WSJ: US‚ Israelis Mulling Over an Eviction Notice for Hamas‚ or Something

Joe Rogan: Banana Republic Tactics

Haze is not just a problem for transportation systems. It also affects how well we can study planets beyond the Solar System that are covered in vast oceans. To better understand those worlds‚ researchers have decided to cook up that "alien haze" directly in the lab. So‚ they now know how those claggy skies affect observations from Earth‚ at least in some cases.Haze is created by solid particles suspended in the air. It changes how light interacts with the atmosphere and affects what astronomers might see on a distant planet. Water worlds are seen as strong potential candidates for extraterrestrial life so having a clear picture of their atmospheric composition is key.“Water is the first thing we look for when we’re trying to see if a planet is habitable‚ and there are already exciting observations of water in exoplanet atmospheres. But our experiments and modeling suggest these planets most likely also contain haze‚” lead author Dr Chao He‚ from Johns Hopkins University‚ said in a statement. “This haze really complicates our observations‚ as it clouds our view of an exoplanet’s atmospheric chemistry and molecular features.”The team mixed water vapor with other compounds and blasted the mix with ultraviolet light‚ simulating how starlight would create a photochemical reaction. The result was a haze that matched the observation of a specific and well-studied world: GJ 1214 b.The work shows that the properties of the hazes‚ how they might differ‚ and how they filter light‚ influence observations of exoplanets' atmospheres. The team calls for procedures to determine such properties and they are planning to cook up more hazes in the lab to have a more extensive catalog.“The big picture is whether there is life outside the solar system‚ but trying to answer that kind of question requires really detailed modeling of all different types‚ specifically in planets with lots of water‚” said co-author Sarah Hörst‚ a Johns Hopkins associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences. “This has been a huge challenge because we just don't have the lab work to do that‚ so we are trying to use these new lab techniques to get more out of the data that we’re taking in with all these big fancy telescopes.”There are over 5‚000 confirmed exoplanets‚ with new ones being discovered every week. Not every planet has an atmosphere and the worlds that do have wildly different compositions‚ with components unseen even in our quite diverse Solar System. These models will help us better understand some of these exoplanets.“People will be able to use that data when they model those atmospheres to try to understand things like what the temperature is like in the atmosphere and the surface of that planet‚ whether there are clouds‚ how high they are and what they are made of‚ or how fast the winds go‚” Hörst said. “All those kinds of things can help us really focus our attention on specific planets and make our experiments unique instead of just running generalized tests when trying to understand the big picture.”The study is published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

A storm struck the Black Sea earlier this week and wreaked havoc along the coast. Among the victims of the wind’s brutality was the Sevastopol harbor‚ in occupied Crimea‚ where the Russian navy kept its military dolphins. It is currently unclear whether the animals are still in their pens or whether they have jumped at the chance to escape. What is known‚ however‚ is that the pens are badly damaged. This information was discovered by H. I. Sutton‚ a journalist and open-source intelligence analyst who identified the situation after examining recent satellite images. “A massive storm battered Crimea on the Nov 26-27. Preliminary analysis reveals that the dolphin pens in Sevastopol harbor are gone(!) 100%”‚ Sutton wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).   IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.It has been suspected for some time that Russia has been deploying trained military dolphins during its invasion of Ukraine. In April 2022‚ the US Naval Institute (USNI) suggested the animals were being used to protect Russia’s naval base in the Black Sea.At the start of February last year‚ two dolphin pens were set up at the entrance to Sevastopol harbor. The Russian vessels at the base may be out of range of Ukrainian missiles‚ but they could be sabotaged by underwater efforts. This‚ it is believed‚ is the reason for the dolphin’s presence in the harbor. After the USSR collapsed‚ the dolphins it had trained during the Cold War were adopted by the Ukrainian military. But Russia took possession of them again when they annexed Crimea in 2014. According to Ukrainian sources‚ although Russia tried to expand the program‚ some of its marine soldiers refused to “defect”‚ going on hunger strike and dying “patriotically”. Russia is not alone in this method of aquatic defense. Many navies use trained dolphins and whales for specific jobs‚ which can include protecting vessels and bases‚ but also retrieving objects from the seafloor and locating mines. In addition to its dolphins‚ the Russian navy has also utilized beluga whales for its military exploits. In 2019‚ a suspected spy beluga was seen in Norwegian waters wearing a harness labeled “Equipment of St. Petersburg”. Norwegian biologists named it Hvaldimir‚ who they believe may have escaped from his enclosure. Hvaldimir has since been seen exploring the waters around Sweden. Regarding the potentially escaped dolphins‚ if they have indeed made a break for it‚ they will likely do well living in the Black Sea. There are other subspecies of bottlenose dolphins in those waters‚ as well as other cetacean species. That is‚ as long as they survive the dangers imposed by the ongoing conflict in the area. 

