Northern Lights may be visible across Pennsylvania Thursday night - WGAL Susquehanna Valley Pa.

The Space Weather Prediction Center says in their Wednesday evening forecast that the Northern Lights, otherwise known as aurora borealis, may be visible across Pennsylvania because a "strong" geomagnetic storm is now likely for Earth starting Thursday evening and continuing Friday. The SWPC says the sun had several coronal mass ejections earlier in the week and they are heading toward Earth. According to the SWPC website, the ejections are large expulsions of plasma and magnetically charged particles. These particles then interact with Earth's atmosphere and Earth's magnetic field and create the aurora. The stronger the geomagnetic storm or larger the amount of material ejected by the sun, the farther south the Northern Lights can be seen during a storm. The Space Weather Prediction Center says in their forecast issued Wednesday afternoon that the anticipated storm would produce aurora as far south as Pennsylvania with a peak Kp value of 7. The Space Weather Prediction Center's website says the Planetary K-index is used to characterize the magnitude of geomagnetic storms. The Kp index goes between 0 and 9. For us to see the Northern Lights, a Kp index of at least a 7 is needed. The forecast calls for a Kp-7 late Thursday. Typically, when it's possible to see the Northern Lights in Pennsylvania, a faint colored glow low on the horizon, usually in the northern sky, is what we see. Northern areas of the Susquehanna Valley have a higher chance of seeing the lights.The best areas to try to see the aurora are in rural areas with very little to no street lights, light pollution, and with a clear view of the northern sky, like on a hill or mountaintop. Stay tuned as the Space Weather Prediction Center may update or change its forecast leading up to the possible geomagnetic storm. The WGAL News 8 Storm Team is calling for mostly clear skies Thursday evening and then high clouds begin to increase across the region closer to dawn Friday morning. Read more about the Space Weather Prediction Center here: https://ift.tt/atguRY1 your photos and videos with WGALWe have several ways you can show us the photos and videos you are capturing.DIRECT UPLOAD: There is a form here to let you upload photos or video.EMAIL: Just send to news8@wgal.com.JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP: Our uLocal Facebook group is here.

The Space Weather Prediction Center says in their Wednesday evening forecast that the Northern Lights, otherwise known as aurora borealis, may be visible across Pennsylvania because a "strong" geomagnetic storm is now likely for Earth starting Thursday evening and continuing Friday.

The SWPC says the sun had several coronal mass ejections earlier in the week and they are heading toward Earth. According to the SWPC website, the ejections are large expulsions of plasma and magnetically charged particles. These particles then interact with Earth's atmosphere and Earth's magnetic field and create the aurora. The stronger the geomagnetic storm or larger the amount of material ejected by the sun, the farther south the Northern Lights can be seen during a storm.

The Space Weather Prediction Center says in their forecast issued Wednesday afternoon that the anticipated storm would produce aurora as far south as Pennsylvania with a peak Kp value of 7. The Space Weather Prediction Center's website says the Planetary K-index is used to characterize the magnitude of geomagnetic storms. The Kp index goes between 0 and 9. For us to see the Northern Lights, a Kp index of at least a 7 is needed. The forecast calls for a Kp-7 late Thursday. Typically, when it's possible to see the Northern Lights in Pennsylvania, a faint colored glow low on the horizon, usually in the northern sky, is what we see. Northern areas of the Susquehanna Valley have a higher chance of seeing the lights.

The best areas to try to see the aurora are in rural areas with very little to no street lights, light pollution, and with a clear view of the northern sky, like on a hill or mountaintop.

Stay tuned as the Space Weather Prediction Center may update or change its forecast leading up to the possible geomagnetic storm.

The WGAL News 8 Storm Team is calling for mostly clear skies Thursday evening and then high clouds begin to increase across the region closer to dawn Friday morning.

Read more about the Space Weather Prediction Center here: www.spaceweather.gov.

