Science & TechnologyS


Fish

Drone footage captures narwhals using their tusks to explore, forage and play


PhysOrg
Wed, 05 Mar 2025 19:13 UTC
drone footage narwhale behavior tusks
© O'Corry-Crowe, FAU/Watt, DFOThe Arctic's iconic narwhal, renowned for its long, spiral tusk, is one of nature's most fascinating creatures. Yet, few have witnessed how these elusive animals use their tusks in the wild.
The narwhal (Monodon monoceros), an iconic whale of remote Arctic waters, is widely known for its long, spiral tusk, which is really an elongated tooth. The tusk, which is predominantly found in males and can grow up to 10 feet long, is one of the most fascinating traits in nature and the inspiration for myths such as the unicorn. It is believed to play a role in competition for mates, including mating displays. The tusk may have other uses and its function is still debated, primarily because few people have observed how these elusive animals use their tusks in the wild.

Limited field observations also mean that little is known about many other aspects of the behavior of this highly gregarious Arctic whale, including social and reproductive behaviors, how they adapt to changing environmental conditions, or whether narwhals engage in behaviors that are not linked directly to fitness, like play.

Using drones, researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, and Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, in partnership with Inuit communities in Nunavut in Canada's High Arctic, provide the first evidence of narwhals using their tusks in the wild to investigate, manipulate and influence the behavior of Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus), including delivering sufficient force with their tusks to stun and possibly kill the fish. Researchers captured 17 distinct behaviors, which shed light on the dynamics between the narwhal, its prey and avian competitors.
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Telescope

Huge 'reflective disk' discovered on Mars

Jake Carter
anomalien.com
Sun, 02 Mar 2025 03:02 UTC
disk mars
© Jean Ward/NasaReflective Martian disk appears embedded in the Martian surface, top edge reflecting light, bottom edge mirroring the surrounding terrain.
A recent analysis of a photograph captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revealed intriguing anomaly on the Martian surface.

The image, labeled F02_036488_2211_XI_41N335W, was taken on May 9, 2014, and depicts a monitoring site in North Arabia Terra, a region east of Deuteronilus Colles. The anomaly was discovered by imaging specialist Jean Ward.

The object, described as a massive reflective disc, measures approximately 240 meters (787 feet) in diameter — comparable to two or three football fields.

The second anomaly, located nearby, resembles a large ring measuring roughly 120 meters in diameter.

While the nature of these objects remains unknown, theories range from natural formations, such as pools of frozen water ice, to more speculative possibilities like artificial structures or spacecraft.
second disc
© Jean Ward/NASAThe second anomaly resembles a large ring measuring approximately 120 metres in diameter.
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Beaker

Bubbles that break rules: A fluid discovery that defies logic


PhysOrg
Tue, 25 Feb 2025 18:41 UTC
bubbles fluid dynamics physics
© Nature CommunicationsGalloping bubbles
A team led by researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill have made an extraordinary discovery that is reshaping our understanding of bubbles and their movement. Picture tiny air bubbles inside a container filled with liquid. When the container is shaken up and down, these bubbles engage in an unexpected, rhythmic "galloping" motion — bouncing like playful horses and moving horizontally, even though the shaking occurs vertically.

This counterintuitive phenomenon, revealed in a new study published in Nature, has significant implications for technology, from cleaning surfaces to improving heat transfer in microchips and even advancing space applications.

These galloping bubbles are already garnering significant attention: their impact in the field of fluid dynamics has been recognized with an award for their video entry at the most recent Gallery of Fluid Motion, organized by the American Physical Society.
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Info

New findings date Los Chocoyos supereruption to 79,500 years ago, and show Earth bounced back within decades

Bob Yirka
Phys Org
Sat, 01 Mar 2025 16:41 UTC
Marine Sediment
© Communications Earth & Environment (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-025-02095-6Major oxide geochemical analysis of ice and marine sediment core tephra shards analyzed that correlate with LCY ash.
An international team of Earth and life scientists, hydrologists, chemists, and physicists, has found evidence showing that the Los Chocoyos supereruption occurred approximately 79,500 years ago and that the planet bounced back from its chilling effects within decades.

In their paper published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, the group describes how they studied ice core samples obtained from places in Greenland and Antarctica to learn more about the global impact of the ancient volcanic eruption.

