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A planet enters the last phase of its death spiral into the white dwarf it has been orbiting. For some years, the resulting debris cloud will change the spectrum of the white dwarf. When it comes to exoplanets, the search for water is paramount, thanks to its vital role in the evolution of life as we know it. However, finding the life-giving liquid on other worlds is an ongoing challenge.For nearly a decade, scientists have probed the composition of planets as the worlds are shredded and consumed by white dwarf stars. Because heavy elements quickly sink below the hydrogen- and…

The recent episodes of jet fighters shooting down spy balloons has everyone talking about how they can be used for surveillance. But if anyone had bothered to ask an astronomer, they would know we’ve been attaching telescopes to balloons for decades — and the technique even represents the latest cutting edge in NASA research. Windows to the universe Sure, the atmosphere may provide living creatures on our planet with plenty of air to breathe. But for the astronomer, it’s simply a nuisance. Not only does the atmosphere scatter light from distant sources, making detailed observations difficult, but also the atoms…

The Event Horizon Telescope’s newest images of M87’s supermassive black hole hint at how its jets are fired far into space. The magnetic field around M87’s supermassive black tweaks the orientation of light waves emitted from the hot, glowing accretion disk (orange) around the black hole. Superimposed as lines on the disk, this signature reveals information about the powerful magnetic field surrounding the black hole. The elliptical galaxy M87 sits 55 million light-years away, at the heart of the nearby Virgo Cluster. Deep inside this galaxy lurks a supermassive black hole that weighs 6.5 billion times the mass of our…

. One standout feature of the renovated Bird House at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute is the chance for close-up, interactive experiences (above: a cedar waxwing). Carlyn Kranking Soft peeping fills the air in the Delaware Bay aviary at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) in Washington, D.C. Meant to resemble the shorelines that support avian migrants, the room features the long-legged scurrying birds that are familiar sights on beaches. Piping plovers scuttle amid pieces of driftwood and coastal vegetation as speckled sanderlings hop around on one leg. A dowitcher struts through the sand, sporting an…

Scientists have identified the earliest known inscription referring to the Norse god Odin on part of a gold disc unearthed in the Vindelev treasure found by two amateur archaeologists in 2020. One of the largest treasures recently discovered, the Vindelev treasure contains 800 grams of actual gold. Found by two old friends and amateur archaeologists in a field in Jelling, Denmark, the ancient artifacts now reveal secrets from the past and re-write ancient history! The discovery is crucial because we now have evidence of Norse mythology 150 years earlier than previously – at the start of the 4th century. The disc discovered in…

Khufu’s Pyramid is one of the largest archaeological monuments all over the world, which still holds many mysteries. In 2016 and 2017, the ScanPyramids team reported on several discoveries of previously unknown voids by cosmic-ray muon radiography. In new research, scientists carried out a precise analysis of the void — about 9 m in length with a transverse section of about 2 m by 2 m — found behind the North Face Chevron and named the ScanPyramids North Face Corridor. East-West cut view of the Great Pyramid and front view of the North face Chevron area: (a) subterranean chamber; (b) queen’s chamber; (c)…

The signature feature of black holes is that they are black — objects which fall into the hole can no longer be seen and can no longer influence the outside Universe. In classical general relativity, ‘no hair’ theorems severely restrict the properties of a black hole which can affect other objects. These are limited to its total mass, spin, and charge. Now, four theoretical physicists show that these properties no longer hold when quantum gravitational effects are considered. They show that the quantum state of the graviton field caused by the black hole contains information about the interior state of…

Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku says he often gives his students a particular thought experiment: to calculate the probability that they wake up on Mars tomorrow, due to the vagaries of the theory of multiple universes. Though the question seems decidedly wacky, Kaku writes in a New York Times column about the wondrous intrigue of quantum physics, which pits the possible versus the likely. “Quantum theory,” Kaku writes, “is based on what is known as Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, allowing for a small probability that we can exist even on distant places like Mars.” Given this principle, “there’s a tiny but calculable likelihood that our quantum…