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'Perfect solar system' found in search for alien life - BBC.com

By Pallab GhoshScience correspondent

Roger Thibaut/NCCR PlanetS

Artwork: Six worlds around a star like our Sun are ideal to study how planets formed and whether they are home to life

Researchers have located "the perfect solar system", forged without the violent collisions that made our own a hotchpotch of different-sized planets.

The system, 100 light years away, has six planets, all about the same size. They've barely changed since its formation up to 12 billion years ago.

These undisturbed conditions make it ideal for learning how these worlds formed and whether they host life.

The research has been published in the scientific journal, Nature.

The creation of our own solar system was a violent process. As planets were forming some crashed into each other, disturbing orbits and leaving us with giants like Jupiter and Saturn alongside relatively small worlds like our own.

In solar system HD110067, as astronomers have rather drily named it, things couldn't be more different.

MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Artwork: Planet formation is typically a violent process

Not only are the planets similarly sized; in a far cry from the unrelated timing of the orbits of the planets in our own solar system, these rotate in synch.

In the time it takes for the innermost planet to go around the star three times, the next planet along gets around twice, and so on out to the fourth planet in the system. From there things change to a 4:3 pattern of relative orbit speeds for the last two planets.

This intricate planetary choreography is so precise that that the researchers have created a cyclical musical piece, akin to a Philip Glass-style composition, with notes and rhythms corresponding to each planet and their orbital periods. You can listen to some of it here:

A musical take on the 'perfect solar system'

Dr Rafael Luque, of the University of Chicago, who led the research described HD110067 as "the perfect solar system".

"It is ideal for studying how planets are created, because this solar system didn't have the chaotic beginnings ours did and has been undisturbed since its formation."

Dr Marina Lafarga-Magro, of Warwick University, said that the system was "beautiful and unique".

"It is really exciting, just seeing something that no-one has seen before," she told BBC News.

WALTER MYERS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Artwork: The new planets are between the size of Neptune, in the foreground, and the Earth

Over the past thirty years, astronomers have discovered thousands of solar systems. But none of them are so well suited to study how planets formed. The planets' near identical size and the system's undisturbed nature are gold dust for astronomers because they make it much easier to compare and contrast them. That will help build up a picture of how they first formed and how they evolved.

The system also has a bright star which will make it easier to look for life signs in the planets' atmospheres.

All six of the new planets are what astronomers call "sub-Neptunes", which are larger than the Earth and smaller than the planet Neptune (which is four times wider than the Earth). The six newly discovered planets are between two and three times the size of Earth.

Interest in the new findings has been supercharged since the discovery in September that a sub-Neptune planet, called K2-18b, in another star system, has an atmosphere with hints of a gas that on Earth is produced by living organisms. Astronomers call this a biosignature.

NASA

Artwork: A sub-Neptune planet called k2-18b was found to have hints of life in September

Although our own solar system does not contain any sub-Neptunes, they are thought to be the most common type of planet in the galaxy. Yet astronomers know surprisingly little about these worlds.

They do not know whether they are mostly made of rock, gas or water, or critically, whether they provide conditions for life.

Finding out these details is "one of the hottest topics in the field" according to Dr Luque, adding that the discovery of HD110067 gives his team the perfect opportunity to answer that question relatively quickly.

"It could be a matter of less than ten years," he told BBC News.

"We know the planets, we know where they are, we just need slightly more time, but it will happen."

If the team's next round of observations indicates that sub-Neptunes can also support life, it greatly increases the number of possible habitable planets and therefore increases the chances of detecting signs of life on another world sooner rather than later.

NASA

Artwork: The planets were found using Nasa's TESS space telescope

The race is now on to detect biosignatures on one of the six new sub-Neptunes, or dozens of others detected by rival groups. With a battery of new telescopes with enhanced capabilities and others about to come online, many astronomers believe that we may not have too long to wait for that for that moment.

The planets were detected using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and ESA's CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (Cheops).

