Science Cosmos

  A stunning image of Uranus, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), reveals the ice giant's ring system, brightest moons, and dynamic atmosphere in remarkable detail.   The latest discovery, made on February 6, comes in the wake of a magnificent photo of Neptune, the second ice giant in the solar system, that JWST recently took.   11 of the planet's 13 known rings are visible in the most recent photograph of Uranus, some of which are so bright that they overlap significantly. The fact that JWST's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) equipment is sensitive enough to have recorded the innermost two of Uranus' hazy rings, however, will truly surprise astronomers. A full-sized wide shot of Uranus captured by the James Webb Space Telescope on Feb. 6, 2023 shows six of the planet's 27 known moons.  (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. DePasquale (STScI)) Only two other astronomical observers have caught a glimpse of these dim rings: the Voyager 2 spacecraft...

  In this representation of the underground imaging, seismic waves from earthquakes in the southern hemisphere sample the ULVZ structure along the Earth’s core-mantle boundary and are recorded by sensors in Antarctica. Figure courtesy of Drs. Edward Garnero and Mingming Li at Arizona State University. Greater than the difference between solid rock and air is the absolute shift in physical qualities (such as temperature, density, and viscosity) from the mantle to the core. As a result, the Earth's core-mantle boundary (CMB) is home to a variety of phenomena, such as narrow, enigmatic regions known as ultralow velocity zones that have drastically reduced P- and S-wave velocities and increased density. The structures in the interior of the Earth that are the most anomalous are called ultralow velocity zones (ULVZs). However, the origins of ULVZs have been a topic of discussion for decades due to the vast variety of related parameters (thickness and composition) documented by prior i...

  NASA's VERITAS mission is one of three missions that are expected to depart for Venus in the next decade.   (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) The two other missions planned to investigate our planetary neighbour may be impacted by delays to the first of three missions making the long-awaited return to the scorching planet Venus, which experts say has not received enough robotic visitors in recent decades. NASA pushed back the launch date of its VERITAS mission, which stands for Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography and Spectroscopy, from 2027 to no sooner than 2031. However, the mission financing for VERITAS is currently frozen at just $1.5 million per year under the White House's 2024 NASA budget proposal, which was unveiled in March 2023. Much of the work on the VERITAS mission has come to a halt as a result of NASA's decision to divert the majority of the money that supported the project's engineering operations to other missions that were experiencin...

  Earth during the Marinoan Ice Age might have been more slushy than we thought.   (Philipp Tur/Getty Images) Earth experienced an ice era unlike any other before complex life emerged from the oceans to colonise land. Fingers of ice reached far from the poles on two distinct occasions, turning the planet into a frozen waste.   It has been disputed just how far ice could travel. Some claim the Earth was fully covered in a thick layer of ice as far as the equator due to the runaway deep freeze, which allegedly affected all latitudes.   Some claim that equatorial regions may have had little ice. There may have been areas of exposed ocean, enough for oxygen and light to penetrate the waters and support complex life, according to evidence buried in the fossil record.   Illustration of Snowball Earth model with open waters in both low- and mid-latitude oceans. (Dr Huyue Song)   Accordingly, a recent study by scientists from China and the UK is the mos...

  Artist's impression of VVHS 1256 b, with its swirling cloudy atmosphere and two suns.   (NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted/STScI) One of the weirdest alien worlds we have yet discovered is only 70 light-years away from Earth.   It has an orbital period of 10,000 years, 20 Jupiter masses, temperatures that could easily melt metal, and two stars it orbits. Oh, and it's being destroyed by a relentless, violent sandstorm. The James Webb Space Telescope has allowed astronomers to make the most precise observations of the planetary-mass object to date, showing turbulent clouds of silicate grains swirling in the atmosphere of the planet VHS 1256 b.   The crew also pinpointed many of the elements that made up the atmosphere of VHS 1256 b. There have been clear detections of methane, carbon monoxide, and water, as well as extra carbon dioxide evidence.   According to astronomer Paul Mollière of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, "no other telesco...

  (NASA/JPL-Caltech) In an unusual instance, astronomers have seen a galaxy change its shape.   PBC J2333.9-2343, an object that is 630 million light-years distant, was categorised as a giant radio galaxy a few decades ago. It projected massive, radio-emitting structures that were once created by enormous blasts that burst from the galactic centre perpendicular to our line of sight. However, more recent observations show that the galaxy's core has turned back on and is now directing its jet straight in our direction.   It's nothing to worry about; in fact, it happens quite frequently. We even have a word for it; it's called a blazar. The blazar PBC J2333.9-2343's new classification may help us better comprehend how galaxies can change, even over the course of a human lifetime.   Galaxies appear in a variety of sizes and shapes, and their levels of activity depend on how active the supermassive black holes at their centres are. For instance, the Milky Wa...

  Bizarre space explosion is flattest explosion ever seen in space. Credit: Philip Drury, University of Sheffield The majority of star explosions in the cosmos are spherical, just like the stars themselves. An intriguing new explosion has occurred 180 million light-years distant. The magnitude of the explosion in our current system. The size of the explosion in our current system. Its shape is comparable to that of a highly flat disc. It looks much flatter than anyone could have imagined.   A bright Fast Blue Optical Transient (FBOT), which is a very uncommon type of explosion and much less frequent than other explosions, was the explosion that was seen. Astronomers noted the first prominent FBOT, known as "AT2018cow," in 2018. When they unintentionally observed a flash of polarised light, scientists made their discovery. They were able to ascertain the polarisation of the blast using the astronomical counterpart of polaroid sunglasses and the Liverpool Telescope, bas...