Science

This article from Harvard Magazine documents the occurrence of “silent study-ins” in the University’s main library: Widener. While protests on the wide Widener steps have always been countenanced, these demonstrations are new because they take place inside—in the reading rooms.

They of course involve pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protestors, who can’t seem to refrain from disrupting anything, whether it be traffic, classes, putting up graffiti, or, in this case, studying in the library. These sit-ins have been conducted by both students and faculty (faculty are often more anti-Israel than students). Click to read.

Some excerpts:

Throughout this fall, groups of students and faculty members have again taken to libraries with taped signs and coordinated reading lists. These demonstrations—direct challenges to Harvard’s protest restrictions—have ignited campus discussions on what defines a protest, when free expression obstructs learning, and how to introduce new regulations meant to sustain both academic operations and speech.

On January 19, 2024, just after Alan M. Garber assumed the interim presidency, he and the deans released a statement clarifying University policy regarding “the guarantees and limitations” of campus protest and dissent. That January policy states that “demonstrations and protests are ordinarily not permitted in classrooms…libraries or other spaces designated for study, quiet reflection, and small group discussion.” But it did not define what constitutes a protest.

That ambiguity was put to the test on September 21, when approximately 30 pro-Palestine students sat in Loker wearing keffiyehs and displaying signs protesting Israeli strikes in Lebanon. A day before the event, a Harvard administrator warned students that such an action would violate Harvard policies, The Crimson reported. During the protest, library staff informed the students that they could not protest in the library and recorded their Harvard ID numbers. (Students are allowed to protest outside of the library—the Widener steps are a popular location. This semester, both students and faculty held pro-Palestine protests there and were not punished by the University.)

The students were punished, but lightly. Then the faculty got in on it (they were given the same punishment), and the idea spread:

In response to the study-in, Widener Library banned participating students from the building for two weeks. “Demonstrations and protests are not permitted in libraries,” Widener Library administration wrote in an email to punished students that was obtained by The Crimson. The email specified that the recipient had “a laptop bearing one of the demonstration’s flyers.” During the students’ two-week Widener suspensions, they could pick up library materials from other locations, but not enter Widener itself.

The University response angered some faculty members. What made this study-in a protest? Why did a silent action merit punishment? Three weeks after the initial student action, approximately 30 faculty members followed suit. The participants read texts about dissent (ranging from Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau to materials published by Harvard itself) and displayed placards quoting the Harvard Library Statement of Values (“embrace diverse perspectives”) as well as the University-wide Statement on Rights and Responsibilities (“reasoned dissent plays a particularly vital part in [our] existence”).

. . . . Following those initial confrontations, library actions become more numerous on campus. In the month following the October 16 faculty study-in, there have been two such events at the Law Library, one at the Graduate School of Design, another at the Divinity School (a “pray-in”), and two more in Widener (one faculty-led and another student-led). A November 8 Widener faculty study-in pushed the University’s punishment calculus to its logical extreme, with professors displaying blank papers.

Some pushback from a librarian:

 The administrative response to the library protests has, if anything, prompted more faculty members to express concerns. Since the fall wave of demonstrations began, the library has twice articulated why the study-ins merit punishment. On October 24, University librarian Martha Whitehead published an essay titled “Libraries are places for inquiry and learning” in which she argued that the study-ins—which she firmly classified as protests—disrupt academic life:

While a reading room is intended for study, it is not intended to be used as a venue for a group action, quiet or otherwise, to capture people’s attention. In the study-ins in our spaces, we heard from students who saw them publicized and chose not to come to the library. During the events, large numbers of people filed in at once, and several moved around the room taking photos or filming. Seeking attention is in itself disruptive.

What we have here is a conflict between free speech and disruption of University regulations, which prohibit demonstrations in libraries. Granted, these are silent demonstrations, so I had to think it over. In the end, having studied at Widener Libary, which has a huge and beautiful reading room, I decided I agree with Ms. Whitehead.  I thought, “What if I were trying to study in Widener and a bunch of people came in with posters affixed to their computers, sometimes walking about, and all of them expressing an opinion on ideology or politics. I concluded that such demonstrations, no matter what ideology they favored, are disruptive of study, which of course is one of the functions of the University. I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on my work if I were surrounded by protestors.

By all means these demonstrators are free to gather and hold up signs on the Widener steps (shown below), but to have silent demonstrations like this in libraries, symposia, or classrooms, is disruptive to the mission of a university, and should be banned. Harvard has already banned them, but perhaps you disagree. Give your opinion in the comments, please:

A photo of the Widener showing its famous steps. This is from about 1920. They look pretty much the same today, but there are no cars or buggies in front.

Abdalian, Leon H., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Here’s a short video of the spaces inside Widener, including the reader rooms. Isn’t it lovely? They show the steps in an outside view at the end.

We have been spoiled over recent years with first the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and then the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST.) Both have opened our eyes on the Universe and made amazing discoveries. One subject that has received attention from both is the derivation of the Hubble Constant – a constant relating the velocity of remote galaxies and their distances. A recent paper announces that JWST has just validated the results of previous studies by the Hubble Space Telescope to accurately measure its value. 

The Hubble Constant (H0) is a fundamental parameter in cosmology that defines the rate of expansion of the universe. It defines the relationship between Earth and distant galaxies by the velocity they are receding from us. It was first discussed by Edwin Hubble in 1929 as he observed the spectra of distant galaxies. It is measured in unites of kilometres per second per megaparsec and shows how fast galaxies are moving away from us per unit of distance. The exact value of the constant has been the cause of many a scientific debate and more recently the HST and JWST have been trying to fine tune its value. Getting an accurate value is key to determining the age, size and fate of the universe. 

Edwin Hubble

A paper recently published by a team of researchers led by Adam G. Riess from John Hopkins University validate the results from a previous HST study. They use JWST to explore its earlier results of the cepheid/supernova distance ladder. This has been used to establish distances across the cosmos using cepheid variable stars and Type 1a supernovae. Both objects can be likened to ‘standard candles’ whose actual brightness is very well understood. By measuring their apparent brightness from Earth, their distances can be calculated by comparing it to their actual brightness, their intrinsic luminosity.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has spotted a multiply-imaged supernova in a distant galaxy designated MRG-M0138. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Justin Pierel (STScI) and Andrew Newman (Carnegie Institution for Science).

Over recent decades, a number of attempts have been made to accurately determine H0 using a multitude of different instruments and observations. The cosmic microwave background has been used along with the aforementioned studies using cepheid variables and supernovae events. The results provide a range of results which has become known as ‘Hubble tension.’ The recent study using JWST hopes that it may be able to fine tune and validate previous work. 

To be able to determine H0 with a level of accuracy using the cepheid/supernova ladder, a sufficiently high sample of cepheids and supernovae must be observed. This has been challenging, in particular of the sample size of supernovae within the range of cepheid variable stars. The team also explored other techniques for determining H0 for example studying data from HST of the study of the luminosity of the brightest red giant branch stars in a galaxy – which can also work as a standard candle. Or the luminosity of certain carbon rich stars which are another technique. 

