers Through The Mysterious Shells of This Gigantic Elliptical Galaxy, reports Carolyn Collins for Universe Today. “At about two and a half times larger than our Milky Way Galaxy, it’s really a behemoth with a strange structure – mostly featureless and nearly round, but with layered shells wrapped around the central core. Astronomers want to know what caused these shells. The answer might be in what this galaxy represents: a vision of the future Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.

A century ago, Alexander Friedmann envisioned the universe’s expansion –He saw that Einstein’s equations predicted multiple cosmic scenarios, including a Big Bang, reports Science News. ““The new vision of the universe opened by Friedmann,” writes Russian physicist Vladimir Soloviev in a recent paper, “has become a foundation of modern cosmology.”

Alien civilizations like us ‘extremely rare’ in the universe, reports The Metro –“It took the best part of four billion years to go from the origin of life on Earth to a civilization. ‘That’s a third of the age of the age of the universe, and that is a long time, so that may indicate that microbes may be common, but things like us may be extremely rare,’ says British astrophysicist Brian Cox.

Stronger gravity in the early universe may solve a cosmological conundrum, reports Paul Sutter for Space.com –“The inflationary epoch that caused our universe to rapidly expand in its earliest moments may be connected to the modern era of dark energy, thanks to a phantom component of the cosmos that changes the strength of gravity as the universe evolves, a physicist proposes in a new paper.”

How Many Humans Can the Solar System Support? –What if asteroids were raw materials for bodies? What if you dismantled all of Jupiter to build us new homes? asks Slate.com

NASA Mission Finds Tonga Volcanic Eruption Effects Reached Space –When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai volcano erupted on Jan. 15, 2022, it sent atmospheric shock waves, sonic booms, and tsunami waves around the world. Now, scientists are finding the volcano’s effects also reached space. Analyzing data from NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, mission and ESA’s Swarm satellites, scientists found that in the hours after the eruption, hurricane-speed winds and unusual electric currents formed in the ionosphere.

Pulsars may power cosmic rays with the highest-known energies in the universe –Their magnetic environs are perfect for boosting particles to ultrahigh energies, reports Science News.

Professor Brian Cox: Maybe humans are the Martians--Cox has reflected on the possibility that humans could be Martians – rather than the suspected life forms on the planet of Mars.The renowned physicist told the BBC’s Sunday Morning program there were still lots of unknowns and suggested that life on Earth could have originated elsewhere.

Black Hole Collision Might’ve Sent Invisible Abyss Hurtling Through Space –Two black holes smashed into each other. The force may have been powerful enough to boot the resulting object into deep space, reports CNET.

Where Did Life on Earth Come from, exactly? It’s one of the most fundamental questions that scientists have yet to fully explain, and it offers a tantalizing premise for Hollywood screenwriters and directors to explore through science fiction — albeit not always accurately. One film that tackled this topic head-on was Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, the 2012 sci-fi movie that served as a prequel of sorts to the Alien franchise, reports Inverse.

Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you twice-weekly news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Recent Galaxy Reports:

Unmistakable Signal of Alien Life to What Happens if China Makes First Contact?

Clues to Alien Life to A Galaxy 100 x Size of Milky Way 

Cracks in Einstein’s Theory of Gravity to Colossal Shock Wave Bigger than the Milky Way 

Monster Comet Arriving from the Oort Cloud to Black Hole Apocalypse 

Enigmas of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist 

Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids of the Milky Way 

Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter to Are Black Holes Holograms? 

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories range from “Will our remote progeny be the first intelligences to spread through the galaxy? Or will they encounter something already out there, whose origins lie on a planet around an older star where evolution had a head start over us? to Event-Horizon Telescope astronomers set to announce major discovery about the center of Our Milky Way Galaxy, and much more. The Galaxy Report” brings you news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Could space-going billionaires be the vanguard of a cosmic revolution? For humanity truly to slip the surly bonds of Earth, private funds and intrepid thrill-seekers will be required, reports Martin Rees, astronomer royal, for The Guardian. “Will our remote progeny be the first intelligences to spread through the galaxy? Or will they encounter something already out there, whose origins lie on a planet around an older star where evolution had a head start over us?”

“What Could It Be?” Event-Horizon Telescope Astronomers Set to Announce Major Discovery About the Center of Our Milky Way Galaxy –Astronomers responsible for producing the first-ever image of a black hole in 2019 are about to make an announcement about something at the center of The Milky Way on May 12.  Could it be an image of Sagittarius A* our galaxy’s supermassive black hole or the detection of an ancient cosmic string from the dawn of the Cosmos? 

The aliens we need to worry about, reports Chris Impey is a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, for The Conversation.” In the coming months, two teams of astronomers are going to send messages into space in an attempt to communicate with any intelligent aliens who may be out there listening. These efforts are like building a big bonfire in the woods and hoping someone finds you. But some people question whether it is wise to do this at all.”

Planet-sized telescopes could be possible using quantum technique –Huge networks of interconnected telescopes may run into image-sharpening problems that classical physics can’t handle. Accounting for the quantum properties of starlight could allow astronomers to get past these constraints, reports New Scientist.

A ‘galaxy’ is unmasked as a pulsar — the brightest outside the Milky Way –Astronomers have confirmed that an object they thought was a distant galaxy is actually the brightest extra-galactic pulsar ever seen. The team made the discovery using a technique that blocks a particular type of polarized light, similar to polarized sunglasses, which could be used to spy more ‘hidden’ pulsars, reports Nature.

The Case for Technosignatures: Why They May Be Abundant, Long-lived, Highly Detectable, and Unambiguous The intuition suggested by the Drake equation implies that technology should be less prevalent than biology in the galaxy. However, it has been appreciated for decades in the SETI community that technosignatures could be more abundant, longer-lived, more detectable, and less ambiguous than biosignatures, reports Penn State’s Jason Wright.

Why “distance” is not what it seems in the expanding Universe –Look out at a distant object, and you’re not seeing it as it is today. It’s size, brightness, and actual distance are all different, reports Big Think. “In our actual Universe, however, not only are all three different from one another, none of them match the actual “distance” without corrections. Here’s why.”

Doctor Strange: Could we really be living in a multiverse? Are there universes where the laws of physics do not apply, like in the newest Doctor Strange outing? reports Prof Richard Bower is Professor of Cosmology at Durham University for BBC Science Focus.

Why doesn’t Earth have Trojan asteroids of its own? Large impacts in the early years of the solar system may be to blame, reports Sky & Telescope. “Why doesn’t Earth have Trojan asteroids of its own? Large impacts in the early years of the solar system may be to blame.”

NASA Hubble Links 25 Alien Worlds, Introduces New Dawn of Exoplanet Research –-A bunch of Jupiter-like giants have strikingly similar atmospheric conditions — opening the door to an ultimate, unified theory of planet formation, reports CNet.

NASA Visualization Rounds Up the Best-Known Black Hole Systems –Nearby black holes and their stellar companions form an astrophysical rogues’ gallery in this new NASA visualization. See video below.

The Antarctic Meteorite That Changed Our Perception of Life in the Universe –Controversy over aliens in an ancient rock from Mars helped redefine the search for life on other planets, reports CNet. “The major legacy of that rock is that it basically drives a huge amount of what is happening in planetary science,” says Gretchen Benedix, an astrogeologist at Curtin University in Western Australia.

Large Hadron Collider Seeks New Particles after Major Upgrade –Long-awaited boosts to the world’s most powerful collider could spur breakthroughs in the hunt for physics beyond the Standard Model, reports Scientific American. 

Supermassive black hole birth and growth may involve eating lots of stars, reports Phil Plait for SyFy –“One of the most pernicious mysteries in astronomy right now is easy to state but proving ridiculously hard to answer: How do supermassive black holes form?

Simple is beautiful: Why evolution repeatedly selects symmetrical structures –Symmetrical objects are less complex than non-symmetrical ones. Perhaps evolution acts as an algorithm with a bias toward simplicity, reports Big Think.

NASA Sees ‘Otherworldly’ Wreckage on Mars With Ingenuity Helicopter –The debris was part of the equipment that helped the Perseverance mission safely land on the red planet in 2021, reports the New York Times.

Gravitational Wells of Spacetime –Search reveals eight new sources of black hole echoes among the tens of millions of black holes scattered across the Milky Way.— immensely strong gravitational wells of spacetime, from which infalling matter, and even light, can never escape. –The findings will help scientists trace a black hole’s evolution as it feeds on stellar material, reports MIT.

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you twice-weekly news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Recent Galaxy Reports:

Unmistakable Signal of Alien Life to What Happens if China Makes First Contact?

Clues to Alien Life to A Galaxy 100 x Size of Milky Way 

Cracks in Einstein’s Theory of Gravity to Colossal Shock Wave Bigger than the Milky Way 

Monster Comet Arriving from the Oort Cloud to Black Hole Apocalypse 

Enigmas of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist 

Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids of the Milky Way 

Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter to Are Black Holes Holograms? 

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories range from Isaac Asimov: The biochemist who created new worlds to Scientists Investigate Supermassive Black Hole Ancestor from Universe’s ‘Cosmic Dawn’ to Astronomers and an Astronaut to Reveal their Favorite Worlds Orbiting Distant Stars, and much more. “The Galaxy Report” brings you news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Einstein wasn’t a “lone genius” after all –Even the most brilliant mind in history couldn’t have achieved all he did without significant help from the minds of others, reports Big Think.

Letter to an Extraterrestrial – Paul B. Preciado –It begins: “Forgive my lack of subtlety: I am just a small, warm-blooded multicellular being whose life expectancy is between 75 and 95 revolutions of the planet earth around the Sun, and I have a cognitive capacity that although it is the result of millions of years of evolution on this planet, is also the consequence (curious fate) of the violence wrought by my species on itself.”

Hubble Sheds Light on Origins of Supermassive Black Holes –Astronomers have identified a rapidly growing black hole in the early universe that is considered a crucial “missing link” between young star-forming galaxies and the first supermassive black holes. They used data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to make this discovery, reports NASA.

