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☆ Ghostly lights paint a new portrait of the Milky Way
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. CNN —The universe is filled with infinite mysteries, and scientists are tackling them, one celestial puzzle at a time. Across the universeAn artist's illustration depicts the Milky Way seen through a neutrino lens, which is shown in blue. National Science FoundationThere is no shortage of scintillating imagery of the Milky Way galaxy — but we’ve never seen it from this perspective. Astronomers used a detector sunk deep into the thick ice of Antarctica to trace “ghost particles” that created a new portrait of the Milky Way.

Persons: James Webb, we’ve, you’ve, exoplanet, Halla, Adam Makarenko, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, Virgin Galactic’s, James Webb Space, European Space Agency, . National Science, Schmidt Ocean Institute, Beatles, ”, Keck, —, CNN Space, Science Locations: Antarctica, Costa Rica, Strait, Gibraltar, Spain

☆ Scientists spot a planet that shouldn’t exist
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A Jupiter-like planet located 520 light-years from Earth may be an unlikely survivor after its host star had a temper tantrum. The gas planet is known as 8 UMi b and was named Halla after its initial discovery by Korean astronomers in 2015. The exoplanet orbits a giant star larger than our sun named Baekdu, located in the Ursa Minor, or “Little Bear,” constellation. Halla orbits Baekdu at a distance about half that between the Earth and the sun at 0.46 astronomical units, or 42,759,659 miles (68,815,020 kilometers). While our solar system only has one star, many stars across the universe exist in binary pairs.

Persons: Halla, “, ”, Dan Huber, Marc Hon, ” Huber, Tim Organizations: CNN, Ursa, Australian Research, University of Sydney, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Keck Observatory, Halla, Star Wars Locations: South Korea, Manoa, Canada, France, Hawaii, Mauna Kea

☆ Earth-size exoplanet may be covered in volcanoes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Instead, the exoplanet, called LP 791-18 d, is likely covered in volcanoes and may experience eruptions with the same frequency as Jupiter’s moon Io, the most volcanically active place in our solar system, according to researchers. LP 791-18 d is located about 90 light-years from Earth in the Crater constellation, where it orbits a small red dwarf star. And astronomers believe the massive planet LP 971-18 c might be contributing to the newly detected exoplanet’s possible volcanism. As the two objects orbit their star, LP 971-18 c and the newfound exoplanet LP 791-18 d closely pass each other, allowing the gravitational pull of the larger planet LP 971-18 c to tug on planet d and reshape its orbit. The discovery of LP 971-18 d points to the importance of data collected by space telescopes.

☆ Earth-sized alien planet gripped by widespread volcanism
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

In our solar system, Earth and Venus are volcanically active, as are some of Jupiter's moons. Planets beyond our solar system are called exoplanets. Here, water from the nightside glacier can melt and possibly form liquid surface water. In addition, there is likely volcanism all around the planet, even under the ice on the nightside and possibly under the water near the terminator," Benneke said. The planet is located in the Milky Way about 86 light-years away from our solar system in the direction of the constellation Crater.

☆ Webb Telescope Finds a Star Cloaked in 3 Rings of Ruined Worlds
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Robin George Andrews | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Fomalhaut, a star just 25 light-years away, is so dazzlingly bright that it blots out the faint light of other stars around it. Stargazers have been enraptured by its secrets for thousands of years. Now, with the help of the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have documented evidence that Fomalhaut is a dynamic star wreathed in cosmic chaos. The powerful observatory’s infrared vision is letting astronomers better understand Fomalhaut’s features, including a mysterious ring unlike anything found in our solar system. “It’s the first time we’ve seen such structures in an evolved system.”The findings could contribute to the solution to an existential puzzle: How weird, or ordinary, is our solar system?

☆ Scientists used DNA to unlock who wore a 25,000-year-old pendant
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyA deer tooth pendant has revealed details about the woman who wore it between 19,000 and 25,000 years ago. The groundbreaking analysis by a team of European researchers marks the first time scientists have successfully isolated ancient human DNA from a Stone Age artifact. Gregory BretonWith large ears and adorable faces, sand cats went viral seven years ago when their kittens were photographed in the wild for the first time. Although smaller than domestic cats, sand cats live in harsh environments with scorching heat, hunt venomous Saharan horned vipers and rely on blood from prey as a source of water. To unravel the many mysteries of sand cats, researchers tracked 22 of the felines that had been fitted with radio collars for four years.

☆ Webb telescope detects mysterious water vapor in a nearby star system
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —The James Webb Space Telescope has detected water vapor around a rocky exoplanet that orbits a star located 26 light-years away from Earth. The presence of water vapor could suggest that GJ 486 b somehow has an atmosphere, despite its heat and proximity to the star. “Water vapor in an atmosphere on a hot rocky planet would represent a major breakthrough for exoplanet science. The results from the Webb data analysis pointed to water vapor being present around GJ 486 b. Future observations of the planet using different instruments on the Webb telescope could reveal additional details about the source of the water vapor.

