Tag: science

The beginnings of a planetary nebula

9:49 am

Calabash Nebula
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, reduced and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope back in 2017 but released this week by NASA’s PR department. It shows what astronomers have nicknamed the Calabash Nebula. From the Wikipedia page:

The Calabash Nebula, also known as the Rotten Egg Nebula or by its technical name OH 231.84 +4.22, is a protoplanetary nebula (PPN) 1.4 light years (13 Pm) long and located some 5,000 light years (47 Em) from Earth in the constellation Puppis. The name “Calabash Nebula” was first proposed in 1989 in an early paper on its expected nebular dynamics, based on the nebula’s appearance.[5] The Calabash is almost certainly a member of the open cluster Messier 46, as it has the same distance, radial velocity, and proper motion.[6] The central star is QX Puppis, a binary composed of a very cool Mira variable and an A-type main-sequence star.

The star in the center is an ancient red giant that is in the initial stages of dying. As it does so it periodically erupts, sending out jets of material from its poles. The result is this elongated shape. According to the release, “the gas shown in yellow is moving close to a million kilometers an hour.”

Over the next few thousand years these eruptions will shape the planetary nebula. Since the central star is actually a binary, those two stars will likely act like the blades in a mixer, adding more interesting forms to the material as it is shot out to form this nebula.

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Scientists posit that Neptune and Uranus might be rockier than previously theorized

12:35 pm

Scientists doing new computer modeling of the known data now posit that Neptune and Uranus might not be as icy as previously believed and instead could be more like the inner terrestrial planets like Earth, much rockier in their interior.

According to the work carried by the UZH scientific team, Uranus and Neptune might actually be more rocky than icy. The new study does not claim the two blue planets to be one or the other type, water- or rock- rich, it rather challenges that ice-rich is the only possibility. This interpretation is also consistent with the discovery that the dwarf planet Pluto is rock-dominated in composition.

…With their new agnostic, and yet fully physical model, the University of Zurich team found the potential internal composition of the “ice giants” of our Solar system, is not limited at all to only ice (typically represented by water). “It is something that we first suggested nearly 15 years ago, and now we have the numerical framework to demonstrate it,” reveals Ravit Helled, a professor at the University of Zurich and initiator of the project. The new range of internal composition shows that both planets can either be water-rich or rock-rich.

This new hypothesis might also help explain the multi-polar magnetic fields of both planets.

All is uncertain of course, as this is just a computer model based on limited data. Nor is it a surprise that an alternative conclusion appears to work. We know so little about these distant worlds that it is likely that multiple theories could fit the data, and all could be wrong when we finally learn more.

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Scientists map the outside edge of the Sun’s atmosphere

12:22 pm

The mapping of the Sun's atmosphere

Using multiple solar observatories in space, scientists have now been able to map the approximate location of the outside edge of the Sun’s atmosphere, the point “where the speed of the outward solar wind becomes faster than the speed of magnetic waves.”

The panels to the right are a sampling of that mapping, and is figure 3 of the peer-reviewed paper [pdf]. The bulk of the data (black) comes from five spacecraft observing the Sun from the L1 point a million miles from Earth. The blue line is data from Solar Orbiter, while the red line is data from the Parker Solar Probe. From the press release:

Astronomers have produced the first continuous, two-dimensional maps of the outer edge of the Sun’s atmosphere, a shifting, frothy boundary that marks where solar winds escape the Sun’s magnetic grasp. By combining the maps and close-up measurements, scientists from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) showed that the boundary grows larger, rougher and spikier as the Sun becomes more active.

…The boundary in the Sun’s atmosphere where the solar wind’s outward speed becomes faster than the speed of magnetic waves, known as the Alfvén surface, is the “point of no return” for material that escapes the Sun and enters interplanetary space; once material travels beyond this point, it cannot travel back to the Sun. This surface is the effective “edge” of the Sun’s atmosphere, and provides scientists with an active laboratory for studying and understanding how solar activity impacts the rest of the solar system, including life and technology on and around Earth.

This new data further refines the nature of the boundary, as earlier probes had already given scientists a rough idea of its size and nature.

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Abstract art produced by nature within Mars’ north pole ice cap

1:17 pm

Abstract art created by nature on Mars
Click for original

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, sharpened, and annotated to post here, was taken on October 27, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). I have also rotate the image so that north is to the top.

The science team labels this “Exposure of North Polar Layered Deposits,” an apt description of the horizontal red and grey and blue layers that dominate the image and make this geology look more like an abstract painting than a natural landscape. What we are actually looking at is a canyon 800-to-1,200 feet deep within the north polar ice cap of Mars.

The picture was taken in the summer with the Sun about 12 degrees above the horizon to the south. Thus, the northern cliff face is illuminated, revealing its many colored layers, while the south face is mostly in shadow, hiding those layers.
» Read more

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Engineers lose contact with Mars orbiter Maven

8:48 am

NASA announced late yesterday that the engineering team running the Maven Mars orbiter lost contact with the spacecraft on December 6, 2025, and are still trying to figure out what happened and regain communications.

NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, in orbit around Mars, experienced a loss of signal with ground stations on Earth on Dec. 6. Telemetry from MAVEN had showed all subsystems working normally before it orbited behind the Red Planet. After the spacecraft emerged from behind Mars, NASA’s Deep Space Network did not observe a signal.

The spacecraft and operations teams are investigating the anomaly to address the situation. More information will be shared once it becomes available.

No other information was released.

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Academia makes its first comprehensive attempt to plan science missions to Mars using Starship

1:28 pm

Figure 2-2 from the NAS report
Figure 2-2 from the National Academies
of Science report

A new report released today by the National Academies of Science, entitled “Highest Priority Science for the First Human Missions to Mars,” is essentially the first attempt by the planetary science community to plan its future science missions to Mars using the gigantic capabilities that SpaceX’s Starship is expected to provide them.

You can download the report here.

Even though the report made the search for life on Mars its big priority — a bugaboo that NASA and the science community trots out repeatedly to garner clicks from the ignorant propaganda press — this report is radically different then all previous similar NASA studies proposing future Mars exploration, as indicated by the graphics from figure 2-2 of the report to the right. Unlike those past studies, which were badly limited by the inadequate capabilities of any spacecraft NASA could send to Mars, this new report recognizes how much the game is changed by SpaceX’s Starship.

First, the new panel did not attempt to place any limit on any landing zones. Earlier reports had forbidden landings in the high latitudes or high altitudes because of the risks to NASA’s proposed landers. Starship overcomes much of those risks, giving researchers much greater flexibility.

Second, the focus of the missions will not be solely devoted to scientific or geological research, as had been the case for all previous similar reports by NASA and the academic community. Instead, the proposed research goals includes important engineering and human exploration requirements outside of science, including efforts to use the resources on Mars itself as well as find locations better suited for human habitation. Once again, the vastly greater capabilities of Starship influenced this change.

Even more important, the study doesn’t assume the future missions will be unmanned, as all previous NASA reports have done. In fact, it does the opposite, proposing multiple 30-day manned missions, as shown in the graphic. One set of three missions would go to three different locations, while another set of three missions would focus on one place in particular.

Much of this shift towards manned flight I think stemmed from the presence on the panel of representatives from the private companies SpaceX and The Exploration Company (a French startup), as well as an engineer from the National Academy of Engineering. Previously studies were almost always entirely dominated by planetary scientists, so the goals outlined were always focused on their interests. Now the idea of human exploration has become prevalent.

The panel’s work was clearly also influenced by the realization that SpaceX’s Starship is not only far more capable, its first flights are just around the corner. SpaceX plans sending it numerous times to Mars in the very near future, as shown in the graphic below that Elon Musk released during a presentation in May 2025.
» Read more

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New data detects potassium and chlorine in Cassiopeia supernova remnant

11:30 am

The Cassiopeia supernova remnant
Click for original.

Using the Japanese orbiting XRISM space telescope, astronomers have now detected evidence of both potassium and chlorine in the ancient Cassiopeia supernova remnant.

The picture to the right, reduced to post here, shows the evidence for potassium in the remnant, overlaid onto an image of Cassiopeia produced by combining data from X-ray data from Chandra, infrared data from Webb, and optical data from Hubble. The green grid boxes indicate strong evidence of potassium, while the yellow grid boxes indicate weaker evidence.

The roughly circular Cas A supernova remnant spans about 10 light-years, is over 340 years old, and has a superdense neutron star at its center — the remains of the original star’s core. Scientists using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory had previously identified signatures of iron, silicon, sulfur, and other elements within Cas A.

In the hunt for other elements, the team used the Resolve instrument aboard XRISM to look at the remnant twice in December 2023. The researchers were able to pick out the signatures for chlorine and potassium, determining that the remnant contains ratios much higher than expected. Resolve also detected a possible indication of phosphorous, which was previously discovered in Cas A by infrared missions.

The orientation and position of these grid boxes on the face of the expanding supernova remnant suggest the original star and explosion might have formed unevenly.

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Nova explosions appear to have multiple slow and fast explosive outflows

10:46 am

Nova
Click for original.

According to new observations of two different recent nova events have shown that the star’s eruption is complex, with multiple outflows moving at both fast and slow speeds.

The graphic and images to the right come from figure 1 of the paper, and show the evolution of one of these novae, Nova V1674 Herculis. The initial slow flow along the star’s equator, indicated at the top, acts to force the later fast flow to move out along the star’s poles, as shown at the bottom. From the paper’s abstract:

The images of the very fast 2021 nova V1674 Her, taken just 2–3 days after discovery, reveal the presence of two perpendicular outflows. The interaction between these outflows probably drives the observed γ-ray emission. Conversely, the images of the very slow 2021 nova V1405 Cas suggest that the bulk of the accreted envelope was ejected more than 50 days after the eruption began, as the nova slowly rose to its visible peak, during which the envelope engulfed the system in a common-envelope phase. These images offer direct observational evidence that the mechanisms driving mass ejection from the surfaces of accreting white dwarfs are not as simple as previously thought, revealing multiple outflows and delayed ejections.

