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This colossal extinct whale was the heaviest animal to ever live

whale
© Alberto GennariArtist's interpretation of what Perucetus colossus may have looked like in its marine habitat.
A colossal ancient species of whale that lived 39 million years ago was a true heavyweight, weighing more than double a blue whale and likely earning itself the title as the heaviest known animal to have ever lived.

The newly described basilosaurid (a family of extinct cetaceans), called Perucetus colossus, eclipsed blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) in sheer weight with an estimated body mass of between 187,000 to 750,000 pounds (85,000 to 340,000 kilograms). It had an estimated body length of about 66 feet (20 meters) — longer than a lane at a bowling alley, according to a new study published Wednesday (Aug. 2) in the journal Nature.

Paleontologists discovered the partial skeletal remains of the monstrous marine mammal 30 years ago in what is now Ica Province in southern Peru. Since then, they've unearthed 13 vertebrae, four ribs and a hip bone, according to a statement.

Lead author Eli Amson, a paleontologist and curator of fossil mammals at the Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History in Germany, told Live Science:
"[One of my co-authors] was looking for fossils in the desert in Peru and saw an outcropping of bones. Digging out the fossils took a lot of time because of their sheer size. Each vertebra alone weighs 150 kilos [330 pounds]."
Researchers can only estimate how enormous P. colossus was using the limited number of bones they unearthed, as much of the animal's remains have decayed over time — including all of its soft tissues.

Sun

Highest-energy light coming from the sun discovered, surprising scientists

Observatory gamma rays
© Mehr Un NisaA composite image shows a photograph of the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory in Mexico observing particles, whose paths are shown as red lines, generated by high-energy gamma rays from the sun. Michigan State University researchers were part of the team that observed those particles and gamma rays.
Sometimes, the best place to hide a secret is in broad daylight. Just ask the sun.

"The sun is more surprising than we knew," said Mehr Un Nisa, a postdoctoral research associate at Michigan State University. "We thought we had this star figured out, but that's not the case."

Nisa, who will soon be joining MSU's faculty, is the corresponding author of a new paper in the journal Physical Review Letters that details the discovery of the highest-energy light ever observed from the sun.

The international team behind the discovery also found that this type of light, known as gamma rays, is surprisingly bright. That is, there's more of it than scientists had previously anticipated.

Comment: Recent studies are bringing mainstream scientists closer to the true nature of space, stars and planets, and we can find more clues as to what's going on by looking at Electric Universe theory. In their book Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk write:
External power sources of celestial bodies

The reason capacitors can repeatedly discharge and yet maintain an electric potential difference between their anodes and cathodes is because they are plugged into an external source of energy. So where does all the electricity in our solar system come from? University of Michigan astrophysicist Michael J. Longo has thoroughly studied more than 40,000 galaxies.1 Following numerous steps in data treatment and analysis - I'll spare you the details of his calculations, which you can check in his paper - his conclusion was the following:
The worrisome alignment of the equinoxes and ecliptic with the AE is now seen as an accident due to the ecliptic's definition along RA [right ascensions] =180° and 0°, near the Galactic poles. It is not a sign of a serious foreground bias in the WMAP data. All the alignments can be explained with a cosmic magnetic field that aligns electrons' cyclotron orbit axes and imprints its multipoles on the CMB.2
In simpler terms, what Longo concluded was that the rotation axes of galaxies are aligned along the same curve and that this alignment could not be due to random chance. Along with Longo, Alfven3, Campanelli4 and Schwarz5 have all strongly suggested that the alignment of galactic rotation axes is due to a giant ring of electric current. Although the ultimate source of this giant electric ring circling the cosmic 'void' is still unknown, the alignment of the galaxies' rotation axes is indirect proof of its existence. The picture below depicts this alignment of galactic rotation axes on a ring-shaped intergalactic current (pink color):


A recent study seems to confirm this, notably the results surprised scientists: Milky Way not unusual


This giant ring of Birkeland current (see next chapter on 'Currents in plasma') may be the external source of energy that powers galaxies. It may also explain the 'handedness' addressed by Longo in his paper, by electrically inducing a specific direction and speed of rotation in the galaxies located along its current6. As shown in the picture below, intragalactic space seems to follow the same process as intergalactic space:

[...]