☆ Repeating radio signal leads astronomers to an Earth-size exoplanet
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Astronomers have detected a repeating radio signal from an exoplanet and the star that it orbits, both located 12 light-years away from Earth. The signal suggests that the Earth-size planet may have a magnetic field and perhaps even an atmosphere. The researchers believe the radio signal was created by interactions between the planet’s magnetic field and the star. How strong radio waves occurIn order for the radio waves to be detectable on Earth, they must be very strong, the researchers said. “This research shows not only that this particular rocky exoplanet likely has a magnetic field but provides a promising method to find more.”

☆ Mysterious flying objects across the US probably aren't aliens, but experts believe life is out there. Here are 13 reasons why we haven't made contact yet.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Aylin Woodward | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Even if intelligent aliens aren't flying overhead, though, many experts believe they're out there. Nobel Physics Laureate Didier Queloz speaks during a press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden. Jonas Ekstromer /TT News Agency via AP"I can't believe we are the only living entity in the whole universe. Queloz had just won the Nobel prize in physics for his discovery of the first exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star. He said that his work has led him to become "absolutely convinced" that humans will detect alien life in the next 100 years.

☆ Fear of complacency costs Alphabet $150 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Robert Cyran | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The market wiped about $150 billion off the $1.2 trillion company’s market capitalization as a result. A day earlier, rival Microsoft (MSFT.O) unveiled and released a version of its search engine loaded with AI that can answer complex questions using multiple sources of information. Microsoft, no small competitor, hopes being better will result in a more competitive search market. On Feb. 7, Microsoft held an event that unveiled new versions of its search engine and web browser that incorporate artificial intelligence. The company has released a version of its Bing search engine using the technology.

☆ Premarket stocks: Welcome to the 'rolling recession' economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Yet US manufacturing has likely already contracted into a recession, housing sales have plummeted, tech layoffs keep coming and corporate earnings growth is souring. “We continue to think the economy will suffer from rolling recessions, evidenced by the fact that corporate earnings growth is now entering its downturn,” wrote Sonders in a note on Wednesday. For five straight weeks, the bank’s clients have been big buyers of individual stocks and sellers of ETFs, she wrote. Disney revenue in the quarter rose 8% to $23.5 billion, edging past estimates of $23.4 billion from analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. The company reported revenue of $8.6 billion for the quarter, beating Wall Street’s estimates and marking a 49% increase from the prior year.

☆ Whoops: Google's ad for new ChatGPT rival Bard shows the AI chatbot giving an inaccurate answer
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Google recently revealed its experimental AI chatbot, Bard, a rival to OpenAI's viral ChatGPT. In an ad for Bard, the chatbot gives an inaccurate answer to a question about the James Webb Space Telescope. The ad depicts the chatbot giving an inaccurate answer to a question about the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Reuters first reported. In the ad, a user asks Bard, "What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9 year old about?" Shares of Alphabet, Google's parent company, have fallen by over 8% since Google's AI showcase in Paris this morning.

☆ Google’s AI chatbot Bard had an inaccurate response in public demo
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Google’s much-hyped new AI chatbot tool Bard, which has yet to be released to the public, is already being called out for an inaccurate response it produced in a demo this week. Bard’s blunder highlights the challenge for Google as it races to integrate the same AI technology that underpins Microsoft-backed ChatGPT into its core search engine. In trying to keep pace with what some think could be a radical change spurred by conversational AI in how people search online, Google now risks upending its search engine’s reputation for surfacing reliable information. Like ChatGPT, Bard is built on a large language model, which is trained on vast troves of data online in order to generate compelling responses to user prompts. The executive said AI technology would pave the way for the “next frontier of our information products.”

☆ How exoplanet hunters find alien worlds hundreds of light-years away and figure out if they have water
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In the journal Nature Astronomy, astronomers announced that the two exoplanets — Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d — could be made up of mostly water. NASA AmesSince the first worlds outside our solar system were discovered in 1992, astronomers have searched for other planets orbiting sun-like stars. Astronomers have already captured direct evidence of 5,241 planets beyond our solar system, according to NASA's Exoplanet Archive. Water worlds beyond our solar system could be abundant in the universeWorlds rich in liquid water might not be as rare as astronomers previously thought, Piaulet said. But by discovering and studying new worlds, astronomers can hone in on what makes a world habitable beyond a sample size of one — Earth.

