Science & Medicine
Here we bring you the latest on all things science from physical science, evolution, astronomy, space, physics, chemistry, and medicine.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Scientists Say a New Universe Could Form Inside a Dying Star
By Goethe University Frankfurt – SciTechDaily
A new study suggests that the collapse of a massive star could spark the creation of a tiny expanding universe rather than a black hole. The resulting object, called a gravastar, would avoid the singularity and event horizon that make black holes so puzzling.
Massive stars produce light and heat through nuclear fusion in their cores. This process generates outward pressure that balances the inward pull of gravity. But when an extremely massive star runs out of fuel, that support disappears. Gravity takes over, causing the star to collapse inward until it reaches what physicists call a singularity, a point where matter is compressed to an extreme state.
Although black holes are widely accepted as the end result of this collapse, they raise some profound questions. How can the mass of billions of Suns be squeezed into a single point? How can spacetime become infinitely curved at the singularity? At that stage, the known laws of physics…Read more here.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Alien messages may have reached Earth without us realizing it
SETI Institute / ScienceDaily
A new study from the SETI Institute suggests that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence may be facing an unexpected challenge. The same stellar activity that shapes conditions around distant planets could also make alien radio signals much harder to detect.
Many SETI efforts look for extremely narrow radio signals because they are unlikely to be produced by natural cosmic processes. However, researchers found that these signals may become distorted before they ever leave their home star system.
How Stellar Activity Can Distort Radio Signals… For decades, SETI scientists have searched for narrow spikes in radio frequencies that could indicate the presence of advanced technology. The assumption has been that an extraterrestrial transmitter would produce a highly concentrated signal that stands out from natural background noise.
The new research points to a potential problem with that approach. Even if a civilization sends a perfectly narrow radio signal, it may no longer appear that way after traveling through the…Read more here.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why Evolution Stalled for Millions of Years Before Suddenly Exploding
By University of Cambridge – SciTechDaily
A new study suggests evolution stayed stuck for millions of years until sexual reproduction helped unleash a burst of biodiversity.
New research suggests that the earliest animals on Earth may have unintentionally slowed the pace of evolution for millions of years. Scientists have found that their reliance on asexual reproduction limited competition and reduced the pressure to adapt, keeping biodiversity low until sexual reproduction emerged and helped drive a surge in evolutionary change.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge analyzed fossils from some of the oldest known animals, dating back roughly 574 million years. Their findings, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, offer a possible explanation for a long-standing mystery: why animal life first appeared on Earth but then remained relatively unchanged for millions of years before experiencing a dramatic increase in diversity.
The Strange World of Earth’s First Animals… The Ediacaran period, which lasted from about 635 million to 539 million years ago, marked a major turning point in the history of life. After billions of…Read more here.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
NASA’s Roman Telescope Will Search 100 Million Stars for New Worlds
By Ashley Balzer, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center – SciTechDaily
NASA’s Roman Telescope could reveal 100,000 hidden worlds and rewrite what we know about planets across the Milky Way.
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is expected to dramatically expand humanity’s catalog of worlds beyond our solar system. Known as exoplanets, these distant planets number nearly 6,300 discoveries so far through NASA missions and other observatories. Scientists estimate Roman could add around 100,000 more to that total.
What makes the mission especially exciting is where it will look. Most of the planets Roman discovers are expected to be located in regions of the Milky Way that have received little attention from previous exoplanet surveys.
“Our galaxy is home to a variety of different environments, but when it comes to hunting for exoplanets, we’ve really only explored one: our own neighborhood,” said Elisa Quintana, an exoplanet…Read more here.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