Novae are stellar explosions of a much smaller scale than supernovae, and occur when a white dwarf star gathers enough material on its surface stolen from a binary star companion for that material to go critical. Because the stars are binaries, with some systems this process is periodic.

That these better observations, including good high resolution visuals, reveal the explosions are more complicated than “previously thought” should not be a surprise to anyone. In fact, to even suggest that anyone expected the process to be simply is absurd. Whenever we get a better view we discover new details that increase the complexity of any phenomenon.

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Astronomers detect a seven-hour-long gamma ray burst, the longest many times over

4:40 pm

Very long GRB

Astronomers have detected the longest gamma ray burst (GRB) ever measured, lasting more than seven hours when most GRBs at most last mere seconds.

The image to the right was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and is taken from figure 1 of the peer-reviewed paper [pdf]. The two hash marks indicate the location of the GRB, within the outer reaches of its host galaxy and inside one of its spiral arms, based on other data. The data also suggested the host galaxy is “massive [100 billion solar masses], dusty, and [an] extremely asymmetric system that is consistent with two galaxies undergoing a major merger.”

The GRB’s long length means that none of the known theories for its origin work. From the press release:

Of the roughly 15,000 GRBs observed since the phenomenon was first recognized in 1973, only a half dozen come close to the length of GRB 250702B. Their proposed origins range from the collapse of a blue supergiant star, a tidal disruption event, or a newborn magnetar. GRB 250702B, however, doesn’t fit neatly into any known category.

From the data obtained so far, scientists have a few ideas of possible origin scenarios: (1) a black hole falling into a star that’s been stripped of its hydrogen and is now almost purely helium, (2) a star (or sub-stellar object such as a planet or brown dwarf) being disrupted during a close encounter with a stellar compact object, such as a stellar black hole or a neutron star, in what is known as a micro-tidal disruption event, (3) a star being torn apart as it falls into an intermediate-mass black hole — a type of black hole with a mass ranging from one hundred to one hundred thousand times the mass of our Sun that is believed to exist in abundance, but has so far been very difficult to find. If it is the latter scenario, this would be the first time in history that humans have witnessed a relativistic jet from an intermediate mass black hole in the act of consuming a star.

None of these proposed explanations are confirmed. What is known is that this GRB was unique in all ways, defying all theoretical expectations.

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A small galaxy with lots of massive stars

9:54 am

A small galaxy with many massive stars
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released this week as the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hubble picture of the week.

This dwarf galaxy, 13 million light years away, is called Markarian 178 (Mrk 178). Though much smaller than the Milky Way, it is packed with massive stars. From the caption:

While the bulk of the galaxy is blue owing to an abundance of young, hot stars with little dust shrouding them, Mrk 178 gets a red hue from a collection of massive stars, which are especially concentrated in the brightest, reddish region near the galaxy’s edge. This azure cloud is home to a large number of rare objects called Wolf–Rayet stars. Wolf–Rayet stars are massive stars that are casting off their atmospheres through powerful winds. Because Mrk 178 contains so many Wolf–Rayet stars, the bright emission lines from these stars’ hot stellar winds are etched upon the galaxy’s spectrum. Particularly ionised hydrogen and oxygen appear as a red colour to Mrk 178 in this photo, observed using some of Hubble’s specialised light filters.

Massive stars enter the Wolf–Rayet phase just before they collapse into black holes or neutron stars. Because Wolf–Rayet stars last for only a few million years, researchers know that something must have triggered a recent burst of star formation in Mrk 178. At first glance, it’s not clear what could be the cause — Mrk 178 doesn’t seem to have any close galactic neighbours that could have stirred up its gas to form new stars. Astronomers believe that it was triggered by the interaction with a smaller satellite, as revealed by the presence of low surface brightness tidal features detected around Mrk 178 in deep imaging acquired with the Large Binocular Telescope.

And yet, these observations do not see this small satellite galaxy. It has either been completely absorbed into Mrk 178, or maybe this theory for explaining this dwarf galaxy’s make-up is flawed.

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Perseverance moves west, into the barren hinterlands beyond Jezero Crater

1:56 pm

Perseverance looking west
Click for full resolution. Original images can be found here and here.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

Cool image time! The panorama above was created using two pictures taken on December 4, 2025 (here and here) by the navigation camera on the Mars rover Perseverance. The view I think is looking west, away from the rim of Jezero Crater, which now lies behind the rover to the east.

The blue dot on the overview map to the right marks Perseverance’s position when it took this picture. The yellow lines indicate my rough guess as to the area covered by the panorama. The white dotted line marks the actual route the rover has taken, while the red dotted line the original planned route.

As I noted in my previous Perseverance update in mid-November, the science team has apparently decided to revise the route, abandoning initial plan of going back uphill towards the rim and instead travel downhill into the hills beyond. This is a region that orbital data has suggested might be rich in minerals, making it a prime mining location for future colonists. My guess is that the science team decided they needed to get there, that they had enough data from the rim and that it was now more important to get to the western mineralogy.

Though I am sure they are using the highest resolution orbital images from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to guide them, the Perseverance team has not yet upgraded its interactive location map to show those details in this western region. Thus, the map in this area is fuzzy and not as detailed.