There's a new heavy hitter in the hunt for planets beyond our solar system. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope — the next-generation observatory that has already beamed back some of the clearest and most stunning views of the universe — was used for the first time to confirm the existence of an exoplanet, scientists announced Wednesday. The exoplanet confirmation marks an important milestone for the $10 billion Webb telescope, which launched into space in December 2021 and began science operations less than a year ago. “These first observational results from an Earth-size, rocky planet open the door to many future possibilities for studying rocky planet atmospheres with Webb,” Mark Clampin, director of the astrophysics division at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. “Webb is bringing us closer and closer to a new understanding of Earth-like worlds outside our solar system, and the mission is only just getting started.”

The first full-color image released from the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope is the sharpest infrared image of the distant universe ever produced, according to NASA. Space Telescope Science Institut / NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERONASA released the first batch of images from the tennis court-sized observatory to much fanfare in July. The exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope. Back to the moonFifty years after the final Apollo moon mission, NASA took key steps toward returning astronauts to the lunar surface. Chinese officials have also said they intend to use the space station for space tourism and commercial space initiatives.

☆ A lost ecosystem revealed in Greenland by oldest environmental DNA
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

A long time agoAn artist's illustration reconstructs Greenland's unique ecosystem as it existed 2 million years ago. Beth ZaikenScientists in Denmark have found the world’s oldest DNA sequences in sediment from the ice age. The core, taken from northern Greenland, revealed that the polar region was once abundant with plant and animal life 2 million years ago. Mastodons, reindeer, geese, lemmings and hares lived in an ecosystem that was a mix of temperate and Arctic flora and fauna. The fossil includes the head, neck and body together — a rare discovery for the marine reptiles, which didn’t preserve well in one piece.

☆ A year only lasts 17.5 hours on the ‘hell planet’
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

One year for this planet lasts about 17.5 hours on Earth. A team of researchers used a new tool known as EXPRES, or the EXtreme PREcision Spectrometer, to determine the precise nature of the planet’s orbit. But the hell planet is not the only planet orbiting Copernicus. An illustration shows just how closely the planet Janssen (left), depicted as an orange dot, orbits its host star Copernicus. Once Janssen moved in closer to Copernicus, the hell planet became even hotter.

☆ James Webb telescope: New data on WASP-39b is a 'game changer,' scientists say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Taylor Nicioli | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a detailed molecular and chemical portrait of a faraway planet’s skies, scoring another first for the exoplanet science community. This “hot Saturn” was one of the first exoplanets that the Webb telescope examined when it first began its regular science operations. Bocaprins’ close proximity to its host star makes it an ideal subject for studying such star-planet connections. The planet is eight times closer to its host star than Mercury is to our sun. … We are already getting very exciting results,” Nestor Espinoza, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, told CNN.

☆ The James Webb Space Telescope is astronomy's shiny new toy, but the Hubble Space Telescope isn't old news — it's at its scientific peak
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-28 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has made revolutionary achievements in astronomy. The new James Webb Space Telescope is popular, but Hubble has skills, like capturing visible and ultraviolet light, that Webb doesn't. "The Webb Space Telescope is good news for astronomy, and good news for the Hubble Space Telescope as well, since Webb and Hubble enhance and complement each other's unique capabilities," Jennifer Wiseman, senior project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, told Insider. A globular cluster NGC 6540 in the constellation Sagittarius, which was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. A deep field image from the Hubble space telescope, left, and a deep field image from the James Webb Space Telescope, right.

Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, will be using the Webb telescope to do just that. The Webb telescope, a collaboration among NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, launched into space Dec. 25, 2021. The James Webb Space Telescope captured different wavelengths of light from an exoplanet known as WASP-96b, located more than 1,000 light-years away from Earth. Space Telescope Science Institute / NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScITelescopes like Webb can essentially peer back into the universe's history because it takes time for light to travel through space. Billed as the successor to the prolific Hubble Space Telescope, the Webb observatory is designed to study the earliest stars and galaxies in the universe.

☆ Un elev de 17 ani a descoperit o nouă planetă în cea de-a treia zi de stagiu la NASA. TOI-1338 este de aproximativ de 6,9 ori mai mare decât Pământul
▼ + stars: | 2021-03-24 | by ( Onixmedia Srl | ) diez.md time to read: +2 min

Un elev de 17 ani a descoperit o nouă planetă în cea de-a treia zi de stagiu la NASA. El a fost însărcinat să examineze datele colectate de Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Odată ce lumea îndepărtată a fost suspectată, NASA a folosit un sistem cunoscut sub numele de Eleanor pentru a analiza o mulțime de date legate de sistemele planetei. Paul Hertz, director al diviziei de astrofizică a NASA, a declarat pentru CBS News: „TESS a fost proiectat și lansat special pentru a găsi planete de dimensiunea Pământului care orbitează stele din apropiere”. Descoperirea TOI-1338 b a fost cu siguranță un beneficiu și pentru CV-ul adolescentului, dar noua planetă a fascinat și internetul.

Persons: Wolf Cukier, Goddard, El, Eleanor, Paul Hertz, TESS Organizations: NASA, CBS News Locations: Neptun

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