This illustration shows three steps astronomers used to measure the universe’s expansion rate (Hubble constant) to an unprecedented accuracy, reducing the total uncertainty to 2.3 percent. The measurements streamline and strengthen the construction of the cosmic distance ladder, which is used to measure accurate distances to galaxies near to and far from Earth. The latest Hubble study extends the number of Cepheid variable stars analyzed to distances of up to 10 times farther across our galaxy than previous Hubble results. Credits: NASA, ESA, A. Feild (STScI), and A. Riess (STScI/JHU)

The team conclude that, when all JWST measurements are combined, including a correction for the low sample of supernovae data, that H0 comes out at 72.6 ± 2.0 km s?1 Mpc?1  This compares to the combined HST data which determines H0 as 72.8 km s?1 Mpc?1  It will take more years and more studies for the sample size of supernova from JWST to equal that from HST but the cross-check has so far revealed we are finally honing in on an accurate value for Hubble’s Constant.

Source : JWST Validates HST Distance Measurements: Selection of Supernova Subsample Explains Differences in JWST Estimates of Local H0

The post James Webb Confirms Hubble’s Calculation of Hubble’s Constant appeared first on Universe Today.

The good news is that the Washington Post, defying the inevitable cries that the paper is “transphobic”, is calling for a “respectful debate on trans women in sports”.  This is, of course, because of the increasing number of biological men who identify as women (I prefer that jawbreaker to “trans women” because the latter plays into the misleading mantra that “trans women are women”), and because men who have gone through male puberty before transitioning have an inherent physical advantage over biological women.  Even the UN now agrees on that, and gives data below on how many women have lost sports medals to transitioned biological men.  I will, however, use “trans women” as shorthand in this article.

Just to see a major op-ed (by the editorial board!) defy the gender activists, who have censored all debate on this important ethical issue, makes me pleased. Read the article by clicking on the headline below or find it archived here.

You’ll note that the tone of the article is carefully monitored to ensure that a) the paper calls for “respectful” debate, when in fact what we need is just debate, and I haven’t seen any people discussing the issue being disrespectful to trans women; and b) although the op-ed doesn’t take sides, it cites accumulating data documenting the athletic advantage of trans women over biological women. There are enough data now, as we see below, to call for reform of sports regulations, so the debate is provisionally settled at present, though of course it’s about facts and those facts—and the resultant prescriptions—may change.  For example, I don’t think there are any data showing that trans women outperform natal women in equestrian sports, though I can’t be sure: if men outperform women in horse sports, that means that even there different rules must be made. One thing is for sure: if there is a sport in which natal men do not outperform natal women, then by all mean let trans women compete with natal women. In such sports everybody can compete against everyone else.

But I digress: here are some excerpts from the op-ed. I have put other references below. Note the paper cited in the second paragraph; you may want to have a look. Also see the papers I cite below.

Trans people deserve to be treated with dignity, and the law should protect them from discrimination in areas such as employment and housing. But the realities of human biology raise legitimate questions about any notion that trans women should always and everywhere be treated exactly like cisgender women.

In athletic competition, male puberty confers significant advantages. While those biological differences vary by skill and sport, a 2023 paper by medical researchers in the United States and Italy noted that “it is well established that the best males always outperform the best females when the sport relies on muscle power, muscle endurance, or aerobic power.” The hormone therapy that many trans women take reduces some of those advantages over time, but research into how much those advantages can be mitigated, and over what time frame, is still ongoing. Other advantages, such as height, are fixed by the end of puberty. This poses obvious fairness and safety questions.

Note that the question is not just one of fairness—of transitioned biological men having unfair advantages competing against cis women—but of safety. A strong, muscular transitioned man could well injure a woman rugby player. This is why the English Rugby Football Union banned trans women from competing in women’s rugby.  More from the WaPo article:

The public needs more and better research to make those decisions. But unless the data show that transitioning can fully erase the effects of male puberty, the country will also need a frank and open debate about the trade-offs between inclusion on the one hand and safety and fairness on the other.

And yet too often, efforts have been made to avoid or prevent discussion of those trade-offs by labeling debate inherently transphobic. This is not how a healthy democracy makes decisions.

Note too that gender activists ignore the palpable safety risk and of course the unfairness to biological women, saying that “trans women are women”, which means that trans women should have every right and privilege enjoyed by biological women.  Well, I’d agree with that if by “right” one means “moral and legal right”, but I’ve always thought that there are some exceptions to the “rights” of trans women. Sport participation against biological women is one, of course. But trans women shouldn’t be allowed willy-nilly to be rape counselors advising unwilling women, monitors of shelters for battered or abused women, or inmates in jails holding biological women. Beyond that, I can’t think of many exceptions.

More from the article; notice that the public clearly recognizes the unfairness of having trans women in women’s sports:

A 2023 Gallup poll showed that almost 70 percent of Americans think sports participation should follow birth sex, not gender identity. Pressuring Democratic politicians to side with the minority, without giving sufficient space to the other side’s argument, is a recipe for irresolution and resentment.

The Democratic bit comes from the recent demonizing of Representative Seth Moulton (D, MA) for saying this: ““Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face. … I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

For that Moulton was called a transphobe by Democrats, who should be more thoughtful, and Moulton’s campaign manager resigned. This is simple wokeness: performative virtue-signaling that defies the known facts.  Of course the paper isn’t going to say that, but ends its piece this way:

We cannot predict whose argument will prevail. We can only say that no one — and certainly no political party — is entitled to win this debate by default.

Well, I would have put it more strongly, but I’ll take it.

A recent UN report (!) on violence against women and girls (pdf here) documents the possibility of violence and actually gives numbers for the medals lost by biological women to trans women.

Here are some data; the bolding is mine:

Policies implemented by international federations and national governing bodies, along with national legislation in some countries, allow males who identify as women to compete in female sports categories.28 In other cases, this practice is not explicitly prohibited and is thus tolerated in practice. The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males. According to information received, by 30 March 2024, over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports. 

Note that one of the arguments for allowing trans women to compete against biological women is that there are so few of the former that it doesn’t matter. But even one medal taken away from a biological women is unfair, and I don’t see why there should be a threshold below which mixed competition is okay. Further, 890 medals in 29 sports is not a small figure!

Below the report notes that suppression of testosterone in trans women will not equalize the athletic potential of trans women and biological women. Testosterone levels used to be the criterion for Olympic participation of trans women or women with disorders of sex development, but the Olympics recently punted, saying that each sport must set its own criteria (again, my bolding):

Male athletes have specific attributes considered advantageous in certain sports, such as strength and testosterone levels that are higher than those of the average range for females, even before puberty, thereby resulting in the loss of fair opportunity. Some sports federations mandate testosterone suppression for athletes in order to qualify for female categories in elite sports. However, pharmaceutical testosterone suppression for genetically male athletes – irrespective of how they identify – will not eliminate the set of comparative performance advantages they have already acquired.This approach may not only harm the health of the athlete concerned, but it also fails to achieve its stated objective. Therefore, the testosterone levels deemed acceptable by any sporting body are, at best, not evidence-based, arbitraryand asymmetrically favour males.

