<![CDATA[Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum - Astrophysics, Cosmology & Astronomy]]>

<![CDATA[Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum - Astrophysics, Cosmology & Astronomy]]> https://www.scivillage.com/ Thu, 13 Aug 2026 13:58:47 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[European Eclipse]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21085.html Thu, 13 Aug 2026 02:57:16 +0000 Yazata]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21085.html

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]]> <![CDATA[Black hole star discovered + What if there's a star inside a black hole?]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21076.html Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:21:20 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21076.html Speak of the devil, with respect to the older article at bottom...
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Astronomers discover a brand-new type of astrophysical object: A black hole star
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1139692

KEY POINTS: Astronomers have discovered a “black hole star,” an extremely bright red spot in the early universe that appears to be a new type of astrophysical object. It resembles an enormous star, but its energy production is closer to what a black hole might generate. This finding could help solve the identity of other mysterious “little red dots” that have appeared in nearly every deep space image NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken to date. (MORE - no ads)

What if there's a star inside a black hole?
https://www.universetoday.com/articles/w...black-hole

EXCERPTS: The setup starts with an idea from last year. Certain exotic forms of dark matter, arranged in a halo with a particular relationship between pressure and density, can produce black holes with no singularity at the centre! These are so called ‘regular black holes,’ where the equations stay sensible all the way to the centre. Tan and Wang asked what happens if you drop an ordinary neutron star into the middle of one of these halos.

The answer, worked through the standard equations of stellar structure, is peculiar. Below a certain halo density, nothing dramatic occurs and you get a neutron star with a dark matter cloud around it, slightly squashed. Above a certain density, the whole thing collapses and no stable solution exists.

But between those two, something strange happens in the space just outside the star. A shell forms In one of their models, a shell forms running from about 10 to 12 kilometres out, with the star's own surface sitting at 8.5. Here the geometry flips and becomes that of a black hole interior. An event horizon, in other words, but one that closes over a star rather than being created by it. And inside, the neutron star simply carries on, regular, structured, entirely non-singular.

[...] The crucial point in this model is that nothing collapsed. The gravity making the horizon comes from the star and the halo combined, with the dark matter contributing roughly as much mass as the star itself. The team find the same result using two different descriptions of neutron star matter, which suggests it isn't an artefact of one particular assumption.

Now the caveat, which the authors state plainly and which deserves stating plainly here too. The dark matter densities this requires are far greater than anything astronomers actually expect dark matter to reach. This is not a claim about objects out there in the sky but more of a thought experiment with the mathematics filled in. It says the inside of a black hole need not be the end of physics. There is at least one solution in which it’s a place, with something in it! The challenge remains the same as with any black hole, they need to be detected and maybe one day one of these peculiar objects will be found. (MORE - missing details)

PAPER: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.06224]]> <![CDATA[UK in pole position to lead key instrument in NASA's hunt for Earth-like worlds]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20933.html Fri, 24 Jul 2026 16:40:46 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20933.html https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1137274

INTRO: UK astronomers are a step closer to playing a leading role in NASA's search for alien life in the coming decades, after receiving £3million to continue developing one of the core instruments of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). The "exciting" mission – the US space agency's next flagship space telescope after the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope – is expected to launch in the 2040s.

The UK-led plans follow a series of instrument studies funded by the UK Space Agency (UKSA), which have been shared with NASA and are helping to shape the mission as it moves into its next phase of development.

"The Habitable Worlds Observatory is one of the most exciting space science missions now under development," said Professor Martin Barstow, of the University of Leicester, who is playing a leading role in the UK's involvement and gave an update on the mission at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Birmingham.

"It will tackle one of the biggest questions in science: are we alone in the universe? By searching for Earth-like planets and studying their atmospheres, the HWO will look for evidence of life beyond our Solar System."

Seen from a distance, a planet like Earth would be a faint dot right next to a blinding sun, 10 billion times brighter. To image this moth next to a flamethrower, HWO's 8 metre mirror must be held stable to within the width of an atom, and the light from the sun blocked out.

Professor Barstow added: "The UK has a long history of making major contributions to NASA's flagship observatories, from Hubble to the James Webb Space Telescope, and we are now in a strong position to lead the development of one of HWO's core scientific instruments."

Vincent Van Eylen, Associate Professor in Exoplanets at UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, called HWO "one of the most exciting missions of my lifetime". He added: "It will be the first telescope designed to search for evidence of life on distant planets. Imagine for a moment it finds evidence of life out there. What an achievement that would be! It's fantastic that the UK Space Agency is ensuring that UK scientists and engineers will have a leading role in this exciting project."

The UK is leading on the development of HWO's High Resolution Imager (HRI) and Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS), which are expected to be core instruments on the telescope.

Researchers have just been awarded a new £3million funding boost from the UKSA to ramp up their efforts and develop the necessary technologies to make the instrument a reality. This latest development builds on the previous studies, but significantly expands the scale.

Dr Caroline Harper, Head of Space Science at the UK Space Agency, said: "This UK Space Agency funding is a significant step forward in securing the UK's place at the heart of one of the most ambitious space science missions ever conceived.

"Habitable Worlds Observatory is being designed to answer whether we are alone in the universe and will require technological advances as well as scientific breakthroughs. That's why we're backing UK scientists and engineers to lead one of its core instruments." (MORE - no ads)]]> https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1137274

INTRO: UK astronomers are a step closer to playing a leading role in NASA's search for alien life in the coming decades, after receiving £3million to continue developing one of the core instruments of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). The "exciting" mission – the US space agency's next flagship space telescope after the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope – is expected to launch in the 2040s.

