Science

Scientists discover ‘cosmic baby’

Scientists have discovered a neutron star that they describe as a “cosmic baby.”

The neutron star, Swift J1818.0−1607, is only 240 years old, making it “a veritable newborn by cosmic standards,” according to a NASA statement. The celestial object was spotted by NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory on March 12. At that time, the neutron star released a massive burst of X-rays. Additional research by the European Space Agency’s XMM Newton observatory and NASA’s NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array), helped scientists discover more details about the star’s physical characteristics. This information was then used to estimate its age.

Located in the constellation Sagittarius, Swift J1818.0−1607 is located 16,000 light-years away. A light-year, which measures distance in space, equals about 6 trillion miles. “Because light takes time to travel these cosmic distances, we are seeing light that the neutron star emitted about 16,000 years ago, when it was about 240 years old,” NASA explains.

BLACK HOLE DEVOURING A NEUTRON STAR CAUSED RIPPLES IN SPACE AND TIME, SCIENTISTS SAY

Some of the densest objects in the universe, neutron stars are the remnants of massive stars that go supernova and explode, according to NASA. Swift J1818.0−1607, it says, has twice the mass of our Sun, but its volume is 1 trillion times smaller.

Illustration showing magnetic field lines protruding from a highly magnetic neutron star.
(ESA)

“With a magnetic field up to 1,000 times stronger than a typical neutron star — and about 100 million times stronger than the most powerful magnets made by humans — Swift J1818.0−1607 belongs to a special class of objects called magnetars, which are the most magnetic objects in the universe,” explained NASA, in the statement. “And it appears to be the youngest magnetar ever discovered. If its age is confirmed, that means light from the stellar explosion that formed it would have reached Earth around the time that George Washington became the first president of the United States.”

The research has been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The study was led by Paolo Esposito of the School for Advanced Studies (IUSS) in Pavia, Italy

MYSTERIOUS REPEATING RADIO SIGNALS FROM OUTSIDE OUR GALAXY DISCOVERED

“This object is showing us an earlier time in a magnetar’s life than we’ve ever seen before, very shortly after its formation,” said Nanda Rea, a researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona and principal investigator on XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observation campaigns.

Swift J1818.0−1607 is one of just 31 confirmed magnetars. In comparison, there are over 3,000 known neutron stars. “Maybe if we understand the formation story of these objects, we’ll understand why there is such a huge difference between the number of magnetars we’ve found and the total number of known neutron stars,” said Rea.

The NuSTAR telescope is led by Caltech and managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

77-YEAR-OLD AMATEUR ASTRONOMER HELPS MAKE STUNNING DISCOVERY

Last year, in a separate project, scientists detected a black hole devouring a neutron star.

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In another project, astronomers recently discovered a strange repeating rhythm of fast radio bursts coming from outside our galaxy. The radio bursts come from 500 million light-years away, according to a statement released by MIT, which participated in the research.

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Giant squid washes up on South African beach in rare sighting

A fully intact giant squid washed up on a beach in South Africa earlier this month – a rare sighting for an animal that was only first captured on video in its natural habitat seven years ago.

“Seeing it at first really took my breath away,” Adéle Grosse, who spotted the dead animal while on a walk with her husband in Brittania Bay, told Live Science. “Honestly, it looked like a majestic prehistoric animal.”

Giants squids, who usually live between 2,000 and 3,200 feet below the surface, are only seen once every few years and washed up carcasses are rarely intact, Michael Vecchione, an invertebrate zoologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, told the publication. A live giant squid has never been caught.

Grosse estimated the squid was about 13 feet long and weighed about 660 pounds, which is actually on the smaller side. Female giant squids can measure 60 feet across, according to Live Science.

SCIENTISTS UNLOCK SECRETS ABOUT MYSTERIOUS GIANT SQUID

The carnivorous creatures have eight arms and two longer tentacles all with powerful suction that help them capture prey, according to Vecchione.

Giant squids can feast upon fish, squids, octopuses, nautiluses, cuttlefish and even other giant squids.

