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While the basics of this mass-loss process are understood, astronomers are still investigating how it begins near the surface of the star. The amount of mass lost by a star actually has huge implications for its stellar evolution, altering its future, and leading to different types of planetary nebulae. As AGB stars end their lives as planetary nebulae, they produce a vast range of elements — including 50% of elements heavier than iron — which are then released into the Universe and used to make new stars, planets, moons, and eventually the building blocks of life....

Combining Hubble data with observations from a suite of ground-based and space telescopes, two independent teams found that that the black hole, jets, and newborn stars are all parts of a self-regulating cycle. High-energy jets shooting from the black hole heat a halo of surrounding gas, controlling the rate at which the gas cools and falls into the galaxy. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope’s exquisite high resolution and ultraviolet-light sensitivity allowed the astronomers to see brilliant knots of hot, blue stars forming along the jets of active black holes found in the centers of giant elliptical galaxies....

This map shows the rainfall accumulation across the region from June 1 (the start of the summer monsoon season) to July 20, 2020. The data are remotely-sensed estimates that come from the Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG), a product of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. The darkest reds indicate places where GPM detected rainfall totals exceeding 100 centimeters (40 inches) during this period. Due to averaging of the satellite data, local rainfall amounts may be significantly higher when measured from the ground....

Scientific claims that babies harbor live bacteria while still in the womb are inaccurate, and may have impeded research progress, according to University College Cork (UCC) researchers at APC Microbiome Ireland, a world-leading Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Centre, which led a perspective published today (January 25, 2023) in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. Prior claims that the human placenta and amniotic fluid are normally colonized by bacteria would, if true, have serious implications for clinical medicine and pediatrics....

Many volcanoes produce similar types of eruption over millions of years. For example, volcanoes in Iceland, Hawai’i, and the Galápagos Islands consistently erupt lava flows — comprised of molten basaltic rock — which form long rivers of fire down their flanks. Although these lava flows are potentially damaging to houses close to the volcano, they generally move at a walking pace and do not pose the same risk to life as larger explosive eruptions, like those at Vesuvius or Mt....

For the study, investigators led by James Hodge, JD, MPH and Anna Coghill, PhD examined the association between T. gondii antibodies measured several years before the cancer was diagnosed and the risk of developing a glioma. Study participants were from the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention Study-II (CPS-II) Nutrition Cohort and the Norwegian Cancer Registry’s Janus Serum Bank (Janus). T. gondii is a common parasite that is most commonly acquired from undercooked meat, and may lead to the formation of cysts in the brain....

The Intracortical Visual Prosthesis (ICVP), an implant that bypasses the retina and optic nerves to connect directly to the brain’s visual cortex, has been successfully surgically implanted in the ICVP study’s first participant at Rush University Medical Center this week. This surgery is part of a Phase I Feasibility Study of an Intracortical Visual Prosthesis for People With Blindness. The ICVP system was developed by a multi-institution team led by Philip R....

Ice crystals also have small beginnings — even smaller than previously believed. Already 475 water molecules can form a real crystalline structure; initial attempts can be discerned with 275 molecules upwards, as a cooperation of scientists from Göttingen and Prague has discovered. It was previously thought that around 1000 molecules were the minimum necessary for a complete crystal. The new lower limit for ice crystals was determined by researchers working with Thomas Zeuch from the University of Göttingen in an experiment developed by Udo Buck from the Göttingen-based Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization....

This wonderful image shows the resplendent spiral galaxy NGC 3981 suspended in the inky blackness of space. This galaxy, which lies in the constellation of Crater (the Cup), was imaged in May 2018 using the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). FORS2 is mounted on Unit Telescope 1 (Antu) of the VLT at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Amongst the host of cutting-edge instruments mounted on the four Unit Telescopes of the VLT, FORS2 stands apart due to its extreme versatility....

Free electron lasers (FELs) generate short-wavelength radiation with extreme brilliance on ultrafast timescales. Developed over the past three decades, FELs provide an important research tool for physics, biology, chemistry, and other areas. Unlike other synchrotron light sources, the amplification of FEL pulses comes from strong and continuous interaction of electromagnetic waves and relativistic electron beams in a periodic lattice of alternating dipole magnetic fields, known as an undulator. The undulator for modern x-ray FELs (XFELs) exploits a positive feedback loop—a revolutionary development that facilitates research into the nanoscale world....

