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3 days ago | 
courthousenews.com | Chloe Baul
(CN) — Astronomers have discovered a giant planet orbiting a star that’s barely one-fifth the mass of our Sun — one of the smallest stars known to host a planet this big. The star, TOI-6894, is a tiny red dwarf previously thought unlikely to have big gas giants. Published Wednesday in the journal Nature Astronomy, an international team of astronomers found clear evidence of a giant planet called TOI-6894b orbiting the star.
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4 days ago | 
courthousenews.com | Chloe Baul
Oxford researchers used new satellite data to directly observe massive seiches triggered by Greenland landslides. (CN) — When the Earth started pulsing every 90 seconds in September 2023, scientists didn’t know what to make of it. The signal was global, rhythmic and bizarre and lasted for nine days, then came back a month later.
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5 days ago | 
courthousenews.com | Chloe Baul
Astronomers think that a smaller nearby galaxy could pull the Milky Way away from its long-presumed collision with the Andromeda galaxy. (CN) — For years, astronomers have believed the Milky Way was on a collision course with our largest galactic neighbor Andromeda — a cosmic event expected to unfold in about 5 billion years. However, new simulations suggest that smash-up might never happen.
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2 weeks ago | 
courthousenews.com | Chloe Baul
A massive impact may have sent a shockwave through the moon, jolting rocks just as a magnetic spike peaked and leaving behind a lasting signal. (CN) — Some rocks on the moon show signs of strong magnetism, even though the moon doesn’t have a magnetic field today. For decades, scientists have debated how that could be possible. Now, researchers at MIT say a massive asteroid impact may be part of the answer.
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2 weeks ago | 
courthousenews.com | Chloe Baul
(CN) — In a corner of the early universe, two galaxies are locked in a cosmic clash. For the first time, astronomers say they’ve caught one blasting the other with a beam of radiation so powerful it’s interfering with the galaxy’s ability to form stars. The discovery, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, reveals what researchers are calling a “cosmic joust” between two merging galaxies.
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1 month ago | 
courthousenews.com | Chloe Baul
(CN) — Millions of years ago, the Caribbean wasn’t the peaceful island chain we think of today. It was a hunting ground for giant, land-roaming predators built more like sprinting greyhounds than the crocodiles we know. The discovery, described in a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows the Caribbean was home to these land-based hunters long after they vanished from mainland South America.
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1 month ago | 
courthousenews.com | Chloe Baul
Despite being 3,400 times the mass of the sun and just 300 light-years away, the hydrogen cloud had gone unnoticed until now. (CN) — Astronomers have spotted a giant cloud of hydrogen gas hiding just 300 light-years from Earth — one of the closest ever found, and until now, completely invisible. The crescent-shaped cloud, dubbed “Eos” after the Greek goddess who personifies dawn, was found by a team led by Rutgers University astrophysicist Blakesley Burkhart.
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1 month ago | 
courthousenews.com | Chloe Baul
Researchers say the man’s spinal damage, lung inflammation, and lion bite offer a rare glimpse into the brutal reality of Roman arena combat. (CN) — A skeleton found in a Roman cemetery in York offers the first physical evidence of a gladiator fighting — and dying — in combat with a lion, or large cat. The research, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, marks the first time this type of gladiator-animal combat has been confirmed through skeletal remains.
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1 month ago | 
courthousenews.com | Chloe Baul
NAMPA, Idaho (CN) — More than 12,500 people packed the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa Monday night as Senator Bernie Sanders and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on the crowd to unite across political lines and push back against what they described as billionaires’ growing grip on American politics.
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1 month ago | 
courthousenews.com | Chloe Baul
Astronomers thought they’d made a mistake when stars in a nearby galaxy didn’t seem to rotate — but the unusual pattern turned out to be real. (CN) — A nearby galaxy may be falling apart, and its larger neighbor could be the reason why. Astronomers studying the Small Magellanic Cloud — a dwarf galaxy about 200,000 light-years from Earth — say it's showing signs of being pulled apart by the larger and more powerful Large Magellanic Cloud.
