Science & TechnologyS


Blue Planet

Astronauts experience distinct brain changes for months after they return to Earth

Mike McRae
Science Alert
Fri, 06 May 2022 20:25 UTC
astronaut brain
Scans showing perivascular space of a single astronaut. (Hupfield et al., Scientific Reports, 2022
Flung into freefall for months on end, our bodies adjust in ways that makes for a long list of health concerns for space travelers.

The latest evaluation of microgravity's warping effect on our biology focuses on the spaces surrounding the blood vessels that weave through our brain, revealing concerning changes that remain with astronauts between missions.

Researchers from across the US compared a series of magnetic resonance image (MRI) scans of 15 astronaut brains taken prior to a six-month stay on the International Space Station, and up to six months after their return.

Using algorithms to carefully assess the sizes of perivascular spaces (gaps in brain tissue thought to facilitate the balance of fluids), the team found time spent in orbit had a profound effect on the brain's plumbing. For the first-timers, at least.

Comment: See also: 6 months in space increased dexterity but impaired vision, study on 8 Russian cosmonauts shows

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Apple Red

How the dinosaur extinction changed plant evolution

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
Phys.org
Mon, 02 May 2022 12:00 UTC
dinosaur extinction meteor
© Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
With the extinction of large, non-flying dinosaurs 66 million years ago, large herbivores were missing on Earth for the subsequent 25 million years. Since plants and herbivorous animals influence each other, the question arises whether, and how this very long absence and the later return of the so-called "megaherbivores" affected the evolution of the plant world.

To answer this question, a research team led by iDiv and Leipzig University analyzed fossil and living palms today. Genetic analyses enabled the researchers to trace the evolutionary developments of plants during and after the absence of megaherbivores. Thus, they first confirmed the common scientific assumption that many palm species at the time of the dinosaurs bore large fruits and were covered with spines and thorns on their trunks and leaves.

Comment: See also:

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Hearts

Rare fossil of ancient dog species discovered, lived 26 million years ago

Pam Kragen
Phys.org
Tue, 03 May 2022 19:46 UTC
Archeocyon
© Cypress Hansen/San Diego Natural History MuseumThe partially excavated skull (facing to the right) of an Archeocyon, an ancient doglike species that lives in the area that’s now San Diego up to 28 million years ago.
Sometime around 14,000 years ago, the first humans crossed the Bering Strait to North America with canines, domesticated dogs they used for hunting, by their side.

But long before the canines arrived here, there were predatory doglike canid species who hunted the grasslands and forests of the Americas. A rare and nearly complete fossilized skeleton of one of these long-extinct species was recently discovered by paleontologists at the San Diego Natural History Museum.

This fossil belongs to a group of animals called Archeocyons, which means "ancient dog." It was embedded in two large chunks of sandstone and mudstone unearthed in 2019 from a construction project in the Otay Ranch area of San Diego County. The fossil dates to the late Oligocene epoch and is believed to be 24 million to 28 million years old.

Comment: See also: 28,500 year old fossil site supports date for dog domestication during Ice Age

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Comet 2

New Comet C/2022 F1 (ATLAS)

Ernesto Guido
Remanzacco Blogspot
Sat, 30 Apr 2022 22:40 UTC
CBET 5112 & MPEC 2022-G82, issued on 2022, April 06, announce the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~18.5) on CCD images taken on Mar. 30.3 UT with a 0.5-m f/2 Wright-Schmidt reflector at Rio Hurtado, Chile, in the course of the "Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System" (ATLAS) search program. The new comet has been designated C/2022 F1 (ATLAS).

Stacking of 20 unfiltered exposures, 90 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2022, April 2.4 from X02 (Telescope Live, Chile) through a 0.61-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 9" arcsecond in diameter (Observers E. Bryssinck, M. Rocchetto, E. Guido, M. Fulle, G. Milani, G. Savini, A. Valvasori).

Our confirmation image (click on the images for a bigger version)
C/2022 F1 Atlas
© Remanzacco Blogspot
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Cassiopaea

Eight years later, supernova 2014C is still revealing secrets about the lives of stars


University of Chicago
Wed, 27 Apr 2022 20:08 UTC
Supernova 2014C
© Image courtesy Sloan Digital Sky SurveyThe supernova known as 2014C took place eight years ago—but scientists are still watching and learning from its aftermath. The very faintly visible explosion is shown circled in red.
An international group of astronomers has uncovered new clues about a mysterious stellar explosion that was discovered eight years ago, but is continuing to evolve even as scientists watch.

The results help astronomers better understand the process of how massive stars — giants far larger than our own sun — live and die.

The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal by a group led by the University of Texas at Austin and including scientists with the University of Chicago.

The lives of 2014C

In 2014, astronomers saw a sudden bright spot in the sky — a sure sign that a star had exploded out in space.

When an exploding star is first detected, astronomers around the world begin to follow it with telescopes as the light it gives off changes rapidly over time. By watching how it evolves, using telescopes that can see visible light and also X-rays, radio waves, and infrared light, scientists can deduce the physical characteristics of the system.

