Space and time from Science Daily Feed

A study introduces a novel thermodynamic concept called the 'centotectic' and investigates the stability of liquids in extreme conditions -- critical information for determining the habitability of icy moons like Europa.

One of the biggest mysteries in science -- dark energy -- doesn't actually exist, according to researchers looking to solve the riddle of how the Universe is expanding. For the past 100 years, physicists have generally assumed that the cosmos is growing equally in all directions. They employed the concept of dark energy as a placeholder to explain unknown physics they couldn't understand, but the contentious theory has always had its problems. Now a team of physicists and astronomers are challenging the status quo, using improved analysis of supernovae light curves to show that the Universe is expanding in a more varied, 'lumpier' way.

Scientists have delivered the first measurements of Greenland Ice Sheet thickness change using data from ESA and NASA ice satellite missions. With global warming causing the Greenland Ice Sheet to melt and flow more rapidly, raising sea levels and disturbing weather patterns across our planet, precise measurements of its changing shape are of critical importance for tracking and adapting to the effects of climate warming.

A brotherly research duo has discovered that when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) produces top quarks -- the heaviest known fundamental particles -- it regularly creates a property known as magic.

Researchers have found evidence of magnetic fields associated with a disc of gas and dust a few hundred light-years across deep inside a system of two merging galaxies known as Arp220. They say these regions could be the key to making the centres of interacting galaxies just right for cooking lots of hydrogen gas into young stars.

Scientist have begun to reveal the particle-level processes that create the type of auroras that dance rapidly across the sky. The Kinetic-scale Energy and momentum Transport experiment -- KiNET-X -- lifted off from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on May 16, 2021, in the final minutes of the final night of the nine-day launch window.

New studies offer a clearer picture of how the outer solar system formed and evolved based on analyses of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) and centaurs. The findings reveal the distribution of ices in the early solar system and how TNOs evolve when they travel inward into the region of the giant planets between Jupiter and Saturn, becoming centaurs. TNOs are small bodies, or 'planetesimals,' orbiting the sun beyond Pluto. They never accreted into planets, and serve as pristine time capsules, preserving crucial evidence of the molecular processes and planetary migrations that shaped the solar system billions of years ago. These solar system objects are like icy asteroids and have orbits comparable to or larger than Neptune's orbit. Prior to the new UCF-led study, TNOs were known to be a diverse population based on their orbital properties and surface colors, but the molecular composition of these objects remained poorly understood. For decades, this lack of detailed knowledge hindered interpretation of their color and dynamical diversity. Now, the new results unlock the long-standing question of the interpretation of color diversity by providing compositional information.

Scientists have unveiled groundbreaking research on the origins of lunar water, offering insights that could reshape our understanding of the Earth-Moon system and the broader solar system. The pioneering study explores the isotopic signatures of lunar water, revealing a mix of indigenous and cometary sources.

Scientists are changing our understanding of climate and weather on Mars and providing critical insights into Earth's atmospheric processes as well.

A new study explores how variations in Mars' crustal thickness during its ancient history may have influenced the planet's magmatic evolution and hydrological systems. The research suggests that the thick crust of Mars' southern highlands formed billions of years ago generated granitic magmas and sustained vast underground aquifers, challenging long-held assumptions about the red planet's geological and hydrological past.

Conventional wisdom assumes the ratio of gases in a planet's atmosphere should match the ratio of gases in the natal disk that birthed it. For the first time, researchers compared gases in a still-forming planet's atmosphere to its natal disk. The team found the planet surprisingly was less carbon-rich than the disk.

Galaxy clusters -- the big cities of the universe -- are home to many giant elliptical galaxies that have completed their growth and are not forming stars. However, it is still unclear what has shut down star formation. In a new study, researchers utilized the James Webb Space Telescope to observe an ancestor of galaxy clusters, revealing the role of supermassive black holes in slowing star formation and allowing them to evolve into giant elliptical galaxies.

Scientists recently led a team that found, for the first time, that Chiron has surface chemistry unlike other centaurs. Its surface it has both carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide ice along with carbon dioxide and methane gases in its coma, the cloud-like envelope of dust and gas surrounding it.

A study of more than 26,000 white dwarf stars has confirmed a long-predicted but elusive effect in these ultra-dense, dying stars: Hotter white dwarfs are slightly puffier than cooler ones, even when they have the same mass.

Scientists have spotted a massive black hole in the early universe that is 'napping' after stuffing itself with too much food. Like a bear gorging itself on salmon before hibernating for the winter, or a much-needed nap after Christmas dinner, this black hole has overeaten to the point that it is lying dormant in its host galaxy.

Scientists propose a 'remelting' of the Moon's surface 4.35 billion years ago due to the tidal pull of Earth causing widespread geological upheaval and intense heating.

Microgravity is known to alter the muscles, bones, the immune system and cogni tion, but little is known about its specific impact on the brain. To discover how brain cells respond to microgravity, scientists sent tiny clumps of stem-cell derived brain cells called 'organoids' to the International Space Station.

After taking the first images of black holes, the groundbreaking Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is poised to reveal how black holes launch powerful jets into space. Now, a research team has shown that the EHT will be able to make exciting images of a supermassive black hole and its jets in the galaxy NGC 1052. The measurements, made with interconnected radio telescopes, also confirm strong magnetic fields close to the black hole's edge.

An international team of researchers has detected a binary star orbiting close to Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. It is the first time a stellar pair has been found in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole. The discovery helps us understand how stars survive in environments with extreme gravity, and could pave the way for the detection of planets close to Sagittarius A*.

The combination of low temperature, atmospheric pressure and water vapor pressure on Mars means any liquid water found there would likely freeze, boil or evaporate immediately, making its presence unlikely.