Scientists investigate supermassive black hole ancestor from universe’s ‘Cosmic Dawn’, reports Elizabeth Howell for Space.com –“Researchers investigating the object in a new study have termed the object, dubbed GNz7q, the “ancestor of a supermassive black hole,” as it was created just 750 million years after the Big Bang took place, sparking our universe 13.8 billion years ago.”

Infinity has long baffled mathematicians – have we now figured it out? –Mathematicians have long known infinity comes in many sizes, but how do they relate to one another? The key lies in a 150-year-old mystery known as the continuum hypothesis, reports New Scientist.

Imagine Another World. Now Imagine 5,000 More. –NASA recently announced that it had detected more than 5,000 exoplanets, so we asked astronomers, actors and an astronaut to share their favorite worlds orbiting distant stars, reports Becky Ferreira for The New York Times.

Isaac Asimov: The biochemist who created new worlds –Marking 30 years since the death of Isaac Asimov, one of the most prolific and popular science fiction writers in history, reports The Jerusalem Post. “When he was 21, his story “Nightfall” became a huge success. The story, which deals with a surprising solar eclipse on a planet that had never experienced darkness, was, in the late ‘60s, chosen as the best science fiction story of all times, voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America.”

How Saturn’s Enceladus Got its Stripes –“Computer models find that Enceladus got its tiger stripe cracks when the moon cooled and ice grew downward, causing pressure and stress to form the cracks. A new study was released in Geophysical Research Letters detailing a possible answer for how Saturn’s ocean moon, Enceladus, may have gotten its tiger stripes and how the geysers erupting from those stripes work. The team used a physics-based model to map out the various conditions responsible for the eruptions, and what they found were cycles of warming and cooling that thin and thicken the moon’s ice shell.”

Hubble Spies a Serpentine Spiral, reports NASA –“The lazily winding spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 5921 snake across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy lies approximately 80 million light-years from Earth, and much like our own galaxy, the Milky Way, contains a prominent bar – a central linear band of stars. Roughly half of all spiral galaxies may contain bars. These bars affect their parent galaxies by fueling star formation and influencing the motion of stars and interstellar gas.”

Tiny Galaxies Reveal Secrets of Supermassive Black Holes –Dwarf galaxies weren’t supposed to have big black holes. Their surprise discovery has revealed clues about how the universe’s biggest black holes could have formed, reports Charlie Wood for Quanta.

Why I’m choosing dark matter over dark energy – for now at least –Dark matter is my focus these days, but the intractable problems of dark energy and cosmic acceleration are still on my mind, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, for New Scientist.

NASA’s New SPHEREx Could Unlock The Mysteries Of The Universe –-NASA’s new telescope is out to answer the big questions and has the technology to do it. SPHEREx will focus on the Big Bang, galaxies and water, reports Screen Rant.

The Real Impact of Meteorites on Earth--Life as we know it was seeded by rocks from outer space, reports Brian Gallagher for  Nautilus.

China gears up for new space station missions, record-breaking crew set to return home, reports SpaceNews.

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you twice-weekly news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Recent Galaxy Reports:

Unmistakable Signal of Alien Life to What Happens if China Makes First Contact?

Clues to Alien Life to A Galaxy 100 x Size of Milky Way 

Cracks in Einstein’s Theory of Gravity to Colossal Shock Wave Bigger than the Milky Way 

Monster Comet Arriving from the Oort Cloud to Black Hole Apocalypse 

Enigmas of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist 

Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids of the Milky Way 

Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter to Are Black Holes Holograms? 

Mystery of Stephen Hawking’s “Exxon Gravity” to Alien Life in Stellar Graveyards 

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Phosphates, a key building block for life, was found to be generated in outer space and delivered to early Earth by meteorites or comets. All living beings need cells and energy to replicate. Without these fundamental building blocks, living organisms on Earth would not be able to reproduce and would simply not exist.

“On Earth, phosphine (PH3) is lethal to living beings,” said University of Hawaii researchers in their study, Did key building blocks for life come from deep space?. “But in the interstellar medium, an exotic phosphine chemistry can promote rare chemical reaction pathways to initiate the formation of biorelevant molecules such as oxoacids of phosphorus, which eventually might spark the molecular evolution of life as we know it.”

Venus: Secrets of Our Strange Sister Planet

Key Element in the Building Blocks of Life

Little was known about a key element in the building blocks, phosphates, until now. University of Hawaii at Manoa researchers, in collaboration with colleagues in France and Taiwan, provide compelling new evidence that this component for life was found to be generated in outer space and delivered to Earth in its first one billion years by meteorites or comets. The phosphorus compounds were then incorporated in biomolecules found in cells in living beings on Earth.

Phosphine on Venus: A Red Herring?

A September 2020 report that there may be phosphine gas in the Venusian clouds came with a stunning implication: extraterrestrial life. On Earth, phosphine is a chemical produced by some kinds of bacteria that live in oxygen-poor conditions. Its presence on Venus, announced by a team led by Cardiff University’s Jane Greaves, raised the possibility that there could be life in what has long been thought one of the most inhospitable environments in the solar system: a planet that’s covered in thick clouds of sulfuric acid, with an atmosphere that’s 96% carbon dioxide, and where the pressure at the surface is 100 times greater than Earth’s. Oh, and it experiences temperatures up to 471 °C—well above the melting point of lead.

Since the initial report, though, doubt about the finding has crept in. Three different preprint papers (none of which have been published in a peer-reviewed journal, although one has been accepted) were unable to find the same evidence of phosphine on Venus.

“Instead of phosphine in the clouds of Venus, the data are consistent with an alternative hypothesis: They were detecting sulfur dioxide,” said co-author Victoria Meadows, a University of Washington professor of astronomy. “Sulfur dioxide is the third-most-common chemical compound in Venus’ atmosphere, and it is not considered a sign of life.”

The breakthrough research is outlined in “An Interstellar Synthesis of Phosphorus Oxoacids,” authored by University of Hawaii Manoa graduate student Andrew Turner, now assistant professor at the University of Pikeville, and University of Hawaii Manoa chemistry Professor Ralf Kaiser in the September issue of Nature Communications.

According to the study, phosphates and diphosphoric acid are two major elements that are essential for these building blocks in molecular biology. They are the main constituents of chromosomes, the carriers of genetic information in which DNA is found. Together with phospholipids in cell membranes and adenosine triphosphate, which function as energy carriers in cells, they form self-replicating material present in all living organisms.

In an ultra-high vacuum chamber cooled down to 5 K (-450°F) in the W.M. Keck Research Laboratory in Astrochemistry at UH Manoa, the Hawaii team replicated interstellar icy grains coated with carbon dioxide and water, which are ubiquitous in cold molecular clouds, and phosphine. When exposed to ionizing radiation in the form of high-energy electrons to simulate the cosmic rays in space, multiple phosphorus oxoacids like phosphoric acid and diphosphoric acid were synthesized via non-equilibrium reactions.

Kaiser added, “The phosphorus oxoacids detected in our experiments by combination of sophisticated analytics involving lasers, coupled to mass spectrometers along with gas chromatographs, might have also been formed within the ices of comets such as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which contains a phosphorus source believed to derive from phosphine.” Kaiser says these techniques can also be used to detect trace amounts of explosives and drugs.

“Since comets contain at least partially the remnants of the material of the protoplanetary disk that formed our solar system, these compounds might be traced back to the interstellar medium wherever sufficient phosphine in interstellar ices is available,” said Cornelia Meinert of the University of Nice (France).

Upon delivery to Earth by meteorites or comets, these phosphorus oxoacids might have been available for Earth’s prebiotic phosphorus chemistry. Hence an understanding of the facile synthesis of these oxoacids is essential to untangle the origin of water-soluble prebiotic phosphorus compounds and how they might have been incorporated into organisms not only on Earth, but potentially in our universe as well.

The Last Word–Indicator of Extraterrestrial life or Science Fiction?

“We have scientific evidence that PH3 can act under the right conditions on interstellar grains as a precursor to phosphorus oxoacids and also to alkyl phosphonic acids,” wrote Ralf I. Kaiser, Professor and Director of the W.M. Keck Research Laboratory in Astrochemistry in an email to The Daily Galaxy.  “It can even lead – once again under the right conditions – to glycerolphosphates on interstellar grains as established in our lab. That’s it. 

“Speculations that the presence of PH3 is an indicator of extraterrestrial life,” concludes Kaiser in his email, “has no foundation. These speculations do not help much to mature the field of astrochemistry but should be discussed in the context of science fiction.”

Image credit top of page: Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko,  ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM

Ralf I. Kaiser, University of Hawaii and Nature

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories range from Meteorites could have brought all 5 genetic ‘letters’ of DNA to early Earth to Hubble discovers exoplanet unconventionally forming at an extreme distance to Did alien technology land on Erath,  and much more. “The Galaxy Report” brings you news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Cosmic Simulation Shows How Dark-Matter-Deficient Galaxies Confront Goliath and Survive A research team finds seven tiny dwarf galaxies stripped of their dark matter that nonetheless persisted despite the theft, reports Scientific American.

What’s killing extremely distant primordial galaxies reports Phil Plait for SyFy. “proto galaxy cluster, J0959 has the one really big galaxy, with a mass of over 200 billion Suns, which is impressive for such an early cosmic time. They also found 38 other protogalaxies forming around it, but they’re… odd. A large fraction, 73%, of the galaxies don’t appear to be forming stars! Usually that fraction is more like 11% for protoclusters at that time in the Universe, so something really weird is happening in this protocluster.”

Hubble discovers exoplanet unconventionally forming at an extreme distance, NASA confirms 5,000 discovered exoplanets, reports NASA Spaceflight.com–“In recent weeks, two teams of researchers released studies identifying the strange characteristics of an exoplanet using the joint NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope. Specifically, one study found one exoplanet to be intensely forming at an extreme distance from its parent star and doing so in an unconventional way.” 

New Insight Into “Blobs” Improves Scientists’ Understanding of a Universal Process –-“Scientists have found that the magnetic fields that run through plasma, a charged state of matter made up of free electrons and atomic nuclei, may influence the joining and violent snapping apart of the plasma’s magnetic field lines. This knowledge might aid scientists in predicting the possibility of coronal mass ejections which are massive burps of plasma from the sun that can endanger satellites and power infrastructure on Earth.”