Prior evidence has shown that a massive eruption occurred in what is now Guatemala's Atitlán volcanic system tens of thousands of years ago, spewing ash far into the atmosphere. So much ash was emitted, it has been thought, that it led to an ice age. Today, the eruption is known as the Los Chocoyos supereruption.
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Satellite

James Webb telescope spots 2 alien planets disintegrating before our eyes - "cataclysmic"


Live Science
Wed, 26 Feb 2025 21:15 UTC
JWST spot disintegrating planeta
© NASAAn artist's concept depicts a comet-like tail of a possible disintegrating planet as it crosses its parent star.
In world-first observations, the James Webb Space Telescope is watching two distant alien planets "spilling their guts into space" as they rapidly disintegrate — and scientists are elated at what they've found.

Astronomers have directly observed two worlds beyond our solar system shedding their outer layers into space for the first time. The new observations offer an unprecedented glimpse into the interiors of planets — a view that has long remained elusive, even for Earth.

The first "disintegrating" exoplanet is a Neptune-size rocky world called K2-22b, which zips around its star so closely that it completes an orbit in just nine hours. Scientists say the star's heat literally roasts the planet: K2-22b's surface reaches temperatures of more than 3,320 degrees Fahrenheit (1,826 degrees Celsius), which is hot enough not just to melt rock, but to vaporize it. Recent observations of K2-22b using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) revealed that the evaporated rock has been sculpted into an extended, comet-like tail.

"It's a remarkable and fortuitous opportunity to understand terrestrial planet interiors," study co-author Jason Wright, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, said in a statement.

Comment: Space.com adds:
Material blasts away from these planets in a dynamic, chaotic process that changes the strength of the transit signal each time a disintegrating planet crosses the face of its star. The planets also form a characteristic trail of dust, much like that of a comet when it passes close to the sun.

"The disintegrating planet orbiting BD+05 4868 A has the most prominent dust tails to date," Marc Hon, MIT team leader, said in the statement. "The dust tails emanating from the rapidly evaporating planet are gigantic. Its length of approximately 5.6 million miles (9 million kilometers) encircles over half the planet's orbit around the star every 30 and a half hours."

The tail of BD+05 4868 Ab is so significant in density and size that when it crosses the face of its star, it blocks 1% of the star's light, and the transit signal it creates lasts 15 hours.

The dust trail of BD+05 4868 Ab is divided into two distinct sections: one that leads the planet in its orbit around its star and one that follows it. The MIT team thinks this is a result of dust grains with different sizes. The trail leading the planet consists of larger grains, comparable to desert sand, while the following trail has finer grains resembling soot particles.

The planet only has around the equivalent of the moon's mass left intact, and at the rate it is losing matter, that means it will soon be gone entirely.

"The rate at which the planet is evaporating is utterly cataclysmic, and we are incredibly lucky to be witnessing the final hours of this dying planet," Hon said.

The two teams have jointly submitted a JWST proposal to study BD+05 4868 Ab in the same manner as K2-22b, meaning the future of this doomed exoplanet is bright.

"What's also highly exciting about BD+05 4868 Ab is that it has the brightest host star out of the other disintegrating planets — about 100 times brighter than K2-22 — establishing it as a benchmark for future disintegrating studies of such systems," MIT team member Avi Shporer said in the statement. "Prior to our study, the three other known disintegrating planets were around faint stars, making them challenging to study.

"The data quality we should get from BD+05 4868 A will be exquisite. These studies have proven the validity of this approach to understanding exoplanetary interiors and opened the door to a whole new line of research with JWST."

The BD+05 4868 Ab research is available on the paper repository site arXiv, as is a paper discussing the K2-22b findings.


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Fireball

A million asteroids from Alpha Centauri already here says new study


Spaceweather
Thu, 27 Feb 2025 16:48 UTC
Asteroids
© Newsweek.com
If you want to travel to Alpha Centauri, it'll take thousands of years using current technology. It might be easier to wait. Astronomers have long known that the triple star system is approaching Earth for a close encounter 28,000 years from now. Indeed, a new study contends that asteroids from alpha Centauri are already here.

"We estimate that a million asteroid-sized objects from the alpha Centauri system could be in the Solar System right now," says Cole Gregg, a PhD student at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) and co-author of the study just accepted by the Planetary Science Journal. This simulation from the study shows asteroids entering the Solar System as alpha Centauri passes by:


Interest in alien asteroids spiked in 2017 when 'Oumuamua raced through the solar system. Prof. Avi Loeb from Harvard argued that the cigar-shaped object might be an alien spacecraft, but most astronomers went with Occam's Razor. It was more likely a natural body from another star system, they argued.
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Moon

Bullet-fast moon rocks carved 2 lunar gorges deeper than the Grand Canyon

Charles Q. Choi
Space.com
Tue, 04 Feb 2025 18:44 UTC
canyon moon
© NASASVSErnie T. WrightView of two grand canyons on the moon radiating from the Schrödinger impact basin near the lunar south pole on the lunar far side. The angle is from orbit looking obliquely across the surface, like an astronaut in an approaching spacecraft.
It only took less than 10 minutes.