New sighting of lost Santa Marta Sabrewing gives conservationists hope for the Critically Endangered species. An experienced local birdwatcher in Colombia rediscovered the Santa Marta Sabrewing Campylopterus phainopeplus, a relatively large hummingbird only found in the country’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains. It’s only the second time the species has had a documented sighting since it was first collected in 1946. The last time the hummingbird had a documented sighting was in 2010, when researchers captured the first-ever photos of the species in the wild. The Santa Marta Sabrewing is so rare and elusive that it was included as one of the…

Two Black-capped Chickadees meet on a branch. The familiar species is found year-round from Alaska to Newfoundland and from north- western California to the southern Appalachians and northeastern New Jersey. Photo by Steve Byland/Shutterstock Our backyard chickadees are common, everyday birds that fill me with wonder. It goes almost without saying that chickadees are cute and endearing, and it’s fair to call them friendly, too, and not just toward people with feeders. Northern warblers learn Black-capped Chickadee vocalizations long before they head south, distinguishing their mobbing calls near owls and sedentary predators (the dee-dee notes increasing as the threat level rises) from…

Using laser-propelled lightsails, tiny spacecraft could venture to the Sun’s nearest neighborin just a few decades. IKAROS, seen in this artist’s concept, proved solar sails work in space by harnessing sunlight to boost its speed by 890 mph (1,430 km/h). On Nov. 6, 2018, as millions of Americans cast their votes in a hotly contested midterm election, astrophysicist Avi Loeb sat in his office surrounded by four television crews. Loeb, chair of Harvard University’s Department of Astronomy and author of the new book Extraterrestrial (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), was not being targeted for his political insight. Instead, the media attention was due…

The Horsehead Nebula has captured the public’s attention like few other celestial objects. And though its history is fascinating, it’s also mysterious. The Horsehead Nebula and the Flame Nebula (left) in the constellation Orion are favorite telescope targets for amateur observers. On the night of July 27, 1913, astronomer E. E. Barnard noticed that the skies above Yerkes Observatory in southern Wisconsin were nearly perfect. The heavens were crystal clear and the Midwest air was surprisingly steady.He guided the gaze of the world’s largest refracting telescope in the direction of Orion, targeting a mysterious object he’d tried to glimpse many times…

Bucharest – According to ancient legends, there was once a great race of people who erected enormous structures like pyramids and enormous divine temples. Additionally, the story of David and Goliath or several fairy tales are told by their very existence. The reason these people ᴅɪᴇᴅ is a mystery. The Ynusually Large Remais, Said To Have Been Discovered By Scientists In ROᴍᴀɴia, Might Provide An Answer. The huge skeletons of the ROᴍᴀɴian Argevay in the remnants of the burebist leader’s prison, according to conspirators and legend enthusiasts, have been well-known for more than fifty years and are a favorite with…

Skeleton Study Tracks Europe’s First Equestrians A Yamnaya grave of a male horse rider found in Malomirovo, Bulgaria. He died between the ages of 65 and 75. Archaeologists accidentally discovered the world’s earliest horseback riders while studying skeletons found beneath 5,000-year-old burial mounds in Europe and Asia, a new study finds. The ancient riders were part of the so-called Yamnaya culture, groups of semi-nomadic people who swept across Europe and western Asia, bringing the precursor to the Indo-European language family with them. The findings strengthen the hypothesis that the horse played an integral part in the expansion of this group,…

The technology of an advanced alien civilization is likely to produce many signs that could be detected across the vastness of space. Two astronomers explain the search for technosignatures. Astronomers have been looking for radio waves sent by a distant civilization for more than 60 years. If an alien were to look at Earth, many human technologies – from cell towers to fluorescent light bulbs – could be a beacon signifying the presence of life. We are two astronomers who work on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence – or SETI. In our research, we try to characterize and detect signs of technology originating from beyond Earth.…

Newly discovered super-Earths add to the list of exoplanets that offer the best chance of finding life. An astronomer explains what makes these super-Earths such excellent candidates. Astronomers think the most likely place to find life in the galaxy is on super-Earths, like Kepler-69c, seen in this artist’s rendering. Astronomers now routinely discover planets orbiting stars outside of the solar system – they’re called exoplanets. But in summer 2022, teams working on NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite found a few particularly interesting planets orbiting in the habitable zones of their parent stars. One planet is 30% larger than Earth and orbits its star in less than…