The Little-Known Story Of Mileva Marić, Albert Einstein’s First Wife And Tragically Overlooked Partner, reports  All That’s Interesting. While Mileva Marić was married to Albert Einstein, many believe she greatly contributed to his world-changing discoveries — only to be denied credit later on.

New Type of Habitable Alien Planet--“in a new study accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics, scientists may have discovered an eccentric planet that regularly veers in and out of its star’s habitable zone, posing a challenge to planetary scientists as to what we can and can’t consider habitable.”

China Hopes to Redirect a Nearby Asteroid Within the Next Four Years -China’s space agency is also seeking to develop a ground-based asteroid monitoring and warning system, in what is a welcome development.

Israeli-American physicist: Meteor that hit Earth in 2014 could be alien tech, reports The Times of Israel–“Israeli-American Harvard physicist Avi Loeb says he wants to find the remains of a meteor from outside the solar system that hit the Pacific Ocean in 2014. He even suggests it could feasibly have been made by an alien civilization. Earlier this month, US Space Command confirmed that a study of data showed the meteor was likely interstellar.

Meteorites could have brought all 5 genetic ‘letters’ of DNA to early Earth, reports Charles Q. Choi for Space.com–“Key building blocks of DNA that previous research mysteriously failed to discover in meteorites have now been discovered in space rocks, suggesting that cosmic impacts might once have helped deliver these vital ingredients of life to ancient Earth.

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you daily news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

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Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories range from RNA “evolution” breakthrough offers new clues on the origins of life to Elon Musk could spawn the first post-humans to a whales’ tale of climate change to the dreams of Earth’s species, and much more. The Planet Earth Report provides descriptive links to headline news by leading science journalists about the extraordinary discoveries, technology, people, and events changing our knowledge of Planet Earth and the future of the human species.

RNA “evolution” breakthrough offers new clues on the origins of life, reports New Atlas–” Researchers at the University of Tokyo have created an RNA molecule that can not just replicate, but “evolve” into a diverse range of more complex molecules. This find could plug a major gap in the puzzle of how life on Earth began.”

Asteroids, Hubble rival and Moon base: China sets out space agenda –In the next five years, the nation hopes to launch a robotic craft to an asteroid and two lunar missions, reports Nature.com

How the Extinction of Ice Age Mammals May Have Forced Us to Invent Civilization –“For 95 percent of our species’ history, we didn’t farm, create large settlements, or form complex political hierarchies. We lived in small, nomadic bands, hunting and gathering. Then, something changed.”

Dreams of Earth’s Species–We’re not the only beings that dream. What visions might sleep bring to a cell, an insect, a mollusk, an ape? reports Aeon.com

Underwater Permafrost Is a Big, Gassy Wild Card for the Climate–-You’ve probably heard of permafrost, the frozen carbon-rich land. But it’s also thawing under the sea, burping up planet-warming gases.

The epic attempts to power planes with hydrogen –-“During the Cold War, both the US and USSR researched liquid hydrogen as a way to fuel aircraft. Could this cleaner fuel finally be around the corner?”

Martin Rees interview: Elon Musk could spawn the first post-humans –Astronomer Royal Martin Rees discusses the most extraordinary aspects of his distinguished career, from black holes to billionaires in space and the prospects of life beyond Earth, reports New Scientist.

Why Would an Alien Civilization Send Out Von Neumann Probes? Lots of Reasons, says a new Study, reports Universe Today. “The reasons and technical challenges of taking the self-replicating probe route are explored in a recent paper. In addition to exploring why an advanced species would opt to explore the galaxy using Von Neumann probes (which could include us someday), he explored possible methods for interstellar travel, strategies for exploration, and where these probes might be found.”

A New Tool for Finding Dark Matter Digs Up Nothing -Researchers recently searched for a kind for dark matter that would expand and contract the beam splitter at the heart of a gravitational wave detector, reports Thomas Lawton for Quanta.com– “

How Earth Went From Molten Hellscape to Habitable Planet, reports SciTechDaily –“A new research article titled “A wet heterogeneous mantle creates a habitable world in the Hadean” presents the team’s findings.  “This period is the most enigmatic time in Earth history,” said Jun Korenaga, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Yale, in a press release. “We’re presenting the most complete theory, by far, for Earth’s first 500 million years.”

Tiny Flier ‘Swims’ through the Air at Superspeed –A speck-sized beetle overturns assumptions about flight mechanics, reports The New York Times.

Evolution ‘Landscapes’ Predict What’s Next for COVID Virus, reports Carrie Arnold for Quanta.com –“Studies that map the adaptive value of viral mutations hint at how the COVID-19 pandemic might progress next.”

The Real Impact of Meteorites on Earth –Life as we know it was seeded by rocks from outer space, reports Brian Gallagher for Nautilus.com

NASA opens vacuum-sealed moon rock container from 50 years ago –“Knowing that technology would advance in the future, NASA put some moon rock samples into storage without opening them. Now, they have,” reports Big Think.

How climate change is leading to bigger hailstones, reports BBC Future –“In the early evening of 21 July 2021, hailstones the size of golf balls pelted suddenly from the sky, smashing windows and battering cars. Gardens that were a few moments earlier filled with people soaking up the evening sun, were left badly damaged by the downpour of ice. Rising global temperatures might be causing hailstorms to become more violent, with larger chunks of ice and more intense downpours. But just how big can a hailstone get?”

A whale’s tale: The story hidden in their mouths reports the University of New South Wales. –“Baleen plates—the signature bristle-like apparatus toothless whales use to feed—reveal how these large aquatic mammals adapt to environmental changes over time.”

Antarctica’s only flowering plants have been growing more rapidly, likely due to warmer temperatures, reports Bob Yirka for Phys.org.

Is technology melting your memory? Or helping it? –Is social media changing your memory? Here’s what the science actually says, reports Big Think. 

The Al Naslaa rock formation is Earth’s most bizarre geological feature –In the Saudi Arabian desert, the Al Naslaa rock formation looks completely unnatural. Its perfectly vertical split remains a mystery, reports Big Think. 

Scientists Watch a Memory Form in a Living Brain –-While observing fearful memories take shape in the brains of fish, neuroscientists saw an unexpected level of synaptic rewiring, reports Wired.

How Putin’s War Is Sinking Climate Science. An American journalist leaves Russia as war breaks up the international collaboration key to climate research in the Arctic, reports Nautilus.com

Recent Planet Earth Reports:

Critics Horrified by World’s First Octopus Farm to Quest for Immortality

China’s One-of-a-Kind Cyber-Espionage to Multiverse of Universes All with Randomly Dialed Higgs Masses Virus from

Age of Dinosaurs Found in Human Genome to Is Earth’s Core a Weird State of Matter?

Why are NASA Spaceships Exploring Earth’s Deepest Oceans to Is Reality a Wavefunction? 

Made on Exoplanet X to Space Hurricane Above Earth

If Aliens Exist, Here’s How We’ll Know to Mars is a Hellhole

The Terrifying Message Lurking in Earth’s Ancient Record to Robots Evolving Autonomously

The Quantum Century to Events That Could Have Ended Humanity

The ‘Douglas Adams Epoch’ to Earth’s Earliest Life May Owe Existence to Viruses

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

“The Galaxy Report” brings you news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch. Today’s stories range from the Black Hole in Our Backyard to New Force Fields in the Universe to Einstein’s Relativity Might Have More to Do With the Way Our Brains Evolved, and much more.

A Plot Twist in the Milky Way: The Black Hole in Our Backyard –Astronomers have cracked a mystery 1,000 light-years from Earth, reports Marina Koren for The Atlantic. “In the spring of 2020, a group of astronomers told the world a dramatic story: They had discovered a black hole just 1,000 light-years away from Earth, closer to us than any they’d found before. They’d detected it in a constellation called Telescopium, nestled alongside two stars that, on a clear night in the Southern Hemisphere, are visible to the naked eye. “On the scale of the Milky Way, it’s in our backyard,” Thomas Rivinius, the astronomer who led the new research, told me at the time.”

‘I thought I had forgotten this horror’: Ukrainian scientists stand in defiance. Researchers tell Nature about their experiences of the Russian invasion, reports Nature.com 

Meet the South Pole’s Dark Matter Detective –Reina Maruyama wasn’t expecting her particle detector to work buried deep in ice. She was wrong, reports Nautilus.com. “There is something in their data that they don’t understand.”

The Physicist Who Denies that Dark Matter Exists –Maybe Newtonian physics doesn’t need dark matter to work, but Mordehai Milgrom instead, reports Nautilus.com

Will Gravitational Wave Detectors in Space Discover New Force Fields in the Universe? asks Avi Shporer for The Daily Galaxy–“New research has shown that future gravitational wave detections from space will be capable of finding new fundamental fields and potentially shed new light on unexplained aspects of the Universe. There are four known fundamental interactions or forces in the Universe: gravitation, electromagnetism, the weak interaction, and the strong interaction.”

A Deepening Crisis Forces Physicists to Rethink Structure of Nature’s Laws –For three decades, researchers hunted in vain for new elementary particles that would have explained why nature looks the way it does. As physicists confront that failure, they’re reexamining a longstanding assumption: that big stuff consists of smaller stuff. Do we find ourselves here only because our universe’s peculiar properties foster the formation of atoms, stars and planets and therefore life, reports Natalie Wolchover for Quanta.

Tidally Locked Exoplanets –Loaded with Questions about the Possibility of Life–Tidally locked planets always present the same face to their host stars. What does this mean for their potential to support life? asks Eos.o

What is the largest planet out of all the ones we know? –There’s a limit to how large planets can be, and it’s only about double the radius of Jupiter. At least, so far, reports Big Think.

Early impacts delivered iron to Earth but almost wiped out life, reports Paul Sutter for Space.com. Early life on Earth probably didn’t depend on iron from meteorites after all.

The First Rocket Launch from Mars Will Start in Midair –NASA’s Mars Ascent Vehicle will attempt a wildly unconventional liftoff to bring Red Planet samples back to Earth, reports Jonathan O’Callaghan for Scientific American.