Vecchione said giant squids bite off little pieces of their prey with their beak.

The squid’s “esophagus goes through the middle of the brain, so it has to bite pieces of food so that they’ll be small enough to squeeze through the brain,” he told Live Science.

Even the squid’s eyes are giant: at one-foot long they are the largest of any animal, according to Vecchione.

Grosse told the publication they weren’t sure how the squid died.

“We had big swells the night before, and it was my understanding that the swell washed up this beautiful squid onto the beach in the early hours of the morning,” she said. “We looked for bite marks or injuries and could not really find anything.”

After Grosse uploaded photos of the giant squid on social media, she connected with the curator of marine invertebrates at Iziko Museums of South Africa, Wayne Florence, who plans to study its DNA.

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The Iziko Museums of South Africa has the largest collection of giant squids specimens on the continent.

Chernobyl: US Forest Service helps reduce wildfire risk in contaminated zone

U.S. Forest Service experts have been working with their counterparts in Ukraine to help reduce the danger posed by wildfires near the site of the Chernobyl nuclear plant.

Earlier this year, forest fires in the radiation-contaminated area near the Chernobyl nuclear plant sparked concern about the potential release of contaminants.

The 1,000-square-mile Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was established after the April 1986 disaster at the plant that sent a cloud of radioactive fallout over much of Europe. The zone is largely unpopulated, although about 200 people have remained despite orders to leave.

CHERNOBYL’S RED FOREST MAPPED BY DRONES AS SCIENTISTS DISCOVER RADIOACTIVE HOTSPOTS

In a recent blog post, the U.S. Forest Service explained that Alan Ager, a research forester from the agency’s Rocky Mountain Research Station, had been working on the problem of wildfires in the area contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster.

Firefighters extinguish a fire during a forest fire in Ragovka, Ukraine. Fire from the radioactive Chernobyl zone was approaching the village of Ragovka, April 10, 2020.
(Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A workshop in 2017 kicked off the collaboration between American and Ukrainian experts. After the workshop, Ager and his retired colleague Richard Lasko, the former deputy director of the Forest Service’s Fire and Aviation Management Division, built a wildfire simulation system that can be used to predict hot spots within the contaminated areas.

The map used data compiled by the Life Sciences University in Kiev. “One of the primary findings from the study revealed that tight controls on access to Belarusian Polesie Radioecological Reserve since the mid-1990s dramatically lowered the frequency of human-caused fires, which also lowered the probability of those fires spreading radionuclides,” said the U.S. Forest Service in the blog post.

SCIENTISTS HAVE A NEW THEORY ON HOW THE CHERNOBYL DISASTER UNFOLDED

Radionuclides refer to the radioactive form of elements.

Blazes in the Chernobyl area have been a regular occurrence. They often start when residents set dry grass on fire in the early spring — a widespread practice in Ukraine, Russia and some other ex-Soviet nations that often leads to devastating forest fires.

Researchers used the modeling system to identify the best locations for what are known as “fuel breaks” — areas where fires can be cut off from the “fuel” they need to grow and spread radionuclides.

BEWARE RADIOACTIVE WILD BOARS: HUNTERS IN SWEDEN CONCERNED ABOUT CHERNOBYL’S FRIGHTENING LEGACY

In 2016, the U.S. Forest Service noted Ukraine set up the Chernobyl Radiation and Ecological Biosphere Reserve within the contamination zone. The biosphere contains areas designed for fire prevention and management.

Experts in Ukraine continue to work with the U.S. Forest Service to enhance these areas.

“The end result of this project is that the Ukrainians now have a state-of-the-science wildfire modeling system to guide decisions about managing wildfire risk in the contaminated areas,” said Ager in the statement.

CHERNOBYL IS GETTING A NEW LEASE ON LIFE – THANKS TO SOLAR POWER

In April, authorities in Ukraine said that the fires were extinguished. The country’s emergency services division said radiation levels in the capital, Kiev, about 60 miles south of the plant, were within norms.

