Today’s stories include How One Barren Exoplanet Could ‘Dramatically Narrow’ the Search for Alien Life to The Webb Spots Structures From The Early Universe Never Seen Before to New NASA UFO Team Hopes They’re Not an Adversary, and much more.
Ancient bacteria might lurk beneath Mars’ surface-Northwestern University has reported that a new study shows that there are greater chances of discovering life on Mars than was previously thought. ““If microbes evolved on Mars, they could be capable of surviving until the present day.280 million years that ‘Conan the Bacterium’ could survive buried on Mars. It is possible for Mars samples to be returned and contaminate Earth.
A new theory of gravity is supported by puzzling observations made in astronomyNew Atlas reports. “Astrophysicists have observed some puzzling behavior in star clusters that seem to defy our current understanding of gravity at cosmic scales. Intriguingly, the observations fit with an alternative theory of gravity that could negate the need for dark matter.”
NASA Launches Its Asteroid-Killer The DART mission was a test for saving the world. It involved a spacecraft that smashed an asteroid off course.
NASA captures the entire universe with illuminating ten-year-long time lapseSyFy.
Earth Sky asks if Alien technology will signal extraterrestrial intelligence. “If aliens looked at Earth, our human technology – from cell towers to fluorescent light bulbs – could signal the presence of life. Can we find life in the universe from alien technologies?”
How One Barren Planet Could ‘Dramatically Narrow’ the Search for Alien Life –We still don’t know where aliens are, but we’re learning where they probably aren’t, reports CNET. “The team explains how an Earth-like planet orbiting the most common type of star in the universe, an M dwarf, seems to have no atmosphere. What this means is perhaps we can conclude that most other Earth-like planets orbiting all those other M dwarfs don’t have atmospheres either.”
Recent Mars discoveries of organic molecules raise the question: Is life responsible for them?–Organic molecules can be produced by living or non-living systems. These findings are fascinating, Dirk SchulzeMakuch of Big Think reports. “The large diversity of organic molecules detected on Mars is a hint that life once existed there.”
JWST Spots Structures from The Early Universe Never Seen beforeIFL Science reports. “The space observatory has revealed that a far distant known galaxy is not a single object but two. The object is known as MACS0647-JD, and the light we can see today has been travelling since 400 million years after the Big Bang.”
Space Explosion with the Brightest Light Ever Reveals Possible Hints at Dark Matter–A recent gamma-ray burst known as the BOAT — “brightest of all time” — appears to have produced a high-energy particle that shouldn’t exist. For some, dark matter provides the explanation, reports Jonathan O’Callaghan for Quanta.
Why Mars has been our hope and fear for millennia.. Mars is a unique figure in public consciousness, having been the celestial embodiment for warrior gods and now housing alien canal-digging creatures. Stuart Clark, New Scientist reports that Mars still evokes adventure today.
NASA Opens Investigation Into Recent UFO Sightings, Hopes They’re ‘Not an Adversary,Extreme Tech reports. “The team is impressively diverse: Two astrophysicists, two policy specialists, two aviation specialists, an oceanographer, an AI startup founder, a science journalist, a planetary scientist, a former NASA astronaut, a telescope scientist, a space infrastructure consultant, an electrical and computer engineer, and a physicist each made the cut.”
Space Force consolidates its intelligence community with movesFederal News Network. “As the Space Force expands and defines the roles of its different commands, one of its top priorities will be intelligence gathering in space. In a service so new no one has had time to wear the shine off their buttons, Space Operations Command (SpOC) will take a major role in the business of spying, satellites and satellite image.”
Are parallel universes actually real or unsupported ideas?–Are you unhappy with how various events in your life turned out? Big Think reports that things might have turned out quite differently in a parallel universe. “There are two ways to think about it that are physically well-motivated: in the contexts of inflationary cosmology and quantum physics.”
The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff curated this article
Your free daily fix of stories of space and science –a random journey from Planet Earth through the Cosmos– that has the capacity to provide clues to our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our Anthropocene epoch.
Yes, Sign Me Up for “The Galaxy Report” Newsletter