Einstein and Why the Block Universe Is a Mistake, reports Dean Buonomano, author of the book Your Brain Is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time for iAi News (video below). “According to how physicists and philosophers interpret Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, the present isn’t at all special. The past and the future are just as real as the present – they all coexist and you could, theoretically, travel to them. But, argues Dean Buonomano, this interpretation of Einstein’s theory might have more to do with the way our brains evolved to think of time in a similar way to space, than with the nature of time.”

Search for Life As We Don’t Know It –-“We want to have new tools for identifying and even predicting features of life as we don’t know it,” says co-author Sara Imari Walker of Arizona State University. “To do so, we are aiming to identify the universal laws that should apply to any biochemical system. This includes developing quantitative theory for the origins of life, and using theory and statistics to guide our search for life on other planets.”

Did the early universe inflate? “One of the most amazing discoveries of the past century has been that the universe expands, reports Backreaction in the video above, This is one of the insights physicists derived from Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. Yes, that guy again! But after this discovery, physicists made the theory more complicated. They added the hypothesis that not only does the universe expand, but that early on, right after the big bang, it expanded exponentially, blowing up space by 30 orders of magnitude in a fraction of a second.

AI Could Reveal Extraterrestrial Intelligence Beyond Our Level of Consciousness, reports The Daily Galaxy –“If AI identifies something our mind cannot understand or accept, could it in the future go beyond our level of consciousness and open doors to reality for which we are not prepared? said Spanish clinical neuropsychologist Gabriel G. De la Torre about the application of artificial intelligence to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Dreaming of Suitcases in Space –A California start-up company believes it can one day speed delivery of important items by storing them in orbit, reports The New York Times. “

“Unlocking the Universe’s Secrets” –Astronomers and Nobel-Prize Laureates Share Their Hopes and Expectations About the James Webb Space Telescope. “As the James Webb Space Telescope begins its month-long voyage to LaGrange Point 2, several of the planet’s leading astronomers and scientists have shared their expectations and hopes for this epoch event in human history with The Daily Galaxy.”

Will the James Webb Space Telescope Reveal Unknown, Hidden Objects at the Milky Way’s Center? asks The Daily Galaxy –“NASA’s recently launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), designed to view the universe in infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye, but is very important for looking at astronomical objects hidden from our view, obscured by vast swaths of interstellar dust at the galactic center in unprecedented detail.”

The US military plans to extend its space awareness capabilities beyond geostationary orbit, all the way to the farside of the Moon. “This week, the US Air Force Research Laboratory released a video on YouTube that didn’t get much attention. But it made an announcement that is fairly significant—the US military plans to extend its space awareness capabilities beyond geostationary orbit, all the way to the Moon,” reports Ars Technica

The true meaning of Einstein’s most famous equation: E=mc² –More than any other of Einstein’s equations, E = mc² is the most recognizable to people. But what does it all mean? reports Ethan Siegel for Big Think–“As it turns out, there are actually three big meanings attached to it: for turning energy into mass and mass back into energy and more. The big takeaway is this, however: mass is not conserved on its own, and that the act of extracting energy from mass is vital to the Universe as a whole.”

The Best Alien Habitat? Former astronaut Chris Hadfield, with nearly 5000 known exoplanets to choose from, names Kepler-442b, 1200 light years from Earth, as an “excellent” one for the James Webb Space Telescope to have a look at, reports Mind Matters.

Recent Galaxy Reports

Unmistakable Signal of Alien Life to What Happens if China Makes First Contact? 

Clues to Alien Life to A Galaxy 100 x Size of Milky Way 

Cracks in Einstein’s Theory of Gravity to Colossal Shock Wave Bigger than the Milky Way 

Monster Comet Arriving from the Oort Cloud to Black Hole Apocalypse 

Enigmas of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist 

Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids of the Milky Way 

Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter to Are Black Holes Holograms? 

Mystery of Stephen Hawking’s “Exxon Gravity” to Alien Life in Stellar Graveyards 

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories range from China plans asteroid missions, space telescopes and a Moon base to how to talk to extraterrestrials to how did intelligence emerge in biology to the search for meaning in a mysterious brain signal at death, and much more. The “Planet Earth Report” provides descriptive links to headline news by leading science journalists about the extraordinary discoveries, technology, people, and events changing our knowledge of Planet Earth and the future of the human species.

China Plans Asteroid Missions, Space Telescopes and a Moon Base –The China National Space Administration has released an overview of its plans for the next five years, which include launching a robotic craft to an asteroid, building a space telescope to rival the Hubble and laying the foundations for a space-based gravitational-wave detector, reports Scientific American.

Peptides on Stardust May Have Provided a Shortcut to Life –The discovery that short peptides can form spontaneously on cosmic dust hints at more of a role for them in the earliest stages of life’s origin, on Earth or elsewhere, reports Quanta. “Last month in Nature Astronomy, a group of astrobiologists showed that peptides, the molecular subunits of proteins, can spontaneously form on the solid, frozen particles of cosmic dust drifting through the universe. Those peptides could in theory have traveled inside comets and meteorites to the young Earth — and to other worlds — to become some of the starting materials for life.”

How to Talk to Extraterrestrials –Astrophysicist, psychologist lay out challenges of communicating with beings who may be much smarter, don’t share our conceptual system, reports Harvard Gazette.

Could the James Webb Space Telescope detect civilizations similar to ours? How would we look for them? The best answers come from understanding what humanity’s presence on Earth looks like from outer space, reports SETI Institute.

Does Quantum Mechanics Rule Out Free Will? –Superdeterminism, a radical quantum hypothesis, says our “choices” are illusory, reports John Horgan for Scientific American.

Is Information just another form of matter and energy, a fifth state of matter? Physicist says there’s one way to find out –If true, this could have major implications for physics, reports ZME Science. Physicists have calculated that — at a current 50% annual growth rate in the number of digital bits humans are producing — half of Earth’s mass would be converted to digital information mass within 150 years.

Is Information the Fifth State of Matter in the Universe? “Information,” wrote Arizona State University astrophysicist Paul Davies in an email to The Daily Galaxy, “is a concept that is both abstract and mathematical. It lies at the foundation of both biology and physics,” reports The Daily Galaxy.

Does This Amazon Rock Art Depict Extinct Ice Age Mammals? –The animals painted in ocher in Colombia may include giant ground sloths and other creatures that vanished from the Americas. But some researchers say the art has a more recent origin, reports Becky Ferreira for The New York Times. At the end of the last ice age, South America was home to strange animals that have since vanished into extinction. A new study suggests that we can see these lost creatures in enchanting ocher paintings made by ice age humans on a rocky outcrop in the Colombian Amazon.” 

These are the world’s top young universities, reports Big Think. Africa has the most universities in the 2022 rankings with over two thirds of the world’s youngest universities.

Problems with no solution: From math to politics, some things humans cannot solve, reports Big Think. “There are multiple examples but, in this essay, we focus on three: the Riemann hypothesis, the problem of aging and cancer, and willful ignorance. These examples also serve as a metaphor for the greater truth that we control far less than we think we do, and that we must become comfortable with that discomforting fact.”

Endurance: Shackleton’s lost ship is found in Antarctic, reports Insider.com –“Scientists have found and filmed one of the greatest ever undiscovered shipwrecks 107 years after it sank. The Endurance, the lost vessel of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, was found at the weekend at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. he ship was crushed by sea-ice and sank in 1915, forcing Shackleton and his men to make an astonishing escape on foot and in small boats.

The Search for Meaning in a Mysterious Brain Signal at Death –Research on a surge of gamma wave activity at death has been cited as proof your life flashes before your eyes before you die; in truth, no one knows exactly what it means, reports Vice.com

Inside the Last Journey of the ‘Carnegie’ –The groundbreaking ship and its dedicated captain shaped our understanding of the Earth’s magnetic field, reports The Smithsonian. “On a May morning in 1928, a crowd gathered on Washington, D.C.’s 7th Street dock to send off the scientific ship Carnegie on its final voyage in pursuit of mapping the Earth’s magnetic field.”

The mysterious Hiawatha crater in Greenland is 58 million years old –The impact that carved the crater is too old to have caused the Younger Dryas cold snap, reports Science.

How did intelligence emerge in biology? –Modular cognition –Powerful tricks from computer science and cybernetics show how evolution ‘hacked’ its way to intelligence from the bottom up, reports Aeon.com–“How did intelligence emerge in biology? The question has preoccupied scientists since Charles Darwin, but it remains unanswered.”

In 1980, two feuding professors bet on the fate of humanity. Who won? –In 1968, The Population Bomb by the Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich became a bestseller. With its foreboding thesis that humanity’s population growth was outpacing its ability to feed itself, it was a rare book that both caught the attention of the public and became deeply influential in academic circles. But not everyone was a fan. One of the book’s biggest critics was the economist Julian Simon, then a professor at the University of Illinois. Simon thought the thesis of The Population Bomb was little more than poorly drawn speculative fiction, calling Ehrlich a ‘false prophet’.

Twitter Wants to Reinvent Itself, by Merging the Old With the New, reports Kate Conger  for The New York Times –“[Twitter] is funding an independent effort to build a so-called open protocol for social media. It is also weaving cryptocurrency into its app, and opening up to developers who want to build custom features for Twitter. …Twitter executives now believe that decentralizing the social media service will radically shift online power, moving it into the hands of users, and pose a fundamental challenge to the walled gardens of companies like Facebook.”

Even Mild Covid-19 Infections May Change the Brain, New Study Finds –Scans taken before and after a case of coronavirus reveal tissue damage and accelerated loss of gray matter, reports The Smithsonian.

Recent Planet Earth Reports:

Critics Horrified by World’s First Octopus Farm to Quest for Immortality

China’s One-of-a-Kind Cyber-Espionage to Multiverse of Universes All with Randomly Dialed Higgs Masses Virus from

Age of Dinosaurs Found in Human Genome to Is Earth’s Core a Weird State of Matter?

Why are NASA Spaceships Exploring Earth’s Deepest Oceans to Is Reality a Wavefunction? 