In addition to aligning galaxies along the 'intergalactic ring' and making them spin, as well as grouping the stars within galaxies along galactic arms, Birkeland currents may also be the external electric source that powers the stars themselves8 and makes them spin. In their turn, stars may be the external electric source that powers planets and makes them spin.
Birkeland
© Sott.netA Birkeland current crossing 'empty' interstellar space.
These remain hypotheses only. Today the external electric sources that power celestial bodies is still unknown. Even plasma cosmologists have no definite answer to this question:

Studies of magnetic fields in the spiral arms of galaxies shows that electrical currents flow along the arms in the form of spiraling Birkeland filaments.  Ultimately, we don't know where the power comes from.9

[...]

Birkeland noticed that before the discharge circle divided, discharges were mostly localized in the equatorial and polar regions of the electrodes, as indicated in the picture below. This strongly suggests that most of the current injected into the electrode at the level of the polar regions escaped through the equatorial region. This is consistent with observations of the Sun, which shows a predominant glow and faster rate of rotation19 around the equatorial region.

Birkeland
© Sott.netBirkeland's terrella experiment.
Reasoning by analogy and applying the principles of the homopolar motor to celestial bodies like stars and planets, we find that the 'internal' magnet of the celestial body plays the role of the cylindrical magnet of the motor. The external power source of the celestial body plays the role of the battery. The partial vacuum generated in the lab plays the role of the partial vacuum that constitutes outer space. And the Birkeland current crossing the plasma that surrounds the celestial body plays the role of the electric wire which closes the circuit by connecting the battery to the magnet.

If a celestial body is a conductor crossed by an electric current and an electromagnetic field, it will also be subjected to the Lorentz force. In this sense, stars and planets are giant homopolar motors, hence their spin. Therefore, when electric current or magnetic field decreases in strength, the rate of rotation decreases as well.

Note that the Moon doesn't spin. As explained above, the Moon hasn't developed a Double Layer (DL) of its own. It has no plasmasphere because its electric potential is equal to that of its surrounding space. Electric potentials being equal, the Moon is not subjected to any electric current, so no Lorentz force can be generated, hence the absence of spinning20.

For plasma cosmologists the driving force of spinning stars is indeed electricity:
 within the visible universe we find magnetic fields linking galaxies, showing that the galaxies are 'threaded like beads on a string', along cosmic power lines. The galaxies and stars within them are driven to rotate like the very simplest of electric motors, known as the 'homopolar' or Faraday motor. The ubiquitous spiral arms of galaxies trace the current paths between the galactic nucleus and the periphery From an electrical standpoint we make the simple observation that increasing electric current input to stars results in increasing maximum rotational speeds.21
In Part III, we will see how the Lorentz force (the result of the interaction between electric current and magnetic field) plays a role in numerous natural phenomena on Earth.