The UK-led plans follow a series of instrument studies funded by the UK Space Agency (UKSA), which have been shared with NASA and are helping to shape the mission as it moves into its next phase of development.

"The Habitable Worlds Observatory is one of the most exciting space science missions now under development," said Professor Martin Barstow, of the University of Leicester, who is playing a leading role in the UK's involvement and gave an update on the mission at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Birmingham.

"It will tackle one of the biggest questions in science: are we alone in the universe? By searching for Earth-like planets and studying their atmospheres, the HWO will look for evidence of life beyond our Solar System."

Seen from a distance, a planet like Earth would be a faint dot right next to a blinding sun, 10 billion times brighter. To image this moth next to a flamethrower, HWO's 8 metre mirror must be held stable to within the width of an atom, and the light from the sun blocked out.

Professor Barstow added: "The UK has a long history of making major contributions to NASA's flagship observatories, from Hubble to the James Webb Space Telescope, and we are now in a strong position to lead the development of one of HWO's core scientific instruments."

Vincent Van Eylen, Associate Professor in Exoplanets at UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, called HWO "one of the most exciting missions of my lifetime". He added: "It will be the first telescope designed to search for evidence of life on distant planets. Imagine for a moment it finds evidence of life out there. What an achievement that would be! It's fantastic that the UK Space Agency is ensuring that UK scientists and engineers will have a leading role in this exciting project."

The UK is leading on the development of HWO's High Resolution Imager (HRI) and Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS), which are expected to be core instruments on the telescope.

Researchers have just been awarded a new £3million funding boost from the UKSA to ramp up their efforts and develop the necessary technologies to make the instrument a reality. This latest development builds on the previous studies, but significantly expands the scale.

Dr Caroline Harper, Head of Space Science at the UK Space Agency, said: "This UK Space Agency funding is a significant step forward in securing the UK's place at the heart of one of the most ambitious space science missions ever conceived.

"Habitable Worlds Observatory is being designed to answer whether we are alone in the universe and will require technological advances as well as scientific breakthroughs. That's why we're backing UK scientists and engineers to lead one of its core instruments." (MORE - no ads)]]> <![CDATA[Does dark energy really exist? Cracks in the foundations of cosmological model]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20925.html Wed, 22 Jul 2026 22:42:29 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20925.html Does dark energy really exist? Our work identifies cracks in the foundations of today’s cosmological model
https://theconversation.com/does-dark-en...del-284368

EXCERPT: But the ΛCDM model has come under increasing scrutiny as new data has emerged. [...] It has been noted that the model’s past successes may partly be due to “confirmation bias” – the unconscious tendency to favour information that supports our existing beliefs while giving less attention to information that challenges them. ... Most cosmologists remain unconvinced by such criticism and are instead persuaded by the multiple lines of evidence that the universe’s expansion is accelerating.

[...] The acceleration inferred from supernovae cannot therefore be due to dark energy. Rather, it is probably an illusion, because we are “tilted observers”. This is because of Earth’s specific location in the cosmos, where our neighbouring galaxies are participating in a large-scale but localised streaming motion called the bulk flow.

The relationship between the intrinsic brightness of Type Ia supernovae and their distance has been crucial to the idea of dark energy. However, this relationship may not be as robust as was first assumed. Astronomers in South Korea found evidence that the ages of the white dwarf stars that produce Type Ia supernovae (their progenitors) affect their brightness. However, this has been challenged by another team.

When we corrected for the dependence of the intrinsic brightness on the progenitor age, the indication is that the universe is decelerating, rather than accelerating.

This is just as is expected for a universe without dark energy. But it will come as a surprise to most cosmologists who believe that there is compelling independent evidence for ΛCDM, in particular from studies of the CMB. But CMB temperature fluctuations are not influenced by dark energy. Rather, they are related to the spatial curvature of the universe, the baryon density, and the dark matter density.

Whether dark energy is still a valid inference thus depends on whether the distribution of matter in the universe is indeed isotropic – exactly the same in all directions. Observations suggest otherwise. If these findings are confirmed, they could signal a paradigm shift in cosmology... (MORE - missing details)]]> Does dark energy really exist? Our work identifies cracks in the foundations of today’s cosmological model
https://theconversation.com/does-dark-en...del-284368

EXCERPT: But the ΛCDM model has come under increasing scrutiny as new data has emerged. [...] It has been noted that the model’s past successes may partly be due to “confirmation bias” – the unconscious tendency to favour information that supports our existing beliefs while giving less attention to information that challenges them. ... Most cosmologists remain unconvinced by such criticism and are instead persuaded by the multiple lines of evidence that the universe’s expansion is accelerating.

[...] The acceleration inferred from supernovae cannot therefore be due to dark energy. Rather, it is probably an illusion, because we are “tilted observers”. This is because of Earth’s specific location in the cosmos, where our neighbouring galaxies are participating in a large-scale but localised streaming motion called the bulk flow.

The relationship between the intrinsic brightness of Type Ia supernovae and their distance has been crucial to the idea of dark energy. However, this relationship may not be as robust as was first assumed. Astronomers in South Korea found evidence that the ages of the white dwarf stars that produce Type Ia supernovae (their progenitors) affect their brightness. However, this has been challenged by another team.

When we corrected for the dependence of the intrinsic brightness on the progenitor age, the indication is that the universe is decelerating, rather than accelerating.

This is just as is expected for a universe without dark energy. But it will come as a surprise to most cosmologists who believe that there is compelling independent evidence for ΛCDM, in particular from studies of the CMB. But CMB temperature fluctuations are not influenced by dark energy. Rather, they are related to the spatial curvature of the universe, the baryon density, and the dark matter density.