Made on Exoplanet X to Space Hurricane Above Earth

If Aliens Exist, Here’s How We’ll Know to Mars is a Hellhole

The Terrifying Message Lurking in Earth’s Ancient Record to Robots Evolving Autonomously

The Quantum Century to Events That Could Have Ended Humanity

The ‘Douglas Adams Epoch’ to Earth’s Earliest Life May Owe Existence to Viruses

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Today’s stories range from the Universe’s Background Starlight is Twice as Bright as Expected to Is Geometry a Language That Only Humans Know?, and much more. “The Galaxy Report” brings you news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

New experiment could confirm the fifth state of matter in the universe, reports the University of Portsmouth. “Physicist Melvin Vopson has already published research suggesting that information has mass and that all elementary particles, the smallest known building blocks of the universe, store information about themselves, similar to the way humans have DNA. Now he has designed an experiment – which if proved correct – means he will have discovered that information is the fifth form of matter, alongside solid, liquid, gas and plasma.”

The universe’s background starlight is twice as bright as expected. It took a spacecraft at the solar system’s edge to make precise enough observations of dark sky, reports Liz Kruesi for Science News. “Even when you remove the bright stars, the glowing dust and other nearby points of light from the inky, dark sky, a background glow remains. That glow comes from the cosmic sea of distant galaxies, the first stars that burned, faraway coalescing gas — and, it seems, something else in the mix that’s evading researchers.”

Four signs of alien technology could lead us to extraterrestrial life. Pioneering scientists think we should start looking for extraterrestrials in a whole new way: by seeking out alien technology, reports Marcus Chown for BBC Science Focus. “Megastructures, Industrial chemicals, Light sails, and Wormhole transport systems. “If ETs have created a network of wormholes, it might be detectable by gravitational microlensing. This occurs when a celestial object passes between us and a distant star and its gravity briefly magnifies the light of the star.”

The closest stars to our sun are the three stars in the Alpha Centauri system, just over four light-years away. The nearest of the three stars – a red dwarf called Proxima – has two confirmed planets. But, as yet, no planets have been found for the two sunlike stars in the system, Alpha Centauri A and B. Astronomers have now made a leap in imagining a yet-to-be-discovered world within this nearby double star system, reports Earth Sky.

Is Geometry a Language That Only Humans Know? –Neuroscientists are exploring whether shapes like squares and rectangles — and our ability to recognize them — are part of what makes our species special, reports Siobhan Roberts for The New York Times. “What sorts of thoughts, or computations, are unique to the human brain? Part of the answer might be our seemingly innate intuitions about geometry.

One Second After the Big Bang -Did a Violent Phase Transition in the Dark Universe Create Supermassive Black Holes? asks Maxwell Moe for The Daily Galaxy. “Such a phase transition would be a dramatic event, even for something as spectacular as the universe. Could the formation of supermassive black holes, as well as the nature of dark matter, be the result of violent cosmological phase transition in the dark sector of the Universe. Understanding black holes, and how they become supermassive, could shed light on the evolution of the universe.

Stephen Hawking’s black hole paradox may finally have a solution –Black holes may not destroy all information about what they were originally made of, according to a new set of quantum calculations, which would solve a major physics paradox first described by Stephen Hawking, reports New Scientist.

A Primordial “Magnetic Soul” Pervades the Universe, reports Maxwell Moe for The Daily Galaxy. “The world’s astronomers are increasingly probing the mystery of where the enormous magnetic fields that permeate our universe come from –from Earth to Mars to the Milky Way to intergalactic voids and beyond to the darkest, most remote regions of the cosmos.”

Cosmic Collisions Yield Clues about Exoplanet Formation –Low levels of bombardment reveal that the TRAPPIST-1 system probably grew quickly, reports Scientific American.

Is There Life in the TRAPPIST-1 Star System? – “Twice as Old as Our Solar System”, reports Maxwell Moe for The Daily Galaxy.”Could one of the seven tightly packed planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system be the first exoplanet where the James Webb Space Telescope detects unmistakable signs of life? Life may be possible if these planets had more water initially than Earth, Venus, or Mars, said  astrobiologist Andrew Lincowski at the University of Washington, about a nearby star and planetary system called TRAPPIST-1, first Discovered in 2016 some 40 light-years away.”

TRAPPIST-1 Star System is the Ultimate James Webb Space Telescope Target, reports Maxwell Moe for The Daily Galaxy. “We are on the cusp of a new epoch in the search for life beyond Earth. Sun-like stars represent just 15 percent of all stars in the Milky Way. And nearly half of those have binary star companions that suppressed the formation of planets. The search for Earth analogs around single, solar-type stars therefore covers a nearly insignificant fraction of all the outcomes in nature.”

Why haven’t aliens made contact? “Are we alone in the universe, and if not, why haven’t aliens made contact with us yet? Perhaps they have and we just haven’t been able to detect it. In this week’s episode of Science with Sam we explain why there could be several answers to the question: does alien life really exist?” reports New Scientist video, ‘Science with Sam.

Supermassive black holes put a brake on stellar births, reports University of Cambridge–“Using machine learning and three state-of-the-art simulations to back up results from a large sky survey, researchers from the University of Cambridge have resolved a 20-year long debate on the formation of stars.”

Alien microbes are most likely to be crawling in these parts of the solar system, reports Elizabeth Rayne for SyFy.”Extraterrestrial microbes are most likely to be lurking in seven bodies unnervingly close to Earth. If you suspected Mars, Europa, or Enceladus, you’re right. If Titan, Ganymede, Callisto, or Pluto was in the back of your mind, guess what — you’re also right.”

How a Tiny Asteroid Strike May Save Earthlings From City-Killing Space Rocks reports Robin George Andrews for New York Times Science –An asteroid hunter detected the small object two hours before it crashed into the sea near Greenland, a sign of the growing sophistication of NASA’s planetary defense system.

A new way of dating collisions between asteroids and planetary bodies throughout our Solar System’s history could help scientists reconstruct how and when planets were born. “A team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, combined dating and microscopic analysis of the Chelyabinsk meteorite — which fell to Earth and hit the headlines in 2013 — to get more accurate constraints on the timing of ancient impact events. Our work shows that we need to draw on multiple lines of evidence to be more certain about impact histories – almost like investigating an ancient crime scene,” reports University of Cambridge.

What if the same spacecraft studied mysterious icy bodies and the cosmos as well? asks Meghan Bartels for Space.com, What can a spacecraft armed with cubesats and an astronomical telescope accomplish?

Recent Galaxy Reports

Unmistakable Signal of Alien Life to What Happens if China Makes First Contact?

Clues to Alien Life to A Galaxy 100 x Size of Milky Way 

Cracks in Einstein’s Theory of Gravity to Colossal Shock Wave Bigger than the Milky Way 

Monster Comet Arriving from the Oort Cloud to Black Hole Apocalypse 

Enigmas of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist 

Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids of the Milky Way 

Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter to Are Black Holes Holograms? 

Mystery of Stephen Hawking’s “Exxon Gravity” to Alien Life in Stellar Graveyards 

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

“The Galaxy Report” brings you news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch. Today’s stories range from In Search of Cracks in Albert Einstein’s Theory of Gravity to Two astrophysicists debate Is the Multiverse real to Mind-Bending New Multiverse Scenario Could Explain a Strange Higgs Boson Feature, and much more.

In Search of Cracks in Albert Einstein’s Theory of Gravity –Celia Escamilla-Rivera is combining large data sets with supercomputers to test general relativity against its little-known competitors. “We’re invoking these mysterious things,” said the cosmologist Celia Escamilla-Rivera (see video below).“I am strongly convinced that alternative theories of gravity are needed,” reports Quanta.

Could ‘epsilon machines’ help us find alien life? asks Earth & Sky. “Despite the name, epsilon machines aren’t machines. Instead, they’re complex mathematical algorithms, sets of rules used when problem-solving with a computer. The researchers said in a paper published earlier this month that these sorts of algorithms could be used to identify complex features on exoplanets that are best explained – perhaps only explained – by life’s processes.”

Is the Multiverse real? Two astrophysicists debate — It’s one of the hottest questions in all of theoretical physics. Big Think invited two astrophysicists to join the debate. “Ethan Siegel argues that the Multiverse exists and is simply a matter of logical deduction based on solid theory. Astrophysicist (and 13.8 columnist) Adam Frank disagrees, arguing that accepting the existence of a Multiverse comes with a strange cost — namely, believing that there are an infinite number of Universes that we can never detect.”

Is There Life in the TRAPPIST-1 Star System? – “Twice as Old as Our Solar System” –Could one of the seven tightly packed planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system be the first exoplanet where the James Webb Space Telescope detects unmistakable signs of life? reports Maxwell Moe for The Daily Galaxy.

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Scenario Could Explain a Strange Higgs Boson Feature –When researchers at the Large Hadron Collider discovered the elusive Higgs particle in 2012, it was a landmark for particle physics. It solved a very thorny problem, validating and allowing the Standard Model of particle physics to hold, reports Science Alert.

Astrophysicists find a way to form dark matter-deficient galaxies, reports Princeton University.  In a new Nature Astronomy study, an international team of astrophysicists report how, when tiny galaxies collide with bigger ones, the bigger galaxies can strip the smaller galaxies of their dark matter.

Hubble Peers at Peculiar Pair of Galaxies. —This striking image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcases Arp 298, a stunning pair of interacting galaxies. Arp 298 – which comprises the two galaxies NGC 7469 and IC 5283 – lies roughly 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. The larger of the two galaxies pictured here is the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7469, and IC 5283 is its diminutive companion. NGC 7469 is also host to an active, supermassive black hole and a bright ring of star clusters.

Strangely tilted black hole challenges formation theories, reports Space.com. “A tilted black hole spinning around a misaligned axis has been discovered in our galaxy, challenging theories of black hole formation. The black hole and its companion star form a system called MAXI J1820+070, which lies some 10,000 light-years away from Earth. Recent optical observations by the Nordic Optical Telescope in the Canary Islands revealed that the black hole behaves in ways that defy astronomers’ expectations.”

Gaia Finds Ancient Satellite Galaxy Pontus Embedded in Milky Way –A recent study looked at stellar streams hidden in Gaia data, to uncover evidence of an ancient remnant dubbed Pontus, reports Universe Today.