Here are three recommendations from from the UN report (again, bolding is mine). These are conclusions, so are based on data. While more data are needed, what we have now is sufficient to actually make policy instead of simply calling for “more debate.”  Of course more data will always be useful, but we have sufficient data to make provisional policy.

(b) Ensure that female categories in organized sport are exclusively accessible to persons whose biological sex is female. In cases where the sex of an athlete is unknown or uncertain, a dignified, swift, non-invasive and accurate sex screening method (such as a cheek swab) or, where necessary for exceptional reasons, genetic testing should be applied to confirm the athlete’s sex. In non-professional sports spaces, the original birth certificates for verification may be appropriate. In some exceptional circumstances, such tests may need to be followed up by more complex tests;

(c) Refrain from subjecting anyone to invasive sex screening or forcing a person to lower testosterone levels to compete in any category;

(d) Ensure the inclusive participation of all persons wishing to play sports, through the creation of open categories for those persons who do not wish

(d) Ensure the inclusive participation of all persons wishing to play sports, through the creation of open categories for those persons who do not wish to compete in the category of their biological sex, or convert the male category into an open category. . . 

The last recommendation is one I agree with and have made before.  I have written many times on this issue (see here and especially the papers I cite here).

Finally, here is a new editorial in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. There are many authors, including developmental biologist and geneticist Emma Hilton, a colleague of Matthew’s at the University of Manchester. It’s a short piece (less than two pages); click to read.

Here’s a summary of their recommendations:

During press conferences at the 2024 Olympic Games, theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) invited solutions to address eligibility for women’s sport. We take this opportunity to propose our solution, which includes: (a) recognizing that female sport that excludes all male advantage is necessary for female inclusion; (b) recognizing that exclusion from female sport should be based on the presence of any male development, rather than current testosterone levels, (c) not privileging legal“passport” sex or gender identity for inclusion into female sport; and (d) accepting that sport must have means of testing eligibility to fulfill the category purpose.

They recommend as an initial test a simple cheek swab that can determine the sex-chromosome constitution of women. If that shows deviations from the regular XX genotype, they then recommend “comprehensive follow-up in the rare cases that require extra consideration, with emphasis on the duty of care to every athlete. . . “.

I’m glad that the Washington Post brought this into the open, and with the approbation of its entire editorial board.  Nobody involved in the discussions above is a “transphobe” who wants to deny men who identify as women legal or moral rights. But it’s time we admit openly that those rights are not unlimited—that the mantra “trans women are women” is not only biologically inaccurate, but also that the inaccuracy places a few limits on the rights of trans women.

The Breakthrough Starshot program aims to cross the immense distances to the nearest star in just decades. Using a high-powered laser to propel a reflective sail technology to relativistic speeds is their mission. The selection of sail material is key to its success as it must be lightweight while being able to withstand acceleration and radiation from the laser. A recent study explores various materials and proposes that core-shell structures—spherical particles composed of two different materials—could be a promising solution.

Breakthrough Starshot is an ambitious project to explore interstellar space by sending tiny, lightweight spacecraft to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. The project plans to use ground-based, high-powered lasers to accelerate reflective ‘light sails,’ enabling the spacecraft to achieve relativistic speeds and travel the 4.37 light-years in just a few years. Each spacecraft will be equipped with tiny sensors and communication systems, will collect data on exoplanets and other interstellar phenomena along the way. If successful, it could mark our first step toward exploring distant star systems and searching for extraterrestrial life.

This image of the sky around the bright star Alpha Centauri AB also shows the much fainter red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. The picture was created from pictures forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The blue halo around Alpha Centauri AB is an artifact of the photographic process, the star is really pale yellow in colour like the Sun. Image Credit: Digitized Sky Survey 2 Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin/Mahdi Zamani

Traveling at relativistic speeds, which are velocities close to the speed of light, presents amazing possibilities but brings with it immense difficulties. At these speeds, time dilation (a phenomenon predicted by Einstein’s theory of relativity) causes time to pass more slowly for the traveler relative to observers on Earth, potentially allowing journeys to distant stars within a single human lifetime from the traveler’s perspective. This won’t be a problem for Starshot however as they plan to send tiny spacecraft only. However, achieving such speeds, even for Starshot requires overcoming immense energy demands, as the kinetic energy needed increases exponentially with velocity. The environment at relativistic speeds also becomes particularly hazardous.  Collisions with particles at such high speeds could easily destroy spacecraft, and radiation exposure would intensify due to relativistic effects. 

This image shows the ACS3 being unfurled at NASA’s Langley Research Center. The solar wind is reliable but not very powerful. It requires a large sail area to power a spacecraft effectively. The ACS2 is about 9 meters (30 ft) per side, requiring a strong, lightweight boom system. Image Credit: NASA

To complete the journey in a few decades the spacecraft needs to be accelerated to an estimated 20% of the speed of light bringing with it all the problems outlined above. The selection  of the right material for the sails is key. In a paper recently published by Mitchell R. Whittam, Lukas Rebholz, Benedikt Zerulla and Carsten Rockstuhl from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany the team report on the results of their search for the best material. In particular they focus attention on the so called core-shell spheres. 

The structures are based upon a matrix design which finds its origins in Mie Theory. This mathematical framework was developed by German physicist Gustav Mie in 1908 to describe how spherical particles scatter electromagnetic waves such as light. In their study, they explore the reflective properties and acceleration times of spheres made from aluminium, silicon, silicon dioxide and various combinations. 

The results were promising with a shell composed of a silicon and silicon dioxide combination yielding the best results. The work offers a significant insight into the structure of materials for light sails. Whilst not a definitive outcome, they showed that core-shell spheres, which were a previously unexplored area of light sail physics is a promising avenue to explore for future experimental work.

Source : Analyzing the acceleration time and reflectance of light sails made from homogeneous and core-shell spheres

The post What Should Light Sails Be Made Out Of? appeared first on Universe Today.

The Earth has always been bombarded with rocks from space. It’s true to say though that there were more rocks flying around the Solar System during earlier periods of its history. A team of researchers have been studying a meteorite impact from 3.26 billion years ago. They have calculated this rock was 200 times bigger than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. The event would have triggered tsunamis mixing up the oceans and flushing debris from the land. The newly available organic material allowed organisms to thrive. 

Meteorite impacts are a common event and its not unusual to see these rocks from space whizzing through the atmosphere. Giant meteorite impacts have become an important part of Earth’s geological history. The impacts release colossal amounts of energy that can destroy life, create wildfires, tsunamis and eject dust into the atmosphere. The Chicxulub impact around 66 million years ago is perhaps one of the most well known impacts and wiped out the dinosaurs. The study of these interplanetary wanderers is imperative as we strive to protect ourselves from potential impactors that pose a threat to human life. 

