Category Astronomy/Space

A young Sun’s violent plasma eruptions may have helped ignite the spark of life on Earth. Astronomers observed a massive, multi-temperature plasma eruption from a young Sun-like star, revealing how early solar explosions could shape planets. These fierce events may have influenced the atmosphere and life-forming chemistry of the early Earth.

Although we rarely notice from Earth, the Sun is continuously hurling enormous clouds of charged plasma into space. These events, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), often occur alongside sudden bursts of light called solar flares. When particularly strong, CMEs can stretch far enough to disturb Earth’s magnetic field, producing dazzling auroras and sometimes triggering geomagnetic storms that disrupt satellites or even power grids.

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Billions of years ago, cyanobacteria began releasing oxygen through photosynthesis, but the atmosphere stayed oxygen-poor for ages. Researchers uncovered that trace compounds like nickel and urea may have delayed Earth’s oxygenation for millions of years. Experiments mimicking early Earth revealed how their concentrations controlled cyanobacterial growth, dictating when oxygen began to accumulate. As nickel declined and urea stabilized, photosynthetic life thrived, sparking the Great Oxidation Event...

In the race to make solar energy cheaper and more efficient, a team of UNSW Sydney scientists and engineers have found a way to push past one of the biggest limits in renewable technology.

Singlet fission is a process where a single particle of light—a photon—can be split into two packets of energy, effectively doubling the electrical output when applied to technologies harnessing the sun.

In a study appearing in ACS Energy Letters , the UNSW team—known as “Omega Silicon”—showed how this works on an organic material that could one day be mass-produced specifically for use with solar panels.

“A lot of the energy from light in...

An interstellar comet that originated outside our solar system has just made its closest pass to the sun, brightening dramatically and rapidly as it did so. The reason for the sudden extreme activity is currently puzzling scientists.

A stranger in the neighborhood
The latest visitor to our corner of the galaxy was f...