Whether dark energy is still a valid inference thus depends on whether the distribution of matter in the universe is indeed isotropic – exactly the same in all directions. Observations suggest otherwise. If these findings are confirmed, they could signal a paradigm shift in cosmology... (MORE - missing details)]]> <![CDATA[First atmosphere detected on a habitable-zone rocky world (exoplanet)]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20882.html Sat, 18 Jul 2026 17:37:06 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20882.html https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1135901

INTRO: In a major milestone in the search for life on other planets, astronomers have detected, for the first time, an atmosphere surrounding an Earth-like, rocky planet orbiting within the habitable zone of another star. The finding provides the strongest evidence yet that worlds with conditions similar to Earth in composition and temperature, with the potential to support life, could exist beyond our solar system.

"An atmosphere is essential for a planet to support life as we know it," said lead author Collin Cherubim, who recently earned his Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Harvard University. "This is the first time anyone has found an atmosphere on a rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star."

Published today in Science, the study reports observational results detecting helium escaping from the atmosphere of LHS 1140 b, a rocky exoplanet about 48 light-years from Earth. Motivated by theoretical predictions, the discovery provides evidence that the planet possesses an atmosphere.

The planet orbits a red dwarf star within the star’s habitable zone, or the region where temperatures and environmental conditions are within the range that could support liquid water on the planet's surface... (MORE - no ads)]]> https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1135901

INTRO: In a major milestone in the search for life on other planets, astronomers have detected, for the first time, an atmosphere surrounding an Earth-like, rocky planet orbiting within the habitable zone of another star. The finding provides the strongest evidence yet that worlds with conditions similar to Earth in composition and temperature, with the potential to support life, could exist beyond our solar system.

"An atmosphere is essential for a planet to support life as we know it," said lead author Collin Cherubim, who recently earned his Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Harvard University. "This is the first time anyone has found an atmosphere on a rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star."

Published today in Science, the study reports observational results detecting helium escaping from the atmosphere of LHS 1140 b, a rocky exoplanet about 48 light-years from Earth. Motivated by theoretical predictions, the discovery provides evidence that the planet possesses an atmosphere.

The planet orbits a red dwarf star within the star’s habitable zone, or the region where temperatures and environmental conditions are within the range that could support liquid water on the planet's surface... (MORE - no ads)]]> <![CDATA[Earth and Moon Size Comparison]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20860.html Wed, 15 Jul 2026 08:24:42 +0000 Yazata]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20860.html
(Comparison photo by Peter Hague)

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(Comparison photo by Peter Hague)

]]> <![CDATA[Capturing the cosmic ‘drift’ before a star is born]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20831.html Fri, 10 Jul 2026 17:41:22 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20831.html https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1134785

INTRO: Stars like our Sun are formed from the collapse of stellar objects called prestellar cores, cold and dense concentrations of gas and dust held together by gravity. While many questions remain on the exact mechanisms of star formation, thanks to advanced radio telescopes, researchers have been able to garner new insights into the inner workings of infant stars.

Now, publishing in Astronomy & Astrophysics, researchers from Kyushu University and Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have, for the first time, detected a phenomenon known as ambipolar diffusion occurring in a prestellar core. This phenomenon results in the weakening of the magnetic support of the core, leading to gravitational collapse to form an infant star called a protostar. These new findings provide further insight into the key processes of early star formation, and by extension how stellar systems like ours are created.

“Prestellar cores are fascinating stellar bodies. They are dense and cold, and a source of a lot of complex chemistry. The cold environment allows for molecules to assemble into more complex ones like precursors of prebiotic organic molecules,” explains first author Doris Arzoumanian, an Associate Professor at Kyushu University’s Institute for Advanced Study. “One of the questions we are investigating is the role of magnetic fields in star formation. Strong magnetic fields permeate prestellar cores. If that field is too strong, it can delay gravitational collapse and therefore star formation. We wanted to investigate how prestellar cores reduce the strength of their magnetic field.” (MORE - no ads)]]> https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1134785

INTRO: Stars like our Sun are formed from the collapse of stellar objects called prestellar cores, cold and dense concentrations of gas and dust held together by gravity. While many questions remain on the exact mechanisms of star formation, thanks to advanced radio telescopes, researchers have been able to garner new insights into the inner workings of infant stars.

Now, publishing in Astronomy & Astrophysics, researchers from Kyushu University and Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have, for the first time, detected a phenomenon known as ambipolar diffusion occurring in a prestellar core. This phenomenon results in the weakening of the magnetic support of the core, leading to gravitational collapse to form an infant star called a protostar. These new findings provide further insight into the key processes of early star formation, and by extension how stellar systems like ours are created.

“Prestellar cores are fascinating stellar bodies. They are dense and cold, and a source of a lot of complex chemistry. The cold environment allows for molecules to assemble into more complex ones like precursors of prebiotic organic molecules,” explains first author Doris Arzoumanian, an Associate Professor at Kyushu University’s Institute for Advanced Study. “One of the questions we are investigating is the role of magnetic fields in star formation. Strong magnetic fields permeate prestellar cores. If that field is too strong, it can delay gravitational collapse and therefore star formation. We wanted to investigate how prestellar cores reduce the strength of their magnetic field.” (MORE - no ads)]]> <![CDATA[Which quantum interpretations survive constructor theory? (the counterfactual cosmos)]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20799.html Sun, 05 Jul 2026 22:58:57 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20799.html https://youtu.be/v2olVkidgjs

VIDEO INTRO: Chiara Marletto examines Copenhagen, Bohmian mechanics, Many Worlds, collapse theories, QBism, relational quantum mechanics, and other approaches through the lens of constructor theory. Rather than choosing a winner, she asks which interpretations are compatible with deeper physical principles...