Last year, in a separate project, Chernobyl’s ghostly Red Forest, one of the most radioactive sites on the planet, was mapped by specially equipped drones to measure the extent of its contamination.

Researchers from the U.K.’s University of Bristol, working as part of the National Centre of Nuclear Robotics (NCNR) traveled to the Chernobyl exclusion zone and harnessed drones to gain fresh insight into radiation levels at the stricken forest. This involved the first-ever use of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to measure gammas and neutrons at the site, as well as the first use of a fixed-wing drone for Chernobyl radiation mapping.

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In 2017, scientists published a new theory on the Chernobyl disaster that could shed fresh light on the world’s worst nuclear accident.

The Associated Press and Fox News’ Chris Ciaccia contributed to this article. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

Popular Uganda mountain gorilla Rafiki killed by poachers

One of Uganda’s rare mountain gorillas, a popular silverback called Rafiki, has been killed by poachers.

Rafiki, believed to be around 25, was the leader of a group of 17 mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site. He went missing on June 1 and his body was found the next day.

Rafiki, who was killed earlier this month by poachers
(Courtesy Uganda Wildlife Authority)

Four “poachers” have subsequently been arrested following an investigation into the gorilla’s death, Bashir Hangi, communications manager for Uganda Wildlife, announced Friday.

BABY GORILLA AT SEATTLE ZOO BADLY INJURED IN FAMILY SKIRMISH

Hangi said the poachers were found in possession of “bush pig meat and several hunting devices including a spear, rope snares, wires snares and a dog hunting bell”.

Hangi claims one of the men, Byamukama Felix, a resident of the Murole village, confessed to killing the gorilla in self-defense.

“He says that he had gone hunting in the park with Bampabenda Evarist, where they came into contact with the group. When the silverback charged at them, he speared it.”

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If found guilty of killing an endangered species, the men could face either a life sentence or a fine of $5.4 million, according to the BBC.

The national park and the estimated 400 mountain gorillas that inhabit it are popular with tourists worldwide. There are just over 1,000 mountain gorillas alive today.

In 2018, the mountain gorilla was removed from the list of critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It is now classified as endangered.

NASA delays launch of next Mars rover

NASA announced that it will delay the launch of its next Mars rover a few days, citing repair issues.

The Perseverance rover, which will look to see if there are any signs that life may have existed on the Red Planet, will now launch on July 20 instead of July 17.

“NASA and ULA are now targeting Monday, July 20, for launch of the Mars 2020 mission of the Perseverance Rover on an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida,” the space agency wrote in a blog post. “Additional time was needed for the team to repair an issue with the ground system equipment.”

The “Send Your Name to Mars” logo is installed on the Mars Perseverance rover on March 16, 2020, inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credits: NASA/JPL

NASA’S PERSERVERFANCE ROVER CARRYING ‘SPECIAL’ HIDDEN MESSAGE TO MARS

It was not related to the coronavirus pandemic, a NASA spokesman told Fox News via email. Instead, the agency’s rocket contractor had an issue with a crane, which has since been resolved.

United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno noted the delay “cost us about three days.”

The pandemic forced the entire agency to move to Stage 3 “mandatory telework status” in mid-March.

Days prior to that announcement, the space agency told Fox News the coronavirus pandemic had not yet impacted the timing of the Perseverance launch.

The slight delay still gives Perseverance plenty of room to travel to Mars. Space.com reports the launch window extends until Aug. 11, due to the limited alignment windows of Mars and Earth, something that happens once every 26 months.

The rover, which was recently renamed to Perseverance, will attempt to detect if there is any fossilized evidence of extraterrestrial beings, in addition to other tasks.

Perseverance will also have a small, autonomous helicopter, known as Ingenuity, that will let researchers understand the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on the Red Planet.

The Mars helicopter will travel with the rover to the Red Planet.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Once Perseverance lands on Mars at the Jezero Crater, it will join the still functioning Curiosity rover and the now-deceased Opportunity rover on the Red Planet. Unlike Curiosity or Opportunity, this rover will carry the “first helicopter that will fly on another planet,” NASA added.