A bright meteor caught by one of the Global Fireball Network’s cameras from the Rancho Mirage Observatory (Eric McLaughlin) on April 7, 2019. Credit: NASA Meteorite Tracking and Recovery Network.

Impacts like these have had a massive affect on the development of Earth and its suitability for life. Geological studies of rocks from the Archean Eon have revealed 16 major impacts with impactors measuring at least 10km in diameter. At the time of impact the effects can be devastating but over time, their can be benefits to life although it’s not well understood. In a paper published in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences the team led by Nadja Drabon from Harvard University explore rocks from an event 3.26 billion years ago. 

Known as the S2 event, the impactor is believed to be a carbonaceous chondrite between 37 to 58 km in diameter. It is thought to have exploded over South Africa with debris landing in the ocean causing giant tsunamis. The impact mixed up iron(II) rich deep waters with the iron(II) poor shallower waters. It will have also caused the waters to heat leading to partial evaporation of surface water with a temporary increase in erosion around coastal areas. 

A three-dimensional cross-section of the hydrothermal system in the Chicxulub impact crater and its seafloor vents. The system has the potential for harboring microbial life. Illustration by Victor O. Leshyk for the Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Perhaps one of the most valuable effects of the impact was the injection of phosphorus into the atmosphere with a positive impact on the Earth’s habitability for life. Study of the layers of rock above the layer caused by the S2 event reveals an increased amount of nutrients and iron which helped microbial life to thrive. 

The study has helped to build a clearer understanding of how giant impacts can aid the development of life. It does of course depend on the size and type, material and the conditions of the atmosphere before the event. The S2 event seems to have quite a mixed effect on early life, in particular marine life. Overall some forms of life were positively impacted while others seemed to have experienced challenges. Marine life that relies upon sunlight to survive (the phototrophs) were effected by the darkness while those living at lower depths were less influenced. The detrimental effects of the atmosphere would likely only have been short lived lasting perhaps just a few years before recovering quickly causing only a temporary impact to marine life. But the injection of phosphorous in the atmosphere would have had far more long term beneficial effects to life. 

Source : Effect of a giant meteorite impact on Paleoarchean surface environments and life

The post A Giant Meteorite Impact 3.26 Billion Years Ago Helped Push Life Forward appeared first on Universe Today.

It’s Sunday, and that means we have a batch of biologist John Avise‘s bird photos. Today’s group features headshots of birds in zoos. John’s text and IDs are indented, and you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Zoo Headshots 

I love visiting well-designed zoos, especially those with large open aviaries and other open-like enclosures.  The San Diego Zoo is exemplary in these regards.  This week’s post shows head portraits of several avian species from around the world that I’ve managed to photograph in zoo aviaries.  In such large enclosures, taking good photos remains challenging because the birds have plenty of space to freely move and fly around in their simulated natural habitats.

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (Rupicola peruvianus) male (native to South America):

Black Crowned Crane (Balearica pavonina) (native to Africa):

American Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) (native to the West Indies and northern South America):

Chilean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis) (native to southern South America):

Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor) (native to sub-Saharan Africa and India):

Chestnut-breasted Malkoha (Phaenicophaeus curvirostris) (native to Southeast Asia):

Red-and-Green Macaw (Ara chloropterus) (native to South America):

Hyacinth Macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) (native to South America):

Saddle-billed Stork (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis) (native to Africa):

Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) (native to Africa):

Southern Bald Ibis (Geronticus calvus) (native to southern Africa):

White-faced Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna viduata) (Native to Africa):

RALEIGH, N.C. — Particle physicist Hitoshi Murayama admits that he used to worry about being known as the “most hated man” in his field of science. But the good news is that now he can joke about it.

Last year, the Berkeley professor chaired the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel, or P5, which drew up a list of multimillion-dollar physics experiments that should move ahead over the next 10 years. The list focused on phenomena ranging from subatomic smash-ups to cosmic inflation. At the same time, the panel also had to decide which projects would have to be left behind for budgetary reasons, which could have turned Murayama into the Dr. No of physics.

Although Murayama has some regrets about the projects that were put off, he’s satisfied with how the process turned out. Now he’s just hoping that the federal government will follow through on the P5’s top priorities.

Berkeley particle physicist Hitoshi Murayama speaks at the ScienceWriters 2024 conference in Raleigh, N.C. (Photo by Alan Boyle)

“There are five actually exciting projects we think we can do within the budget program,” Murayama said this week during a presentation at the ScienceWriters 2024 conference in Raleigh. Not all of the projects recommended for U.S. funding are totally new — and not all of them are based in the U.S. Here’s a quick rundown:

• Looking for dark matter: About 85% of all the matter in the universe is thought to exist in an invisible form that so far has been detectable only through its gravitational effect. For years, an experiment being conducted in a converted South Dakota gold mine has been looking for traces of dark matter’s interactions with a huge reservoir of liquid xenon. The experiment hasn’t yet found anything, but Murayama said the P5 panel supports the idea of boosting the size of the reservoir size from seven to on the scale of 70 tons and intensifying the search.

• Following up on the Higgs boson: The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 provided the last missing piece in the Standard Model of particle physics, one of science’s most successful theories. But physicists don’t have a good grip on how the Higgs works. “You’d like to mass-produce this Higgs boson and study its properties in great detail, so we know how it got stuck and frozen into space, so that we can stay in one place,” Murayama said. That would require building a bigger particle collider, capable of smashing electrons and positrons — but the P5 panel determined that such a machine couldn’t be built in the U.S. Instead, the panel recommends supporting an “offshore Higgs factory” like the FCC-ee facility that CERN is considering, or the International Linear Collider that’s been proposed for construction in Japan.

• Studying the nature of neutrinos: The Big Bang is thought to have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, which would theoretically annihilate each other. Fortunately for us, matter won out rather than being totally annihilated. How did it happen? “The only candidate elementary particle we know who might have done this is actually neutrinos,” Murayama said. “How do we know if that’s really the case? One thing we try to do is to look at the behavior of neutrinos by creating them in Illinois and shooting them to a location in South Dakota, because neutrinos can pass through the dirt without any problems.” The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is under construction, and excavation of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility was recently completed in South Dakota. The P5 report proposes upgrading DUNE’s capabilities.

• Getting a neutrino view of the cosmos: The P5 panel also called for a dramatic expansion of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. “They managed to peer into the supermassive black hole in a nearby galaxy, and for the first time, they even took a picture of a galactic disk using neutrinos as well,” Murayama said. “So this is finally becoming a true tool to observe the universe in a different way from what we do with older telescopes.”

