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The planet BD+05 4868 Ab used to be the size of Mercury. Now it's the size of the Moon. In a few million years, it will be gone.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adbf21 #science #nature #astronomy
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The planet BD+05 4868 Ab used to be the size of Mercury. Now it's the size of the Moon. In a few million years, it will be gone.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adbf21 #science #nature #astronomy
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Newfound world 2M1510 (AB) b appears to orbit not one but two stars...and they are actually failed stars, known as brown dwarfs...and the planet orbits sideways, in a unique up-and-down polar orbit.
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2508/ #space #science #astronomy #nature
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A new report reveals that Barnard's star (closest single star to the Sun) has a whole system of planets.
People have been seeking planets there since the '60s. Now we've found them--four rocky worlds, 1/4 the mass of Earth, in tight orbits around their tiny red star.
https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2510/ #space #science #nature
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But the discovery of Andromeda XXXV, just one-millionth the size of our Milky Way, offers serious clues about how coherent structures form & survive in a chaotic universe.
https://news.umich.edu/small-faint-and-unexpected-in-a-lot-of-different-ways-u-m-astronomers-make-galactic-discovery/ #science #space #nature
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Rocket Lab's Venus mission, currently set for launch in Summer 2026, will search for evidence of life or habitable conditions in the clouds of Venus.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-installs-heat-shield-on-first-private-spacecraft-bound-for-venus/ #space #science #nature #life
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A #longread by @arstechnica about the #anthropocentric #bias of #AGI and #AI companies - money versus nature.
#brain #science #moreThanHuman #animals #intelligence #anthropocene #nature
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Not saying it's a metaphor or anything, just reporting.
https://www.skymarvels.com/gallery/Vid%20-%20Solar%20System%20Barycenter.htm #space #science #nature
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Lucy (the spacecraft) just got its first look at 4-km-wide asteroid Donaldjohanson, named after the anthropologist who co-discovered Lucy's remains.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/nasas-lucy-spacecraft-takes-its-1st-images-of-asteroid-donaldjohanson/ #space #science #nature
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The image shows female (left) and male (right) stolons which detach from their seafloor-dwelling 'parent' organism and swim to seek each other out.
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The journal "Publishes papers on developments in the sciences concerning the history of life through geological time and the biology of past organisms."
#science #paleontology #biology#HistoricalBiology #fossils #geology#EarthScience #nature
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Jocelyn Timperley, February 14, 2025
"From #Scotland to #California, golf courses are being rewilded – with lofty aims to benefit both people and #nature.
"Sinking into nature comes easy at the #PlockOfKyle. I visit this tiny wedge of parkland on the west coast of Scotland, just across the bridge from the Isle of Skye, on a rainy day in late September, and park ranger Heather Beaton and I spend the afternoon wandering around its various #ecosystems-in-miniature.
"We clamber over rocks at one of its little hidden natural harbours. We freeze as black darter dragonflies land on her pink shoe by a pond. And we bend to peer at circles of huge mushrooms which have sprung up overnight in its tiny woodland.
"A #WildflowerMeadow, ponds, scrub habitat, coastline and even an area of peat bog can be found on this little 60-acre (24-hectare) plot, which boasts roe deer, otters, lizards, eels and a huge array of insects and birds. 'We do describe it as a microcosm of Scotland,' says Beaton. 'If you think of all of the major habitats of Scotland, we've got them here on the Plock, just in miniature.' It's an impression she works to cultivate. 'The more little pockets we have, the more chance a person has to... end up having a nature experience,' she says.
"All of these habitats had fallen into serious disarray until a few years ago, says Beaton. In fact, most of this area used to be a golf course.
"The Plock is part of a small but significant global trend of land once used for golf being turned back over to nature. From #California to #Pennsylvania and #Australia to #Canada, these projects are reaping in some big rewards for both #biodiversity and local people."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250214-from-scotland-to-california-the-rewilded-golf-courses-where-wildlife-thrives?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
#Biodiversity#SolarPunkSunday #RestoreNature
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K2-22b orbits so close to its star that its outer layers are vaporizing, meaning that we can directly study the insides of a world 787 light years away.
(JWST data, left; artist's interpretation, right)
https://eos.org/articles/scientists-finally-get-a-good-look-at-a-disintegrating-exoplanet #space #science #nature
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WASP-127b is also a weird puffball, less dense than balsa wood! What a world.
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2502/ #science #nature #astronomy #weather
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These tiny relatives of millipedes possess unique branching 'biramous' antennae, and feed on fungi and organic matter. They’re found in leaf litter, soil, and under stones and logs - but at <2 mm length you’ll struggle to spot them!
#Invertebrate#Myriapoda#Nature#Entomology #Macrophotography #SoilBiodiversity#SoilEcology #SoilFauna
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(Even better, the result is relevant to all friction-related static charge.)
https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2024/september/why-petting-your-cat-leads-to-static-electricity/ #science #physics #cats #nature
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For now, we can detect them because they blast out light & x-rays each time they waltz through a nearby gas cloud.
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2024/12/aa51305-24/aa51305-24.html #science #nature
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These objects are classified as "dark comets." Presumably they are emitting puffs of gas that shifts their orbits. But ...so far, nobody can spot any sign of activity.
https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/nasa-researchers-discover-more-dark-comets/ #space #science #astronomy #nature
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The process is hard. This new, preliminary version is uncertain. But we're seeing a fresh view of reality come into focus.
https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/mapping-gravitational-wave-universe #space #science #astronomy #nature