On April 3‚ 1965‚ NASA launched the Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power 10A (SNAP10A)‚ the first nuclear electric propulsion system ever fired into space. While in orbit‚ the ion thruster system was powered by a space-worthy nuclear reactor. Now‚ nearly 60 years later‚ the US is planning to launch a nuclear reactor into space once again.SNAP10A‚ designed to be capable of putting out a minimum of 500 watts for up to one year or longer‚ only operated for 43 days‚ before being shut down due to a fault in the Agena spacecraft. Since then‚ no other nuclear reactors have been sent by the US to keep it company on its predicted 4‚000-year orbit‚ and only a few were launched by the Soviet Union. Now‚ decades later‚ the US Air Force Research Laboratory is funding a new spacecraft‚ paying Lockheed Martin‚ SpaceNukes‚ and BWX Technologies $33.7 million to design and develop a new nuclear spacecraft as part of the Joint Emergent Technology Supplying On-Orbit Nuclear (JETSON) High Power program.Space is‚ famously‚ quite big. To explore it‚ you'll need a lot of energy. This might not be a huge problem if you are sending a probe to the Sun‚ given that it's a big ball of harvestable energy for any probe sensible enough to pack solar panels. But for missions where the Sun isn't so close‚ and possibly even for crewed missions to Mars and beyond‚ the US is hoping that nuclear-powered spacecraft will be the answer. Though deep space probes like Voyager 1 and 2 used radioisotope thermoelectric generators‚ these use decaying plutonium to generate electricity‚ more like a nuclear battery than a nuclear-powered craft.Solar arrays‚ Lockheed Martin stated in a press release‚ only generate around six lightbulbs worth of energy. JETSON will use a fission reactor to generate heat‚ which is then transferred to the Stirling engines to produce between 6 and 20 kilowatts of electricity. The company says this is four times the power of conventional solar arrays‚ without the added need to be in continuous sunlight.The project is currently in the preliminary design review stage‚ with hopes of moving to the critical stage soon.

