The heaviest natural elements on the periodic table such as gold, platinum, and uranium were forged during the mergers of binary neutron stars. Astronomers have previously estimated that tens of thousands of such binary neutron star mergers must have occurred throughout our Milky Way Galaxy during the past 10 billion years, sprinkling neutron-rich elements throughout the gas that eventually formed the next generation of stars and planets. By studying the composition of meteorites, astronomers now conclude that a single collision of neutron stars occurred shortly before and near to the formation of our solar system, producing a measurable fraction of the heavy elements here on Earth.
Welcome to today’s news from the Universe that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.
A big step in solving the mystery of how the very biggest black holes grow has been taken by researchers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. They identified a black hole containing about 200,000 times the mass of the Sun, buried in gas and dust in the dwarf galaxy Mrk 462. ”Future sensitive observations, using x-ray and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) for example, will be able to find signatures of direct collapse black holes over a wider range of masses and growth rates, and help determine whether they form the seeds of the supermassive black holes we see today,” wrote Dartmouth University astrophysicist Ryan Hickox in an email to The Daily Galaxy,
Welcome to our new daily feature: today’s news from the Universe that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and adds a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.
“Our models show that there is a real possibility that Venus could have been habitable and radically different from the Venus we see today,” said Michael Way of The Goddard Institute for Space Science about Earth’s ‘twisted sister’ planet. “This opens up all kinds of implications for exoplanets found in what is called the ‘Venus Zone’, which may in fact host liquid water and temperate climates.”
Avi Shporer, Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. A Google Scholar, Avi was formerly a NASA Sagan Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). His motto, not surprisingly, is a quote from Carl Sagan: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
In this week’s report we dive into the story of a giant asteroid the size of Pluto, crashing into Mars igniting an ancient climate catastrophe. As well as a mystery discovered at Mar’s south pole –an ancient object with vast climate implications .
Violent Neutron Star Collision Discovered Near Earth’s Birthplace (Weekend Feature)
Alien Octopus Hypothesis (YouTube Video)
“The Exoplanet Paradox” -Worlds With Low Oxygen May Be Teeming with Life Based on Early Earth History
Astronomers Share Their Hopes for the JWST to Will Tardigrades Be the First Interstellar Travelers? (Today’s Galaxy Report)
Monster Black Hole in Tiny Galaxy Holds Clues to Their Existence in Early UniverseCarbon Isotopes on Mars Could Be From Ancient Life to Is Pluto a Planet Debate Continues (Today’s Galaxy Report)
Venus Could Have Been Habitable and Radically Different from the Planet We See Today
The Death of Mars (YouTube Episode)
Why are NASA Spaceships Exploring Earth’s Deepest Oceans to Is Reality a Wavefunction? (Planet Earth Report)
Harvard Astronomers on the ‘Detective Story’ of a 1,000-Light-Year-Wide Bubble Surrounding Earth 
