A potentially habitable world, termed Ross 128 b, has been discovered just 11 light years away. It is roughly Earth-sized and orbits its parent star once every 9.9 days.
Astronomers calculate that its surface temperature could lie somewhere between –60° and 20°, making it temperate and possibly capable of supporting oceans, and life.
The above image, a composite of optical data, X-ray data, and a reconstructed mass map, is one of the most famous and informative ones in all of astronomy. Known as the Bullet Cluster, it showcases two galaxy clusters that have recently collided. The individual galaxies present within the clusters, like two guns filled with bird shot fired at one another, passed right through one another, as the odds of a collision were exceedingly low.
The microparticles that leafhopper insects sweat out not only repel water from their wings, but also alter wavelengths of light, which could make them useful to researchers working on the long-running quest to create an invisibility cloak.
Link: https://futurism.com/discovery-make-invisibility-cloak/
Archaeologists have uncovered a mysterious enclosure hidden deep inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
In January last year, astronomers from Caltech suggested that a gigantic so-far-undiscovered planet might be lurking on the fringes of the Solar System. Now researchers from the University of Arizona (UA) have found that if it exists, this so-called Planet Nine might not be alone out there. Weirdly wobbling objects in the Kuiper Belt seem to indicate the influence of yet another planetary body at least as large as Mars.
Link: https://newatlas.com/warped-kuiper-belt-planet-ten/50173/
See-through solar materials that can be applied to windows represent a massive source of untapped energy and could harvest as much power as bigger, bulkier rooftop solar units, scientists report in Nature Energy.
Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171023123526.htm
Dyslexia, a learning difficulty that affects reading, writing, and spelling skills, is more widespread than you probably think. As much as 5-10 percent of the global population has it – and despite its commonality, its causes remain poorly understood.
Link: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/scientists-found-out-causes-dyslexia/
The Moon isn’t the only traveling buddy keeping the Earth company on its journey around the Sun. Occasionally an asteroid will get caught in a gravitational dance with our home for a few years or so, before disappearing into space again. Last year astronomers discovered one of the most stable of these “quasi-satellites”, and now they’ve peered closer to get a better understanding of what it is and where it might have come from.
Link: https://newatlas.com/asteroid-quasi-satellite-closer-look/51820/
A University of Michigan doctoral student has logged two pieces of evidence that may support the existence of a planet that could be part of our solar system, beyond Neptune.
Some astronomers think this alleged planet, called Planet Nine, exists because of the way some objects in space, called “Trans-Neptunian Objects,” or TNOs, behave. These TNOs are rocky objects smaller than Pluto that orbit the sun at a greater average distance than Neptune.
Platinum and gold are among the most precious substances on Earth, each fetching roughly $1,000 an ounce.
However, their allure may grow stronger — and weirder — thanks to a groundbreaking new finding about their violent, radioactive, and cosmic origins.
MOST scientific research follows a logical progression, with one experiment following up on the findings of another. Every now and then, however, serendipity plays a part. Such is the case with a paper just published in Current Biology, which reveals to the world a moth capable of chewing up plastic.
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