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Did Earth?s Multicellular Life Depend on Plate Tectonics?
How did complex life emerge and evolve on the Earth and what does this mean for finding life beyond Earth? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a pair of researchers investigated how plate tectonics, oceans, and continents are responsible for the emergence and evolution of complex life across …
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Hubble Sees a Brand New Triple Star System
In a world that seems to be switching focus from the Hubble Space Telescope to the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble still reminds us it?s there. Another amazing image has been released that shows the triple star system HP Tau, HP Tau G2, and HP Tau G3.� The stars in this wonderful system are young, …
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The Venerable Hubble Space Telescope Keeps Delivering
The world was much different in 1990 when NASA astronauts removed the Hubble Space Telescope from Space Shuttle Discovery’s cargo bay and placed it into orbit. The Cold War was ending, there were only 5.3 billion humans, and the World Wide Web had just come online. Now, the old Soviet Union is gone, replaced by …
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The BepiColombo Mission To Mercury is Losing Power
BepiColombo is a joint ESA/JAXA mission to Mercury. It was launched in 2018 on a complex trajectory to the Solar System’s innermost planet. The ESA reports that the spacecraft’s thrusters have lost some power. BepiColombo’s mission is to complete a comprehensive investigation of Mercury’s magnetosphere, magnetic field, and internal and external structure. But travelling around …
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Astronauts Could Deploy Extra Arms to Stay Stable on the Moon
Walking along on the surface of the Moon, as aptly demonstrated by the Apollo astronauts, is no easy feat.� The gravity at the Moon?s surface is 1/6th of Earth?s and there are plenty of videos of astronauts stumbling, falling and then trying to get up! Engineers have come up with a solution; a robotic arm …
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Not All Black Holes are Ravenous Gluttons
Some Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) consume vast quantities of gas and dust, triggering brilliant light shows that can outshine an entire galaxy. But others are much more sedate, emitting faint but steady light from their home in the heart of their galaxy. Observations from the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope help show why that is. It …
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Webb Sees Black Holes Merging Near the Beginning of Time
A long time ago, in two galaxies far, far away, two massive black holes merged. This happened when the Universe was only 740 million years old. A team of astronomers used JWST to study this event, the most distant (and earliest) detection of a black hole merger ever. Such collisions are fairly commonplace in more …
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The Sun Hurls its Most Powerful Flare in a Decades
The Sun has been vying for attention these last couple of weeks. First with the appearance of a fabulous complex sunspot region and then with a plethora of solar flares. On the 14th May, yet another was released, this time an X8.7 class flare from the same complex sunspot regions. It was significantly more powerful …
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Juno Reveals Secrets About Europa?s Icy Surface
Europa has always held a fascination to me. I think it?s the concept of a world with a sub-surface ocean and the possibility of life that has inspired me and many others. In September 2022, NASAs Juno spacecraft made a flyby, coming within 355 kilometres of the surface. Since the encounter, scientists have been exploring …
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Scientists Test for Quantum Gravity
The tension between quantum mechanics and relativity has long been a central split in modern-day physics. Developing a theory of quantum gravity remains one of the great outstanding challenges of the discipline. And yet, no one has yet been able to do it. But as we collect more data, it shines more light on the …
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