NASA’s long-term goal is to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s.

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Fox News’ Christopher Carbone contributed to this story.

Tiny spider gets big close-up with photographer’s camera

I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.

A minuscule Hyllus diardi jumping spider has apparently learned the art of the selfie, getting up close and personal with a photographer’s camera, British news agency SWNS reports.

The tiny spider, which generally measures between 0.39 and 0.59 inches across and is small enough to be on a person’s fingertip, was captured in England by photographer Calvin Taylor Lee.

This cute, furry spider is keeping a close eye on things – as an amazing, close-up photo shows four of its beady eyes and fine facial hairs in vivid detail. The tiny Hyllus diardi jumping spider typically measure between just 1cm to 1.5cm across (0.39 to 0.59 inches) – small enough to sit on a fingertip. (Credit: SWNS)

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Lee, who hails from an industrial town in Lincolnshire, is known for his extreme close-up photos. He used a Sony a7RII with a macro lens to capture the remarkable photo.

Hyllus diardi, which are known as one of the world’s premier jumping spiders, generally reside in India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, China and Indonesia.

Females are usually larger than their male counterparts and they usually have gray or white hairs, with black eyes, according to Spider Identifications.

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The ingredients for life appear well before stars are born, researchers say

A newly published study says that the building blocks for life appear in stellar nurseries — areas in deep space where new stars are formed — well before the stars actually form.

The research notes that organic molecules methanol and acetaldehyde have been found in these stellar nurseries “hundreds of thousands of years” before the stars actually form, according to a University of Arizona statement obtained by Fox News. This flies in the face of previous research, which says that proto-stars need to be present before complex organic molecules can be observed.

“These starless cores we looked at are several hundred thousand years away from the initial formation of a protostar or any planets,” said the study’s co-author and University of Arizona astronomy professor Yancy Shirley in a statement. “This tells us that the basic organic chemistry needed for life is present in the raw gas prior to the formation of stars and planets.”

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER DISTANT ‘MIRROR IMAGE OF THE EARTN AND THE SUN

The study’s lead author, Samantha Scibelli, notes that researchers have long debated where and how to look for the building blocks of life and how they end up on planets other than Earth.

“The exact processes at play are still being debated, because the theoretical models still don’t quite match what we see,” Scibelli added. “With this paper, we can better constrain the mechanisms of formation that might be taking place by telling the theorists how abundant these molecules are.”

The findings have been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

As of June 2020, more than 4,000 exoplanets have been identified, including a “mirror image” of the Earth and sun that was discovered earlier this month.

Scibelli, a graduate student at the university, added that previous research focused on one molecule, methanol, to look for life. In the new study, methanol was found in all 31 of the pre-stellar cones, but 70 percent of them also contained acetaldehyde, which the researchers believe provides “evidence that complex organic molecules are much more widespread in nascent star-forming regions than previously thought.”

MOLECULAR OXYGEN DISCOVERED IN ANOTHER GALAXY FOR FIRST TIME EVER

“Inside these cores, which we think of as birthplaces, cocoons and nurseries of low-mass stars similar to our sun, the conditions are such that it’s hard to even create these molecules,” Scibelli explained. “By doing surveys like this, we can understand better how precursors to life come into existence, how they migrate and enter solar systems at later stages of star formation.”

The findings in the research and particularly that in the Taurus Molecular Cloud can give researchers new insight into how our own Solar System formed, Scibellia explained.

“Our solar system was born in a cloud like this, but the cloud is not there anymore for us to see,” she said. “Looking at objects in space is a bit like looking at a photo album with snapshots taken of different people at different stages of life, from their baby days all the way to old age, and in our case starless cores serve as stellar sonograms.”

Researchers recently discovered molecular oxygen for the first time ever outside the Solar System, 561 million light-years from Earth in the Markarian 231 galaxy.

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Titanic hero’s whistle, other artifacts, up for auction

A whistle that belonged to a hero of the Titanic disaster is up for auction in the U.K., along with a host of other artifacts.