• Seeking signs of cosmic inflation: A widely held theory asserts that in the instant after the Big Bang, the universe inflated at a prodigious rate to “lock in” the slight perturbations that scientists see in the cosmic microwave background radiation. In 2014, astronomers claimed that an experiment at the South Pole had picked up evidence of that primordial cosmic inflation, but months later, they had to back away from those claims. The Antarctic studies are continuing, however, and the P5 panel supported an experiment known as CMB-S4 that would widen the search for evidence. “For that, we need two sites, one in Chile, another at the South Pole,” Murayama said.

In addition to the top five projects, the panel endorsed a longer-term effort to develop an advanced particle accelerator that would produce collisions between subatomic particles known as muons. Such a machine would increase the chances of finding new frontiers in physics in the 2030s, Murayama said.

“We call this a ‘muon shot,’ like a moonshot,” he said. “We don’t know quite well if we can really get there, but as you work toward it, that would end up producing so many interesting things on the way, more science and more technologies.”

Will the P5’s priorities prevail? That’s up to the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, which must decide what to do with the physicists’ recommendations. Success isn’t guaranteed: For example, NSF put the CMB-S4 experiment on hold in May to focus instead on upgrading aging infrastructure at its Antarctic facilities.

Looking ahead, it’s not yet clear how particle physics will fare when Donald Trump returns to the White House. For what it’s worth, the price tags for four of the projects add up to more than $2.5 billion over the course of several years. The cost of the offshore Higgs factory is certain to amount to billions more.

Murayama called attention to an issue that could affect IceCube, CMB-S4 and other Antarctic research in the nearer term. “There is a fleet of cargo airplanes that is owned by the U.S. Air Force that actually served us well over many decades,” he said. “But they were built back in the ’70s, and they’re about to retire, and right now there are no plans to replace them. Then we will lose access.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., managed to get a $229 million appropriation for new planes into the Senate’s version of the defense budget bill for the current fiscal year, but the House still has to take action. That sets up a bit of a congressional cliffhanger for the weeks and months ahead.

“I don’t get a good sense of the priority,” Murayama confessed. “But this is supposed to be part of the defense budget, which is way bigger than the science budget — so in that part, it’s peanuts. Hopefully, it just can get in and get funded.”

For a critical perspective on the P5 wish list, check out physicist Sabine Hossenfelder’s YouTube video:

Alan Boyle is a volunteer board member for the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, which was one of the organizers of the ScienceWriters 2024 conference.

The post America’s Particle Physics Plan Spans the Globe — and the Cosmos appeared first on Universe Today.

It means pertussis and measles outbreaks will be happening under your watch and you'll be held responsible while your boss is an anti-vaxx crank. Enjoy!

The post What Does it Mean to Own the Next 4 Years? first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

We are all familiar with the atmosphere of the Earth and part of this, the ionosphere, is a layer of weakly ionized plasma. It extends from 50 to 1,500 km above the planet. It’s a diffuse layer but sufficient to interfere with satellite communications and navigation systems too. A team of researchers have come up with an intriguing idea to utilise millions of mobile phones to help map the ionosphere by relying on their GPS antennas.

The ionosphere is a layer of the Earth’s atmosphere where radiation ionizes atoms and molecules. The incoming solar radiation is the primary cause which energises gases causing them to lose electrons and become electrically charged. The process creates a region of charged particles or ions known as plasma. The ionosphere is a key part of radio communications since its ionized particles reflect and refract radio waves back to Earth facilitating long distance communication. It’s density and surprisingly perhaps its composition changes as solar activity waxes and wanes. 

A view of Earth’s atmosphere from space. Credit: NASA

In a paper recently published in Nature, a team of researchers at Google have used data from over 40 million mobile phones to map conditions in the ionosphere. The concept of using crowdsourced signals is an intriguing one and the study will help to improve satellite navigation and our understanding of the upper regions of our atmosphere. We still don’t have a full understanding of the properties of the ionosphere across regions like Africa and South America so this study will fill significant gaps. 

The ionosphere can slow down radio signals that travel to Earth from satellites, in particular from GPS and other navigation satellites. When it comes to these navigation signals, they rely heavily upon signal timing and relies upon nano-second precision. This gives systems the ability to pinpoint location with incredible accuracy, having an accurate model of the ionosphere is key to its success however.

NavCube, the product of a merger between the Goddard-developed SpaceCube 2.0 and Navigator GPS technologies, could play a vital role helping to demonstrate X-ray communications in space — a potential NASA first. Credit: NASA/W. Hrybyk

Using data from ground based stations, engineers can create real time maps of the ionospheric density. To do this, data is received across two different frequencies from the same satellite and their arrival timed. Dependent on the density of the ionosphere, the low frequency waves are slowed down more than the high frequency signals. Not taking these into account could put GPS and navigation systems out by 5 metres or more. 

Receiving multiple frequencies is within the capability of most mobile phones and it’s using this that has been the focus of the study. There is however, a degree of noise in the data received by mobile phones but the team at Google found that combining the signal of large numbers of phones reduced the noise. 

The study is currently only working with Android phones. Anyone who allows for their sensor data to be shared was able to contribute to the study. The data has already revealed plasma in the ionosphere over South America that had not been seen before.

Source : Mapping the ionosphere with millions of phones

The post Millions of Phones Could Map the Earth’s Ionosphere appeared first on Universe Today.

Quantum-science advances using AI can measure very small surfaces and distances -- opening a world of medical, manufacturing and other applications.

Quantum-science advances using AI can measure very small surfaces and distances -- opening a world of medical, manufacturing and other applications.

Researchers have discovered that in a foraging ant's search for food, it will leave pheromone trails connecting its colony to multiple food sources when they're available, successfully creating the first model that explains the phenomenon of trail formation to multiple food sources.

Bill Maher, rebuking the Democrats for losing the election, knocks it out of the park in this week’s 8-minute comedy/news bit. Although many people (viz., Laura Helmuth) are calling Republicans “stupid” for voting for Trump, Maher shows that there’s no shortage of stupidity among Democrats, either—especially in the “progressives.” As he says, “What good is liberalism if you don’t win elections?” According to Maher, the entire Democratic party has become “a Portlandia sketch.”

Maher excoriates Trump, of course, but I agree with him: if we’re going to win future elections, Democrats need to figure out why they lost an election that should have been a walk in the park. (I have to mention, because readers will bring it up, that Maher also implies that science showed that the covid virus spread because it escaped from the Wuhan lab, something that now seems improbable.)

Maher’s lesson is now familiar: make Democrats more centrist than progressive, and find out what’s going on with the other side. As he says, “Stop screaming at people to ‘get with the program’ and instead make a program worth getting with.”  At the end he expresses his own disaffection at losing the chance of fixing the two things he cares most about: the environment and democracy.

Imagine a black hole with the mass of the asteroid Ceres. It would be no larger than a bacterium and practically undetectable. But if such black holes are common in the Universe, they would affect the motions of stars and galaxies, just as we observe. Perhaps they are the source of dark matter.