Which quantum interpretations survive constructor theory? ... https://youtu.be/v2olVkidgjs

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/v2olVkidgjs]]> https://youtu.be/v2olVkidgjs

VIDEO INTRO: Chiara Marletto examines Copenhagen, Bohmian mechanics, Many Worlds, collapse theories, QBism, relational quantum mechanics, and other approaches through the lens of constructor theory. Rather than choosing a winner, she asks which interpretations are compatible with deeper physical principles...

Which quantum interpretations survive constructor theory? ... https://youtu.be/v2olVkidgjs

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/v2olVkidgjs]]> <![CDATA[The rise of space AI might explain the Fermi Paradox]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20758.html Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:39:33 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20758.html https://www.universetoday.com/articles/t...mi-paradox

EXCERPT: The AICI threshold is reached when a civilization possesses a self-sustaining off-planet industrial and computational system capable of designing, manufacturing, repairing and launching space hardware through AI-mediated autonomy. We’re already taking tentative steps in this direction with the advent of space-based data centers, but true AICI—where a civilization can extend its infrastructure beyond its home planet without continuous biological intervention—is leaps and bounds beyond our current capabilities.

In this vein, Ivliev is drawing on work done by astrophysicists Sergey Popov, who noted that a truly rational AI system would reject human-like motivations for space travel - such as romance, conquest, or prestige. Instead, AI would view space expansion as simple risk management.

To an AI, putting all your eggs in one basket - whether that basket is a single planet, solar system, or even galaxy, can lead to a single point of failure. Therefore, expansion is highly logical as a way of mitigating the risk posed by that single point of failure. At the point where we have reached AICI, the cost for sending a 10kg interstellar probe to another star at 1% of the speed of light is roughly 4.5x10^13 Joules - a tiny fraction of the overall energy budget of such a civilization.

One key aspect is that the 10 kg probe doesn’t contain any actual people - it simply holds the “seeds” to restart life elsewhere in case a catastrophe happens back in the home system. It would contain a civilization's knowledge, and possibly some of its biological material, enabling a sufficiently advanced AI to rebuild the entire civilization from scratch. This is the “Quiet Expansion” where an AI sends low-mass and hard to detect “seed systems” instead of moving millions of biological entities around in massive interstellar space ships.

There are some additional constraints on this method of expansion, including selecting promising exoplanets discovered by remote sensing and deploying minimal local resources to maintain themselves until needed. Additionally, the AI would restrict self-replication of the probes in order to avoid any “grey goo” scenario with a probe attempting to take over entire swathes of the galaxy.

This has obvious implications for why we’ve never found “loud” technosignatures. In this scenario, a “null” result of being unable to find the thermal signature of a Kardashev-III scale civilization doesn’t mean a galaxy is empty. It just means that the successful civilizations are residing in a “quiet” state in case its back-up plans are needed.

But there’s another, more ominous implication from this framework. If interstellar backups are cheap to make, and we haven’t found any in our own backyard, that means either we’re one of the first civilizations to make it to that point or the transition from a planetary industrial society to a space-based one is a narrow path to tread.

Admittedly the probes such civilizations would send out are probably hard to find even in our own solar systems, but if we’re unable to, it means we’re ending uncharted territory - and might just run into a filter that had silenced the rest of the galaxy. That’s a sobering thought, but one to keep in mind as we start to advance our own AI capabilities... (MORE - missing details)]]> https://www.universetoday.com/articles/t...mi-paradox

EXCERPT: The AICI threshold is reached when a civilization possesses a self-sustaining off-planet industrial and computational system capable of designing, manufacturing, repairing and launching space hardware through AI-mediated autonomy. We’re already taking tentative steps in this direction with the advent of space-based data centers, but true AICI—where a civilization can extend its infrastructure beyond its home planet without continuous biological intervention—is leaps and bounds beyond our current capabilities.

In this vein, Ivliev is drawing on work done by astrophysicists Sergey Popov, who noted that a truly rational AI system would reject human-like motivations for space travel - such as romance, conquest, or prestige. Instead, AI would view space expansion as simple risk management.

To an AI, putting all your eggs in one basket - whether that basket is a single planet, solar system, or even galaxy, can lead to a single point of failure. Therefore, expansion is highly logical as a way of mitigating the risk posed by that single point of failure. At the point where we have reached AICI, the cost for sending a 10kg interstellar probe to another star at 1% of the speed of light is roughly 4.5x10^13 Joules - a tiny fraction of the overall energy budget of such a civilization.

One key aspect is that the 10 kg probe doesn’t contain any actual people - it simply holds the “seeds” to restart life elsewhere in case a catastrophe happens back in the home system. It would contain a civilization's knowledge, and possibly some of its biological material, enabling a sufficiently advanced AI to rebuild the entire civilization from scratch. This is the “Quiet Expansion” where an AI sends low-mass and hard to detect “seed systems” instead of moving millions of biological entities around in massive interstellar space ships.

There are some additional constraints on this method of expansion, including selecting promising exoplanets discovered by remote sensing and deploying minimal local resources to maintain themselves until needed. Additionally, the AI would restrict self-replication of the probes in order to avoid any “grey goo” scenario with a probe attempting to take over entire swathes of the galaxy.

This has obvious implications for why we’ve never found “loud” technosignatures. In this scenario, a “null” result of being unable to find the thermal signature of a Kardashev-III scale civilization doesn’t mean a galaxy is empty. It just means that the successful civilizations are residing in a “quiet” state in case its back-up plans are needed.

But there’s another, more ominous implication from this framework. If interstellar backups are cheap to make, and we haven’t found any in our own backyard, that means either we’re one of the first civilizations to make it to that point or the transition from a planetary industrial society to a space-based one is a narrow path to tread.