So far, in Part I we have introduced some basic concepts of the Electric Universe theory and plasma cosmology: the primary role of electrically charged plasma, the way in which different electrical potentials form around celestial bodies and set up an electrical gradient through which current can flow, the relative charges of the bodies in our solar system, and the role of electricity (specifically the Lorentz force) in structuring galaxies and solar systems, making them spin. Now, in Part II, we'll take a closer look at the Nemesis theory, and how it might fit into the framework created by the above concepts.
  1. 1 Longo, M., 'Does the Universe Have a Handedness?', arXiv:0812.3437 [astro-ph], 2008
  2. 2 ccapp.osu.edu/workshops/GLCW8/glcw8/talks/mLongo.pdf
  3. 3 Alfvén, Hannes et al. (1978). 'Interstellar clouds and the formation of stars'. Astrophysics and Space Science 55 (2): 487-509.
  4. 4.Campanelli L. et al, 'Ellipsoidal universe can solve the cosmic microwave background quadrupole problem'. Phys Rev Lett. 2006 Sep 29;97(13):131302.
  5. 5 Schwarz Domink, 'Is the low-l microwave background cosmic?', Astrophysics Journal, November 24th, 2004
  6. 6 See Chapter 12: 'Homopolar motors'
  7. 7 Byrd, D., 'Which spiral arm of the Milky Way contains our Sun?', Earthsky
  8. See: earthsky.org/space/does-our-sun-reside-in-a-spiral-arm-of-the-milky-way-galaxy
  9. 8 Scott, Donald E., The Electric Sky, p. 85
  10. 9 Thornhill, W. & Talbott, D., The Electric Universe, p.61
  11. 10 Tsytovich, V.N., Elementary Physics of Complex Plasmas, p. 7
  12. 11 Luis Alvarez (1911-1988), University of Berkeley researcher, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1968.
  13. 12 Trower, W.P., 'Luis Walter Alvarez - A biographical memoir', p. 7
  14. 13 Ex-CNRS researcher and ex-secretary of the French section of IAGA (International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy)
  15. 14 Nodon, A., 'Prévisions météo d'après les taches solaires'. See : albert-nodon.e-monsite.com/pages/recherche-au-20-siecle/previsions-meteo-d-apres-les-taches-solaires/
  16. 15 Pinches are created in the laboratory in equipment related to nuclear fusion. Pinches may also become unstable and generate radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, including radio waves, x-rays and gamma rays, and also neutrons and synchrotron radiation. There are different kinds of pinches including theta pinch, the screw pinch and the Z-pinch. The name refers to the direction of the current in the devices, i.e., the Z-axis on a mathematical diagram. Any machine that causes a pinch effect due to current running in that direction is correctly referred to as a Z-pinch system, and this encompasses a wide variety of devices used for an equally wide variety of purposes including fusion power research. Pinches are used to generate X-rays, and they have applications to particle beams including particle beam weapons, and astrophysics.
  17. 16 Christian Birkeland had written in 1913 that what is now called the 'solar wind' generates currents in space that cause the auroras. Birkeland's theory was disputed at the time by the British geophysicist and mathematician Sydney Chapman, a senior figure in space physics, who argued the mainstream view that currents could not cross the vacuum of space and therefore the currents had to be generated by the Earth. However, in 1967 Birkeland's theory, referred to previously as 'fringe', was proved correct thanks to the data collected by U.S. Navy satellite 1963-38C. These magnetic field-aligned currents are now named Birkeland currents in his honor.
  18. 17 Anthony L. Peratt is a leading plasma physicist. He's the author of a foundational book titled Physics of the Plasma Universe. Peratt is currently investigating archaeological evidence for major space plasma events in prehistory.
  19. 18 Jago, L., The Northern Lights, Alfred a Knopf, NY, 2001.
  20. 19 According to the movements of the sunspots, the Sun rotates once every 27 days at the equator, but only once in 31 days at the poles.
  21. 20 However the moon has not always been devoid of a magnetosphere. The Moon's surface does bear remnant magnetism. The rocks returned to Earth by Apollo missions show evidence of this magnetism.
  22. Scott, D.E., The Electric sky, p. 214
  23. 21 Ibid, p.130
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Meteor

'Potentially hazardous' 600-foot asteroid detected near Earth after a year of hiding in plain sight

The potentially hazardous asteroid (marked in red)
© ATLAS/University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy/NASAThe potentially hazardous asteroid (marked in red) appeared over four consecutive nights in telescope surveys but went unseen for nearly a year.
A skyscraper-size asteroid was revealed in year-old telescope data thanks to a new algorithm that could rock the way near-Earth objects are discovered.

Astronomers have discovered a massive, skyscraper-size asteroid hiding in plain sight near Earth, thanks to a new algorithm designed to hunt the biggest, deadliest space rocks.

The 600-foot-wide (180 meters) asteroid — now officially named 2022 SF289 — is large enough and orbits closely enough to Earth to be considered a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) — one of roughly 2,300 similarly classed objects that could cause widespread destruction on Earth should a direct collision occur. (Luckily, there is no risk of collision with this rock at any point in the foreseeable future.)

The asteroid made a close approach to Earth in September 2022, when it flew within about 4.5 million miles (7.2 million kilometers) of our planet, according to NASA. Yet astronomers around the world failed to detect the asteroid in telescope data at any point before, during or after the approach, as the large rock was obscured by Milky Way starlight.