By doing this many times, scientists have grouped these exploding stars into categories. 2014C, as this particular event was named, looked like what's called a Type Ib supernova. They are what happen when the largest known stars in the universe die.
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Frog

Species pairs: Presenting a new challenge to Darwinists

Günter Bechly
Evolution News
Mon, 25 Apr 2022 19:19 UTC
Basilosaurus fossil museum display
© Asmoth, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia CommonsBasilosaurus
In the many years of vehement debate between proponents of unguided evolution and intelligent design, it sometimes may look like all has already been said and there are no new arguments on either side. However, this is not the case at all. Intelligent design theory has greatly developed since its early beginnings and many new arguments have been added in support of the design inference. Here, I want to introduce another new argument and formulate a challenge to my Darwinist colleagues. This challenge is by no means rhetorical and could be easily met with simple research in publicly available data bases. Here it is.

As I have laid out in various publications (e.g., Bechly & Meyer 2017) and lectures, the fossil record demonstrates that the history of life was not a series of gradual transformations by an accumulation of small changes over long periods of time. Instead of conforming to this gradualist prediction of Darwin's theory of evolution, the fossil record consistently documents a series of saltational transitions with abrupt appearances of new body plans within very short windows of time. This implies a fatal problem for Darwinism called the waiting time problem, because population genetic calculations and simulations show that the windows of time established by the fossil record are orders of magnitude too short to accommodate the required genetic changes for these body plan transformations.
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Microscope 2

More building blocks of DNA seen in meteorites, boosting panspermia theory of life on Earth

Eric Mack
CNet
Tue, 26 Apr 2022 18:02 UTC
Tagish Lake meteorite
© NASAA fragment of the Tagish Lake meteorite
The notion that the ingredients for life were seeded on Earth by hitching a ride on space rocks becomes more believable the closer we look at those rocks. Using state-of-the-art, ultra-high-resolution equipment, scientists have identified important building blocks of DNA and RNA in meteorites, including those that were missing in previous analyses.

Their discovery boosts the theory of panspermia, which suggests that life, or its building blocks, could be flying around space just waiting to impact a world with the right conditions to help it spring to, well, life. Panspermia was once considered a laughable hypothesis, but the deeper we dig into specimens from space, the less crazy it seems.

A study outlining the findings appears in this week's issue of the journal Nature Communications.

Comment: Previously on SOTT:

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Arrow Up

Two large Marsquakes recorded on planet's far side


Seismological Society of America
Fri, 22 Apr 2022 18:37 UTC
MarsQuakes
© Horelston et al. (2022) TSRMars surface relief map showing InSight’s location (orange triangle), other located marsquakes (purple dots) that cluster around 30° distance, close to Cerberus Fossae, and S0976a, located within Valles Marineris just north of Sollis Planum. S1000a’s location is predicted to be somewhere within the shaded region between 107° and 147° from InSight.
The seismometer placed on Mars by NASA's InSight lander has recorded its two largest seismic events to date: a magnitude 4.2 and a magnitude 4.1 marsquake. The pair are the first recorded events to occur on the planet's far side from the lander and are five times stronger than the previous largest event recorded.

Seismic wave data from the events could help researchers learn more about the interior layers of Mars, particularly its core-mantle boundary, researchers from InSight's Marsquake Service (MQS) report in The Seismic Record.

Anna Horleston of the University of Bristol and colleagues were able to identify reflected PP and SS waves from the magnitude 4.2 event, called S0976a, and locate its origin in the Valles Marineris, a massive canyon network that is one of Mars' most distinguishing geological features and one of the largest graben systems in the Solar System. Earlier orbital images of cross-cutting faults and landslides suggested the area would be seismically active, but the new event is the first confirmed seismic activity there.

S1000a, the magnitude 4.1 event recorded 24 days later, was characterized by reflected PP and SS waves as well as Pdiff waves, small amplitude waves that have traversed the core-mantle boundary. This is the first time Pdiff waves have been spotted by the InSight mission. The researchers could not definitively pinpoint S1000a's location, but like S0976a it originated on Mars' far side. The seismic energy from S1000a also holds the distinction of being the longest recorded on Mars, lasting 94 minutes.
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Target

China to build space 'defense system' to deflect possible asteroid impact by 2025


RT
Sun, 24 Apr 2022 15:43 UTC
asteroid
FILE IMAGE
China seeks to build a system capable of effectively monitoring asteroids and potentially altering their course to protect Earth from a possible impact.

The deputy head China's National Space Administration (CNSA), Wu Yanhua, revealed on Sunday that Beijing expects to hit an asteroid as part of an experiment at some point in 2025.

What is planned to be set up is a near-Earth asteroid monitoring and defense system that would also be potentially capable of protecting spacecraft as well, Wu told China Central Television during this year's Space Day of China event.

Comment: The threat is greater than those in the know are letting on:

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Galaxy

Cosmic 'angel wings' emerge from violent galactic collision in Leo constellation

Scott Dutfield
Live Science
Sat, 23 Apr 2022 00:00 UTC
angel wing merging galaxies in the VV689 system
© ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Keel. Acknowledgement: J. SchmidtThe two merging galaxies in the VV689 system have been nicknamed the 'angel wing'.
An angel gets its wings as two distant galaxies collide in a stunning new image snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The galactic smashup took place in the VV689 system in the constellation Leo. The delicate wings formed as the two gravitationally bound objects collided and merged, deforming each other.

"The galactic interaction has left the VV689 system almost completely symmetrical, giving the impression of a vast set of galactic wings," officials with the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a statement.
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