Such tiny black holes could not form from dying stars, but they might have formed within the hot, dense cosmos soon after the Big Bang. For this reason, they are known as primordial black holes. We have no evidence they exist, but since they would be such a great explanation for dark matter, astronomers keep looking.

The one thing we know at this point is that most primordial black holes are ruled out by the data. Large, almost stellar mass black holes would affect the clustering of galaxies in a way we don’t observe. Tiny black holes of mountain mass or smaller would have evaporated long ago, making them useless as a dark matter candidate. But asteroid mass black holes are still possible. They aren’t likely, but they haven’t been formally excluded by the data. So a new study looks at how asteroid mass primordial black holes might be detected through gravitational waves.

The size and lifetime of primordial black holes by mass. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

To account for dark matter, the smaller the primordial black hole, the more common they must be. For asteroid masses, the cosmos would need to contain a vast sea of them. Since they would cluster within galaxies, they would be common enough within galaxies for some of them to merge on a regular basis. As the study points out, each of these mergers would produce a gravitational chirp similar to the ones we have observed with stellar-mass black holes. They would just have a much higher frequency and be more common.

The frequency of these primordial chirps would be too high for current observatories such as LIGO to observe, but the authors point out that some current dark matter experiments might be able to observe them. One alternative model for dark matter involves a hypothetical particle known as the axion. Axions were originally proposed to solve some issues in high-energy particle physics, and while they have fallen out of popularity in particle physics, they’ve gained some popularity in cosmology. We have made a few attempts to detect axions, but to no success. In their paper, the authors show how axion experiments could be tweaked slightly to observe the chirps of primordial black hole mergers in ideal conditions.

The chances of success are pretty slim. It would be odd for primordial black holes to exist in the only allowed mass range and nowhere else, and the conditions we could observe would be pretty narrow. But it might be worth doing a search on the off chance. The nature of dark matter remains a huge mystery in astronomy, so we don’t have much to lose in trying the occasional long-shot idea.

Reference: Profumo, Stefano, et al. “The Maximal Gravitational Wave Signal from Asteroid-Mass Primordial Black Hole Mergers.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.15400 (2024).

The post Detecting Primordial Black Hole Mergers Might be Within Our Grasp appeared first on Universe Today.

The Fibonacci series is defined thusly:

. . . . the series of numbers where each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers. For example,

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, …

Mathematically we can describe this as:

xn= xn-1 + xn-2

It is the basis of a spiral figure, too, though it’s not quite the same as the “Golden Spiral,” which itself is defined as “a logarithmic spiral whose growth factor is φ, the golden ratio. That is, a golden spiral gets wider (or further from its origin) by a factor of φ for every quarter turn it makes.  And that factor is one that satisifes the quadratic equation

φ²=φ+1

1.618033988749….  (this is an irrational number, like pi or e. 

But we’re talking about the Fibonacci spiral, which is this:

Another approximation is a Fibonacci spiral, which is constructed slightly differently. A Fibonacci spiral starts with a rectangle partitioned into 2 squares. In each step, a square the length of the rectangle’s longest side is added to the rectangle. Since the ratio between consecutive Fibonacci numbers approaches the golden ratio as the Fibonacci numbers approach infinity, so too does this spiral get more similar to the previous approximation the more squares are added, as illustrated by the image.

And how it’s constructed: you see here the rectangle with added squares, and how a spiral that touches each junction between the squares becomes the Fibonacci spiral.

FakeRealLogSpiral.png: Cypderivative work: Silverhammermba & Jahobr, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

But on to the cats, which, according to this article from Bored Panda, occasionally form themselves into something approximating a Fibonacci spiral:

And one from reddit:

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I thought of cheetahs as a solitary cat, but Wikipedia says that this is not exactly true:

Cheetahs have a flexible and complex social structure and tend to be more gregarious than several other cats (except the lion). Individuals typically avoid one another but are generally amicable; males may fight over territories or access to females in oestrus, and on rare occasions such fights can result in severe injury and death. Females are not social and have minimal interaction with other individuals, barring the interaction with males when they enter their territories or during the mating season. Some females, generally mother and offspring or siblings, may rest beside one another during the day. Females tend to lead a solitary life or live with offspring in undefended home ranges; young females often stay close to their mothers for life but young males leave their mother’s range to live elsewhere.

Some males are territorial, and group together for life, forming coalitions that collectively defend a territory which ensures maximum access to females—this is unlike the behaviour of the male lion who mates with a particular group (pride) of females. In most cases, a coalition will consist of brothers born in the same litter who stayed together after weaning, but biologically unrelated males are often allowed into the group; in the Serengeti, 30% of members in coalitions are unrelated males.

Here’s a BBC Earth video showing a group of cheetahs filmed in Maasai Mara park in Kenya. There are eight: five males (clearly from a “coalition), one female, and her two cubs. The males are obviously competing with each other for access to the females. What beautiful cats!

Just to throw this in, here’s a wild cheetah that I photographed when I visited Manyeleti Game Reserve earlier this year. You can see how tame they can be around humans from this photo, taken with a zoom lens on a point-and-shoot camera from an open vehicle. Clearly the cats are used to the human presence.

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Everywhere She Travels, a lovely website written by Canadian traveler Caitlin Mundy, has a guide to the friendly cats of Istanbul, I will just use Catlin’s text and illustrate her words with my own photos of Istanbul, taken in April, 2008. Catilin’s text is indented.

This is all true!

If you’re heading to Turkey for your next trip, I sure hope you’re an animal lover! In particular, a cat lover. Not only will you find lots of cats wandering all over the streets of Istanbul, affectionately nicknamed Catstanbul, but you can find them in cities and towns all over the country too! From the back corner of a mosque, to perched on top of a pole, walking on a ledge, or sitting in a store window, cats are everywhere. Seriously, you’d be hard pressed to make it more than 10 minutes without seeing one. And not only are there a lot of them, they might just be the friendliest cat population in the world! Just bend down near one, and chances are it will be running over for pets. So, if you have a love of animals, then Istanbul is certainly a special place to visit.

If you want to see a wonderful movie about the cats of Istanbul, find the movie Kedi (“cat” in Turkish), which has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 98% from the critics. Somehow filmed at the level of a cat’s eyes, it is a mesmerizing documentary—even if you don’t like cats.

Another time cats love to approach people, is when they are sitting at a restaurant. Several times throughout the 5 days I spent in Istanbul a cat wandered up to me while I was sitting at a restaurant and made his/herself at home. This was always a welcome surprise for me, though it did make eating a little difficult sometimes.

I believe this is a Turkish Van cat with odd-colored eyes:

On my first night in Istanbul, I met some girls at Cheers Hostel who had been in the city for a few days at that point. I decided to join them in visiting the Hagia Sophia at night, to avoid the long daytime lines. While wandering around, I noticed a sweet cat cuddled up under a table. My first (of many) indoor cat sightings! I went to find my new friends to point her out. Look how cute, there’s a cat in here! I said. They smiled politely and told me they weren’t surprised. There are cats everywhere here. As an avid cat lover myself, this came as great news. And throughout my trip, I made sure to pet and photograph as many cats as I could.

