New Delhi: Thanks to the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), astronomers have, for the first time, discovered the heaviest element ever found in the atmosphere of an exoplanet: barium.
The element was discovered at high altitudes in the atmospheres of the ultra-hot gas giants WASP-76b and WASP-121b – two exoplanets, or planets that orbit stars outside our solar system.
The scientists were surprised to find barium, which is 2.5 times heavier than iron, in the upper atmospheres of WASP-76b and WASP-121b.
This unexpected discovery raises questions about what these exotic atmospheres may be.
The finding is counter-intuitive because a heavy element like this is never detected in the upper layers of the atmospheres of planets with such high gravity. The heaviest elements should ideally fall into the lower levels of the atmosphere.
WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b are both known as ultra-hot Jupiters because they are comparable in size to Jupiter while having extremely high surface temperatures, exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius. This is due to their proximity to their host stars, which also means that an orbit around each star only takes one to two days.
This gives these planets some rather exotic characteristics. In WASP-76b, for example, astronomers suspect that it is raining iron.
The fact that barium has been detected in the atmospheres of these two ultra-hot Jupiters suggests that this class of planets may be even stranger than previously thought. Read more.
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Asteroid grows new tail after NASA DART impact
Just a month after NASA successfully completed an impact mission to knock the asteroid Dimorphos off course, two tails of dust were spotted being ejected from the asteroid system.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was performed September 26 on Dimorphos, a small moon of Didymos. Current data shows that DART has shortened Dimorphos’ original 11 hour, 55 minute orbit around Didymos by about 32 minutes.
Over the past few weeks, observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have allowed scientists to present a more complete picture of how the system’s debris cloud has evolved over time.
Observations show that the ejected material, or “ejected”, expanded and lost luminosity over time after impact, largely as expected. The twin tail is an unexpected development, although similar behavior is commonly seen in active comets and asteroids.
Hubble observations provide the best quality image of the double tail to date.
The relationship between the comet-like tail and other ejecta features seen at various times in images from Hubble and other telescopes is still unclear, and it’s something the team investigation is currently trying to understand. Read more.
Scientists discover excerpts from a lost astronomical catalog
Scientists, including those from the CNRS and Sorbonne University, have found fragments of the star catalog compiled by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus in the 2nd century BC.
These texts, which had been erased from a manuscript in medieval times in order to reuse the pages, were discovered using multispectral imaging technologies.
Written between 170 and 120 BC by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus, it is the oldest known attempt to determine the precise position of fixed stars by associating them with numerical coordinates.
Until now, this text was only known from the writings of Claudius Ptolemy, another ancient astronomer who composed his own catalog almost 400 years after Hipparchus.
This discovery comes from Codex Climaci Rescriptus — a book composed of parchments erased and then rewritten, also called a palimpsest. In the past, this Manuscript contained an astronomical poem in ancient Greek with, among the commentary elements of the poem, fragments of the Catalog of Hipparchus. This palimpsest text, erased in medieval times, was revealed by multispectral imaging by teams from the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library, the Lazarus Project and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The fragments of the Star Catalog are the oldest known to date and bring major advances in its reconstruction. First, they refute a common misconception that Claudius Ptolemy’s star catalog is just a “copy” of Hipparchus because the observations of the four constellations are different. Moreover, Hipparchus’ data is verified to the nearest degree, which would make his catalog much more accurate than Ptolemy’s, even though it was composed many centuries earlier.
For the research team, this major discovery sheds new light on the history of astronomy in Antiquity and on the beginnings of the history of science. Read more.
Methane-eating microbes have been found assimilating microbes from other organisms
Researchers have found that a methane-consuming microbe called Methanoperedens has assimilated genes from many organisms that allow them to consume methane and greenhouse gases at an increased metabolic rate.
In a study published in Natureresearchers describe the curious collection of genes within these microbes which they call Borgs
Methanoperedens are a type of archaea – single-celled organisms that look like bacteria but represent a distinct branch of life – that break down methane in soils, groundwater and the atmosphere to support cellular metabolism.
Along with other methane-consuming microbes, Methanoperedens live in various ecosystems around the world, but are thought to be less common than microbes that use photosynthesis, oxygen, or fermentation for energy.
Yet they play an outsized role in Earth system processes by removing methane – the most potent greenhouse gas – from the atmosphere.
Methane traps 30 times more heat than carbon dioxide and is estimated to be responsible for around 30% of human-caused global warming.
The gas is emitted naturally by geological processes and by methane-generating archaea; however, industrial processes are releasing stored methane into the atmosphere in worrying quantities. Read more.
Ostrich-like Dinosaurs Roamed Ancient North America
Scientists at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences have discovered fossils of an ostrich-like dinosaur called Ornithomimosaurs that grew to enormous sizes in ancient eastern North America.
During the Late Cretaceous period, North America was divided by a seaway into two landmasses: Laramidia to the west and Appalachia to the east. However, Appalachian fossils are rare and therefore the ancient ecosystems of this region are poorly understood.
In this study, the team described new ornithomimosaur dinosaur fossils from the Eutaw Formation of the Upper Cretaceous of Mississippi.
Ornithomimosaurs, the so-called “bird-like” dinosaurs, were superficially ostrich-shaped with small heads, long arms, and strong legs. The new fossils, including the foot bones, are about 85 million years old, making them our rare glimpse into a poorly understood interval of dinosaur evolution in North America.
By comparing the proportions of these fossils and the growth patterns in the bones, the team determined that the fossils likely represent two different species of ornithomimosaurs, one relatively small and one very large.
They estimate that the largest species weighed more than 800 kg and that the individual examined was probably still growing when it died. This makes it one of the largest known ornithomimosaurs.
These fossils provide valuable insight into the otherwise poorly understood dinosaur ecosystems of Late Cretaceous eastern North America. They also shed light on the evolution of ornithomimosaurs. Giant bodies and multiple species living side by side are recurring trends for these dinosaurs in North America and Asia. Read more.
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