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Category: evolution

Dead galaxy spotted as black hole slowly starves it

Dr. Francesco D’Eugenio: “The galaxy looks like a calm, rotating disc. That tells us it didn’t suffer a major, disruptive merger with another galaxy.”

What were galaxies like in the early universe? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as an international team of scientists investigated the formation and evolution of the first galaxies after the Big Bang. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions of the early universe and what this could mean for the development of life throughout the cosmos.

For the study, the researchers used a combination of data obtained from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) located in Chile to examine “Pablo’s Galaxy” (officially designated as GS-10578) and is estimated to have existed approximately three billion years after the Big Bang. For context, the Big Bang is estimated to have occurred approximately 13.8 billion years ago. Using this data, the researchers discovered that Pablo’s Galaxy had a very short lifespan due to a lack of star formation from the galaxy’s black hole heated all of the cold gas, preventing new stars from forming.

Strange New Side of Viral Evolution Revealed on the International Space Station

Viruses that infect bacteria can still do their job in microgravity, but space changes the rules of the fight.

In a new experiment conducted aboard the International Space Station, scientists found that viruses which infect bacteria can still successfully infect E. coli under near-weightless microgravity conditions. While infection still occurred, the interaction between viruses and bacteria unfolded differently than it does on Earth. The research, led by Phil Huss of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A., was published today (January 13th) in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.

A microscopic arms race in an unusual environment.

Scientists say evolution works differently than we thought

As species evolve, random genetic mutations arise. Some of these mutations become fixed, meaning they spread until every individual in a population carries the change. The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution argues that most mutations that reach this stage are neutral. Harmful mutations are quickly eliminated, while helpful ones are assumed to be extremely rare, explains evolutionary biologist Jianzhi Zhang.

Zhang and his colleagues set out to test whether this idea holds up when examined more closely. Their results pointed to a major problem. The researchers found that beneficial mutations occur far more often than the Neutral Theory allows. At the same time, they observed that the overall rate at which mutations become fixed in populations is much lower than would be expected if so many helpful mutations were taking hold.

Astronomers Witness ‘Missing Link’ in Planet Formation

“What’s so exciting is that we’re seeing a preview of what will become a very normal planetary system,” said Dr. John Livingston.

How are the most common types of planets made? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated the intricate processes responsible for the most common types of exoplanets—super-Earths and sub-Neptunes—to form and evolve. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand not only planetary formation and evolution, but for solar systems, as our solar system doesn’t have super-Earths or sub-Neptunes.

For the study, the researchers conducted a multi-year examination of the V1298 Tau system, which is an approximately 20-million-year-old system located about 350 light-years from Earth and hosts four growing exoplanets orbiting in a tight formation, and each being between 5 to 10 Earth radii. Given the young age of the system, as our solar system is about 4.5 billion-years-old, the goal of the study was to predict the sizes of the four planets when they stop evolving.

In the end, the researchers ascertained that while the four young planets are between 5–10 Earth radii right now, they will end up being between 1–4.5 Earth radii when they are done forming. They note this is due to the rapid cooling they underwent after initial formation due to their small masses and large radii, resulting in their shrinking while losing their atmospheres, with one of the researchers calling this the “missing link” in understanding the formation of super-Earth and sub-Neptunes, which are the most common types of exoplanets.

Young galaxies grow up fast: Research reveals unexpected chemical maturity

Astronomers have captured the most detailed look yet at faraway galaxies at the peak of their youth, an active time when the adolescent galaxies were fervently producing new stars.

The observations focused on 18 galaxies located 12.5 billion light-years away. They were imaged across a range of wavelengths from ultraviolet to radio over the past eight years by a trio of telescopes: NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope; NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST); and ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) in Chile, of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a partner. Data from other ground-based telescopes were also used to make measurements, such as the total mass of stars in the galaxies.

“With this sample, we are uniquely poised to study galaxy evolution during a key epoch in the universe that has been hard to image until now,” says Andreas Faisst, a staff scientist at IPAC, a science and data center for astronomy at Caltech. “Thanks to these exceptional telescopes, we have spatially resolved these galaxies and can observe the stages of star formation as they were happening and their chemical properties when our universe was less than a billion years old.”

New framework unifies space and time in quantum systems

Quantum mechanics and relativity are the two pillars of modern physics. However, for over a century, their treatment of space and time has remained fundamentally disconnected. Relativity unifies space and time into a single fabric called spacetime, describing it seamlessly. In contrast, traditional quantum theory employs different languages: quantum states (density matrix) for spatial systems and quantum channels for temporal evolution.

A recent breakthrough by Assistant Professor Seok Hyung Lie from the Department of Physics at UNIST offers a way to describe quantum correlations across both space and time within a single, unified framework. Assistant Professor Lie is first author, with Professor James Fullwood from Hainan University serving as the corresponding author. Their collaboration creates new tools that could significantly impact future studies in quantum science and beyond. The study has been published in Physical Review Letters.

In this study, the team developed a new theoretical approach that treats the entire timeline as one quantum state. This concept introduces what they call the multipartite quantum states over time. In essence, it allows us to describe quantum processes at different points in time as parts of a single, larger quantum state. This means that both spatially separated systems and systems separated in time can be analyzed using the same mathematical language.

‘Fish Mouth’ Filter Removes 99% of Microplastics From Laundry Waste

The ancient evolution of fish mouths could help solve a modern source of plastic pollution.

Inspired by these natural filtration systems, scientists in Germany have invented a way to remove 99 percent of plastic particles from water. It’s based on how some fish filter-feed to eat microscopic prey.

The research team has already filed a patent in Germany, and in the future, they hope their creation will help curb a ubiquitous form of plastic pollution that many are unaware of.

Bird feeders have caused a dramatic evolution of California hummingbirds

Evolution doesn’t always take thousands or millions of years. Sometimes it happens right before our eyes.

Such is the case with the Anna’s hummingbird, a species that has undergone a dramatic transformation in just a few generations, all thanks to the advent of hummingbird feeders.

Beaks have grown longer and larger, and ranges have expanded to follow the feeders.

Study unveils the dual nature of a young stellar object

Astronomers from the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) in India and elsewhere have conducted a long-term photometric and spectroscopic study of a young stellar object known as V1180 Cassiopeiae. Results of the study, published December 23 on the arXiv preprint server, unveil the dual nature of this object.

Young stellar objects (YSOs) are stars in the early stages of evolution; in particular, protostars and pre-main sequence (PMS) stars. They are usually observed embedded in dense molecular clumps, environments containing plenty of molecular gas and interstellar dust.

Given that episodic accretion processes occur in YSOs, these objects may experience accretion-driven outbursts. Astronomers usually divide such events into EX Lup (also known as EXors) and FU Ori outbursts (or FUors). EXors are a few magnitudes in amplitude, and last from a few months to one or two years. FUors are more extreme and rare as they can be up to 5–6 magnitudes in amplitude and last from decades to even centuries.

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