Category Astronomy/Space

1. Flatworm amputation, and space-exposed and Earth-bound worm sample schematics.
2. Amputation of double-headed worm from space results in double-headed morphology
3. Bacterial community composition of Earth-only and space-exposed D. japonica.

Flatworms (D. japonica) that spent 5 weeks aboard ISS are helping researchers led by Tufts University scientists to study how an absence of normal gravity and geomagnetic fields can have anatomical, behavioral, and bacteriological consequences, according to a paper to be published June 13 in Regeneration. The research has implications for human and animal space travelers and for regenerative and bioengineering science.

Planaria are frequently used for studies because of their remarkable ability to regenerate when parts of their bodies are amputated...

The Cosmic Web: A section of the virtual universe, a billion light years across, showing how dark matter is distributed in space, with dark matter halos the yellow clumps, interconnected by dark filaments. Cosmic void, shown as the white areas, are the lowest density regions in the Universe. Credit: Joachim Stadel, UZH

Researchers from the University of Zurich have simulated the formation of our entire Universe with a large supercomputer. A gigantic catalogue of about 25 billion virtual galaxies has been generated from 2 trillion digital particles. This catalogue is being used to calibrate the experiments on board the Euclid satellite, that will be launched in 2020 with the objective of investigating the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

Over 3 years, a group of astrophysicists from t...

1. The lighter green indicates optimistic regions of the habitable zone and the darker green denotes more conservative limits.
Credit: University of Oklahoma
2. This artist’s impression displays TRAPPIST-1 and its planets reflected in a surface. Image credit: NASA / R. Hurt / T. Pyle.
3. The TRAPPIST-1 system contains a total of seven Earth-size planets. Three of them — TRAPPIST-1e, f and g — dwell in their star’s so-called ‘habitable zone.’ Image credit: NASA

A University of Oklahoma post-doctoral astrophysics researcher, Billy Quarles, has identified the possible compositions of the 7 planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system...

1. Cristobalite crystals from Harvard Mineralogical Museum, found at Ellora caves in India. Credit: RRUFF Project / University of Arizona
2. A fresh impact crater on Mars, as imaged by the HiRISE camera on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

X-ray analysis reveals unexpected behaviour of silica minerals. With high-pressure experiments at DESY’s X-ray light source PETRA III and other facilities, a research team around Leonid Dubrovinsky from the University of Bayreuth has solved a long standing riddle in the analysis of meteorites from Moon and Mars. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, can explain why different versions of silica can coexist in meteorites, although they normally require vastly different conditions to form...