The mystery surrounding the remains of two Anglo-Saxons buried 1,400 years ago in south Oxfordshire, identified as a man and a woman, may finally be solved thanks to modern scientific techniques. The pair, who were found at Lowbury Hill, Oxfordshire, in 1913 and 1914, is being studied further by a team from the Universities of Reading, Cranfield, and Oxfordshire Museum Service. The remains of the man are currently on display at the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock, but the woman’s bones have been in storage up until now. Previous research indicates that the man was a seventh-century warrior who lived in…

Two-thirds of the world’s albatross species are globally threatened because of human action, with up to 100,000 birds killed annually as bycatch. Fortunately, BirdLife and partners are turning the tide on albatross extinction. Imagine savouring a sumptuous fish dish in a classy restaurant. Mmm! It tastes lip-smackingly good. Suddenly – unexpectedly, traumatically – one bite changes everything. Swallowing the next mouthful lodges a bone in your gullet. You splutter, choke and turn crimson. Fortunately, a quick-thinking companion performs the Heimlich manoeuvre. Ejecting the bone from your throat, she saves you from an untimely demise. Now replay the scene, with one difference.…

Only 30 years ago, Blue-throated Macaw, an endemic to the Beni savannahs of Bolivia, was feared extinct. However, a wide-ranging conservation programme by Asociación Armonía (BirdLife in Bolivia) is beginning to change the fortunes of this enigmatic parrot. A young Blue-throated Macaw peers out of its nest and tilts its head, before taking a leap and spreading its wings for its first flight over Bolivia’s Beni savannah. However, rather than appearing from a natural hole in a tree, this fledgling has emerged from one of the numerous man-made nest boxes that Asociación Armonía has erected as part of a large-scale programme to save…

Genetic Study Examines Europe’s Hunter-Gatherers The Gravettian populations were widespread around Europe about 32,000-24,000 years ago. Although these prehistoric human groups differed in terms of genetics, they did share similar cultural traits. On the left we see a depiction of the west Gravettian population that survived during the Last Glacial Maximum while sadly the eastern and south Gravettian populations disappeared. A previously unknown lineage of Europeans survived the coldest parts of the last ice age, only to vanish when Europe went through a warm spell starting about 15,000 years ago. The discovery comes from the largest study yet to look…

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb), 3d illustration, elements of this image are furnished by NASA GETTY Scientists are reporting that damage sustained to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) during a micrometeoroid strike in late May 2022 may be worse than first thought. In a new paper published in the wake of Webb’s incredible first images last week a group of scientists outlined the performance of the space telescope during its commissioning phase. They reported problems that “cannot be corrected” as well as a “small effect on the telescope throughput, which is not yet measurable.” Writing about the projected lifetime of the…

NASA scientists spotted a strange polar vortex near the Sun’s northern pole. The vortex appears to be part of a huge filament of solar plasma that the space agency says broke away from the Sun’s surface and is now circling the north pole like a tornado. Unfortunately, scientists have no idea what caused the vortex. Attention was first brought to the Sun’s strange polar vortex when Dr. Tamitha Skov posted on Twitter, sharing images taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory. While exciting, the cause of the vortex has left many scratching their heads. Based on all the data that scientists…

The 1,000-year-old Church was found under a cornfield in Germany The foundation walls of the large church of the rediscovered Royal Palace of Helfta in Eisleben in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt have been unearthed by archaeologists. The church was discovered earlier this month, and the foundation walls are now completely exposed. According to the team studying the site, there is evidence of two dwellings at the site by Otto I and his son, Otto II ‘the Red,’ with the former attending the church’s inauguration. Otto I, often known as Otto the Great, was King of Germany from 936 to 973 and…

With the right equipment and techniques, finding these elusive objects is easier than you think. This artist’s illustration shows Dimidium (51 Pegasi b), the first exoplanet discovered that orbited a star similar to the Sun. It was discovered October 6, 1995, orbiting Helvetios (51 Peg), a magnitude 5.5 star slightly more than 50 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus the Winged Horse. For anyone who grew up reading science fiction or watching Star Trek, the existence of planets outside our solar system was a given. We took it for granted that there must be millions of these star systems — but…