The team has also not published its revised planned route, so there is no way to guess where the rover will go next. It does appear however that it is finally leaving Jezero Crater for good.

And as all recent pictures from Perseverance, these images show this Martian landscape to be utterly barren, its hills and valleys softened by dust and eons of erosion from the very thin Martian wind. This is an alien place, though it has the potential with human ingenuity to bloom if we have the courage to try.

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New data strengthens the conflict in the observed value for the universe’s expansion rate

11:49 am

Graphic showing the conflict
Click for original.

The uncertainty of science: New research using a combination of ground- and space-based telescopes has not only failed to resolve the difference between the two values observed for the Hubble constant (the expansion rate of the universe), it actually confirms that conflict.

The graphic to the right nicely illustrates the conflict. Observations from the early universe come up with a value of 67-68 kiloparsecs per second per megaparsec for the Hubble constant. Observations from the present universe, including these new more precise measurements, come up with a value of 73-74. From the press release:

A team of astronomers using a variety of ground and space-based telescopes including the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island, have made one of the most precise independent measurements yet of how fast the universe is expanding, further deepening the divide on one of the biggest mysteries in modern cosmology.

Using data gathered from Keck Observatory’s Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) as well as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) researchers have independently confirmed that the universe’s current rate of expansion, known as the Hubble constant (H₀), does not match values predicted from measurements from the universe when it was much younger.

Cosmologists call this conflict “the Hubble Tension”, a absurd fake term expressly designed to hide the fact that they have no idea what’s going on. It isn’t “tension”, it is a perfect example of good observations coming up with contradictory data that no theory can explain.

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New images of interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas

9:56 am

New Hubble image of 3I/Atlas
Click for original.

Juice image of 3I/Atlas
Click for original.

Both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday released new photos of the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas.

First, NASA released the image on the right, taken on November 30, 2025 by the Hubble Space Telescope. At the time the comet was about 178 million miles away. It clearly shows the comet’s coma of material, surrounding a bright nucleus at the center. The streaks are background stars.

Next, the mission team for Europe’s Juice probe, on its way to Jupiter, released one small portion of a picture taken by its navigation camera. That picture is the second to the right.

During November 2025, ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) used five of its science instruments to observe 3I/ATLAS. The instruments collected information about how the comet is behaving and what it is made of. In addition, Juice snapped the comet with its onboard Navigation Camera (NavCam), designed not as a high-resolution science camera, but to help Juice navigate Jupiter’s icy moons following arrival in 2031.

Though the data from the science instruments won’t arrive on Earth until February 2026, our Juice team couldn’t wait that long. They decided to try downloading just a quarter of a single NavCam image to see what was in store for them. The very clearly visible comet, surrounded by signs of activity, surprised them.

Not only do we clearly see the glowing halo of gas surrounding the comet known as its coma, we also see a hint of two tails. The comet’s ‘plasma tail’ – made up of electrically charged gas, stretches out towards the top of the frame. We may also be able to see a fainter ‘dust tail’ – made up of tiny solid particles – stretching to the lower left of the frame.

The image was taken on 2 November 2025, during Juice’s first slot for observing 3I/ATLAS. It was two days before Juice’s closest approach to the comet, which occurred on 4 November at a distance of about 66 million km.

Because Juice is presently behind the Sun (as seen from Earth), most of the data it collected during its closest approach won’t be downloaded until February. This one partial image is only a fore taste.

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The insane terrain inside Mars’ Death Valley

12:30 pm

taffy terrain
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on October 27, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The science team labels this a “twisted surface,” to which I think we all can agree. What we are looking at is a geological feature found only on Mars in only one region that has been labeled “taffy terrain” by scientists. According to a 2014 paper, the scientists posit that this material must be some sort of “a viscous fluid,” naturally flowing downward into “localized depressions.” Because of its weird nature I have posted many cool images of it in the past (see here, here, here, here, here, and here).

In the case of the image to the right, the red dot marks the peak of a small knob, with the green dot on the upper left the low point about 900 feet below. As you can see, the taffy has migrated into the depressions, as some flowing material would.
» Read more

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Ground-based telescope actually photographs an exoplanet

10:51 am

exoplanet imaged directly
Click for original movie.

Using a new instrument on the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii astronomers have not only discovered a massive exoplanet orbiting a star, they have been able to actually photograph the planet itself.

The arrow in the picture to the right shows that planet. That picture is a screen capture from a short movie complied from five observations taken over several months earlier this year, showing the planet as it orbited the star, the light of which is blocked out so as to not blind the camera. From the press release:

The newly discovered planet, HIP 54515 b, orbits a star 271 light-years away in the constellation Leo. With nearly 18 times Jupiter’s mass, it circles its star at about Neptune’s distance from our Sun. But the star and planet appear very close when seen from Earth; roughly the size that a baseball seen 100 km away would appear. The SCExAO system produced extremely sharp images allowing us to see the planet.

The astronomers also used this new instrument to image a brown dwarf star with a mass equivalent to sixty Jupiters about 169 light years away.

