Astronomers using the MeerKAT telescope at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory have spotted an object which rapidly brightened by more than a factor of three over a period of three weeks. This is the first new ‘transient’ source discovered with MeerKAT. Astronomers call an astronomical event ‘transient’ when it appears or disappears, or becomes […]

An international team of scientists from Japan and the United States has found ribose and other bioessential sugars in two primitive meteorites, NWA 801 and Murchison. Sugars are indispensable molecules for life, working along essential metabolic pathways and as constituents of sugar phosphate backbone of genetic molecules. Ribose is particularly essential as a building block […]

An international team of astronomers has detected 27 new supernova remnants using a data release of the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA survey (GLEAM) from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), a low-frequency radio telescope at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia. The GLEAM survey maps the sky using radio waves at frequencies between […]

A new glass material, developed by Tampere University researcher Erkka Frankberg and colleagues, appears to possess metal-like ductility at room temperature. “Conventional glass is brittle and easily shatters under pressure,” Dr. Frankberg said. “We discovered a way to manufacture glass that exhibits ductile behavior. In other words, our glass is tougher than conventional glass.” Dr. […]

Professional and amateur astronomers from the NASA-funded ‘Backyard Worlds: Planet 9’ project have spotted a co-moving pair of low-mass brown dwarfs in the solar neighborhood. To shine bright, stars need the energy derived from the fusion of hydrogen atoms deep in their interiors. If too small, hydrogen fusion can’t occur, so the object cools, darkens, […]