Follow Pallab on X, formally known as Twitter

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India in talks with Boeing, Blue Origin for space partnerships - IndiaTimes

India’s space agency is exploring joint collaborations with Boeing Co., Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin LLC and Voyager Space Holdings Inc., as an official visit by the head of Nasa highlights the growing level of cooperation between the US and India in outer space.
The potential partnerships could also involve Indian commercial entities, India’s department of space said in a statement Wednesday.
Nasa administrator Bill Nelson is visiting several locations in India this week, including Bengaluru-based facilities that are testing and integrating spacecraft for a joint US-Indian Earth-observing mission scheduled for launch in 2024.
Nelson’s visit underscores Nasa’s deepening space alliance with the Indian Space Research Organization, which this year notched several accomplishments including the landing of a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole in August.
The two space agencies are planning to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station next year. In June, Nelson joined a ceremony in Washington when India signed the Artemis Accords, a US-backed initiative with more than two dozen other countries to establish principles for space exploration.

ISRO-NASA space ties deepen: NASA Chief says, US ready to send Indian to space in 2024

Blue Origin is “very keen” on considering using an Indian rocket as a crew capsule to service its proposed space station Orbital Reef in low-Earth orbit, Isro chairman S Somanath told the Times of India in June. Larsen & Toubro Ltd., an Indian manufacturer of engineering equipment, is in early discussions with Blue Origin to supply orbital launch capabilities, according to local media.
Denver-based Voyager in July announced a preliminary agreement with Isro’s commercial arm, NewSpace India Ltd., to explore using Indian rockets to launch and deploy small satellites.
Voyager in July also signed a memorandum of understanding with Isro and the Indian national space promotion and authorization center regarding the use of Gaganyaan, the space agency’s crewed spacecraft now under development, to service a proposed space station, Starlab.
Boeing is considering designing and manufacturing of a space capsule simulator for India’s human spaceflight project but hasn’t signed a contract yet, according to local media.
India’s upcoming projects include its first launch of astronauts on a crewed mission, scheduled for 2025.
To boost its lunar ambitions, the country plans to develop a next-generation launch vehicle and a new launchpad, with the goal of landing people on the moon by 2040.
Isro’s to-do list also includes establishing a space station by 2035, launching a Venus orbiter and landing on Mars.

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Astronomers discover six planets orbiting a nearby sun-like star - The Washington Post

Astronomers have discovered a six-pack of planets, formed at least 4 billion years ago and remarkably unchanged since, orbiting a nearby sun-like star. The new planets, described in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, could provide a breakthrough in the understanding of how planets form and why there are so many between the sizes of Earth and Neptune, a class known as “sub Neptunes” that is astoundingly common in our galaxy.

These newfound worlds are hot, gassy and unlikely to be pleasant places to visit. Their cozy orbits around the parent star put them well inside what astrobiologists consider the “habitable zone” of a planetary system. The hunt for Earth 2.0 goes on.

But what makes these planets unusual, in addition to their large number, is that they are locked into a resonance with one another as they orbit the star. One planet, for example, will make precisely three orbits while an adjacent planet makes two.

“These resonant chains are very rare in Nature,” lead author Rafael Luque of the University of Chicago said in a webinar Tuesday with reporters.

This striking reminder that mathematics governs the universe comes with another implication, which is that these six planets have been in a stable, predictable, two-by-three orbital pattern since they were formed at least 4 billion years ago. Most planetary systems, including our own, aren’t like that.

The resonant orbits of these planets are consistent with the idea that this system has been free of any major disturbance — say, a catastrophic impact, or the close passage of another star — for billions of years. In this scenario, the planets formed along with their parent star from a cloud of gas and dust and relatively quickly found their resonant orbits. And then nothing exciting happened to change that.

This unusual orbital pattern is prominent in the grabby title of the new paper: “A resonant sextuplet of sub-Neptunes transiting the bright star HD 110067.”

“Occasionally, nature reveals an absolute gem,” Sara Seager, a professor of planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a co-author of the new paper, said in an email. “HD 110067 is an immediate astronomical Rosetta stone — offering a key system to help unlock some mysteries of planet formation and evolution.”