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Weird mottled terrain in the dry tropics of Mars

1:11 pm

Mottled ridges
Click for full image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on October 28, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled by the science team as “mottled ridged terrain,” it shows a relatively flat area of scattered broken-up flat-topped ridges and knobs, following no clear pattern of formation.

In trying to research this, I could only find one paper [pdf] discussing this kind of mottled ridges that did a survey of similar features across a large region to the northwest. That paper could not determine what caused such features, but came up with hypothesis. From the abstract:

While it is not possible to determine the precise formation mechanism of these polygonal ridge networks from our new data, their formation can be assessed in terms of three possibly separate processes: (1) polygonal fracture formation, (2) fracture filling and (3) exhumation. We find that polygonal
fracture formation by impact cratering and/or desiccation of sedimentary host deposits is consistent with our results and previous spectral studies. Once the polygonal fractures have formed, fracture filling by clastic dikes and/or mineral precipitation from aqueous circulation is most consistent with our results. Exhumation, probably by aeolian processes that eroded much of these ancient Noachian terrains where the ridges are present caused the filled fractures to lie in relief as ridges today.

To put this in plain terms, the initial polygon-patterned cracks were formed by either an impact or the drying out of the surface (similar to the cracks seen on dried mud here on Earth). Both could have contributed. Then material welled up from below, either lava or mud, that hardened to fill the cracks. Later erosion by wind stripped away the surface, leaving behind these broken ridges.

As always, the location adds some very interesting context.
» Read more

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Sunspot update: Sunspot activity again crashes far below predictions

11:17 am

It is the start of another month, so it is time again to post my monthly update of the never-ending sunspot cycle on the Sun, using NOAA’s own monthly update of its graph of sunspot activity and annotating it with extra information to illustrate the larger scientific context.

The green dot on the graph below indicates the level of sunspot activity on the Sun’s Earth-facing hemisphere during the month of November. And once again, the Sun surprised us, producing far less sunspots than expected, based on the April 2025 prediction by NOAA’s panel of solar scientists (as indicated by the purple/magenta line).
» Read more

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New data from VLT uncovers numerous debris disks around stars

9:01 am

A sampling of debris disks
Click for original

Using a new instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, astronomers have compiled a catalog of 51 potential exoplanet solar systems, all with intriguing debris disks surround the stars with features suggesting the existence of asteroids and comets.

The image to the right shows a sampling of those systems. From the press release:

“To obtain this collection, we processed data from observations of 161 nearby young stars whose infrared emission strongly indicates the presence of a debris disk,” says Natalia Engler (ETH Zurich), the lead author of the study. “The resulting images show 51 debris disks with a variety of properties — some smaller, some larger, some seen from the side and some nearly face-on – and a considerable diversity of disk structures. Four of the disks had never been imaged before.”

Comparisons within a larger sample are crucial for discovering the systematics behind object properties. In this case, an analysis of the 51 debris disks and their stars confirmed several systematic trends: When a young star is more massive, its debris disk tends to have more mass as well. The same is true for debris disks where the majority of the material is located at a greater distance from the central star.

Arguably the most interesting feature of the SPHERE debris disks are the structures within the disks themselves. In many of the images, disks have a concentric ring- or band-like structure, with disk material predominantly found at specific distances from the central star. The distribution of small bodies in our own solar system has a similar structure, with small bodies concentrated in the asteroid belt (asteroids) and the Kuiper belt (comets).

The data from various telescopes both on the ground and in space is increasingly telling us that our solar system is not unique, and that the galaxy is filled with millions of similar systems, all in different states of formation. This hypothesis is further strengthened by the appearance of interstellar comet 3I/Atlas, which despite coming from outside our solar system is remarkably similar to the comets formed here.

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Astronomers detect another galaxy that shouldn’t be there, so soon after the Big Bang

11:38 am

A spiral galaxy too early in the universe
Click for original.

Using the Webb Space Telescopes astronomers have detected another galaxy that shouldn’t be there, so soon after the Big Bang.

The image to the right comes from figure 1 of the peer-reviewed paper. The galaxy’s two spiral arms form a backward “S” emanating out from the galaxy’s nucleus. From the press release:

Using JWST, researchers Rashi Jain and Yogesh Wadadekar spotted a galaxy remarkably similar to our own Milky Way. Yet this system formed when the cosmos was barely 1.5 billion years old—roughly a tenth of its present age. They named it Alaknanda, after the Himalayan river that is a twin headstream of the Ganga alongside the Mandakini—fittingly, the Hindi name for the Milky Way.

…It already has two sweeping spiral arms wrapped around a bright, rounded central region (the galaxy’s ‘bulge’), spanning about 30,000 light-years across. Even more impressively, it is annually churning out new stars, their combined mass roughly equivalent to 60 times the mass of our Sun. This rate is about 20 times that of the present-day Milky Way! About half of Alaknanda’s stars appear to have formed in only 200 million years—a blink in cosmic time.

This galaxy underlines the difficulty for cosmologists by much of Webb’s data of the early universe. Present theories of galaxy formation say it should take billions of years to form such a spiral galaxy, meaning it shouldn’t exist as yet so soon, only 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang.