I did, too! In the Hagia Sofia they might have seen Gli, who died in 2020, and whom I was fortunate enough to meet (and feed; see below):

Now you might wonder, with so many stray cats, what kind of shape could they be in? The answer is excellent. Walking around Istanbul on my first full day, I immediately noticed how healthy all the cats looked. If I had seen any one of them on the street somewhere else, I would have guessed they were a well loved pet cat way before I would have guessed a stray. But, in a way, they’re both. They may be strays but they are definitely well loved too and seem to be, in general, quite happy cats.

To pull from the popular saying it takes a village to raise a child, in Turkey it takes a village to care for a cat. And it’s true, the whole community seems to step up and look out for these cats! From restaurant owners, to friendly neighbors, and people out for a walk, it seems like just about everyone has a sweet spot for these adorable Turkish cats.

The first clue of this is the abundance of water bowls, small containers of cat food, and little cat houses found outside restaurants, in public parks, and next to people’s homes. These cats are certainly not going hungry or lacking a cozy place to curl up for a nap.

. . . .With all the kindness shown to these beautiful felines, it makes sense that they are friendly in return! I mean, if you are used to receiving pets, treats, and love from humans, why wouldn’t you seek them out? One of my first moments interacting with a cat in Istanbul started with me trying to take a photo. The sweet little white and black cat was standing on a rock near the river, so I bent down to get a good shot. She immediately ran over, climbed onto the purse hanging off my shoulder, made herself comfortable and started purring. After a few moments of crouching down and petting her, I moved over to the rock. We sat there together for at least 20 minutes, while I fantasized about bringing her home with me.

Yep, this is me with a friendly Istanbul moggy!

Me petting Gli, the late but very famous cat who dwelled in the Hagia Sofia. Like many residents, I carried a bag of dry cat food around with me, and Gli got some:

And of course I was lured to this rug shop, and the rest is history: I bought several small rugs from this guy, which were beautiful (like the cats):

Having cats around your store is a sure way to lure in ailurophilic tourists!

Part of the affection towards cats in Istanbul, and Turkey as a whole, can be attributed to Islamic culture. In Islam, cats are admired for their cleanliness. Since they are seen as clean animals, they are welcome in people’s homes, as well as into mosques. In fact, it’s even considered acceptable to use water from a bowl a cat has drank from for religious purposes, or to eat food from the same bowl as a cat.

The connection between Islam and cats dates back to the time of the prophet Muhammad. Muhammad is said to have been a cat lover himself. In particular, he had a cat named Muezza who he loved dearly. A famous story about Muezza says that one day she was sleeping on the sleeve of Muhammad’s prayer robes. Instead of disturbing her in her slumber, he simply cut off the sleeve of his robe before going to pray. Clearly this story has set a precedence for how cats are treated, even today.

Mosque cats (see Gli above):

This cat doesn’t look like it’s in as good a shape as the others (you’ll notice the rest of them, which are feral, are nonetheless looking good). This was on the grounds of a mosque, and the Turkish reads “Do not step on the grass.” But of course that doesn’t apply to cats, nor does it apply to urination!

h/t: Michael

After today’s photos, we have only tomorrow’s photos, the regular Sunday contribution by John Avise.  After Sunday: bupkes! Please send in your wildlife photos.

Today we have the fifth and final set of photos taken by reader Chris Taylor on his recent trip to Queensland (see here for earlier photos).  Chris’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

This is the final part of the photographs from Queensland.

In the final week of the trip, we spent the time back on the coast, visiting a number of locations.

This is the white form of the Pacific Reef Heron, Egretta sacra, seen on the rocks at Flying Fish Point.

There are a number of Mistletoes in Australia, most of which are parasitic on other trees and shrubs such as Eucalypts. The seed needs to be deposited on the branch of the host tree where it can germinate and grow its roots under the bark of the host tree. Mistletoes have coevolved with the Mistletoe Bird and a strategy has developed to ensure this is not left to chance. The seeds of the plant are enclosed in a fruit that attracts the bird to eat it. The seed quickly passes through the gut of the bird, which then defecates the seed onto the host plant. The seed retains a sticky coating which fixes the seed onto the branch, ready to grow and infect the host.

Mistletoe Bird, Dicaeum hirundinaceum, eating a berry of Jointed Mistletoe, Viscum articulatum, which is growing on a small eucalypt tree.

Nearby was one of the Clearwing Swallowtail butterflies, Cressida cressida. Unusually for a butterfly, they have few scales on the front wings, giving them a translucent appearance

Next, we went south to the area at the foot of the Wooroonooran range. The two highest peaks in Queensland, Mt Bartle Frere and Mount Bellenden Ker, are in this range. Although not tall by comparison to other mountain ranges, at only 1622m and 1593m elevation respectively, the range undoubtedly has a big effect on the weather of the Wet Tropics. We stopped in the town of Babinda, claims to be the wettest place in Australia, a distinction also claimed by the nearby town of Tully. Both of these towns have an annual average of more than 4.25 metres of rain. Because of the high rainfall, there are a number of pristine rivers flowing out of the range, such as Babinda Creek, here flowing out of the rainforest cloaking the slopes of the mountains

The mountains are made up of a lot of hard granitic rocks, and so there are a number of waterfalls in the range; these are the Josephine Falls

On the flatlands below the range is the Eubenangee Swamp. There is a small nature reserve here with a short hike through the rainforest. Lots of birds were calling, along with a colony of Fruit Bats. But they all kept up in the canopy, where they were well hidden, so the smaller denizens were the ones that caught our attention. For some reason most of the insects we saw here were dark in colour!

This butterfly is the Evening Brown, Melanitis leda. This insect is remarkable in that it takes two different forms, dependent upon the season. This is the Dry season form, which resembles a dried-up leaf. The Wet season form has a lighter brown colour and black and white spots.

Also here were some Dingy brown, Mycalesis perseus.

And Yellow-eyed Plane, Neptis praslini:

Even the dragonflies here had dark wings! This is the Painted Grasshawk, Neurothemis stigmatizans.

In the dim light of the rainforest canopy, there was an exception to this rule. This is the Red-banded Jezebel, Delias mysis.

We left Eubenangee in the late afternoon, as the sun was making a light show through the Wooroonooran range, a finale to our stay in Queensland. Next day we caught the plane to fly back to Canberra.

The seasonal variations of methane in the Martian atmosphere is an intriguing clue that there might be life hiding under the surface of the red planet. But we won’t know for sure until we go digging for it.

Hints of methane on Mars go back all the way to the Mariner missions of the 1970s. But in 2013 NASA’s Curiosity rover saw methane levels around it rise to several times greater than the background. A few months later it dwindled and disappeared, only to return again. 

