Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  2 weeks ago

Content Warning

It's been an exciting couple weeks for the exploration of planets around other stars.

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

This animation shows the orbital dynamics of the Barnard’s Star planetary system. For a century, astronomers have been studying Barnard’s Star in the hope of finding planets around it. First discovered by E. E. Barnard at Yerkes Observatory in 1916, it is the nearest single star system to Earth. Now, using in part the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab, astronomers have discovered four sub-Earth exoplanets orbiting the star. One of the planets is the least massive exoplanet ever discovered using the radial velocity technique, indicating a new benchmark for discovering smaller planets around nearby stars.
Petra van Cronenburg
Petra van Cronenburg  ·  4 weeks ago

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"Baker noted that "there's long been this very human-centric idea of intelligence that only humans are intelligent." That's fallen away within the scientific community as we've studied more about animal behavior. But there's still a bias to privilege human-like behaviors."
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/03/ai-versus-the-brain-and-the-race-for-general-intelligence/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

A #longread by @arstechnica about the #anthropocentric #bias of #AGI and #AI companies - money versus nature.

#brain #science #moreThanHuman #animals #intelligence #anthropocene #nature

Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  last month

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NASA's Lucy mission is named after the famed hominid fossil.

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

Donaldjohanson. The asteroid is outlined with a square in the right image to guide the eye. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL
Russell Garwood
Russell Garwood  ·  last month

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Ever since a PhD student introduced me to the idea, stolonization has been haunting my waking hours. Now it can haunt yours too: some annelid worms develop a gamete-filled structure (stolon), which detaches and swims to find a mate. Some stolons have eyes, antennae, and nervous system 🤯

The image shows female (left) and male (right) stolons which detach from their seafloor-dwelling 'parent' organism and swim to seek each other out.

#science #nature #worms

Adam S. Smith
Adam S. Smith  ·  last month

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Please welcome the journal Historical Biology to Mastodon and give them a follow: @HistoricalBiology

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

DoomsdaysCW
DoomsdaysCW  ·  last month

Content Warning

The #rewilded #GolfCourses teeming with life

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

Frank Ashwood
Frank Ashwood  ·  2 months ago

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A short break from #BugoftheYear content to share with you the delight that is Pauropods!

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

Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  3 months ago

Content Warning

Intriguing "hey, that's weird" discovery: Astronomers have found 14 asteroids that seeming move under their own power.

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

The orbits of the fourteen currently known dark comets, Jupiter, and the Earth. One orbital period is shown for each object starting on the vernal equinox in 2023 March, and the points represent the corresponding initial positions of the Earth and of Jupiter. The left and right panels highlight the orbits of the outer and inner dark comets respectively. Orbits of the newly discovered dark comets are labeled with italicized font, and the orbits of previously reported objects are labeled in roman font.
The orbits of the fourteen currently known dark comets, Jupiter, and the Earth. One orbital period is shown for each object starting on the vernal equinox in 2023 March, and the points represent the corresponding initial positions of the Earth and of Jupiter. The left and right panels highlight the orbits of the outer and inner dark comets respectively. Orbits of the newly discovered dark comets are labeled with italicized font, and the orbits of previously reported objects are labeled in roman font.
The orbits of the fourteen currently known dark comets, Jupiter, and the Earth. One orbital period is shown for each object starting on the vernal equinox in 2023 March, and the points represent the corresponding initial positions of the Earth and of Jupiter. The left and right panels highlight the orbits of the outer and inner dark comets respectively. Orbits of the newly discovered dark comets are labeled with italicized font, and the orbits of previously reported objects are labeled in roman font.
Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  4 months ago

Content Warning

Astronomers are closing in on a radically new kind of cosmic map--a map that shows the universe in gravitational waves.

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

This map, which measures the directional power of the gravitational wave signal, reveals some intriguing results. Astrophysicists generally expect the gravitational wave signal to be approximately the same in all directions. This arises from key cosmological assumptions that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic, generally evenly distributed in all directions and evenly mixed. Surprisingly our map shows a ‘hot spot’ - an area of stronger gravitational wave signal in the Southern Hemisphere. This hot spot could suggest that a nearby, extraordinarily massive black hole binary is drowning out others, but it may also just be a statistical anomaly.
This map, which measures the directional power of the gravitational wave signal, reveals some intriguing results. Astrophysicists generally expect the gravitational wave signal to be approximately the same in all directions. This arises from key cosmological assumptions that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic, generally evenly distributed in all directions and evenly mixed. Surprisingly our map shows a ‘hot spot’ - an area of stronger gravitational wave signal in the Southern Hemisphere. This hot spot could suggest that a nearby, extraordinarily massive black hole binary is drowning out others, but it may also just be a statistical anomaly.
This map, which measures the directional power of the gravitational wave signal, reveals some intriguing results. Astrophysicists generally expect the gravitational wave signal to be approximately the same in all directions. This arises from key cosmological assumptions that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic, generally evenly distributed in all directions and evenly mixed. Surprisingly our map shows a ‘hot spot’ - an area of stronger gravitational wave signal in the Southern Hemisphere. This hot spot could suggest that a nearby, extraordinarily massive black hole binary is drowning out others, but it may also just be a statistical anomaly.
Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  4 months ago

Content Warning

For the purists, here's a video of all lunar phases in 2025 with no labeling. It takes about 5 minutes to watch the full thing -- and what a sweet, meditative 5 minutes it is.

(Full video at link.)

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5415 #science #nature #sky #earth #moon

The Moon always keeps the same face to us, but not exactly the same face. Because of the tilt and shape of its orbit, we see the Moon from slightly different angles over the course of a month. When a month is compressed into 24 seconds, as it is in this animation, our changing view of the Moon makes it look like it's wobbling. This wobble is called libration. The word comes from the Latin for "balance scale" (as does the name of the zodiac constellation Libra) and refers to the way such a scale tips up and down on alternating sides. The sub-Earth point gives the amount of libration in longitude and latitude. The sub-Earth point is also the apparent center of the Moon's disk and the location on the Moon where the Earth is directly overhead. The Moon is subject to other motions as well. It appears to roll back and forth around the sub-Earth point. The roll angle is given by the position angle of the axis, which is the angle of the Moon's north pole relative to celestial north. The Moon also approaches and recedes from us, appearing to grow and shrink. The two extremes, called perigee (near) and apogee (far), differ by as much as 14%.
Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  4 months ago

Content Warning

NASA's visualization team created a beautiful preview of every phase of the Moon in 2025, hour by hour.

The best part: Watching how the Moon's appearance changes due to its inclination, oval orbit, and libration (wobble).

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5415 #science #nature #nasa #astronomy #space

The phase and libration of the Moon for 2025, at hourly intervals. Includes supplemental graphics that display the Moon's orbit, subsolar and sub-Earth points, and the Moon's distance from Earth at true scale. Craters near the terminator are labeled, as are Apollo landing sites, maria, and other albedo features in sunlight.
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