Either the theories have to be revised substantially, or they are simply wrong entirely. Or we are missing or lacking in some fundamental information about the early universe that skews all our theories.

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Three new papers find sugars, “gum,” and lots of stardust in the samples brought back from the asteroid Bennu

10:24 am

Bennu
The asteroid Bennu

Three new papers published this week have found that the samples brought back by OSIRIS-REx from the asteroid Bennu contained some unexpected or unusual materials, including sugars that are important for biology, a gumlike material never seen before, and a much higher amount of stardust than expected.

The papers can be read here, here, and here.

As the press release notes, describing the sugar discovery:

The five-carbon sugar ribose and, for the first time in an extraterrestrial sample, six-carbon glucose were found. Although these sugars are not evidence of life, their detection, along with previous detections of amino acids, nucleobases, and carboxylic acids in Bennu samples, show building blocks of biological molecules were widespread throughout the solar system.

The stardust results found six-times the abundance previously found in other samples.

As for the “gum”, this was possibly the strangest discovery of all, coming from the solar system’s earliest time period.
» Read more

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More glaciers on Mars

12:41 pm

Overview map

More glaciers on Mars
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on September 26, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The scientists label this image “Moraine-like assemblage exposed by ice retreat.” I say: If anyone still doubts the extensive presence of near-surface ice on Mars, this picture should put that doubt to rest.

The white dot on the overview map above marks the location, deep within the 2,000-mile-long strip in the Martian northern mid-latitudes that I label “glacier country,” because practically every picture taken there shows glacial features. This picture is just one more example. As the inset in the overview above shows, this flow is coming down from the exterior rim of an unnamed, partly obscured ancient 17-mile-wide crater, dropping about 7,000 feet from the rim’s peak. This particular section shows the last 3,000 feet of that descent, as the glacier worked its way through a gap in a ridge paralleling that rim.

The image label refers to the flow features that appear to be corroding away. It appears the full data set suggests that corrosion is exposing the material pushed downward by that glacier, what on Earth we call a moraine.

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New study claims to have detected dark matter inside the Milky Way

9:21 am

Milky Way gamma radiation theorized to represent dark matter
Click for original image.

The uncertainty of science: A Japanese astronomer, Tomonori Totani, yesterday published a paper claiming he had detected gamma ray radiation surrounding the center of the Milky Way that matches perfectly the predicted location of the galaxy’s dark matter halo, thus being the first direct detection of dark matter.

The graphic to the right shows that high energy gamma ray halo, as measured by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. From the press release:

Using the latest data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Professor Tomonori Totani from the Department of Astronomy at the University of Tokyo believes he has finally detected the specific gamma rays predicted by the annihilation of theoretical dark matter particles. … “We detected gamma rays with a photon energy of 20 gigaelectronvolts (or 20 billion electronvolts, an extremely large amount of energy) extending in a halolike structure toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The gamma-ray emission component closely matches the shape expected from the dark matter halo,” said Totani.

The observed energy spectrum, or range of gamma-ray emission intensities, matches the emission predicted from the annihilation of hypothetical WIMPs, with a mass approximately 500 times that of a proton. The frequency of WIMP annihilation estimated from the measured gamma-ray intensity also falls within the range of theoretical predictions.

Totani says this gamma radiation is not easily explained by other phenomenon, which is why he assigns it to dark matter. Other scientists are not so sure:

David Kaplan, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, said it’s difficult to trace emissions back to dark matter particles with any certainty because too much is still unknown about gamma rays. “We don’t even know all the things that can produce gamma rays in the universe,” Kaplan said, adding that these high-energy emissions could also be produced by fast-spinning neutron stars or black holes that gobble up regular matter and spit out violent jets of material.

As such, even when unusual gamma-ray emissions are detected, it’s often hard to draw meaningful conclusions, according to Eric Charles, a staff scientist at Stanford University’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. “There’s a lot of details we don’t understand,” he said, “and seeing a lot of gamma rays from a large part of the sky associated with the galaxy — it’s just really hard to interpret what’s going on there.” [emphasis mine]

In other words, this claim is hardly proven, and in fact should not at this point be taken very seriously. Totani has detected emissions that need explaining, but to immediately attach the gamma radiation to dark matter is risky.

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Thirty Meter Telescope is finally considering a move to the Canary Islands

8:58 am

The consortium that has been trying to build the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) in Hawaii for more than two decades but has been blocked by native Hawaiian DEI activists, announced on November 11, 2025 that it has finally decided to consider seriously the $740 million offer by the Spanish government is to move the telescope to the Canary Islands.

TMT International Observatory LLC (TIO LLC) announced today that in response to the generous offer from the Spanish Ministry of Science, it is exploring a promising avenue for a new observatory based in Spain.

While the Members of TIO LLC continue discussions regarding the TMT site, this represents a prospective opportunity to allow TIO LLC to proceed with the TMT project. For this reason, TIO LLC will jointly develop with the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities a detailed roadmap toward the potential realization of the TMT at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma, Spain).