How to find planets hidden by starlight

The new paper, authored by more than 150 scientists from 12 nations, describes the planetary system of HD 110067, a star in our galaxy. Located in the Coma Berenices constellation, it is not visible with the naked eye.

Still, it’s only 100 light-years away, which means it is in our neighborhood, in a suburb of the Milky Way galaxy. That proximity to Earth makes it bright compared to many other stars previously known to have planetary systems. It is 10,000 times brighter, for example, than Trappist1, a red dwarf star that also has an intriguing swarm of rocky planets.

Starlight is valuable currency for astronomers, who can study that light for clues to the presence of planets that are otherwise invisible amid the glare of the star. When a planet passes across the face of a star as seen from a telescope — an event known as a transit — the starlight will dim, commensurate with the dimension of the planet.

Astronomers can then employ a second technique to look for periodic wobbles in the starlight as an orbiting planet and the star interact gravitationally. Pairing these methods, astronomers can get an estimate of a planet’s size and density. Further investigation can potentially detect the molecular composition of an atmosphere, if there is one.

Astronomers found the first couple planets orbiting HD 110067 in 2020 using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which scans the whole sky looking for subtle signals of planets. The planetary roster filled out in 2022 during another set of observations by TESS and by a European Space Agency satellite known as CHEOPS (for “CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite”), which has the ability for more targeted observations.

The new planets are called “sub Neptune” because they’re bigger than the close-in, rocky worlds of our solar system, such as Earth and Venus, but not as big as the ice giants Neptune and Uranus. They range from two to three times the diameter of Earth. The innermost planet orbits the star in just 9 days, while the outermost makes that journey in 54. There could be other planets in the system that remain undetected.

For some reason, the universe is lousy with sub-Neptune planets, which is one reason the new system is so exciting for astronomers.

“With six major planets, its architecture is intriguing,” Knicole Colon, a NASA astrophysicist and exoplanet expert, said in an email. “These planets are likely not going to support life, as they are all likely too warm and too large. But still the whole sub-Neptune angle is the intriguing part, [because] we don’t yet know why our solar system does not have one.”

It’s an open question whether the universe simply favors planets in this size, or if our detection methods are skewing the results. Small, rocky worlds like ours, orbiting at a comfortable distance from an old, calm star like our sun, are hard to find. They are less likely to transit the face of the star as seen from Earth, and they have minimal gravitational effects on the star’s motion.

The discoverers of the new planets said there is evidence that they have atmospheres, based on their density. But, Luque noted, “we don’t know much about them. We don’t know what they are made of.”

We may know more soon. This new planetary system will get a close look from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which orbits the sun about a million miles from Earth and is designed to glean information about the atmospheres of exoplanets.

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Dying orca's final moments after 'desperate' effort to stay afloat captured in 1st of its kind footage - Livescience.com

After a 50 minute struggle to stay at the surface, the orca (Orcinus orca) started sinking into the depths. (Image credit: Pierre Robert de Latour/Orca Norway)

The final moments of an adult orca's life have been recorded in what is believed to be the first footage of its kind.

Whale-watchers spotted an orca (Orcinus orca) — a roughly 35-year-old male known to researchers as Hunchy after his hunched back — behaving strangely in waters north of the island of Loppa in Norway on Nov. 6. Two younger orcas huddled close to Hunchy, seemingly holding him at the surface so he could breathe, Pierre Robert de Latour, the author of "Frère des Orques" (Glénat, 2019) who has been diving with orcas in Norway for over 20 years and was on the whale-watching expedition, told Live Science.

The attempt to keep Hunchy afloat seemed "desperate," Robert de Latour said, adding that "it was obvious that he was in trouble."

Robert de Latour got into the water and snorkeled up to the orcas to take a closer look. He noticed the old male looked skinny, and the shape of his belly suggested he hadn't eaten for a long time.

The footage shows Hunchy floating motionless just below the ocean surface after the two younger orcas left the scene. The young pair swam back and forth between Hunchy and a group of orcas further away, Robert de Latour said, repeatedly trying to "activate" the old male.

