By comparing Hubble images from 2009 and 2020, astronomers discovered the Butterfly Nebula is being blasted by multiple unexplained jets from the dying star at its center. Researchers plan to use JWST images to study how the jets altering the nebula’s shape came to be.
Scientists used AI to guide self-assembling materials into forming never-before-seen nanostructures, including a ladder shape. The AI process induces the materials to self-assemble into new forms faster than previous methods, which could be used in developing microelectronics.
Researchers found Antarctic ice sheet loss is slowing in some places, due to weaker winds contributing less to ocean warming. The study suggests climate change mitigation could still prevent ice sheet collapse and the resulting sea level rise.
Researchers found humans are a significant source of deaths among wolves in national parks, and these deaths destabilized entire wolf packs. When humans caused the death of a wolf, most often through poaching, the chance their pack stayed together decreased by 27 percent, and the chance of reproduction decreased 22 percent for the next year.
Scientists created a method to record the nanometer-scale fluctuations in magnetic material that gives rise to magnetism. It’s the first method that allows them to see the movement of magnetically charged regions in objects — called magnetic domains — without damaging the object in the process.
High-elevation portions of the Greenland Ice Sheet experienced the warmest decade in the last thousand years from 2001 to 2011. Researchers found a 2.7 degree Fahrenheit increase in the ice sheet, which could add as much as 20 inches to sea levels by 2100 if melting continues at its current rate.
NASA announced the official end of its Geotail mission after the spacecraft’s remaining date recorder failed last year. A joint mission with Japan’s space agency, Geotail studied the magnetosphere starting in 1992, contributing to our understanding of how the Sun interacts with Earth’s magnetic field.