Big Bang Afterglow Reveals the Universe’s Hidden Structures to How Aliens Will Actually Make 1st Contact (The Galaxy Report)
Shadows in the Big Bang Afterglow Reveal Invisible Cosmic Structures--Cosmologists are using secondary signatures from the cosmic microwave background to map the universe’s hidden matter, reports Zack Savitsky for Quanta.
BBC Science: How aliens will actually make first contact with humanity, a scientist explains. "The year is 2063 and brilliant scientist Zefram Cochrane has just carried out the first successful test flight of a ‘warp engine’, unlocking the seemingly impossible possibilities of faster-than-light travel."
Astrobiologists train an AI to find life on Mars--An artificial-intelligence model tested in Chile’s Atacama Desert could one day detect signs of life on other planets, reports Nature. "By targeting their sample collection on the basis of AI feedback, the researchers were able to reduce their search area by up to 97% and increase their likelihood of finding life by up to 88%. 'At the end, you could plop us down, and instead of wandering around for a long time, it would take us a minute to find life,'”
Mystery of Ancient Space Superstorms Deepens--A fresh analysis of tree-ring data suggests barrages of cosmic radiation that washed over Earth centuries ago may have come from sources besides our sun, reports Scientific American.
An ambitious new mission seeks the origin of the moons of Mars--"“It’s a very scary mission,” says Tomohiro Usui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in Sagamihara. The spacecraft’s daunting tasks will include multiple touchdowns on a heavily cratered world. The chief goal is to settle a debate over the origin of the moons. Did the Red Planet steal them from the asteroid belt, or did they form after an asteroid smashed into Mars? The answer carries implications for satellites elsewhere and perhaps even for the origin of water on Earth.
Water on Earth May Predate the Solar System, reports Sky & Telescope--"Astronomers studying the water vapor around a newborn star find that it’s chemically similar to ice in solar system comets, a possible source of Earth’s oceans."
A runaway black hole has been spotted fleeing a distant galaxy--The black hole was probably kicked out after two or three galaxies merged into one, reports Science News. "The putative black hole, fleeing its host galaxy, appears to be leaving a trail of newborn stars and shocked gas in its wake. If confirmed, the intergalactic escape could help astronomers learn more about what happens to black holes when galaxies collide."
From the hottest to the coldest places in the Universe--We can't go back to the Big Bang, nor ahead to the heat death of the Universe. Nevertheless, here are today's natural temperature extremes, reports Big Think. "Although the start of the hot Big Bang was the hottest the Universe ever achieved, some things, in our late-time Universe, still get extremely hot. Similarly, although the far future of the Universe will see everything approach absolute zero, nothing has gotten there yet, and 'cold things' aren't completely heat-free."
Are We Ethically Ready to Colonize Space? explores Diana Gitig for Ars Technica. "Should we even settle space? Why? Who gets to go? How will property rights be distributed and finite resources be allocated? Do we need to protect the environment in space? How will we do that? What happens when someone breaks the rules or needs medical care? Underlying hese questions, as yet unaddressed by any public or private institution currently shooting rockets into the air: who gets to decide?"