The ‘Gamma Factory initiative’ – an international team of scientists – is currently exploring a novel research tool: They propose to develop a source of high-intensity gamma rays using the existing accelerator facilities at CERN. To do this, specialized ion beams will be circulated in the SPS and LHC storage rings, which will then be excited using laser beams so that they emit photons. In the selected configuration, the energies of the photons will be within the gamma radiation range of the electromagnetic spectrum....

Seadragons (Phyllopetryx taeniolatus) live off the coast in western and southern Australia. An international team involving evolutionary biologist Axel Meyer from the University of Konstanz has now found the genetic basis for some external characteristics of the seadragon, like its lack of teeth and its distinct leaf-like appendages. The team also localized the sex-determination gene in the seadragon genome. The study was published on August 18, 2021, in Science Advances....

In the last two decades, technological leaps have allowed telescopes to separate the light from a parent star and a much-dimmer orbiting object. In 1995, this new capability produced the first direct images of a brown dwarf orbiting a star. The first direct image of planets orbiting another star followed in 2008. “Over the past 20 years, we’ve been leaping down and down in mass,” Bowler said of the direct imaging capability, noting that the current limit is about 1 Jupiter mass....

Better international sequencing efforts are needed to track and respond to new SARS-CoV-2 variants. The lack of sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 variants by the U.S. and other countries is imperiling the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, argues Dana Crawford of Case Western Reserve University in a new Viewpoint published in the journal PLOS Genetics. Surveillance is essential to a successful and rapid response to disease outbreaks, but public health surveillance has traditionally focused on monitoring case numbers, hospitalizations, and deaths....

Scientists using data from the lunar-orbiting twins of NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission are gaining new insight into how the face of the moon received its rugged good looks. A report on the asymmetric distribution of lunar impact basins is published in this week’s edition of the journal Science. “Since time immemorial, humanity has looked up and wondered what made the man in the moon,” said Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge....

The Mars 520-d experiment is an international test run by the Russian Academy of Science, in conjunction with the ESA and the Chinese space agency. The experiment placed a six-man crew in a simulated spaceship en route to Mars for 520 consecutive days between 2010 and 2011. The goal of this experiment was to find out how astronauts would fare physiologically and psychologically under such isolated conditions. The volunteers were thoroughly monitored by daily blood and urine sampling, as well as having their sleep patterns monitored....

ESA’s Herschel space observatory has made detailed observations of surprisingly hot molecular gas that may be orbiting or falling towards the supermassive black hole lurking at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Our local black hole is located in a region known as Sagittarius A* – Sgr A* – after a nearby radio source. It has a mass about four million times that of our Sun and lies around 26 000 light-years away from the Solar System....

That was the key finding of a UO-led study that followed 261 Shuar children, ages 4 to 11, over 20 months. Elevated immune function, tied to chronic exposure to soil-transmitted parasitic worms, was linked to a growth reduction of up to 49 percent. The research was detailed in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “This research provides direct evidence for tradeoffs between immune function and growth in a population that’s experiencing significant environmental challenges,” said Josh Snodgrass, a biological anthropologist at the UO and study co-author....

In the UW-led study, a small increase in the levels of fine particle pollution (PM2.5 or particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or smaller) averaged over a decade at specific addresses in the Seattle area was associated with a greater risk of dementia for people living at those addresses. “We found that an increase of 1 microgram per cubic meter of exposure corresponded to a 16% greater hazard of all-cause dementia. There was a similar association for Alzheimer’s-type dementia,” said lead author Rachel Shaffer, who conducted the research as a doctoral student in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences....

The launch is just the first leg of a mission that will last more than three weeks. During the course of the 25.5-day mission, Orion is planned to travel approximately 40,000 miles beyond the Moon and return to Earth. Known as Artemis I, the mission is a critical part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, in which the agency explores for the benefit of humanity. It’s a critical test for NASA, the SLS rocket, and the Orion spacecraft before flying astronauts on the Artemis II mission....