TMT was about to start construction in 2015, with a completion date expected by 2020. Instead, its construction was blocked by native Hawaiian leftist activists, aided by the support of the Democrats who control Hawaii’s government. Meanwhile, the astronomers in charge of TMT, being modern DEI-trained academics themselves, were generally unwilling to fight hard for their project. It has thus sat in limbo for a decade. Last year it was hit with a final blow within the U.S. when the National Science Foundation announced it would only fund the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile, leaving TMT short of funds.

All of this remains the stuff of buggy-whips and horse-drawn carriages. Rather than spend billions on this giant ground-based telescope that will be seriously hampered first by the Earth’s atmosphere and second by the half-dozen-plus satellite constellations presently being launched, astronomers would be far smarter to spend that money on a new bigger replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope.

They aren’t, however, because their careers are grounded (literally) on this obsolete technology, and won’t change.

Meanwhile, the end of TMT in Hawaii signals the long-term end of astronomy in Hawaii. Those leftist activists are now in control, and they are outright hostile — to the point of bigotry — to any Western technology or any non-Hawaiians on their islands. They have been pushing to reduce the telescopes on Mauna Kea on the Big Island, and have had some success. Expect them to push harder to remove more in the coming years.

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Predicting dust storms in the Starship candidate landing zone on Mars

1:30 pm

View of dust storm one
Click for original figure.

Scientists using the UAE’s Al-Amal Mars orbiter were able to track two near-identical dust storms that occurred in the northern lowland plains of Mars and near the candidate landing zone for SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft.

The image to the right comes from figure 2 of the paper, and was taken by Al-Amal approximately 25,000 miles above the red planet’s surface. By comparing the growth and evolution of both storms, the scientists now think they have a method for predicting when such storms occur in this region. From their abstract:

Our observational case study constrains scenarios presented by Ogohara (2025). We show the first scenario, summarized in Section 5 of Ogohara (2025), [explains] dust storms 1 and 2. This scenario is as follows. Dust storms form in the later morning hours through combined effects of the warm sector of a low-pressure system and daytime phenomena. The low-pressure system is associated with wavenumber 3 baroclinic waves.

There is no doubt that dust storms 1 and 2 start to form and develop in the late morning hours, in or near the warm sector of a low-pressure system. Also, combined effects of this low-pressure system and daytime convection are possible. This is supported by evidence for daytime convection, such as the dust devil number in MY 28 and planetary boundary layer height estimates from the Mars Climate Database.

In other words, future SpaceX colonists should be prepared for late morning dust storms when a low-pressure system moves in.

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The smooth and extremely calm methane lakes of Titan

12:17 pm

The Cassini radar track on Titan
Click for full image.

Using archival radar data obtained by the Saturn orbiter Cassini from one of its many fly-bys of the moon Titan, scientists now believe that most of the high northern latitude lakes on Titan are mostly made of pure methane, not ethane, and that their surface is remarkably calm and smooth. From the abstract:

During its 119th flyby of the moon, the Cassini spacecraft conducted a bistatic radar experiment observing a group of seven lakes in Titan’s Northern Lake District located between (72°N, 143°W) and (77°N, 131°W). The orbiter transmitted a continuous-wave signal at a wavelength of 3.56 cm (X-band) toward Titan’s surface, targeting the moving specular reflection point between the spacecraft and Earth. As the antenna footprint intercepted the liquid surfaces of the lakes, distinct specular reflections were detected on Earth by the 70-m antenna at NASA’s Canberra Deep Space Network complex. Analysis of these reflections shows that all seven lakes exhibit similar dielectric properties—linked to their composition—and surface roughness, suggesting they are methane-dominated and may have a few millimeters of surface roughness. [emphasis mine]

The highlighted phrase underscores what previous data had shown, that the methane lakes of Titan are remarkably calm, almost to the point of absurdity.

The image to the right, figure 1 of the paper, shows the track of this radar observation. Based on this data as well as data obtained during a later fly-by of another nearby lake, the scientists posit that all the lakes in this region are likely similar, mostly filled with methane having a surface with barely no ripples at all.

This information is crucial for the planned Dragonfly mission, that will fly over and onto Titan’s methane lakes, though not in the high latitudes but in its equatorial regions. Knowing the conditions as best as possible will increase the odds that this very risky mission will succeed.

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New radar data shows no evidence of liquid water under Mars’ south pole ice cap

11:51 am

New data using the Sharad radar instrument on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) appears to disprove the 2018 observations that suggested a lake of liquid water might exist under the Martian south pole ice cap.

From the abstract:

Due to a novel spacecraft maneuver, SHARAD has now obtained a basal return associated with the putative body of water. Modeling of the radar response is not consistent with the liquid water explanation, instead suggesting a localized, low roughness region of dry rock/dust beneath the ice could explain the SHARAD response. Reconciling the divergent responses of SHARAD and MARSIS remains essential to determine the nature of this anomalous south polar region.

In other words, this reflectively bright area is caused not by liquid water, but by a very smooth patch in the south pole’s many underlying layers. What remains unknown is the cause of that smoothness. The scientists posit that “a crater floor with sediment or impact melt fill” could be the cause. Another study in 2022 suggested it could be volcanic rock, while a 2021 study claimed clay could be the cause.