Around 150‚000 years ago‚ an enormous‚ fat-headed human species known as Homo longi (or "Dragon Man") roamed the frosty forests of northern China. Despite its grotesque proportions‚ the ancient hominid has recently been identified as a sister lineage of Homo sapiens‚ and a new reconstruction of the extinct human’s face reveals what it might have looked like.Named after the Heilong Jiang River (meaning Black Dragon River) in China’s Harbin province‚ Homo longi first entered the archaeological record in 1933 when construction workers uncovered an exquisitely preserved skull while building a bridge. It wasn’t until 2021‚ however‚ that researchers realized that the cranium belonged to a previously unknown species.Dated to at least 146‚000 years ago‚ the skull’s owner occupied East Asia at a time when modern humans rubbed shoulders (and other body parts) with several of our close evolutionary relatives‚ including Neanderthals and Denisovans. Described as being “huge in size” and possessing a number of unique facial features such as square eye sockets‚ flat and low cheekbones‚ and enormous teeth‚ Homo longi would‚ at first glance‚ appear to be a somewhat distant relation of its three contemporary hominids.Homo longi had the largest skull of any known hominid.Image credit: Cicero MoraesHowever‚ researchers believe that Dragon Man may in fact be more closely related to modern humans than even our most celebrated sisters‚ the Neanderthals. Until now‚ though‚ we’d never had a good look at the face of this chunky sibling of ours.To represent the ancient hominid’s likeness‚ Brazilian expert Cícero Moraes (whose other facial reconstructions include "Hobbit" humans and Ancient Egyptian pharaohs) created a digital model of the skull using data and images provided by the authors of the 2021 study. The complete skull of another ancient human – Homo erectus – was then incorporated in order to fill in missing fragments of the Homo longi jaw and some of the teeth.The black and white digital bust of Homo longi‚ before the "artistic" addition of hair and skin color.Image credit: Cicero MoraesNext‚ Moraes added soft tissue markers by taking computerized tomography scans of modern humans and chimpanzees‚ and warping these to fit the contours of the Homo longi skull. This resulted in the creation of an “anatomically coherent” grayscale digital bust‚ based on objective data and reliable modeling techniques.However‚ because the resulting images are intended to be presented to the general public‚ Moraes gave himself permission to use an “artistic approach” when adding hair and coloration to the model‚ thus bringing out the more “vivid aspects” of Dragon Man’s appearance.Based on the final model‚ Moraes calculated that Homo longi had a head circumference of 65.1 centimeters (25.6 inches). This measurement gives Dragon Man the distinction of having by far the largest head of any known hominin‚ placing the extinct human’s bonce on par with gorillas and lions.According to the experts who analyzed the skull a couple of years ago‚ the species’ massive size may reflect an adaptation to Harbin’s freezing temperatures‚ which today reach minus 16 degrees Celsius (3.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in winter.The study detailing the facial reconstruction is posted to Ortog Online.

A high-temperature hydrothermal vent field has been discovered in the Galápagos Marine Reserve. As well as being home to hot chimneys towering up to 15 meters (49 feet) tall‚ scientists discovered a host of species never spotted in the region before‚ including a “living fossil” mollusk.The new-to-science cluster of chimney vents has been named Tortugas and it stretches 600 meters (1‚969 feet) along the western edge of the Los Huellos East volcano. Its discovery was made possible thanks to high-resolution mapping technologies that can create maps with up to 3-centimeter (1.2-inch) resolution. Discovering new hydrothermal vents is one benefit of the sophisticated tech‚ but the detail is so good that scientists can also use it to identify what animals are living in deep-sea environments. Littered along the volcano’s perimeter‚ the exploration expedition aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor (too) also stumbled upon 15 species that had never been observed in the region before.Among them was a mollusk known as a monoplacophoran‚ often referred to as a “living fossil” because when it was first discovered‚ it was only known from Paleozoic fossils. Humans discovered living monoplacophorans by 1952‚ in what the University of California Museum of Paleontology describes as “one of the most important discoveries of modern biology”.The monoplacophoran is the first to be seen alive in this environment.Image credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute (CC BY NC-SA 4.0)Might sound like a lot of hubbub over a small limpet-like animal‚ but they are thought to be among the most primitive of the mollusks and it may even have been a monoplacophoran-like ancestor that gave rise to the whole phylum. And to think‚ we might never have spotted this latest Galápagos resident were it not for some fancy tech.“These finely detailed maps created with state-of-the-art technology are exceptional for the area they cover and the seafloor complexity they reveal‚” said Schmidt Ocean Institute’s executive director‚ Dr Jyotika Virmani‚ in a statement emailed to IFLScience. “In addition to increasing the scientific knowledge of the region‚ it is wonderful to know they will be used in Ecuador's management of their own marine resources. Schmidt Ocean Institute is committed to stewarding new technologies that allow us to fully map and characterize the seafloor.”The same technology recently turned up another surprise in the Galápagos Marine Reserve in the form of two coral reefs. The larger of the two is roughly the size of eight football fields at 800 meters (0.5 miles) long‚ while the other is a modest 250 meters (0.2 miles). Believed to have been around for thousands of years‚ they’re home to a very healthy ecosystem made up of a rich diversity of stony coral species that sit between 370 and 420 meters (0.22 and 0.2 miles) below the surface.And when it comes to finding thermal vents in the Galápagos? If you haven’t got fancy mapping technologies to hand‚ you can always follow the crabs…