Related: Orcas sink another boat in Europe after a nearly hour-long attack 

"It's the first time for me seeing something like this. I recognized him — it was very emotional — and then I saw his giant body sinking," Robert de Latour said. "It is said that orcas don't abandon individuals that are in trouble."

The young orcas realized that if they left Hunchy, he would sink to his death, he added. (Orcas can stay submerged for up to 15 minutes, but they usually come to the surface to breathe every minute when resting, and every three to five minutes when traveling.)

But after 50 minutes, they seemingly gave up. "They were helping him until the very last moment," Robert de Latour said.

The footage could be the first time the death of an adult orca has been filmed in the North Atlantic — and possibly worldwide, said Filipa Samarra, a research specialist at the University of Iceland and the founder and principal investigator of the Icelandic Orca Project.

"To my knowledge, the death of an adult member of the group, and how the other [orcas] behave in that instance when an adult is dying, is something that has not been observed before," Samarra told Live Science in an email.

However, researchers have previously recorded the moments surrounding the death of a calf. "We know that orcas show very specific behaviors when calves die," Samarra said. "They have been observed numerous times carrying them, pushing them to the surface, and this can go on for many days." One incident involving orcas from the southern resident population saw a mother carrying her dead calf for over two years, she said.

Whether these really were Hunchy's last moments remains to be confirmed. A second boat that arrived on the scene reportedly witnessed the same struggle unfolding one or two hours later, Robert de Latour said, but the crew couldn't determine if Hunchy managed to swim back up to the surface alone or if the younger orcas hauled him up one last time.

"He's probably dead now," Robert de Latour said.

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See November's Full Beaver Moon light up the sky around the world (photos) - Space.com

The second to last full moon of 2023 has risen and set, brightening the November night skies and giving photographers and moon enthusiasts across the globe the opportunity to capture some truly stunning images.

The Full Beaver Moon gets its name from the fact that it roses at the time of year when beavers are beginning to retreat to their dens for winter. It also refers to the fact that this was the time of year when trappers would hunt beavers for their thick Winter Pelt.

If you missed the moon in its full glory this week, these pictures will help you relive it and get excited for the next full moon and the last of 2023, December's Cold Moon, which rises on Dec. 26.

Related: Full moon calendar 2023: When to see the next full moon

Ken Kremer of Space UpClose caught the Full Beaver Moon photobombing a streak formed by the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink spacecraft as it lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Nov. 27, 2023.

The full moon seen above the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as seen from Titusville, Florida on Nov. 27, 2023. (Image credit: Ken Kremer)

Photographer Robbie Sydney caught the Full Beaver Moon as it appeared to grace the top of the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia.

The Full Beaver Moon rises over the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia on Nov. 27, 2023. (Image credit: Robbie Sydney)

As seen around the world, the Beaver Moon took on a variety of different visages based upon the conditions under which it appeared. For example, in San Francisco, Photojournalist Tayfun Coskun caught the Full Beaver Moon over the abandoned Alcatraz prison glowing with an impressive orange hue. 

The Beaver Full Moon rises over Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, California, United States on Nov. 27, 2023.  (Image credit: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The Beaver Moon was more subtle and restrained as it manifested over New York City, peaking through the clouds and appearing as a silver disk with almost wispy edges. Journalist Gary Hershorn captured the Full Beaver Moon contrasted against the bright lights of the city that never sleeps. 

The full Beaver Moon rises behind the skyline of lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center in New York City on Nov. 27, 2023, as seen from Jersey City, New Jersey. (Image credit: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)

Photographer Lorenzo Di Cola witnessed the "moon illusion" over Monte Prena Mountain in Italy, causing the full moon to look incredibly large compared to the mountains from behind which it emerged.