The Chelyabinsk Meteorite that exploded over Russia in 2013 may have been involved in the impact that formed our moon, reports Science Alert –“Meteorite impact ages are often controversial,” said geoscientist Craig Walton of the University of Cambridge in the UK. “Our work shows that we need to draw on multiple lines of evidence to be more certain about impact histories – almost like investigating an ancient crime scene.”

Colossal Shock Wave Rippling Across Space Is Bigger Than Our Entire Galaxy –A billion years ago, an absolutely monstrous collision of two clusters of galaxies produced a pair of shock waves of absolutely epic proportions. Today, the structures gleam brightly in radio wavelengths, so huge they could easily engulf the Milky Way galaxy’s estimated 100,000 light-year diameter, stretching up to 6.5 million light-years through intergalactic space, reports Science Alert.

Astronomers traced a mysterious fast radio burst (FRB) to a strange location: a galaxy filled with old stars, instead of the zones of young stars where such events were found before, reports Inverse.

Venus Shows Its Hot, Cloudy Side –The Parker Solar Probe captured images of a glowing red surface during flybys, reports The New York Times. “It’s a new way of looking at Venus that we’ve never even tried before — in fact, weren’t even sure it was possible,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary division

Hundreds of strange filaments found at Milky Way’s center –Thirty-five years after the discovery of odd “threads” in our galaxy, many more strands — and their possible origin — are revealed, reports Astronomy. 

Loop quantum gravity: Does space-time come in tiny chunks? asks Paul Sutter for Space.com –Are there fundamental units of space-time at some unfathomably tiny scale?

The Young Earth Under the Cool Sun –How did our planet avoid being frozen solid during the early days of our solar system? asks EOS. “For those first few hundred million years, the Sun was still waking up, with fusion by-products slowly building and causing its core to contract and glow brighter. By the end of the Hadean, when Earth was a meager half a billion years old, the Sun shone at about 75% of its current brightness.”

Meet the robots that can reproduce, learn and evolve all by themselves –Machines that can mate and produce offspring can help us clean up nuclear sites, explore asteroids and terraform distant planets – but could they prove a threat, asks Emma Hart, who is helping develop them, reports New Scientist.

Astronomers Find Two Giant Black Holes Spiraling Toward a Collision, reports the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A supermassive black hole 9 billion light-years away appears to have a companion black hole orbiting around it. As the orbit shrinks, the pair gets closer to merging.

What happened at the Arecibo Observatory? New inquiry launched into iconic telescope’s collapse, reports Space.com –Now, a team of engineers is on the case to understand what went wrong at Arecibo that made its troubles fatal.

‘Mini’ Rocket Could Be First Craft Launched From Mars, reports Popular Science–Earlier this month, NASA announced that defense contractor Lockheed Martin would be building the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), the rocket that will someday take off from the surface of Mars to start the return journey with samples of the planet’s dirt, rocks, and atmosphere.

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

“The Galaxy Report” brings you news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch. Today’s stories range from The Guardian asking ‘Something’s coming’: is America finally ready to take UFOs seriously to the James Webb Space Telescope may solve the growing rift between astronomers over how fast the universe is expanding, and much more.

‘Something’s coming’: is America finally ready to take UFOs seriously? reports The Guardian. “Last year was a breakthrough time for UFOs, as a landmark government report prompted the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors to finally be taken seriously by everyone from senators, to a former president, to the Pentagon. But 2022 could be even more profound, experts say, as the clamor for UFO disclosure and discovery continues to grow, and as new scientific projects bring us closer than ever to – potentially – discovering non-Earth life.

Epsilon Machines to Search for Life as We Don’t Know It–Scientists at the California Institute of Technology and their colleagues have devised a way they suggest could find aliens even if they are not life as we know it. This new strategy depends on so-called “epsilon machines.”

The First Quadruple Asteroid: Astronomers Spot a Space Rock With 3 Moons –Astronomers had already spotted two other rocks orbiting the asteroid known as 130 Elektra, and think more quadruple systems are out there, reports The New York Times.

The Secret of Massive Stars Found Far From Their Birthplace in Milky Way’s Disk —Astronomers have found an explanation for the strange occurrence of massive stars located far from their birthplace in the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy: the secret seems to lie in the merging of medium-mass stars reports Max Moe for The Daily Galaxy.

The James Webb Space Telescope Could Solve One of Cosmology’s Deepest Mysteries –The observatory’s unprecedented infrared measurements might at last bridge a growing rift between astronomers over how fast the universe is expanding, reports Scientific American.

Is the ‘fine-tuned universe’ an illusion? asks the Foundational Questions Institute –“For decades physicists have been perplexed about why our cosmos appears to have been precisely tuned to foster intelligent life. But recent studies propose that intelligent life could have evolved under drastically different physical conditions. 

The Extraterrestrial-Contact Paradox (YouTube Episode) –“British physicist Stephen Wolfram believes extraterrestrial intelligent life is inevitable, but with a caveat. Although intelligent life is inevitable, we will never find it -at least not by searching in the Milky Way.  We have a slim chance, he suggests, of distinguishing an ET artifact from a natural celestial object.

Mars Meteorite Upends Beginning of Life Theories –In 2011, a piece of Mars crash-landed in the Western Sahara Desert. The Martian meteorite encapsulated the history of the Red Planet within its different layers, revealing the sequence of events that took place during Mars’ past, reports Inverse.

Top 10 space stories of 2021 –Over the past year, researchers mourned the loss of Arecibo and applauded the first helicopter flight on Mars. Plus, commercial spaceflight really took off, reports Astronomy.com

Riding a laser to Mars, reports  David Appell for  Phys.org–“The laser, a 10-meter wide array on Earth, would heat hydrogen plasma in a chamber behind the spacecraft, producing thrust from hydrogen gas and sending it to Mars in only 45 days.”

Cosmic Ruins Found at Milky Way’s Edge. A stream of stars scattered across 15 degrees of sky was once part of a globular cluster torn apart by our galaxy’s gravity. The stars represent some of the oldest in the Milky Way, reports Sky & Telescope.

Recent “Galaxy Reports”

Mysterious Expanding Regions of Dark Matter to Are Black Holes Holograms?

Mystery of Stephen Hawking’s “Exxon Gravity” to Alien Life in Stellar Graveyards

Epsilon Algorithms to Search for Life as We Don’t Know It to Cosmic Ruins at Milky Way’s Edge

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids of the Milky Way

Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact

Mysteries of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Our consistently strange Universe delivered another catch of fascinating news stories these past few days, ranging from an extraordinary black hole found in neighboring galaxy to an astonishing new image of the Milky Way’s central region.

The Universe’s Expansion Could End Surprisingly Soon, Say Cosmologists –The universe is not only expanding but accelerating away from us. Now a new theory suggests all this could stop sooner than anyone imagined, reports Discover Magazine.

Taking Cosmology to the Far Side of the Moon New Chinese program plans to use satellites in lunar orbit to study faint signals from early universe, reports IEEE Spectrum.

Astronomers Detect Strange Signals We’ve Never Seen Before in Our Cosmic Vicinity –Just 4,000 light-years away, something is flashing radio waves. For roughly 30 to 60 seconds, every 18.18 minutes, it pulses brightly, one of the most luminous objects in the low-frequency radio sky. It matches the profile of no known astronomical object, and astronomers are baffled. They have named it GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3, reports Science Alert.

Origin of Light-Years-Long Strands at Milky Way’s Center a Mystery

Chemist identifies new way to search for extraterrestrial life, reports San Diego State University –“Have we been looking for extraterrestrials in all the wrong places? San Diego State University chemists are developing methods to find signs of life on other planets by looking for the building blocks of proteins in a place they’ve never been able to test before: inside rocks.”

Could Echoes from Colliding Black Holes Prove Stephen Hawking’s Greatest Prediction? –Subtle signals from black hole mergers might confirm the existence of “Hawking radiation”—and gravitational-wave detectors may have already seen them, reports Scientific American 

Extraordinary black hole found in neighboring galaxy, reports the University of Utah –““We have very good detections of the biggest, stellar-mass black holes up to 100 times the size of our sun, and supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies that are millions of times the size of our sun, but there aren’t any measurements of black between these. That’s a large gap,” said senior author Anil Seth, associate professor of astronomy at the University of Utah and co-author of the study. “This discovery fills the gap.”

The James Webb Space Telescope Could Solve One of Cosmology’s Deepest Mysteries –The observatory’s unprecedented infrared measurements might at last bridge a growing rift between astronomers over how fast the universe is expanding, reports Scientific American.

When it comes to mass extinction, meteorite size doesn’t matter –-“An international team of researchers, including experts in mineralogy, climate, asteroid composition, and paleontology, tackled this question by examining 33 impacts over the past 600 million years. Specifically, they looked at the minerals in the massive amount of dust that an incoming meteorite throws up into the atmosphere. That dust can profoundly change Earth’s climate.

Astrophysicist receives prestigious award for experiment that ‘transformed our view of the universe’ –In its nomination, the academy credited Charles L. Bennett with advancing humankind’s understanding of the universe through the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, Johns Hopkins University said in a news release. The NASA space experiment led by Bennett allowed astronomers to unveil the most detailed picture ever of the infant universe, a picture dating to 380,000 years after the Big Bang.

“Unsolved Mystery ” -Strange Particle from Deep Space Detected at Antarctica’s South Pole

Astrophysicists reveal absolutely astonishing, unprecedented images of the Milky Way— ‘ “It’s the Milky Way like you’ve never seen it before. An international team of researchers has produced a new radio image of the center of our galaxy using the South African MeerKAT telescope, the most powerful of its kind in the world.”

Extremely harsh volcanic lake shows how life might have existed on Mars, reports Newswise –“A few specialist microbes survive conditions analogous to those of Mars’ early history, reports a new publication in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Science—and this may be thanks to a broad range of adaptations. The hydrothermal crater lake of the Poás volcano in Costa Rica is one of the most hostile habitats on the planet,” reports Frontiers.

Astronomers close in on a new way to detect gravitational waves –“Several teams hope to use pulsars in the Milky Way to detect ripples in space-time made by distant supermassive black holes,”  reports Nature.