The whistle is among a trove of items that belonged to Harold Lowe, a fifth officer on the Titanic.

“Harold Lowe was without doubt one of the heroes of the Titanic disaster,” explained auctioneer Andrew Aldridge of U.K. auction house Henry Aldridge & Son in a statement emailed to Fox News. The archive has been in the possession of Lowe’s direct descendants.

The Titanic hit an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. ship’s time on April 14, 1912, and sank just over two hours later with the loss of more than 1,500 lives. The wreck, which is lying on seabed at a depth of 12.467 feet, is approximately 350 miles south of Newfoundland.

NEW TITANIC IMAGES SHOW THE WRECK’S ‘SHOCKING’ DETERIORATION

Lowe commanded Titanic’s lifeboat 14 and retrieved survivors from the icy waters. The officer, who was born in North Wales, was portrayed by Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd in James Cameron’s blockbuster Hollywood movie “Titanic.”

The whistle belonged to Harold Lowe, a fifth officer on the Titanic.
(Henry Aldridge & Son)

It is not known whether the whistle, engraved with Lieut. H.G. Lowe RNR (Royal Naval Reserve), was used by the officer on the night Titanic sank. “It is unknown if this was the whistle Officer Lowe had on Titanic, however it is without doubt his Officer’s whistle,” explained Aldridge, in the statement emailed to Fox News. The whistle has a pre-sale estimate of $2,526 to $3,788.

Other items in the auction include a photograph of officers on the Titanic rescue ship Carpathia that is signed by the officers, as well as Carpathia’s captain Arthur Rostron. The photo has a pre-sale estimate of $7,578 to $12,628. The auction takes place on June 20.

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More than 100 years after the Titanic’s sinking, the disaster continues to be a source of fascination.

A signed photo of leading officers on the rescue ship Carpathia that was owned by Lowe.
(Henry Aldridge & Son)

In 2017, a sea-stained letter recovered from the body of a Titanic victim was sold at auction for $166,000. A year prior, the sextant used by the captain of rescue ship Carpathia sold for just under $97,000.

A cup presented to the captain by Titanic survivor Molly Brown to the Carpathia captain sold for $200,000 in 2015.

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Last year remarkable images from the Titanic wreck site revealed the doomed liner’s deterioration on the North Atlantic seabed.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

Scientists discover distant ‘mirror image’ of the Earth and the sun

Scientists have discovered a potentially habitable exoplanet and its star that are a “mirror image” of the Earth and the sun.

Experts from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, Germany, led an international team of astronomers in the discovery of the exoplanet-star-pair.

Exoplanet KOI-456.04 is less than twice the size of Earth, but orbits a sun-like star, explains the Max Planck Institute, in a statement. The star is just over 3,000 light-years from the solar system.

MASSIVE, ROTATING DISK GALAXY FROM THE EARLY UNIVERSE DISCOVERED

A light-year, which measures distance in space, equals about 6 trillion miles.

A view of Earth’s horizon as the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean. This image was taken by an Expedition 7 crew member onboard the International Space Station – file photo.
(NASA)

“KOI-456.04 sits in a region of the stellar habitable zone – the distance range around a star admitting liquid surface water on an Earth-like planet – that is comparable to the Earth’s position around the Sun,” the scientists add, in the statement.

Experts also note that KOI-456.04’s host star is unlike the central stars of most other exoplanets.

77-YEAR-OLD AMATEUR ASTRONOMER HELPS MAKE STUNNING DISCOVERY

“Its host star, called Kepler-160, actually emits visible light; the central stars of almost all other exoplanets, on the other hand, emit infrared radiation, are smaller and fainter than the Sun and therefore belong to the class of red dwarf stars,” explains the Institute, in the statement.