Admittedly the probes such civilizations would send out are probably hard to find even in our own solar systems, but if we’re unable to, it means we’re ending uncharted territory - and might just run into a filter that had silenced the rest of the galaxy. That’s a sobering thought, but one to keep in mind as we start to advance our own AI capabilities... (MORE - missing details)]]> <![CDATA[Scientists find evidence of vast hidden magma systems inside Mars]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20728.html Fri, 26 Jun 2026 16:51:39 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20728.html https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-06-24-new...nside-mars

PRESS RELEASE: Mars is often described as a ‘stagnant lid’ planet: unlike Earth, its surface is not broken into moving tectonic plates. Because plate tectonics drives volcanism, recycling and continent–building on Earth, many scientists assumed Mars lacked the conditions needed to produce similarly complex crust. However, this new study challenges that view, suggesting that Mars could have produced highly evolved crust through intense internal recycling.

The study was based on data recorded by NASA’s InSight mission to investigate seismic waves from meteoroid impacts and marsquakes - the Martian equivalent of earthquakes. Researchers from Oxford’s Departments of Earth Sciences and Statistics used the recordings to investigate a mysterious boundary about 24 kilometres beneath the Martian surface. Previous studies had recognised the boundary, but no one knew what it represented. To test the idea that the boundary marked a transition between two different rock types, the Oxford team compared hundreds of possible rock compositions with the seismic data using thermodynamic modelling and statistical techniques.

They found that only ‘ultramafic’ (rich in iron and magnesium, but low in silica) rocks consistently matched the physical properties beneath the 24-km boundary. Whereas the properties above this boundary were better matched to ‘mafic’ (containing a higher proportion of silica) rocks.

The researchers believe that this buried layer likely formed where molten rock pooled deep underground and gradually separated into different materials. This would leave behind a thick residue of dense crystals at the base of the crust while lighter, more evolved melts rose upwards. On Earth, similar processes occur beneath volcanic arcs and are linked to the formation of continents.

Lead author Dr Tobermory Mackay-Champion (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford at the time of the study, now University of Bristol) said: “We’ve traditionally assumed that volcanism on Mars was relatively simple compared to that on Earth. But this discovery suggests Mars could sustain large, long-lived systems where molten rock evolved and reprocessed itself throughout the entire crust. It raises exciting possibilities for how common such systems might be on rocky planets beyond our solar system.”

The study suggests this layer may extend sideways for hundreds or even thousands of kilometres around Mars’ northern hemisphere, indicating that the Red Planet once hosted enormous, interconnected magmatic systems rather than simple isolated volcanoes. This phenomenon – known as ‘transcrustal magmatism’ was previously thought to be unique to Earth.

These geological processes are closely linked to how planets develop atmospheres, oceans and potentially habitable environments. For instance, on Earth, geological recycling helps regulate climate and supports long-term cycling of water and other volatile elements. Scientists have often assumed plate tectonics were essential for creating these conditions. But the new findings suggest planets may not need Earth-style tectonics to build complex crusts and sustain the conditions that support life.

Co-author Professor Jon Wade (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford) said: “One of the big questions in planetary science is whether Earth is unique. If Mars could develop this kind of complex crust without plate tectonics, then maybe the conditions needed for habitability can emerge on more planets than we realised, including those previously dismissed based on size or their apparent lack of tectonic activity.”

The work builds on seismic observations from NASA’s InSight mission, which placed the first seismometer on Mars in 2018 and revealed the planet’s interior in unprecedented detail. The study was led by researchers from Oxford University’s Department of Earth Sciences in collaboration with the University of Bristol and the University of Oxford’s Department of Statistics.]]> https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-06-24-new...nside-mars

PRESS RELEASE: Mars is often described as a ‘stagnant lid’ planet: unlike Earth, its surface is not broken into moving tectonic plates. Because plate tectonics drives volcanism, recycling and continent–building on Earth, many scientists assumed Mars lacked the conditions needed to produce similarly complex crust. However, this new study challenges that view, suggesting that Mars could have produced highly evolved crust through intense internal recycling.

The study was based on data recorded by NASA’s InSight mission to investigate seismic waves from meteoroid impacts and marsquakes - the Martian equivalent of earthquakes. Researchers from Oxford’s Departments of Earth Sciences and Statistics used the recordings to investigate a mysterious boundary about 24 kilometres beneath the Martian surface. Previous studies had recognised the boundary, but no one knew what it represented. To test the idea that the boundary marked a transition between two different rock types, the Oxford team compared hundreds of possible rock compositions with the seismic data using thermodynamic modelling and statistical techniques.

They found that only ‘ultramafic’ (rich in iron and magnesium, but low in silica) rocks consistently matched the physical properties beneath the 24-km boundary. Whereas the properties above this boundary were better matched to ‘mafic’ (containing a higher proportion of silica) rocks.

The researchers believe that this buried layer likely formed where molten rock pooled deep underground and gradually separated into different materials. This would leave behind a thick residue of dense crystals at the base of the crust while lighter, more evolved melts rose upwards. On Earth, similar processes occur beneath volcanic arcs and are linked to the formation of continents.

Lead author Dr Tobermory Mackay-Champion (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford at the time of the study, now University of Bristol) said: “We’ve traditionally assumed that volcanism on Mars was relatively simple compared to that on Earth. But this discovery suggests Mars could sustain large, long-lived systems where molten rock evolved and reprocessed itself throughout the entire crust. It raises exciting possibilities for how common such systems might be on rocky planets beyond our solar system.”