The Full Beaver full moon rises above Monte Prena Mountain (Gran Sasso d'Italia and Monti della Laga National Park) as seen from L'Aquila, Italy, on Nov. 26, 2023. (Image credit: Lorenzo Di Cola/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Journalist Gary Hershorn captured the Beaver Moon contrasted against the bright lights of the skyline over 42nd Street in New York City.

The Full Beaver Moon passes over 42nd Street as it sets before sunrise on Nov. 27, 2023, in New York City. (Image credit: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)

For other moon photographers, the dark November clouds were more of a hindrance in capturing some stunning moon imagery. In the UK, X/Twitter user Victoria in the Fens described capturing the Beaver Moon during a brief gap in the clouds over Cambridgeshire. 

It didn’t manage to catch the Full Moon at moon rise, but we had a short gap in the clouds just now for the lovely Beaver Moon to say hi 👋🏼🌝💫🥰Ely, Cambridgeshire#BeaverMoon #FullMoon #VeryHappy pic.twitter.com/rNszxIE6DYNovember 27, 2023

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Another X user, Jamal Nasir, who goes by the fitting handle "the MoonGuy," caught some incredible images of the Beaver Moon from Glasgow, Scotland, after moving there from his home country of Pakistan to complete his Masters degree. The stunningly detailed images were described as possessing "ethereal beauty" by another X user. An alternative name for the Beaver Moon is the Frost Moon  —  and Nasir's images show it looking suitably chilly. 

November's full moon wasn't just visible in stunning images either. X user Matt Lantz captured a stunning timelapse video of the Full Beaver Moon rising over Fort Worth, Texas, showing it in all of its imposing glory.  

November's Full Beaver Moon rising behind the skyline of Downtown Fort Worth this evening. #FortWorth #Texas #moon #fullmoon #BeaverMoon #dfwwx #txwx #ntxwx pic.twitter.com/saV6C821tuNovember 28, 2023

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If these stunning full moon images have whet your appetite for observing the moon yourself and you're hoping to catch a look at the Cold Moon next month, our guides to the best telescopes and best binoculars are a great place to start.

And if you're looking to snap photos of the next full moon or the night sky in general, check out our guide on how to photograph the moon, as well as our recommendations for the best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography.

Editor's Note: If you snap an image of the Cold Moon and would like to share it with Space.com’s readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com. 

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Mars horizon captured in new image: "No Mars spacecraft has ever had this kind of view before" - CBS News

Previewing Axiom Space's 3rd mission to ISS

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Scientists got a rare look at the curving Martian landscape thanks to images captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter, the space agency announced Tuesday. 

NASA revealed multiple new panoramic images of clouds and dust in Mars' skies and one of its two tiny moons taken by the spacecraft last May. They were captured by the Odyssey's camera, called the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS.

NASA

The rare images were taken from an altitude of about 250 miles, the same altitude at which the International Space Station flies above Earth, according to NASA. 

"If there were astronauts in orbit over Mars, this is the perspective they would have," said Jonathon Hill, the operations lead of THEMIS. "No Mars spacecraft has ever had this kind of view before."

The Odyssey, which completed its 22nd year orbiting Mars last month, is expected to take similar pictures in the future to try and capture the Martian atmosphere in different seasons, NASA said. 

The Mars Report by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on YouTube

In its latest effort, THEMIS captured images of Mars' little moon, Phobos, that has provided insight into the composition and physical properties of the moon, according to NASA. 

The images will contribute to further studies that will help determine if Phobos is a captured asteroid or an ancient chunk of Mars that was blasted off the surface by an impact, NASA said. 

"We got a different angle and lighting conditions of Phobos than we're used to," Hill said. "That makes it a unique part of our Phobos dataset."

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Dinosaur extinction study finds more than an asteroid led to demise - USA TODAY

It's been 66 million years since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and many may blame an asteroid's explosive collision with our planet for the end of the creatures' reign.

But for years, scientists have debated whether the meteorite alone is responsible for one of the most infamous mass extinction events in history, or whether other more earthly forces played a part as well.