At the moment no one has the ability to find out. The only certain way would be to drill deep cores, but that won’t happen until there is a thriving colony on Mars.

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Bigoted academia upset that Trump won’t allow them to push the racist DEI agenda

12:53 pm

Lysenko with Stalin
Trofim Lysenko (on the left), preaching to Stalin as he destroyed
Soviet plant research by persecuting anyone who disagreed with him,
thus causing famines that killed millions. He is now the role model for
today’s entire science community.

Cue the world’s smallest violin! An article today in the journal Science proves once again that science has nothing to do with what that journal now publishes. The headline:

‘This is censorship.’ Conference requires abstracts to comply with Trump anti-DEI order

It seems scientists submitting abstracts to the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in Texas are upset because the Trump administration will not allow any papers to include any mention of diversity, equity, or inclusion (DEI) as a topic.

The Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), hosted annually by the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) in Texas, last week announced a new requirement for the upcoming 2026 conference: All submitted abstracts must comply with executive orders from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. His 20 January executive order called DEI “illegal and immoral discrimination programs” and terminated both federal DEI programs as well as grant funding for DEI initiatives. The conference policy follows moves earlier this year by LPI’s parent organization, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), to scrub DEI-related content—including archived LPSC abstracts—from its websites.

Researchers are fuming, saying LPSC is doubling down on its previous decisions, and prioritizing avoiding trouble with the government over intellectual freedom. “This is censorship,” says planetary scientist Paul Byrne of Washington University in St. Louis. “Even if the percentage of people who would normally write a DEI abstract is small, a much larger percent are pissed off.”

In other words, the science community wants to support DEI racial discrimination, because it is designed to favor the racial and sexual groups they favor. To them it is more important to infuse these bigoted ideas into all science, rather than actually report real research about the solar system and planets.
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What might be the weirdest crater on Mars

12:44 pm

What might be Mars' weirdest crater
Click for original.

Cool image time! The picture to the right is taken from a global mosaic created from images taken by the wide-view context camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The original source image was probably a photograph taken on February 15, 2020.

I normally begin with an image from MRO’s high resolution camera, but the only images that camera took of this crater did not show it entirely. This context camera shows it in all its glory, what to my eye appears to be one of the weirdest craters I’ve seen on Mars.

First, note its oblong shape — 5.5 miles long and 3.7 miles wide — which appears to narrow to the southeast. It certainly appears that if this crater was caused by an impact, the bolide came in at a very low angle from the northwest, plowing this 700-foot-deep divot as it drove itself into the ground. Research has shown that an impact has to come in almost sideways to do this. Even at slightly higher angles the resulting craters will still appear round.

But wait, there’s more!
» Read more

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Moss placed on the outside of ISS for nine months was still capable of reproducing

9:27 am

Graphic from research paper
Graphic from paper.

Scientists have now demonstrated that moss, a bryophyte, can still reproduce despite spending nine months exposed to the harsh vacuum and radiation environment of space on the outside of ISS.

In fact, the researchers found that more than 80% of the spores survived and were able to germinate. You can read their peer-reviewed paper here [pdf].

That the moss could survive is in itself not as surprising as you might think. When the Apollo 12 astronauts brought back pieces from the unmanned Surveyor-3 lander scientists found a single bacterium that survived in space for more than two years. What makes this new result more significant is that moss isn’t simply bacteria, but plant life far more complex. More important, the results found that the moss was far more tolerant of that harsh environment than other lifeforms. From the paper:

In contrast, desiccation-tolerant animals such as tardigrades (Hypsibius dujardini and Ramazzottius varieornatus) and UV-resistant insects’ hydrated larvae undergoing anhydrobiosis (Polypedilum vanderplanki) failed to match the UVC tolerance observed in P. patens spores. Similarly, spores of bacteria and fungi, such as Bacillus subtilis and Aspergillus niger, showed only limited UVC resistance. Thus, these patterns highlight that certain plant structures, namely spores and seeds, tend to exhibit superior UV resistance, likely due to the presence of specialized UV-screening pigments such as flavonoids and carotenoids, which help protect DNA and cellular structures from UV-induced damage.

As the paper notes in its conclusion:

As pioneer plants, bryophytes have the potential to transform regolith into fertile soil, facilitating ecosystem development on other planets, similar to peat moss improving soil fertility on Earth.

That moss isn’t bother significantly by radiation means any greenhouse on Mars need not be shielded as aggressively as previously thought, at least in the initial stages.

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Cracks on Mars

2:47 pm

A cracking Martian surface

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on September 20, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The camera team describes these features as “ridges,” which in one sense is entirely true. The features are ridges that rise above the surrounding plain. The problem is that they are also cracks, with most showing a distinct central fissure in their middle.

Such double ridged cracks are reminiscent of the surface of dried mud or paint, when it begins to crack and shrink. The surface on each side of a crack pulls away, rising upward slightly as it does so. Is that what we are seeing here, the drying of this surface?

As always, location is critical to understanding the Martian geology.
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