Enigma of the Earliest Galaxies in the Universe

Today’s stories include Why the origin of life and the Universe itself might be forever unknowable, and more.

Webb telescope spots signs of the universe's biggest stars, reports Phys.org. "So far, the largest stars observed anywhere have a mass of around 300 times that of our Sun. But the supermassive star described in a new study has an estimated mass of 5,000 to 10,000 Suns."

Something really weird must have happened for black holes to not possess a singularity where the laws of physics break down, observes Big Think. "Singularities are pathological in mathematical terms: it's as though you divided by zero, and everything becomes ill-defined."

The most powerful black holes in the universe may finally have an explanation, reports Robert Lea published for Space.com--"Quasars, the most extreme phenomena in the universe, are triggered when galactic collisions deliver gas to feeding black holes, new research suggests."

Astronomical archaeologists get a peek of the first stars in the Universe, reports Don Lincoln for Big Think. "The oldest stars in the Universe were made primarily of hydrogen and helium and were much bigger than the stars we see today. They also died differently in supernovae that were not nearly as violent and produced clouds with relatively little iron."

The Outer Space Origin of Ice Age Cycles --"Findings indicate that the glacial periods were primarily influenced by astronomical forces in quite a different way than it works in the present day."

James Webb's 'too massive' galaxies may be even more massive, reports the Niels Bohr Institute--"A new study from the Cosmic Dawn Center suggests an effect which has never before been studied at such early epochs, indicating that the galaxies may be even more massive."

New models shed light on life’s origin, reports the University of Rochester. "The research reveals clues about the physical and chemical characteristics of Earth when life is thought to have emerged."

Why the origin of life and the Universe itself might be forever unknowable--There might be a hard limit to our knowledge of the Universe, reports Big Think. "We can only see back in time to 300,000 years after the Big Bang. We don't exactly know what happened before that. In much the same way, biologists can trace all of life back to a single kind of organism. But we do not know what came before it."

Evolution is making us treat AI like a human, and we need to kick the habit, argues The Conversation. The phrase “competence without comprehension” might be the best antidote to our innate compulsion to treat AI like humans.

Weird alien world may be a planetary sauna--Super-Earth orbiting nearby star may be blanketed in a thick, steam-like atmosphere, reports Science." Amadeo Castro-González, an astronomer at the Spanish Astrobiology Center who led a recent study describing the steamy planet, says the find could represent a new class of exoplanets, something between a rocky planet and a gas giant. 'We propose these are inflated super-Earths.'"

Radiation belt seen beyond our solar system for the 1st time, reports Robert Lea for Space.com--Astronomers have observed a radiation belt around an ultracool dwarf star, the first ever seen outside the solar system.

Curated by The Galaxy Report editorial staff.