Formed

Playing an indispensable role in global construction, cement contributes around seven percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions owing to its carbon-intensive production process. Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder claim to have uncovered a greener path forward by tapping into a species of cloudy microalgae, which naturally produce limestone particles through photosynthesis and could turn buildings into carbon sinks as a result.Limestone is a key ingredient in cement, but adding it to the mix is incredibly…

From orbit, this landscape on Mars looks like a lacy honeycomb or a spider web. But the unusual polygon-shaped features aren't created by Martian bees or spiders; they are actually formed from an ongoing process of seasonal change from created from water ice and carbon dioxide.  The HiRISE camera (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has seen a lot of polygon shapes in the years since 2006 when it went into orbit of Mars.(NASA/JPL/UArizona)Above: Polygonal dunes on Mars, as seen…

A small chunk of rock that once broke away from Mars and found its way to Earth may hold clues that reveal surprising details about the red planet's formation.A new analysis of the Chassigny meteorite, which fell to Earth in 1815, suggests that the way Mars obtained its volatile gasses – such as carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and noble gasses – contradicts our current models about how planets form.  Planets are born, according to current models, from leftover star stuff. Stars form from a nebular cloud of dust and…

A team of researchers at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) has created a new simulation of early galaxy formation. The simulation allows us to get a fascinating, albeit brief glimpse at how the early universe formed in the precious seconds following the Big Bang. This new simulation of early galaxy formation is game-changing Other research programs like Thesan have also looked at the evolution of the universe following the Big Bang. Image source: MIT / YouTube Understanding the…

The Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii is said to be the world's most active volcano, and yet we still don't really know how it was born.New research suggests the original womb of magma lies more than 90 kilometers beneath the hotspot. While previous studies have found two shallow chambers of magma beneath Kīlauea, they weren't big enough to explain all the liquid rock this volcano spews.   A larger chamber, about 11 kilometers deep (that's 6.8 miles), was detected using seismic waves in 2014, and yet now it seems the original…

A group of Ediacaran specimens of Fractofusus and Plumeropriscum from the “E” surface, Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, Newfoundland, Canada. Credit: Charlotte G. Kenchington (CC BY 4.0)Metacommunity analysis suggests succession, not mass extinction, explains the Ediacaran diversity drop.Early animals developed complex ecological communities more than 550 million years ago, setting the evolutionary stage for the Cambrian explosion, according to a research study by Rebecca Eden, Emily Mitchell, and colleagues at the…

'Standard candle' (or type Ia) supernova explosions are some of the most energetic events in the Universe, happening when a dense white dwarf star subsumes another star. Now, scientists think they're found the first evidence on Earth of such a supernova.  The claim comes after a careful study of the extraterrestrial Hypatia stone that was found in Egypt in 1996. Tell-tale signs, including the chemical makeup and patterning of the rock, suggest that the shards contain bits of the dust and gas cloud surrounding an Ia…

NASA has shared an image of what astronomers say is the first observation of a giant debris cloud formed by a massive collision of celestial bodies. Astronomers observed the cloud as it passed in front of its star and briefly blocked its light. Astronomers have long found evidence of collision among celestial bodies. But those observations did not provide many details about the collisions, such as the size of the objects involved. This observation was fresh in that sense. The passing by of the debris cloud in front of a…