Reigniting the debate, a recent study posited that volcanic eruptions may have already thrown the ecosystem into chaos and threatened the existence of non-bird dinosaurs before the asteroid crashing into Earth delivered the final blow.

The international team of researchers are the latest experts who claim that the world the dinosaurs roamed was one teeming with critical levels of sulfur that set the stage for their extinction. Such instability would have triggered a global drop in temperatures around the world, creating conditions inhospitable to life, according to the research.

The team's findings were published in October in Science Advances and revealed last week in a press release.

“Our research demonstrates that climatic conditions were almost certainly unstable, with repeated volcanic winters that could have lasted decades, prior to the extinction of the dinosaurs," study co-author Don Baker, a geologist at McGill University, said in a statement. "Our work helps explain this significant extinction event that led to the rise of mammals and the evolution of our species."

Study:Asteroid known as Polyhymnia may contain 'superheavy' elements unknown to humans

Did more than an asteroid wipe out dinosaurs?

The study is the latest in a longstanding scientific debate regarding what factors are to blame for wiping out 75% of life on Earth, including the dinosaurs, and ushering the end of the Cretaceous period:

Was the asteroid that slammed into present-day Mexico alone responsible for the mass extinction when it unleashed devastating tsunamis and ash that blotted out the sun? Or did massive volcanic eruptions at a site called the Deccan Traps in India doom life on Earth long before?

That question is what drew the researchers to that vast, rugged plateau in Western India formed by molten lava, where they hammered rocks and collected samples to analyze.

Analysis allowed the team to estimate the amount of sulfur and fluorine that volcanic eruptions spewed into the atmosphere 200,000 years before the dinosaurs' demise. They found that enough sulfur was released to trigger a steep enough drop in global temperatures to trigger a "volcanic winter."

Studying the volcanic history of ancient rocks

To uncover clues in the ancient rocks about the demise of the dinosaurs, the researchers developed a new technique to learn their volcanic history.

Researchers were able to measure how much sulfure was in the rock formations at the time and how much was pumped into an atmosphere in a chemical process that Baker compared to cooking pasta.

"You boil the water, add salt, and then the pasta," Baker said. "Some of the salt from the water goes into the pasta, but not much of it."

It's similar to how some elements become trapped in cooling minerals after a volcanic eruption. The team was able to calculate the sulfur and fluorine in the rock samples, just as salt concentrations in boiling water could be measured by analyzing the cooked pasta.

The data suggest that the sulfur could have been released in bursts of volcanic activity, which caused repeated short-lived global drops in temperature, according to the study. The effect would have been catastrophic climate change, marking the transition from the Cretaceous to the Paleogene period.

'Unraveling new worlds:'European astronomers find clouds made of sand on distant exoplanet

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

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Strange Chemistry: Webb Reveals “Teenage Galaxies” Are Unusually Hot, Glowing With Unexpected Elements - SciTechDaily

Astrophysicists using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have discovered that teenage galaxies, emerging within the first 2-3 billion years after the Big Bang, exhibit high temperatures and unexpected elements like nickel. This research, part of the CECILIA Survey, provides new insights into the early stages of galactic development.

JWST unexpectedly reveals nickel and oxygen, which are typically difficult to observe.

Similar to human teenagers, teenage galaxies are awkward, experience growth spurts and enjoy heavy metal — nickel, that is.

A Northwestern University-led team of astrophysicists has just analyzed the first results from the CECILIA (Chemical Evolution Constrained using Ionized Lines in Interstellar Aurorae) Survey, a program that uses NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study the chemistry of distant galaxies.

Unexpected Elements in “Teenage Galaxies”

According to the early results, so-called “teenage galaxies” — which formed two-to-three billion years after the Big Bang — are unusually hot and contain unexpected elements, like nickel, which are notoriously difficult to observe.

The research was published on November 20 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. It marks the first in a series of forthcoming studies from the CECILIA Survey.