The study suggests this layer may extend sideways for hundreds or even thousands of kilometres around Mars’ northern hemisphere, indicating that the Red Planet once hosted enormous, interconnected magmatic systems rather than simple isolated volcanoes. This phenomenon – known as ‘transcrustal magmatism’ was previously thought to be unique to Earth.

These geological processes are closely linked to how planets develop atmospheres, oceans and potentially habitable environments. For instance, on Earth, geological recycling helps regulate climate and supports long-term cycling of water and other volatile elements. Scientists have often assumed plate tectonics were essential for creating these conditions. But the new findings suggest planets may not need Earth-style tectonics to build complex crusts and sustain the conditions that support life.

Co-author Professor Jon Wade (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford) said: “One of the big questions in planetary science is whether Earth is unique. If Mars could develop this kind of complex crust without plate tectonics, then maybe the conditions needed for habitability can emerge on more planets than we realised, including those previously dismissed based on size or their apparent lack of tectonic activity.”

The work builds on seismic observations from NASA’s InSight mission, which placed the first seismometer on Mars in 2018 and revealed the planet’s interior in unprecedented detail. The study was led by researchers from Oxford University’s Department of Earth Sciences in collaboration with the University of Bristol and the University of Oxford’s Department of Statistics.]]> <![CDATA[Study explores ‘reverse panspermia’ where Earth life may have invaded the moon Europa]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20691.html Mon, 22 Jun 2026 16:14:43 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20691.html https://thedebrief.org/earthlings-on-eur...lien-moon/

EXCERPT: In the new study, published in the International Journal of Astrobiology, astrophysicist Zaza Osmanov of the Free University of Tbilisi explored whether Earthly bacteria might have been able to escape our planet by traveling on microscopic dust particles, which, after escaping Earth’s gravity, could have drifted through space until they reached Europa.

There, a vast subsurface ocean is believed to exist beneath the moon’s icy crust, meaning that any simple organisms capable of escaping from Earth on tiny spacefaring rafts of dust might have found their way to a new home, and one that could support life.

The long-debated idea of panspermia already presents the general idea for how this might work. However, Osmanov’s study investigates this idea in reverse order: not only might life on Earth have originated from elsewhere, but our planet could also hypothetically be the source of similar “seeding” events that might occur on alien worlds... (MORE - missing details)]]> https://thedebrief.org/earthlings-on-eur...lien-moon/

EXCERPT: In the new study, published in the International Journal of Astrobiology, astrophysicist Zaza Osmanov of the Free University of Tbilisi explored whether Earthly bacteria might have been able to escape our planet by traveling on microscopic dust particles, which, after escaping Earth’s gravity, could have drifted through space until they reached Europa.

There, a vast subsurface ocean is believed to exist beneath the moon’s icy crust, meaning that any simple organisms capable of escaping from Earth on tiny spacefaring rafts of dust might have found their way to a new home, and one that could support life.

The long-debated idea of panspermia already presents the general idea for how this might work. However, Osmanov’s study investigates this idea in reverse order: not only might life on Earth have originated from elsewhere, but our planet could also hypothetically be the source of similar “seeding” events that might occur on alien worlds... (MORE - missing details)]]> <![CDATA[Famous “Pink Planet” harbors salty clouds]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20682.html Sat, 20 Jun 2026 16:37:55 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20682.html https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1132425

EXCERPTS: Northwestern University-led astronomers have discovered salty skies surrounding the universe’s famous “Pink Planet.”

For more than a decade, the ancient, rosy hazed world kept astronomers guessing. One of the coldest known planetary-mass companions ever directly imaged, the elusive object is too faint for astronomers to dissect its light from Earth. But new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal an atmosphere filled with exotic chemistry — and salty clouds unlike anything seen before.

The observations provide some of the first direct evidence for salt clouds in a cold object’s atmosphere, a phenomenon scientists theorized more than 15 years ago. The discovery also marks an important step toward studying increasingly cold objects, which are too dim to examine with ground-based telescopes.

The study is published in the Astronomical Journal.

“The Pink Planet is the coldest companion ever discovered using ground-based instruments,” said Northwestern’s Aneesh Baburaj, who led the study. “Many teams all around the world performed follow-up observations to study its light, but it was too faint for ground-based instruments. That made it a perfect target for JWST. When we finally obtained its spectrum, it immediately looked interesting. But once we started digging deeper into the data, we realized it was not like anything we have analyzed before.”

[...] “We ran simulations with clouds, and the results aligned with what we know about cold planets,” Baburaj said. “We tried three different types of clouds, and salt clouds fit best. When we accounted for salt clouds, it subdued the signature of molecules hidden deeper in the companion’s atmosphere. Then, the results became physically possible.”

The spectrum also suggested that GJ504b is unusually rich in heavy elements, or metals. However, the mystery of the object’s formation persists, with current data suggesting it could have formed either like a planet or a small star.

Baburaj says the techniques used in the study could help unravel other mysteries surrounding cold, faint planets. Jupiter, for example, hosts clouds made of ammonia ice. While those cloud types remain beyond the reach of current observations, the detection of GJ504b’s salt clouds suggests astronomers are getting closer... (MORE - details)]]> https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1132425

EXCERPTS: Northwestern University-led astronomers have discovered salty skies surrounding the universe’s famous “Pink Planet.”

For more than a decade, the ancient, rosy hazed world kept astronomers guessing. One of the coldest known planetary-mass companions ever directly imaged, the elusive object is too faint for astronomers to dissect its light from Earth. But new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal an atmosphere filled with exotic chemistry — and salty clouds unlike anything seen before.