The newly discovered planet candidate KOI-456.04 and its star Kepler-160 (second panel from above) have great similarities to Earth and Sun (top panel). (© MPS/René Heller)

The research is published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Scientists used a new search algorithm to discover planet candidate KOI-456.04, which has a 1.9 Earth radii and an orbital period of 378 days. “The surface conditions on KOI-456.04 could be similar to those known on Earth, provided its atmosphere is not too massive and non-Earth-like,” explains the Max Planck Institute, in the statement. “The amount of light received from its host star is about 93 percent of the sunlight received on Earth.”

BRIGHTEST EVER SUPERNOVA DISCOVERED, STUNNING SCIENTISTS

However, experts also note that more data is needed to formally declare KOI-456.04 a planet. “It cannot currently be ruled out completely that KOI-456.04 is, in fact, a statistical fluke or a systematic measurement error instead of a genuine planet,” they write. “The team estimates the chances of a planetary nature of KOI-456.04 to be about 85 percent pro planet. Obtaining a formal planetary status requires 99 percent.”

The Sonneberg Observatory in Germany, the University of Göttingen, the University of California in Santa Cruz, and NASA also participated in the research.

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The Max Planck Institute, along with an international team of astronomers, was recently involved in the discovery of a massive, rotating disk galaxy from the early universe.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

Stunning strawberry moon thrills skywatchers

Across the globe, skywatchers have been enjoying the stunning June full moon or strawberry moon.

The moon became full at 3:12 p.m. ET Friday and will appear full into early Sunday morning, NASA explains, on its website.

“This moon is named Strawberry Moon as a reference to the time of harvesting strawberries in North America, originally from Native American tribes who used the moon as an indicator of when the fruit would be ripe,” explained Zoltan Toth-Czifra, founder of Under Lucky Stars, in a statement emailed to Fox News.

GET SET FOR STRAWBERRY MOON: NASA’S TOP TIPS FOR JUNE SKYWATCHERS

Toth-Czifra also noted that a reduction in pollution as a result of coronavirus lockdowns will help skywatchers looking for the best possible view of the strawberry moon.

The strawberry full moon, as part of a penumbral lunar eclipse, is seen silhouetted in Malaga, Spain, on June 5, 2020
(Photo by Jesus Merida/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“In the current climate, a lower than average level of pollution combined with a good weather forecast means the view will be even clearer,” he explained. “As always, the moon will affect the Earth’s ocean, and the extra gravitational pull means we should brace ourselves for some spectacular tides worldwide.”

Friday’s full moon was also a penumbral lunar eclipse for skywatchers in Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania, NASA explained, in a tweet on Friday. In a penumbral lunar eclipse, part of the Moon passes through the outer part of Earth’s shadow, the space agency said.

SUPER PINK MOON THRILLS SKYWATCHERS

While skywatchers in places such as Malaga, Spain, and the U.K. saw the strawberry moon in all its glory, rain and cloud in New York City obscured the celestial event on Friday night. The moon, however, was clearly visible on Saturday.

The strawberry full moon, as part of a penumbral lunar eclipse, rises over the horizon as a man sits at Malagueta beach in Spain, June 5, 2020.
(Photo by Jesus Merida/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

NASA notes that the June full moon was also known historically as the mead moon or honey moon in Europe.

Mead is an alcoholic drink made from a fermented mixture of honey and water. “Some writings suggest that the time around the end of June was when honey was ripe and ready to be harvested from hives or from the wild, which made this the ‘sweetest’ Moon,” explains NASA.

SNOW MOON STUNS AS ONE OF THE LARGEST FULL MOONS OF 2020 LIGHTS UP THE SKY

The Old Farmer’s Almanac notes that the name strawberry moon was used by every Algonquin tribe. The celestial event was also known as the rose moon in Europe, it adds.

The June full moon may also be linked to the phrase “honeymoon,” according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

“In the past, June has been the most popular month for weddings, leading some to suggest that the Moon’s honey-colored appearance in June was the origin of the ‘honeymoon’ phrase,” it explains on its website. “Nowadays, however, the most popular wedding months are August, September, and October, plus a little research shows that the Moon’s color never did have anything to do with that expression.”

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The strawberry moon, however, is not a supermoon. The May full moon, known as the flower moon, was the last supermoon of 2020.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

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