This Martian methane mystery poses an interesting challenge for scientists. On one hand, there are known chemical reactions that can take the molecules known to exist on Mars and turn them into methane. For example, liquid water interacting with magnesium- and iron-rich rocks like olivine can oxidize them, which can produce pockets of hydrogen. This hydrogen can then react with the carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere through the Fischer-Tropsch process to produce methane. 

But while this scenario is relatively straightforward, the devil is in the details. In order for this process to work there must be liquid water underground. And some other mechanism needs to be able to remove the methane, or at least make this process cycle on and off every few months.

That opens up the possibility for life. We know of forms of life on Earth known as methanogens that do not get their energy from photosynthesis. Instead they essentially eat hydrogen and produce methane as a byproduct. The advantage of using life to explain the Martian methane mystery is that it can potentially naturally introduce seasonal variations. When conditions change under the Martian surface, for example through the warming summer months or cooling winter months, then the life can respond appropriately.

But while this hypothesis explains the seasonal variation, it doesn’t get around the fact that the Martian life would still need a source of water to live. Plus, we have absolutely no evidence for any life appearing on Mars, even in its distant past.

To date there is no clear consensus as to what is causing the seasonal variations of methane on Mars. The idea of life under the surface of the red planet remains a tantalizing possibility. The only way to answer this is to keep sending missions back to Mars and start digging.

The post What’s Behind the Martian Methane Mystery? appeared first on Universe Today.

For decades, astronomers have used powerful instruments to capture images of the cosmos in various wavelengths. This includes optical images, where visible light is observed, and images that capture non-visible radiation, ranging from the radio and infrared to the X-ray and Gamma-ray wavelengths. However, these two-dimensional images do not allow scientists to infer what the objects look like in three dimensions. Transforming these images into a 3D space could lead to a better understanding of the physics that drives our Universe.

In a recent study, an international team of researchers led by the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics (MIfA) at the University of Minnesota announced the development of a new technique for radio astronomy. This first-ever technique reconstructs radio images into three-dimensional “Pseudo3D cubes” that allow astronomers to get a better idea of what cosmic structures look like. This technique could lead to an improved understanding of how galaxies, massive black holes, jet structures, and the Universe work.

The study was led by Lawrence Rudnick, a Professor Emeritus at the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics. he was joined by colleagues from the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University, National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the Institute for Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics, National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester, and the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.

Researchers used a new technique to transform 2D radio images into a 3D model to better understand phenomena in our Universe. Credit: Lawrence Rudnick/MeerKAT Radio Telescope

To develop their 3D modeling tool, the team looked at polarized radio light, which vibrates in a specific direction. The research team then factored in the effect called “Faraday rotation,” where the the polarization of light rotates along the direction of propagation in proportion to the projection of a magnetic field. Named after Michael Faraday, this effect was the first experimental evidence that light and electromagnetism are related. In the case of radio waves, the rotation depends on how much material they have passed through. 

With this technique, the team examined various radio image samples obtained by the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder Telescope (ASKAP) and MeerKAT radio telescopes. They found they could estimate how far each part of the radio light had traveled, enabling them to create a 3D model of phenomena happening millions of light-years away. This technique also allowed the team to demonstrate, for the first time, how the line-of-sight orientation of relativistic jets can be determined.

They also examined the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the heart of the M87 galaxy. Using their technique, the team was able to show how material ejected interacts with cosmic winds and space weather and also analyzed the structures of the jet’s magnetic fields in space. As Rudnick said in a recent University of Minnesota press release:

“We found that the shapes of the objects were very different from the impression that we got by just looking at them in a 2D space. Our technique has dramatically altered our understanding of these exotic objects. We may need to reconsider previous models on the physics of how these things work. There is no question in my mind that we will end up with lots of surprises in the future that some objects will not look like we thought in 2D.”

The team recommends using this technique to reevaluate all previous analyses of polarized light sources. They also hope this technique will be applied to images taken by next-generation telescopes around the world. This includes the new Square Kilometer Array (SKA-Phase2) project, which will extend the facility to about 2000 dishes, making it 50 times more sensitive and 10,000 times faster than any other radio telescope in the world.

Further Reading: UofM-CSE, MNRAS

The post Scientists Develop Technique to Create 3D Models of Cosmic Structures appeared first on Universe Today.

Attempts to prevent Australian children from accessing social media are likely to fail, and could do more harm than good

Ever since William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781, astronomers have been eager to find new planets on the outer edge of the solar system. But after the discovery of Neptune in 1846, we’ve found no other large planets. Sure, we discovered Pluto and other dwarf planets beyond it, but nothing Earth-sized or larger. If there is some planet nine, or “Planet X” lurking out there, we have yet to find it.

But there is some tentative evidence for it. As we have found more Pluto-like bodies known as Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) and even more distant bodies known as Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), we’ve noticed that there appears to be an odd bit of orbital clustering among them. The orientation of their orbits isn’t as randomly distributed as we’d expect, which could be caused by the small gravitational tugs of a super-Earth at the edge of the solar system. If we assume that is the solution to the orbital bias, then there could be a five Earth-mass planet orbiting ten times farther from the Sun than Neptune.

Astronomers have searched for the planet but have found nothing. This has led some to speculate that Planet X might be a primordial black hole, while more skeptical minds argue it must not exist. The evidence just isn’t that strong, and there are other possible explanations for the clustering. So a new paper argues for a new way to gather evidence of Planet X, and it’s remarkably clever.

The idea is based on a phenomenon known as occultation. This is when an asteroid or planetary body passes in front of a star. By observing the star as the object occults it, astronomers can measure things such as the orbit and shape of the body. Through an occultation, we discovered that the asteroid Chariklo has a ring system. Amateur astronomers have used occultation events to map the shapes of small asteroids.

Ocultations different vantage points reveals the shape of an asteroid. Credit: IOTA

The authors propose building 200 40-cm telescopes spaced 5 kilometers apart to create an occultation array 1,000 km wide. Since each telescope would have a slightly different vantage point, occultations would be seen differently by different telescopes, allowing astronomers to map the orbit and size of Trans-Neptunian Objects. They estimate that over the course of a 10-year study they could detect about 1,800 new TNOs. Based on simulations of TNO orbits and clustering, the authors show that such a system should find clear evidence of any 5 Earth-mass body within 800 AU of the Sun. In other words, if Planet X is out there, this study could prove it.

The whole array would only cost about $15 million U.S. dollars, which is surprisingly cheap for such a project. Even if the study failed to find Planet X, it would add to our understanding of the distant solar system and also allow us to study how [sunlight can shift the orbits of small solar system bodies.](https://briankoberlein.com/blog/super-breakout/)

Reference: Gomes, Daniel CH, and Gary M. Bernstein. “An automated occultation network for gravitational mapping of the trans-neptunian solar system.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.16348 (2024).

The post The Best Way to Find Planet Nine Might Be Hundreds of Tiny Telescopes appeared first on Universe Today.