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Research presented today at the International Astronomical Union General Assembly in Beijing has found the first group of galaxies that is just like ours, a rare sight in the local Universe. The Milky Way is a fairly typical galaxy on its own, but when paired with its close neighbors — the Magellanic Clouds — it is very rare, and could have been one of a kind, until a survey of our local Universe found another two examples just like us....

It has long been known that the universe is filled with a web-like network of dark matter and gas. This “cosmic web” accounts for most of the matter in the universe, whereas galaxies like our own Milky Way make up only a small fraction. Today, the gas between galaxies is almost totally transparent because it is kept ionized– electrons detached from their atoms–by an energetic bath of ultraviolet radiation. Over a decade ago, astronomers noticed that in the very distant past — roughly 12....

This image, taken during the historic Jan. 1 flyby of what’s informally known as Ultima Thule, is the clearest view yet of this remarkable, ancient object in the far reaches of the solar system – and the first small “KBO” ever explored by a spacecraft. Obtained with the wide-angle Multicolor Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) component of New Horizons’ Ralph instrument, this image was taken when the KBO was 4,200 miles (6,700 kilometers) from the spacecraft, at 05:26 UT (12:26 a....

Quasars are supermassive black holes that live at the center of distant massive galaxies. They shine as the most luminous beacons in the sky across the entire electromagnetic spectrum by rapidly accreting matter into their gravitationally inescapable centers. New work from Carnegie’s Hubble Fellow Yue Shen and Luis Ho of the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (KIAA) at Peking University solves a quasar mystery that astronomers have been puzzling over for 20 years....

The U.S. National Science Foundation provided funding support for the work. The astronomers used the Gemini North Telescope on Hawaii, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, one of the twin telescopes of the International Gemini Observatory. The discovery was made possible by making observations of the motion of the black hole’s companion, a sunlike star that orbits the black hole at about the same distance as the Earth orbits the sun. Though there are likely millions of stellar-mass black holes in the Milky Way galaxy, those few that have been detected were uncovered by their energetic interactions with a companion star....

Bat-virus adaptation may explain species spillover, researchers say. A University of Saskatchewan (USask) research team has uncovered how bats can carry the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus without getting sick — research that could shed light on how coronaviruses make the jump to humans and other animals. Coronaviruses such as MERS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and more recently the COVID19-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus, are thought to have originated in bats....

Type Ia supernovae are violent stellar explosions. Observations of their brightness are used to determine distances in the universe and have shown scientists that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. But there is still too little known about the specifics of the processes by which these supernovae form. New research led by Carnegie’s Stella Kafka identifies a star, prior to explosion, which will possibly become a type Ia supernova....

The study, which appears this week in the journal Science, emerged from several once-separate efforts. One centered on the DNA Zoo, an international consortium spanning dozens of institutions including Baylor College of Medicine, the National Science Foundation-supported Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) at Rice University, the University of Western Australia and SeaWorld. Scientists on the DNA Zoo team had been working together to classify how chromosomes — which can be several meters long — fold up to fit inside the nuclei of different species from across the tree of life....

Mouse study connects body clock and memory recall. Can’t remember something? Try waiting until later in the day. Researchers identified a gene in mice that seems to influence memory recall at different times of day and tracked how it causes mice to be more forgetful just before they normally wake up. “We may have identified the first gene in mice specific to memory retrieval,” said Professor Satoshi Kida from the University of Tokyo Department of Applied Biological Chemistry....

By combining observations from the Japan-led Suzaku X-ray satellite and the European Space Agency’s infrared Herschel Space Observatory, scientists have connected a fierce “wind” produced near a galaxy’s monster black hole to an outward torrent of cold gas a thousand light-years across. The finding validates a long-suspected feedback mechanism enabling a supermassive black hole to influence the evolution of its host galaxy. “This is the first study directly connecting a galaxy’s actively ‘feeding’ black hole to features found at much larger physical scales,” said lead researcher Francesco Tombesi, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP)....