Two gigantic canyons on the moon — both deeper than the Grand Canyon — were carved in less than 10 minutes by floods of rocks traveling as fast as bullets, a new study finds.

Scientists analyzed the lunar canyons, named Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck, to find that these huge valleys measure 167 miles long (270 kilometers) and nearly 1.7 miles (2.7 km) deep, and 174 miles long (280 km) and nearly 2.2 miles deep (3.5 km), respectively. In comparison, the Grand Canyon is 277 miles long (446 km) and is, at most, about 1.2 miles deep (1.9 km), the researchers noted.

"The lunar landscape is dramatic," David Kring, a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute of the Universities Space Research Association, told Space.com. "In the lunar south polar region, there are mountains that exceed Mt. Everest in height and canyons that exceed the Grand Canyon in depth. Future lunar surface explorers will be awed."
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Fish

'Dancing' sea turtles unlock scientific discovery

Michael Lananna
UNC-Chapel Hill
Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:28 UTC
baby sea turtle
© Ken Lohmann/biology departmentSea turtles dance moves aren't just cute — they can also lead to significant research findings.
Carolina researchers publish a groundbreaking study on how turtles navigate using the Earth's magnetic field.

When captive loggerhead sea turtles anticipate food, they do a little dance. The turtles raise their heads out of water, open their mouths, flap their flippers and spin in circles.

Not only is this "turtle dancing behavior" cute, it was also the key to unlocking a significant scientific discovery by researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The prestigious international science journal Nature published the study Feb. 12. Kayla Goforth, a recent doctoral graduate in the College of Arts and Sciences' biology department, is the lead author of "Learned magnetic map cues and two mechanisms of magnetoreception in turtles."
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Laptop

When your last name is 'Null', you don't exist in the digital world

Oyin Adedoyin
Wall Street Journal
Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:48 UTC
computers last name null problems
© Alexandra Citrin-Safadi/WSJ; iStock
The word, used by computer scientists to mean 'no value,' has created long-running challenges

Nontra Yantaprasert couldn't wait to take her husband's shorter and easier-to-pronounce last name. She didn't know what kinds of problems it would cause.

His last name is Null, the same word used by computer scientists to mean "no value" or "invalid value." The Nulls of the world, it turns out, endure a lifetime of website bouncebacks, processing errors and declarations by customer-service representatives that their accounts don't exist.

After becoming a Null, she was due to travel to India in 2014 on a nonrefundable flight for a friend's marriage, but her visa hadn't arrived in the mail. The Indian consulate told her it had tried multiple times but the computer system couldn't process her last name, she said. A week before the wedding, she was still waiting.
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Cassiopaea

Space photo of the week: James Webb telescope reveals mysterious 'light echo' in the broken heart of Cassiopeia

Shreejaya Karantha
LiveScience
Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00 UTC
Cass constellation
© NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jencson (Caltech/IPAC)Irradiated dust streams through space near the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant in this dynamic James Webb Space Telescope image.
Beautifully captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), this image shows interstellar gas and dust lit up by a dead star in Cassiopeia.

What it is: Interstellar medium near the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A
Where it is: About 11,000 light-years away, in the constellation Cassiopeia
When it was shared: Jan. 14, 2025

Why it's so special: This set of stunning pictures from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) shows glowing interstellar medium — gas and dust that fill up the space between stars — near the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. The light from this supernova is believed to have reached Earth in the 1660s. More than 350 years later, its intense light has exposed intricate layers of glowing material around the long-dead star.

These images reveal a fascinating phenomenon known as a light echo — faint reflections of the light emitted during a supernova explosion. When a star reaches the end of its lifespan and explodes, it emits intense radiation that lights up the surrounding gas and dust, producing an "echo" that can be seen in visible wavelengths. Sometimes the energetic supernova radiation also warms the nearby gas and dust of the interstellar medium, causing it to emit its own glow, resulting in a rare type of light echo observed at infrared wavelengths — the kind of light that JWST excels at spotting. According to NASA, the infrared light echo in these images actually comes from the material behind Cassiopeia A, not from the material expelled during the explosion.
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