Extreme exoplanet has a complex and exotic atmosphere, reports University of Bern –“The results from this hot, Jupiter-like planet that was first characterized with the help of the CHEOPS space telescope, may help astronomers understand the complexities of many other exoplanets—including Earth-like planets.” 

Recent Galaxy Reports

Interview with NASA’s Chief: “We are Not Alone in the Universe, or the Multiverse”

Astronomers Share Their Hopes for the JWST to Will Tardigrades Be the First Interstellar Travelers? 

Extraterrestrial Contact Paradox to Antimatter Stars of the Milky Way

Before the Big Bang to the Search for Life Not as We Know It

Are the Laws of Physics Evolving to We’re About to Unlock the Universe’s Secrets

Are Humans an Anomaly?

ExoGalactic Planets to NASA’s Eye on the First Billion Years of the Universe

The Missing Planet to The Aliens We Are Looking For Are AI

Evolution May Be a Cosmic Universal to the New Search for Alien Tech

Humans Could Be the Dominant Species in the Universe to Albert Einstein’s Forgotten Idea

Alien Chemistry of Other Worlds to One-Month Voyage to Jupiter

Physicists Search for the Dark Force to Terrifying Theory of Universe’s Expansion

Hunt for Alien Life Top Priority for U.S. Astronomers to Strange Object at Andromeda’s Center

Primordial Black Holes May Flood the Universe to Planets of Milky Way’s Ancient Bulge

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

The Universe has showered us with amazing, thought-provoking headlines this week, from why alien hunters have spent 60 years finding new solutions for the Drake Equation to the biggest “Oh No” moment in the Solar System to humanity’s unlikely gateway to space.

Why alien hunters have spent 60 years finding new solutions for the Drake Equation –Astronomer Frank Drake came up with the famous formula as he prepared for a last-minute meeting in 1961. It still guides the search for intelligent life beyond Earth, reports National Geographic.

Looking for Alien Life? Seek Out Alien Tech –Shifting the search for extraterrestrial life from biological to technological signs could break us out of anthropocentrism and help guide humanity’s future, reports Wired.

Odd Martian meteorites traced back to the largest volcanic structure in the solar system –The rocks were most likely ejected from Tooting crater more than a million years ago and are now helping scientists piece together the red planet’s turbulent past, reports National Geographic.

Humanity’s unlikely gateway to space –“Hidden from the world for decades, Baikonur Cosmodrome helped the Soviets reach outer space. Today, it’s the world’s primary spaceport – although its sense of secrecy remains.” reports the BBC.

Merging black holes may create bubbles that could swallow the universe –The area between a pair of large black holes on the verge of colliding could provide the conditions to create dangerous bubbles of “true vacuum”, reports New Scientist. “Large colliding black holes could be a breeding ground for tiny black holes. If we spot signs of these cosmic lightweights, it could provide proof of the fundamental nature of our universe.”

Mysterious Boson Clouds could offer new clues on dark matter, reports Australian National University –Boson clouds, made up of ultralight subatomic particles that are almost impossible to detect, have been suggested as a possible source of dark matter—which accounts for about 85 percent of all matter in the Universe.

In dramatic shift, national intelligence director does not rule out ‘extraterrestrial’ origins for UFOs, reports The Hill –“Asked about a recent report in which the government admitted that it could not explain 143 out of 144 military encounters with mysterious flying objects – including several which appeared to demonstrate extraordinary technology – director of national intelligence Avril Haines said, “There’s always the question of ‘is there something else that we simply do not understand, that might come extraterrestrially?’”

Astrophysicists Reveal Largest-Ever Suite of Universe Simulations – How Gravity Shaped the Distribution of Dark Matter, reports SciTechDaily. “To understand how the universe formed, astronomers have created AbacusSummit, more than 160 simulations of how gravity may have shaped the distribution of dark matter.”

Are water plumes spraying from Jupiter’s Europa? NASA’s Europa Clipper is on the case, reports the JPL –“The giant column of vapor, ice particles, and organic molecules spraying from the moon’s south polar region suggested that there’s a liquid water ocean below Enceladus’ ice shell and confirmed the moon is geologically active. The plume also thrust Enceladus and other worlds in the outer solar system, with no atmospheres and far from the heat of the Sun, toward the top of NASA’s list of places to search for signs of life.

The Biggest ‘Oh No’ Moment in the Solar System–Everything has to go right for the James Webb Space Telescope, reports Marina Koren for The Atlantic.

13 of the most profound questions about the cosmos and ourselves, reports New Scientist –“To celebrate New Scientist’s 65th anniversary, they’ll attempt to fill in that gap, plunging into the twilight zone where science meets metaphysics and philosophy as we peel back layers of understanding to find deeper truths about some of the most mysterious questions surrounding life, the universe and everything. Or, more likely, more onion.

Earth is the Solar System’s densest planet. It shouldn’t be. –Based on the atoms that they’re made out of, the innermost planet should always be the densest. Here’s why Earth beats Mercury, hands down, reports Big Think.

Did astronomers see the light from two black holes colliding for the first time? reports Sace.com –“With this detection, a team of astronomers used Caltech’s Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) to peer out into the cosmos and search for light signals from the collision. If confirmed, this would be the first time visible light would be used as evidence of two black holes colliding and creating a gravitational wave.

The Hubble Telescope Checks In With the Most Distant Planets –The spacecraft’s farseeing eye once again sets its gaze on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, reports the New York Times “Out There”.

Trust in Science and Scientists Increased Globally, Poll Finds–An international survey found that the pandemic had enhanced public faith in researchers and science, up from 2018.

Why does evolution happen? The rules on Earth may well be universal –Dig down, and evolution by natural selection is just about spontaneous, sustained accumulation of complexity – if life elsewhere exists, it’s likely to develop in the same way, reports New Scientist.

NASA’s real-time 3D visualization tool Eyes on the Earth got a recent upgrade to include more datasets, putting the world at your fingertips. Using the tool, you can track the planet’s vital signs – everything from carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide to sea level and soil moisture levels – as well as follow the fleet of Earth satellites providing those measurements.

Why is there a cosmic speed limit? It could even be why we’re here –Nothing in the cosmos can travel faster than light speed. By distinguishing cause and effect and stopping everything happening in a jumbled mess, our existence depends on it, reports New Scientist.

Read about The Daily Galaxy editorial team here

Sixty-Six million years ago a 14 kilometer long, Mount-Everest sized asteroid blasted a hole in the ground, the Chicxulub Impact, releasing the equivalent of 100 million megatons of TNT creating a 20-mile deep, 110-mile hole and sterilizing the remaining 170 million square miles of the ancient continent of Pangaea, killing virtually every species on Earth and, oddly, paving the way for the emergence of the human species.

“There’s no real way to internalize that number,” said Jay Melosh, University Distinguished Professor at Purdue. “It’s certainly enough to lift a mountain back into space at escape velocity.”

“It would have felt like the ground beneath your feet had become a ship in the middle of the ocean,” says earth and space science professor Mark Richards at the University of Washington. “Then rocks would have bombarded you from a boiling sky that was beginning to take on a hazy glow. Massive wildfires would have sprouted up as the ground burst into flames. It would have seemed like the end of the world.”

The asteroid itself was so large that, even at the moment of impact, the top of it might have still towered more than a mile above the cruising altitude of a 747, writes author Peter Brannen in Ends of the World. “In its nearly instantaneous descent, it compressed the air below it so violently that it briefly became several times hotter than the surface of the sun.”

“The pressure of the atmosphere in front of the asteroid started excavating the crater before it even got there,” geophysicist Mario Rebolledo at the Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán, told Brannen. “Then, when the meteorite touched ground zero, it was totally intact. It was so massive that the atmosphere didn’t even make a scratch on it.”

In the Yucatán, Rebolledo continues, “it would have been a pleasant day one second and the world was already over by the next. As the asteroid collided with the earth, in the sky above it where there should have been air, the rock had punched a hole of outer space vacuum in the atmosphere. As the heavens rushed in to close this hole, enormous volumes of earth were expelled into orbit and beyond—all within a second or two of impact.”

“So there’s probably little bits of dinosaur bone up on the moon?” Brannen mused.

“Then you’d get the seismic shaking,” observed Melosh. “It would be comparable to a magnitude 12 earthquake. Which . . . well, there’s no such thing as a magnitude 12 seismic earthquake because the elastic strain [of the earth’s crust] can’t contain that much energy, but it is certainly possible for a big impact.”

The earthquakes would have been quite noticeable even on the opposite side of the planet. As a geophysicist later put it to Brannen, “a magnitude 11 to 12 earthquake at any one location would feel like a magnitude 9 earthquake everywhere else on the planet.

At impact, the Earth probably rang like a bell, triggering volcanic eruptions around the globe that may have contributed to the devastation, according to UC Berkeley geophysicists.

The researchers argue that the impact likely triggered most of the immense eruptions of lava in India known as the Deccan Traps, explaining the “uncomfortably close” coincidence between the Deccan Traps eruptions and the impact, which has always cast doubt on the theory that the asteroid was the sole cause of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. 

The Death of Mars -Did a Pluto-Size Asteroid Ignite Ancient Climate Change?

“If you try to explain why the largest impact we know of in the last billion years happened within 100,000 years of these massive lava flows at Deccan … the chances of that occurring at random are minuscule,” said team leader Richards, at the time, UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science.

Richards and his colleagues marshal evidence for their theory that the impact reignited the Deccan flood lavas in a paper published in The Geological Society of America Bulletin.

While the Deccan lava flows, which started before the impact but erupted for several hundred thousand years after re-ignition, probably spewed immense amounts of carbon dioxide and other noxious, climate-modifying gases into the atmosphere, it’s still unclear if this contributed to the demise of most of life on Earth at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, Richards said.

“This connection between the impact and the Deccan lava flows is a great story and might even be true, but it doesn’t yet take us closer to understanding what actually killed the dinosaurs and the ‘forams,’” he said, referring to tiny sea creatures called foraminifera, many of which disappeared from the fossil record virtually overnight at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, called the KT boundary. The disappearance of the landscape-dominating dinosaurs is widely credited with ushering in the age of mammals, eventually including humans.