Dr. Avi Loeb, Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard, and Amir Siraj, a Harvard undergraduate student, have developed the new method to search for black holes in the outer solar system, based on flares that result from the disruption of intercepted comets. The study suggests that the LSST has the capability to find black holes by observing for accretion flares resulting from the impact of small Oort cloud objects....

Chi Chen, a Boston University graduate researcher, and Ranga Myneni, a BU College of Arts & Sciences professor of earth and environment, are authors on a new paper that reveals how humans are helping to increase the Earth’s plant and tree cover, which absorbs carbon from the atmosphere and cools our planet. The boom of vegetation, fueled by greenhouse gas emissions, could be skewing our perception of how fast we’re warming the planet....

Sheets of boron, or borophene — a close cousin of graphene, a material 200 times stronger than steel that promised to revolutionize electronics — were first theorized in the mid-1990s, but synthesizing the material has defied scientists for almost a decade. These composite materials, atomically thin with the greatest surface-to-mass ratios, are valuable for solar cells and energy storage, and are also accelerating the development of the fastest and smallest transistors, new touch screens, batteries, and water filters....

The left and right halves of our brains develop differently, as each hemisphere ‘specializes’ in certain functions. For example, for most people, the left hemisphere—controlling the right hand—is dominant for language. But brain asymmetry is sometimes affected in people with developmental or psychiatric disorders like autism, which is characterized by impaired social cognition, repetitive behavior, and restricted interests. Ph.D. student Merel Postema explains: “Previous studies have suggested that people with autism spectrum disorder are less likely to have the typical asymmetries for language dominance or hand preference....

A brainwave-controlled helicopter project was fully funded by Kickstarter, and is hoping to come into homes very soon. The project was initially posted as a DIY hack on Instructables two years ago, and it’s supposed to be an educational toy. The company behind the project, Puzzlebox, will release guides and software to make it easy for children as young as 10 to understand, rebuild and modify their helicopters. The system uses a NeuroSky MindWave Mobile EEG headset to record brainwave data....

May be worth further exploring cannabinoids as potential cancer treatment, say researchers. It may be worth exploring further the use of cannabidiol (‘CBD’) oil as a potential lung cancer treatment, suggest doctors in BMJ Case Reports after dealing with a daily user whose lung tumor shrank without the aid of conventional treatment. The body’s own endocannabinoids are involved in various processes, including nerve function, emotion, energy metabolism, pain and inflammation, sleep and immune function....

As carbon dioxide levels continue to climb in the Earth’s atmosphere, most current climate models project that the world’s oceans and trees will keep soaking up more than half of the extra CO2. However, researchers have spotted a problem with the capacity of plants to absorb more CO2. It’s now expected that this capacity will be much lower than previously thought, due to the limitations in soil nutrients. The scientists published their findings in the journal Nature Climate Change....

The scientists published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B¹. Out of the 1,800 large mammal fossils recovered at one of these sites, 92% belong to 10 different species of carnivores. Small cats, skunks, civet-sized hyenas, and red panda relatives were found in large numbers. A pair of sabercats, the leopard-sized Promegantereon ogygia and the tiger-sized Machairodus aphanistus were found next to a bear dog (Magericyon anceps)....

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is monitoring the evolution of a mysterious feature in a large hydrocarbon sea on Saturn’s moon Titan. The feature covers an area of about 100 square miles (260 square kilometers) in Ligeia Mare, one of the largest seas on Titan. It has now been observed twice by Cassini’s radar experiment, but its appearance changed between the two apparitions. The mysterious feature, which appears bright in radar images against the dark background of the liquid sea, was first spotted during Cassini’s July 2013 Titan flyby....

One way CBD appears to reduce the “cytokine storm” that damages the lungs and kills many patients with COVID-19 is by enabling an increase in levels of a natural peptide called apelin, which is known to reduce inflammation and whose levels are dramatically reduced in the face of this storm. Dental College of Georgia and Medical College of Georgia researchers reported this summer CBD’s ability to improve oxygen levels and reduce inflammation as well as physical lung damage in their laboratory model of deadly adult respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS....