Evrim Yazgin

5 days ago | cosmosmagazine.com | Evrim Yazgin

The nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, Andromeda, probably won’t collide with our home galaxy as previously predicted. Andromeda is also known as Messier 31, or M31, and about 2.5 million light-years from the Milky Way. Like our own home galaxy, Andromeda is a spiral. It is slightly larger at about twice the diameter of the Milky Way. Astronomers had long suspected that the 2 galaxies were on a collision course.

6 days ago | cosmosmagazine.com | Evrim Yazgin

Brian Schmidt was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics along with his colleagues for discovering that the universe’s expansion is picking up speed. Up to that point, cosmologists had assumed that the expansion of the universe would eventually slow down. The work of Schmidt and his collaborators had profound implications. It meant that something – some unknown force – was driving the universe’s expansion. Physicists still don’t know what it is.

6 days ago | cosmosmagazine.com | Evrim Yazgin

Archaeologists using new methods have unlocked more mysteries of ancient human development hidden under the surface in southern Africa. And it involves no digging. Southern Africa is a treasure trove of ancient human artefacts and fossils. South Africa’s 120,000-acre Cradle of Humankind UNESCO World Heritage Site has the highest concentration of prehistoric human remains in the world. But finds have mostly come from caves and rock shelters where ancient bones and tools are well preserved.

1 week ago | cosmosmagazine.com | Evrim Yazgin

A significant fossil puzzle piece in the evolution of the first vertebrate animals to leave Earth’s ancient seas and walked on land was discovered in Scotland more than 40 years ago. But it has only just been accurately aged – and the results have left palaeontologists stunned. The creature was dubbed Westlothiana lizziae and is one of the oldest examples of a 4-legged animal, also known as a tetrapod, walking on Earth.

1 week ago | cosmosmagazine.com | Evrim Yazgin

The latest modelling has shown that an Atlantic Ocean current critical for regulating Earth’s climate will weaken due to anthropogenic climate change, but perhaps not to the point of collapse as previously suggested. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) transports water and heat from the southern to the northern hemisphere. It also regulates regional weather including the relatively mild summers of Europe and the monsoon seasons in Africa and India.