He stresses that his proposal differs from an earlier hypothesis that the energy of the impact was focused around Earth to a spot directly opposite, or antipodal, to the impact, triggering the eruption of the Deccan Traps. The “antipodal focusing” theory died when the impact crater, called Chicxulub, was found off the Yucatán coast of Mexico, which is about 5,000 kilometers from the antipode of the Deccan traps.

Richards proposed in 1989 that plumes of hot rock, called “plume heads,” rise through Earth’s mantle every 20-30 million years and generate huge lava flows, called flood basalts, like the Deccan Traps. It struck him as more than coincidence that the last four of the six known mass extinctions of life occurred at the same time as one of these massive eruptions.

Illustration of a hot mantle plume “head” pancaked beneath the Indian Plate. The theory by Richards and his colleagues suggests that existing magma within this plume head was mobilized by strong seismic shaking from the Chicxulub asteroid impact, resulting in the largest of the Deccan Traps flood basalt eruptions.

“Paul Renne’s group at Berkeley showed years ago that the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province is associated with the mass extinction at the Triassic/Jurassic boundary 200 million years ago, and the Siberian Traps are associated with the end Permian extinction 250 million years ago, and now we also know that a big volcanic eruption in China called the Emeishan Traps is associated with the end-Guadalupian extinction 260 million years ago,” Richards said. “Then you have the Deccan eruptions – including the largest mapped lava flows on Earth – occurring 66 million years ago coincident with the KT mass extinction. So what really happened at the KT boundary?”

Richards teamed up with experts in many areas to try to discover faults with his radical idea that the impact triggered the Deccan eruptions, but instead came up with supporting evidence. Paul Renne, a professor in residence in the UC Berkeley Department of Earth and Planetary Science and director of the Berkeley Geochronology Center, re-dated the asteroid impact and mass extinction two years ago and found them essentially simultaneous, but also within approximately 100,000 years of the largest Deccan eruptions, referred to as the Wai subgroup flows, which produced about 70 percent of the lavas that now stretch across the Indian subcontinent from Mumbai to Kolkata.

UC Berkeley geophysicist, Michael Manga, has shown over the past decade that large earthquakes – equivalent to Japan’s 9.0 Tohoku quake in 2011 – can trigger nearby volcanic eruptions. Richards calculates that the asteroid that created the Chicxulub crater might have generated the equivalent of a magnitude 9 or larger earthquake everywhere on Earth, sufficient to ignite the Deccan flood basalts and perhaps eruptions in many places around the globe, including at mid-ocean ridges.

“It’s inconceivable that the impact could have melted a whole lot of rock away from the impact site itself, but if you had a system that already had magma and you gave it a little extra kick, it could produce a big eruption,” Manga said.

“The Deccan eruptions were well underway at the time of the impact,” Manga, told The Daily Galaxy. “It does appear that the eruption rate changed after the impact, however,” he added. “Whether the two events are causally related remains the subject of active research.”

Similarly, Deccan lava from before the impact is chemically different from that after the impact, indicating a faster rise to the surface after the impact, while the pattern of dikes from which the supercharged lava flowed – “like cracks in a soufflé,” Renne said – are more randomly oriented post-impact.

“There is a profound break in the style of eruptions and the volume and composition of the eruptions,” said Renne. “The whole question is, ‘Is that discontinuity synchronous with the impact?’”

Richards, Renne and colleagues visited India in April 2014 to obtain lava samples for dating, and noticed that there are pronounced weathering surfaces, or terraces, marking the onset of the huge Wai subgroup flows. Geological evidence suggests that these terraces may signal a period of quiescence in Deccan volcanism prior to the Chicxulub impact. Apparently never before noticed, these terraces are part of the western Ghats, a mountain chain named after the Hindu word for steps.

Photograph of part of the main stack of 66 million year old Deccan Traps lava flows near the city of Mahabaleshwar, India. The entire volume of the Deccan Traps could have covered an area as large as the state of California in a mile deep pile of lava flows.(Mark Richards photo)

“This was an existing massive volcanic system that had been there probably several million years, and the impact gave this thing a shake and it mobilized a huge amount of magma over a short amount of time,” Richards said. “The beauty of this theory is that it is very testable, because it predicts that you should have the impact and the beginning of the extinction, and within 100,000 years or so you should have these massive eruptions coming out, which is about how long it might take for the magma to reach the surface.”

Sean P.S, Gulik at University of Texas Institute for Geophysics and Co-Director, University of Texas Center for Planetary Systems Habitability wrote in an email to The Daily Galaxy:” My take on the best estimates of timing are that there is uncertainty on the exact timing of the three largest Deccan Traps flows (e.g., Renne et al., 2015; Schoene et al., 2015 both in Science but with different timing conclusions because the K-Pg boundary layer is not present at the Deccan site and so a direct tie is a problem).

“There is evidence for a CO2 increase attributed to the Deccan Traps 300,000 years before the Chicxulub impact but that increased CO2 did not effect extinction rate (see Hull et al., 2020 Science),” Gulik continued in his email.  “There is also no evidence for a delay in recovery after the Chicxulub event from later Deccan flows predicted by both attempts to date flows.  There is also no clear mechanism of how magnitude 10-11 earthquakes from Chicxulub would have caused a Deccan eruption.  Therefore we do not have clear evidence for Chicxulub causing Deccan eruptions and further there is no evidence that Deccan eruptions had any measurable effect on extinction rate.  Thus we would argue that Chicxulub was the sole cause of the K-Pg extinction 66 million years ago.” 

Since the team’s paper was accepted for publication, a group from Princeton University published new radioisotopic dates for the Deccan Traps lavas that are consistent with these predictions. Renne and Sprain at UC Berkeley also have preliminary, unpublished dates for the Deccan lavas that could help solidify Richards’ theory, Renne said.

The Day the Earth Rained Glass

The Last Word 

In an email to The Daily Galaxy, Keller summarized the assumptions of Chicxulub having triggered Deccan volcanism.

“This idea that Deccan volcanism was triggered by the Chicxulub impact has been around since Luis Alvarez  proposed it in 1980 and again by the Berkeley impact group in 2014, 2015 and onwards. It never made sense and has not a shred of evidence – and still they keep pounding away on this idea hoping if they repeat it long enough people will eventually believe it.

“Deccan volcanic eruptions began over 550,000 years prior to the mass extinction and continued about a million years thereafter. During this time major pulsed eruptions marked peaks about every 50-70 thousand years. The largest eruption pulse began 25,000 years prior to the mass extinction and ten giant pulses have been identified based on global mercury fallout (Keller et al., 2020). During the last three eruptions lava flows transited India over 1500 km eastward and out into the Bay of Bengal. We identified the mass extinction between these longest lava flows.

“So which ones of these Deccan pulses do they want to claim were caused by the Chicxulub impact? What evidence is there in the Deccan Traps?” Keller asks. “Schoene et al., 2019 has published the highest-resolution uranium-lead (U-Pb) zircon geochronology age dating for the entire Deccan eruption phase and there is no evidence of an impact-generated pulse. If that were the case, there should be a specific event.

“But there isn’t,” she emphasizes.

“I would also ask, on what basis is the Chicxulub impact dated as the time of the mass extinction? This is an assumption that was never supported by dating. Ar/Ar ((argon geochronology) ages of impact glass is the closest age and has an error margin of 200,000 years. The second assumption for a Chicxulub impact is the KPB iridium anomaly always assumed to be extraterrestrial. That has also been questionable for the past 40 years and new evidence seriously questions that assumption (see abstract GSA Portland 2021 Oct. 11, by Munir Humayun).

“We are left,” Keller concludes, “with a study based on nothing but assumptions: an impact of presumably Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary age, an iridium anomaly of presumably extraterrestrial origin, an earthquake of magnitude 9 that caused Deccan volcanism, or somehow just the largest Deccan pulsed eruptions. Where’s the beef?” Keller asks.

A Coupling between Impact and Volcanism?

“In my opinion the most likely coupling between impact and volcanism is a modulation of eruption tempo, both within the Deccan traps and possibly volcanoes worldwide such as the mid-ocean ridge system,” University of Oregon Earth Scientist, Leif Karlstrom, wrote in an email to The Daily Galaxy. “The ever sharpening time resolution of the K-Pg boundary clearly puts the Chicxulub impact well after the onset of Deccan volcanism,” Karlstrom continues.  “But our best current geochronology still places the largest volume and likely most rapidly emplaced Deccan eruptions directly after the impact. The magnitude of dynamic shaking necessary to unclog or expand fluid transport pathways in the mantle – a necessary pre-condition for increasing eruption rates at the surface – requires a tremendous seismic event that far exceeds the largest tectonic earthquakes.

“Since we published the idea of eruptive tempo modulation by Chicxulub in Richards et al 2015 there has been quite a bit of discussion both for and against, but notably some exciting research that lends credibility the global impact of the seismic event – for example that an impact-induced seiche may have created Tanis fossil deposit. We have even found evidence by reconstructing ocean floor created by mid-ocean ridge eruptions at K-Pg time that global seafloor eruptions likely increased in volume following the Chicxulub impact The connection between impact-induced shaking and volcanic eruptions remains very much in hypothesis phase, because without historical analogs we are forced to extrapolate models for seismic triggering of magmatism to truly fantastical scales. But that is also the appeal of the idea, and a reminder that the human experience records only a very small corner of what is possible in the natural world.”

‘Anicca’—The impermanence of all things

At the edge of the Western Ghats, Buddhists carved some two dozen monasteries and five temples into the cliffs of this Deccan basalt, writes Brannen in The Ends of the World. “These are the stunning Ajanta Caves, which, like the Ring of Cenotes, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Thousands of years ago, monks sat in silent meditation deep inside the rock that might have destroyed the world, a fitting place to contemplate that foundational Buddhist concept of ‘anicca’—the impermanence of all things.”

Avi Shporer, Research Scientist, with the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research via Peter Brannen, Sean P.S. Gulik, Leif Karlstrom, Greta Keller, Michael Manga,  University of Washington and UC Berkeley 

Image credit: Shutterstock License

Avi Shporer, Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. A Google Scholar, Avi was formerly a NASA Sagan Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). His motto, not surprisingly, is a quote from Carl Sagan: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”