It has come to our attention that a number of people are confused about why the Moon is sometimes visible in the daytime‚ and appear to believe this is new behavior from Earth's favorite satellite.Stew Peters‚ a right-wing broadcaster and conspiracy theorist‚ posted what he appears to believe is proof of a new phenomenon to X (Twitter)‚ writing somewhat dramatically‚ "This full moon is out in the middle of the day. That's not supposed to happen."          IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.As well as a surprising number of reposts for what is a low-res picture of a normal Moon‚ other users agreed that something is wrong with the sky. "I've noticed this for a few years now. I walk 3x’s a day and always see the moon on one side and the sun on the other in the morning and up to late morning‚" one user replied‚ before throwing in a second conspiracy theory. "Something very artificial is going on here. The sun is now white‚ not yellow like it was when we were kids. The moon glows like a flashlight‚ doesn't look real. We definitely should question what is going on with our sky! Not to mention all the chemtrails."For starters‚ the Sun has not changed color. It remains blue-green‚ though it's possible that the Sun appeared yellower when you were younger due to higher levels of pollution. As for the Moon‚ though it appears brighter at night due to a lack of competing light‚ it has always been visible during the daytime‚ though for a few days around the new Moon it is invisible due to competition from the Sun's scattered light.A quick glance at the orbit of the Moon showing the Earth's spin should clear everything up nicely.       As you can see‚ the Moon reflects sunlight at the Earth (during most phases of the Moon) during the day and nighttime. It's not unusual‚ or proof of some sort of Moon-moving conspiracy‚ it's there most of the time. You just need to spend a little more time looking up at the sky. It's nice up there.