The observations provide some of the first direct evidence for salt clouds in a cold object’s atmosphere, a phenomenon scientists theorized more than 15 years ago. The discovery also marks an important step toward studying increasingly cold objects, which are too dim to examine with ground-based telescopes.

The study is published in the Astronomical Journal.

“The Pink Planet is the coldest companion ever discovered using ground-based instruments,” said Northwestern’s Aneesh Baburaj, who led the study. “Many teams all around the world performed follow-up observations to study its light, but it was too faint for ground-based instruments. That made it a perfect target for JWST. When we finally obtained its spectrum, it immediately looked interesting. But once we started digging deeper into the data, we realized it was not like anything we have analyzed before.”

[...] “We ran simulations with clouds, and the results aligned with what we know about cold planets,” Baburaj said. “We tried three different types of clouds, and salt clouds fit best. When we accounted for salt clouds, it subdued the signature of molecules hidden deeper in the companion’s atmosphere. Then, the results became physically possible.”

The spectrum also suggested that GJ504b is unusually rich in heavy elements, or metals. However, the mystery of the object’s formation persists, with current data suggesting it could have formed either like a planet or a small star.

Baburaj says the techniques used in the study could help unravel other mysteries surrounding cold, faint planets. Jupiter, for example, hosts clouds made of ammonia ice. While those cloud types remain beyond the reach of current observations, the detection of GJ504b’s salt clouds suggests astronomers are getting closer... (MORE - details)]]> <![CDATA['Crisis averted' as experts confirm universe's expansion is accelerating]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20619.html Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:19:56 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20619.html https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/researc...celerating

INTRO: Our universe's expansion is still accelerating despite recent claims suggesting otherwise, an international team of astrophysicists say.

They refuted a study published last year claiming the growth of the universe is slowing and insist there is no flaw in the widely-accepted theory that a mysterious force known as dark energy is driving the expanding cosmos.

The researchers, who include two Nobel Laureates and represent institutions worldwide, say the debate that followed last November’s revelations was the result of a scientific misunderstanding rather than a cosmic grenade threatening to blow apart everything we know about the universe.

Their paper has been published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

It is a direct rebuttal of a study by a team of South Korean researchers that made the erroneous claim the universe's expansion may have entered a deceleration phase, caused by the influence of dark energy – which acts as a kind of anti-gravity – weakening over time.

"The previous and well accepted measurements were, in fact, fine and our current understanding of the fate of the universe remains robust," said lead author Dr Phil Wiseman, from the University of Southampton.

"Thankfully we have averted this crisis, but the mystery about why the rate of expansion of the universe is still accelerating remains. By proving our measurements are correct, we can get back to trying to understand what this dark energy actually is, rather than wondering if it exists at all." (MORE - no ads)]]> https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/researc...celerating

INTRO: Our universe's expansion is still accelerating despite recent claims suggesting otherwise, an international team of astrophysicists say.

They refuted a study published last year claiming the growth of the universe is slowing and insist there is no flaw in the widely-accepted theory that a mysterious force known as dark energy is driving the expanding cosmos.

The researchers, who include two Nobel Laureates and represent institutions worldwide, say the debate that followed last November’s revelations was the result of a scientific misunderstanding rather than a cosmic grenade threatening to blow apart everything we know about the universe.

Their paper has been published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

It is a direct rebuttal of a study by a team of South Korean researchers that made the erroneous claim the universe's expansion may have entered a deceleration phase, caused by the influence of dark energy – which acts as a kind of anti-gravity – weakening over time.

"The previous and well accepted measurements were, in fact, fine and our current understanding of the fate of the universe remains robust," said lead author Dr Phil Wiseman, from the University of Southampton.

"Thankfully we have averted this crisis, but the mystery about why the rate of expansion of the universe is still accelerating remains. By proving our measurements are correct, we can get back to trying to understand what this dark energy actually is, rather than wondering if it exists at all." (MORE - no ads)]]> <![CDATA[Astrobiology's looming statistical crisis + Our model can work without dark energy]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20564.html Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:55:50 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20564.html Can our model of the cosmos work without dark energy? New research says it can
https://gizmodo.com/can-our-model-of-the...2000765968

INTRO: In a new paper published last week in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, though, a team of researchers demonstrate how the problem of accelerated expansion might be more a matter of current cosmological models being based on instabilities that do not translate very well into observable reality.

“Unstable solutions in physics and science are considered not physical,” Blake Temple, the study’s co-author and a mathematician at University of California, Davis (UC Davis), said in a statement. “You’ll never observe them in nature.” (MORE - details)

Astrobiology's looming statistical crisis
https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a...cal-crisis

EXCERPT: In Bayesian statistics, the kind used by most astronomers, when you don’t know the likelihood of something happening, you use what’s called a “diffuse prior”. Essentially, you tell the math - I have no idea how common life is, and I also have no idea how likely this signal is being generated by some process that I don’t understand is non-biological in nature. The problem, as Dr. Kipping shows in his paper, is that when you do that, the math gets quickly out of control.

In order to reach a Bayesian factor of 10 (meaning the evidence for life is 10 times stronger than the evidence for no life), the number of planets to be surveyed ranges from a mere 12,366 to a whopping 44 trillion. Keep in mind that these planets have to all have the same signature being analyzed - that’s how the statistics works. Also keep in mind that, as of the time of writing, we have only found around 6,200 confirmed exoplanets. In other words, we would need to double our total stock of confirmed exoplanets, and all of those exoplanets would have to have the exact same signal of potential biosignatures in order to meet the actual statistical requirements of definitively detecting life.