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Magnify

An ancient grain unlocks genetic secrets for making bread wheat more resilient

einkhorn wheat modern wheat ancient grains
© Robyn Palescandolo for KAUST’s Center for Desert Agriculture.Painting of Triticum monococcum showing the domesticated (left) and wild (right) einkorn wheat spikes. 70x50cm, watercolor on paper.
Building on the Middle East's reputation as one of the historical birthplaces of cereal crop domestication, a KAUST-led team has compiled the first complete genome map of an ancient grain known as einkorn.

The work is published in the journal Nature.

The 5.2-billion-letter-long sequence provides a window into the evolutionary origins of different wheat species. It could help farmers and crop breeders to develop bread wheat varieties with enhanced disease resistance, higher yields and improved hardiness.

"By understanding the genetic diversity and evolutionary history of einkorn, researchers can now leverage its potential for future breeding efforts and the development of more resilient and nutritious wheat varieties," says Hanin Ahmed, one of the study's first authors, and a former Ph.D. student at KAUST.

Comment: Interesting in terms of genetic research, but hardly helpful for health. Human beings were not designed to consume grains.


Satellite

NASA hears Voyager 2 'heartbeat' after accidentally cutting off communication

Voyager
© AP/NASA/FileVoyager 2 Spacecraft • Kennedy Space Center, Florida • August 4, 1977
NASA has heard from its Voyager 2 spacecraft following days of silence.

The agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory - which operates Voyager 2 - previously said that a series of planned commands on July 21 had "inadvertently" caused the antenna to point two degrees away from Earth. The action resulted in Voyager 2 being unable to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth.

However, NASA's Deep Space Network - giant radio antennas across the globe - have picked up a "heartbeat" carrier signal, confirming the spacecraft is still broadcasting.

JPL said in a tweet:
"Engineers will now try to send Voyager 2 a command to point itself back at Earth. If that does not work, we'll have to wait until October, when the spacecraft's onboard software automatically tells it to reset its direction."
Project manager Suzanne Dodd told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the news "buoyed" spirits there.

Comment: See also: NASA temporarily loses contact with Voyager 2 after accidentally pointing its antenna away from Earth


Info

Earth's most ancient impact craters are disappearing

Impact Craters
© Huber et al. (2023), JGR PlanetsImpact craters and their broader structures can be visible in a geologic map, like a bullseye. But what geophysical traces remain at the structure’s outermost edges?
WASHINGTON — Earth's oldest craters could give scientists critical information about the structure of the early Earth and the composition of bodies in the solar system as well as help to interpret crater records on other planets. But geologists can't find them, and they might never be able to, according to a new study. The study was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Planets, AGU's journal for research on the formation and evolution of the planets, moons and objects of our Solar System and beyond.

Geologists have found evidence of impacts, such as ejecta (material flung far away from the impact), melted rocks, and high-pressure minerals from more than 3.5 billion years ago. But the actual craters from so long ago have remained elusive. The planet's oldest known impact structures, which is what scientists call these massive craters, are only about 2 billion years old. We're missing two and a half billion years of mega-craters.

The steady tick of time and the relentless process of erosion are responsible for the gap, according to Matthew S. Huber, a planetary scientist at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa who studies impact structures and led the new study.

"It's almost a fluke that the old structures we do have are preserved at all," Huber said. "There are a lot of questions we'd be able to answer if we had those older craters. But that's the normal story in geology. We have to make a story out of what's available."

Geologists can sometimes spot hidden, buried craters using geophysical tools, such as seismic imaging or gravity mapping. Once they've identified potential impact structures, they can search for physical remnants of the impact process to confirm its existence, such as ejecta and impact minerals.

Magnet

Superconductor breakthrough replicated, twice, in preliminary testing

Super Conductor
© Shutterstock
A tentative but less nebulous step toward superconductor-fueled electronics.

Humanity may be in the throes of another breakthrough that's every bit as impactful as the invention of the transistor and the advent (and eventual vindication) of quantum computing. LK-99, as it's been named, is a new compound that researchers believe will enable the fabrication of room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductors. Initially published by a Korean team last Friday, frantic work is underway throughout the research world to validate the paper's claims. For now, two separate sources have already provided preliminary confirmations that this might actually be the real thing — Chinese researchers have even posted video proof. Strap in; this is a maglev-powered, superconducting ride.