If you're not looking forward to getting old‚ now at least you have someone to blame: dinosaurs. According to a new study‚ it could be that mammals decline as they get old in a way many reptiles and amphibians do not as a side-effect of our ancestors' strategy for not being eaten by a raptor.There is a lot to unpack here‚ so let's back up a bit. You may have seen the memes about how a Greenland Shark is not a Christmas whim but a 400-year commitment. Although these inhabitants of the icy deep take slow living to extremes‚ they have a certain amount of company‚ mostly from reptiles. Tortoises that could have met Darwin and made it into the 21st century are a prominent example.Most reptiles‚ let alone amphibians‚ inhabit territory far more abundant in predators than the remote islands on which tortoises grow so large. Consequently‚ few get to reach such extravagant ages. Nevertheless‚ many reptiles have the capacity to live much longer than their mammalian counterparts‚ and do so in zoos or other safe locations‚ thanks to relatively little age-related decay.Professor João Pedro de Magalhães of the University of Birmingham‚ UK‚ has flipped the usual thinking on this topic on its head. From our mammalian perspective‚ aging is normal‚ and the question is how some reptiles manage to postpone it so well. The capacity of many amphibians to recover from injuries that our furry brethren need modern medicine to repair seems nothing short of miraculous. But what‚ de Magalhães ponders‚ if we're the unusual ones? What if the certainty of early aging is the exception‚ not the norm‚ a distinctively mammalian trait like fur or producing milk?If so‚ de Magalhães proposes‚ perhaps it came about through millions of years of battling for survival on a planet where ferocious predators were forever after us.de Magalhães calls the idea the “longevity bottleneck hypothesis”. Rather than being a speculative formula on how long wine can escape being drunk in the absence of a corkscrew‚ this refers to the idea that mammals evolved a live-fast-die-young approach in the Jurassic and Cretaceous and are still yet to fully throw it off.“While we see humans among different species that are among the longest living animals‚ there are many reptiles and other animals that have a much slower ageing process and show minimal signs of senescence over their lives‚” de Magalhães said in a statement. “Some of the earliest mammals were forced to live towards the bottom of the food chain‚ and have likely spent 100 million years during the age of the dinosaurs evolving to survive through rapid reproduction.” In other words‚ if you're going to be eaten by a Spinosaurus‚ it's best to focus on breeding at the first opportunity‚ not ensuring you're still fit and fertile at fifty. Come to think of it‚ aging may not be the only trait humans have inherited from those times."We see examples in the animal world of truly remarkable repair and regeneration‚” de Magalhães continued. “That genetic information would have been unnecessary for early mammals that were lucky to not end up as T Rex food. While we now have a plethora of mammals including humans‚ whales and elephants that grow big and live long‚ we and these mammals live with the genetic hangups from the Mesozoic era and we age surprisingly faster than many reptiles."If de Magalhães is right‚ we may be suffering the consequences in more ways than declining reproductive capacity or running speed as we age. The idea could‚ for example‚ offer insight into why humans seem more prone to cancer than most other animals.A comparison of the rates at which mammals‚ birds‚ reptiles and amphibians age shows there are no mammals that have the potential survival of the other four types of vertebrate.Image credit: de Magalhãess/Bioessays (CC BY 4.0)Although de Magalhães acknowledges that many reptiles‚ fish‚ and birds also age quickly‚ he stresses that many don't – whereas for mammals‚ rapid aging relative to size is universal‚ and disputes reports that naked mole rats are an exception. He offers the photolyase DNA protection system as an example of a genetic fountain of youth known to have been lost in non-marsupial mammals during the dinosaur era. The first reasonably large mammals to evolve after the dinosaurs' dominance ended‚ the pantodonts‚ had a lifespan short enough to puzzle paleontologists‚ de Magalhães notes. Gradually some mammals have thrown off some of the limitations placed by this past‚ de Magalhães thinks – but none have escaped it entirely.The idea remains very much a hypothesis‚ rather than an established theory. It may prove hard to reconcile with the recent conclusion that dinosaurs themselves lived shorter lives than previously suspected‚ but de Magalhães thinks there are ways to test it.While that process occurs‚ we politely request you not take out your resentment for this situation on the dinosaurs' descendants by being cruel to a bird. Then again‚ in the case of chickens‚ it seems like humanity may already be doing just that.The paper describing the hypothesis is published open access in Bioessays. 

A group of scientists recently made a significant discovery regarding the black hole positioned at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy. By utilizing NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory telescope‚ a team of physicists meticulously calculated the rotational velocity of the colossal black hole‚ Sagittarius A*. These findings were unveiled in the most recent issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Their analysis revealed that Sagittarius A*‚ situated approximately 26‚000 light-years away from our planet‚ is rotating at an astonishing speed. This rapid rotation exerts a tremendous force‚ effectively pulling and distorting the surrounding fabric of space-time‚ akin to compressing it like the squishing of a football‚ as reported by CNN. “With this spin‚ Sagittarius A* will be dramatically altering the shape of space-time in its vicinity‚” Ruth Daly‚ the lead author on the study‚ told CNN. “We’re used to thinking and living in a world where all the spatial dimensions are equivalent — the distance to the ceiling and the distance to the wall and the distance to the floor … they all sort of are linear‚ it’s not like one is totally squished up compared to the others.” “But if you have a rapidly rotating black hole‚ the space-time around it is not symmetric‚” Daly said‚ according to CNN. “The spinning black hole is dragging all of the space-time around with it … it squishes down the space-time‚ and it sort of looks like a football.” That may sound alarming‚ but don’t worry; the black hole is way too far away to affect us here on Earth. But‚ Daly said‚ understanding how black holes function can help scientists learn more about the formation and evolution of galaxies like our own. The post Giant black hole in our galaxy is spinning so fast it’s distorting space-time appeared first on Anomalien.com.