Insights Into Galactic Evolution

“We’re trying to understand how galaxies grew and changed over the 14 billion years of cosmic history,” said Northwestern’s Allison Strom, who led the study. “Using the JWST, our program targets teenage galaxies when they were going through a messy time of growth spurts and change. Teenagers often have experiences that determine their trajectories into adulthood. For galaxies, it’s the same.”

Light from 23 distant galaxies, identified with red rectangles in the Hubble Space Telescope image at the top, were combined to capture incredibly faint emission from eight different elements, which are labelled in the JWST spectrum at the bottom.Although scientists regularly find these elements on Earth, astronomers rarely, if ever, observe many of them in distant galaxies. Credit: Aaron M. Geller, Northwestern, CIERA + IT-RCDS

One of the principal investigators of the CECILIA Survey, Strom is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a member of Northwestern’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA). Strom co-leads the CECILIA Survey with Gwen Rudie, a staff scientist at Carnegie Observatories.

‘Chemical DNA’ Insight Into Galaxy Formation

Named after Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, one of the first women to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy, the CECILIA Survey observes spectra (or the amount of light across different wavelengths) from distant galaxies. Strom likens a galaxy’s spectra to its “chemical DNA.” By examining this DNA during a galaxy’s “teenage” years, researchers can better understand how it grew and how it will evolve into a more mature galaxy.

For example, astrophysicists still don’t understand why some galaxies appear “red and dead” while others, like our Milky Way, are still forming stars. A galaxy’s spectrum can reveal its key elements, such as oxygen and sulfur, which provide a window into what a galaxy was previously doing and what it might do in the future.

“These teenage years are really important because that’s when the most growth happens,” Strom said. “By studying this, we can begin exploring the physics that caused the Milky Way to look like the Milky Way — and why it might look different from its neighboring galaxies.”

In the new study, Strom and her collaborators used the JWST to observe 33 distant teenage galaxies for a continuous 30 hours this past summer. Then, they combined spectra from 23 of those galaxies to construct a composite picture.

“This washes out the details of individual galaxies but gives us a better sense of an average galaxy. It also allows us to see fainter features,” Strom said. “It’s significantly deeper and more detailed than any spectrum we could collect with ground-based telescopes of galaxies from this time period in the universe’s history.”

Spectra Surprises

The ultra-deep spectrum revealed eight distinct elements: Hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon, sulfur, argon, and nickel. All elements that are heavier than hydrogen and helium form inside stars. So, the presence of certain elements provides information about star formation throughout a galaxy’s evolution.

While Strom expected to see lighter elements, she was particularly surprised by the presence of nickel. Heavier than iron, nickel is rare and incredibly difficult to observe.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine we would see nickel,” Strom said. “Even in nearby galaxies, people don’t observe this. There has to be enough of an element present in a galaxy and the right conditions to observe it. No one ever talks about observing nickel. Elements have to be glowing in gas in order for us to see them. So, in order for us to see nickel, there may be something unique about the stars within the galaxies.”

Another surprise: The teenage galaxies were extremely hot. By examining the spectra, physicists can calculate a galaxy’s temperature. While the hottest pockets with galaxies can reach over 9,700 degrees Celsius (17,492 degrees Fahrenheit), the teenage galaxies clock in at higher than 13,350 degrees Celsius (24,062 degrees Fahrenheit).

“This is just additional evidence of how different galaxies likely were when they were younger,” Strom said. “Ultimately, the fact that we see a higher characteristic temperature is just another manifestation of their different chemical DNA because the temperature and chemistry of gas in galaxies are intrinsically linked.”

Reference: “CECILIA: The Faint Emission Line Spectrum of z ∼ 2–3 Star-forming Galaxies” by Allison L. Strom, Gwen C. Rudie, Ryan F. Trainor, Gabriel B. Brammer, Michael V. Maseda, Menelaos Raptis, Noah S. J. Rogers, Charles C. Steidel, Yuguang Chen, 昱光 陈 and David R. Law, 20 November 2023, The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad07dc

The study was supported by NASA, the Pittsburgh Foundation, and the Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement. The data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute and from the W.M. Keck Observatory.

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