Superconductors, a wild category of compounds that can conduct electricity without any losses, have been a metaphorical goose chase for years now, with multiple research teams claiming (and then retracting) papers and announcements of its achievement. The reason is simple: Few things come close to the potential of an actual superconductor discovery in terms of what it can do for humanity's current and future technology. Imagine if your 16-core mainstream CPU (which likely requires a competent watercooling solution to avoid incinerating itself) operated without power losses — no current leakage, no electricity waste in the form of heat. Superconductors mean almost perfectly efficient computing.

Comment: See also:


Bulb

Biomimetic architecture: Emulating termite mound structure enables 'breathing buildings'

architecture base on termite mounds
Termite mounds hold the key to building biomimetic 3D-printed and carbon-neutral buildings.
In 2010, Japanese researchers made an intriguing discovery by utilizing a slimy mold to devise an efficient rail network connecting Tokyo and its neighboring cities. The researchers accomplished this by strategically placing nutrients at specific points and allowing the mold to navigate through a complex labyrinth to reach them naturally. Surprisingly, this non-neuronal organism outperformed a team of experts in designing the network's most optimal routes and station distribution. Understanding that there are different forms of intelligence is the best way to learn from them. And that is what a group of English scientists has done, analyzing the structures of termite mounds to understand how these colonies can teach us the construction of the future, characterized by biomimetic and sustainable architecture.

Biomimetic architecture based on termite mounds

Brazil is home to an extraordinary termite mound complex, which holds the title of the largest architectural ensemble globally. This remarkable complex spans an area equivalent to Great Britain's. It consists of approximately two hundred million mounds, some estimated to be up to four thousand years old. These structures require advanced planning to maintain the ventilation and habitability of the colonies. Specifically, researchers at Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom have studied the so-called "egress complex" as a biomimetic architectural solution.

Question

In some science contexts, 'emergence' really means 'we don't know how'

flower
© RTBGSpathiphyllum cochlearispathum
For some purposes, "emergence" is just another word in the dictionary. For example, "caterpillar emergence" (emphasis added) means just that: Caterpillars exiting their eggs.

But there is a sneakier way the word is sometimes used in science contexts: It's a way of pretending we know something we don't or that something can happen in a certain way — but we have no evidence for that.

Consider Three Illustrations

First:
Abiotic emergence of ordered information stored in the form of RNA is an important unresolved problem concerning the origin of life.

TOTANI, T. EMERGENCE OF LIFE IN AN INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE. SCI REP 10, 1671 (2020).
When used with respect to the origin of life, emergence is intended to convey the idea that life simply started to form without any intelligence in the universe directing it. The author is willing to admit that this is "an important unresolved problem" but the word "emergence" encourages us to think of it as like the caterpillar bursting out of the egg — forgetting that, in this case, the origin of the egg and other life forms is precisely what we wish to account for.

Satellite

NASA temporarily loses contact with Voyager 2 after accidentally pointing its antenna away from Earth

Voyager 2 NASA
© NASA/JPL-CaltechAn artist concept depicting one of NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft, humanity's farthest and longest-lived spacecraft. Voyager 2 just lost contact with Earth while Voyager 1 is still reporting back.
It's every space mission's nightmare: losing contact with the spacecraft. In the best case, you recover it right away. Worst case, you never hear from your hardware again. On July 21, controllers lost contact with Voyager 2, out in the depths of space. Now they're waiting for a reset to catch Voyager 2's next message when it "phones home".

So, what happened? The spacecraft, which is nearly 20 billion kilometers away, seems to be doing fine. It's probably sending all kinds of communications back to Earth. But, the stream of data is bounding off into space instead of linking up with the Deep Space network. That's because a series of planned commands to Voyager 2 inadvertently caused the spacecraft to point its antenna 2 degrees away from Earth. Essentially, Voyager 2 and Earth are not in communication. They're "talking past" each other.

Comment: This comes just a week after: NASA briefly loses contact with ISS after power outage, relies on backup systems for first time - Russia's agency notified them of problem

Is something going on at NASA? Or is this just the nature of Space exploration? Bearing in mind that this follows a number of other notable accidents and errors, the majority of which NASA were responsible for overseeing: See also: China, Russia 'deploying space weapons to attack US satellites', Space Force chief claims following $3.7 billion budget increase