To put it bluntly - that’s not going to happen any time soon. And Dr. Kipping makes that point in the paper. Though he does offer a solution that sounds like it’s stolen straight from Silicon Valley’s playbook - A/B testing. To do this for exoplanet analysis, he suggests splitting a group of exoplanets with the same potentially interesting signal into two groups, but with a key feature - both groups have to have the same false positive rate. That would mean that, mathematically at least, that “unknown confounder” would cancel out, making the comparison between the two groups more direct at least.

Fraser discusses the possibility of finding certain molecules that stand out as biosignatures, and what other processes might create them.
While the math behind that is elegant, it faces a huge hurdle in reality - how do you find two groups of planets where “life” behaves differently but the unknown chemistry that could be driving the signals we’re interpreting as life behaves exactly the same across all planets.

To put it bluntly, the likelihood of that happening is almost as remote as us finding 44 trillion exoplanets in the next 25 years. So, it appears that the 25 exoplanets that the Habitable Worlds Observatory plans to survey when it is launched next year is only a drop in the statistical bucket of what data we would need to collect to prove life definitively exists on another planet... (MORE - missing details)]]> <![CDATA[Why the most massive galaxies in the early Universe stopped forming stars prematurely]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20535.html Fri, 29 May 2026 00:28:14 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20535.html https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1130005

EXCERPTS: Astronomical observations show that the most massive galaxies in the early Universe formed approximately 3 to 4 billion years after the Big Bang and stopped producing stars very early in cosmic history, around 1 billion years after their formation. This strange behavior has puzzled experts in the field. For comparison, our galaxy, the Milky Way, is as old as the Universe itself and continues to produce stars, albeit at a low rate, even 13.5 billion years after its formation.

A study conducted at the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of São Paulo (IAG-USP) in Brazil, in collaboration with international partners and published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, proposes a consistent solution to this problem.

“We focused on two seemingly distinct populations: dusty star-forming galaxies [DSFGs] and massive quiescent galaxies [MQs],” says Laerte Sodré Júnior, a retired full professor, former director of IAG-USP, and doctoral advisor to the lead author of the study, Pablo Araya-Araya.

[...] The study proposes that each progenitor galaxy of an MQ underwent an early and violent merger with a galaxy of similar mass. This catastrophic event triggered two simultaneous processes: an extreme burst of star formation and rapid growth of a supermassive black hole in the central region. “The merger of the two galaxies concentrated large amounts of gas in the core, simultaneously triggering an extreme burst of star formation and intense feeding of the supermassive black hole,” Sodré summarizes.

“In that process, the cold gas is rapidly consumed while the energy released by the active nucleus heats the surrounding halo gas and prevents it from cooling and being reincorporated into the galaxy, blocking the supply of raw material for new stars and halting star formation in less than one billion years,” the scientist explains.

In contrast, most star- and dust-forming galaxies grow more gradually through long-term processes. Significant mergers only occur at later stages, resulting in slower gas consumption and eventual late extinction of star formation, which is observed at lower redshifts.

[...] Recent operations of the James Webb Space Telescope have helped map DSFGs. At the same time, they revealed a greater-than-expected number of massive, quiescent galaxies in the early Universe.

The proposed model has not yet fully resolved the problem, as there are still discrepancies between predictions and observations. “We’re observing far more galaxies with submillimeter emissions than we predicted,” Sodré admits.

Nevertheless, the study provides a coherent framework for explaining the evolution of DSFGs into MQs based on galaxy mergers, bursts of star formation, and the formation of supermassive black holes... (MORE - missing details, no ads)]]> https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1130005

EXCERPTS: Astronomical observations show that the most massive galaxies in the early Universe formed approximately 3 to 4 billion years after the Big Bang and stopped producing stars very early in cosmic history, around 1 billion years after their formation. This strange behavior has puzzled experts in the field. For comparison, our galaxy, the Milky Way, is as old as the Universe itself and continues to produce stars, albeit at a low rate, even 13.5 billion years after its formation.

A study conducted at the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of São Paulo (IAG-USP) in Brazil, in collaboration with international partners and published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, proposes a consistent solution to this problem.

“We focused on two seemingly distinct populations: dusty star-forming galaxies [DSFGs] and massive quiescent galaxies [MQs],” says Laerte Sodré Júnior, a retired full professor, former director of IAG-USP, and doctoral advisor to the lead author of the study, Pablo Araya-Araya.

[...] The study proposes that each progenitor galaxy of an MQ underwent an early and violent merger with a galaxy of similar mass. This catastrophic event triggered two simultaneous processes: an extreme burst of star formation and rapid growth of a supermassive black hole in the central region. “The merger of the two galaxies concentrated large amounts of gas in the core, simultaneously triggering an extreme burst of star formation and intense feeding of the supermassive black hole,” Sodré summarizes.

“In that process, the cold gas is rapidly consumed while the energy released by the active nucleus heats the surrounding halo gas and prevents it from cooling and being reincorporated into the galaxy, blocking the supply of raw material for new stars and halting star formation in less than one billion years,” the scientist explains.

In contrast, most star- and dust-forming galaxies grow more gradually through long-term processes. Significant mergers only occur at later stages, resulting in slower gas consumption and eventual late extinction of star formation, which is observed at lower redshifts.

[...] Recent operations of the James Webb Space Telescope have helped map DSFGs. At the same time, they revealed a greater-than-expected number of massive, quiescent galaxies in the early Universe.

The proposed model has not yet fully resolved the problem, as there are still discrepancies between predictions and observations. “We’re observing far more galaxies with submillimeter emissions than we predicted,” Sodré admits.

Nevertheless, the study provides a coherent framework for explaining the evolution of DSFGs into MQs based on galaxy mergers, bursts of star formation, and the formation of supermassive black holes... (MORE - missing details, no ads)]]>