"European astronomers succeeded for the first time to confirm the signatures predicted near Black Holes by Albert Einstein's theory of Relativity in the light of the cosmic X-ray background. The group of scientists led by Günther Hasinger, director at the Max-Planck-Institute for extraterrestrial Physics in Garching near Munich could identify the spectral fingerprint of iron atoms. ... The X-ray background originates in hundreds of millions of supermassive Black Holes[.]"
- Max Planck SocietyRelease, via Science Daily ----
"Data from the Cassini-Huygens satellite showing oxygen ions in the atmosphere around Saturn's rings suggests once again that molecular oxygen alone isn't a reliable indicator of whether a planet can support life."
- UMich release, via PhysLink News ----
"The smallest known star was recently discovered by a team of astronomers. Measuring a mere 15% larger than Jupiter... and smaller than some planets orbiting other stars, this planet is less than 1/10 the mass of our Sun. This discovery is helping to place a lower limit on the size of stars." "Astronomers have found a core burning star, like our own Sun, that's only 16% larger than Jupiter; although, it has 96 times as much mass. The observations were made using the European Southern Observatory's 8.2m VLT Kueyen telescope in Chile. Astronomers watched tracked 60 stars which were known to have a regular dip in brightness, when a dimmer object was passing in front. This survey found 7 of these low mass stars which eclipsed their brighter companion."
This is the smallest true star, only a bit larger than Jupiter but much denser (+16% size, 96x mass), calling it a "gnome" since "white dwarf" was already used for shunken, late-life stars and "brown dwarf" for Jupiter-like things that never lit.
- ESO,
via Space.COMBBC,
UniverseToday,
EurekaAlert,
and UtahSkies.Org/ ----
"The famous skeleton from Indonesia nicknamed the "Hobbit" does not belong to a modern human pygmy with a brain disease, as some scientists argue. " "A little over 3 feet tall, Homo floresiensis people flourished on Flores from 94,000 to 12,000 years ago, when a volcano killed them off."
-
FSU and National Geographic, via
Sci-Tech Today,
Nature,
New Scientist,
and Eureka Alert.
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