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Writer Fuel: Is This 3,000-Year-Old Carving Part of a Star Map?

star map

A roughly 3,000-year-old stone disk covered with enigmatic markings is actually an ancient celestial map marking the brightest stars in the night sky, researchers claim. The tire-size stone, which was discovered near an ancient hill fort in northeastern Italy a few years ago, features 29 carved markings on its front and back that may represent … Read more

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Writer Fuel: What Don’t We Know About Dark Matter?

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In the 1930s, a Swiss astronomer named Fritz Zwicky noticed that galaxies in a distant cluster were orbiting one another much faster than they should have been given the amount of visible mass they had. He proposed than an unseen substance, which he called dark matter, might be tugging gravitationally on these galaxies. Since then, … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Astronomers Discover Stellar Stream As Long As Ten Milky Ways

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Astronomers have accidentally discovered the first known intergalactic trail of stars. The gigantic “stellar stream,” which is around 10 times longer than the Milky Way, suggests that more of these structures could be lurking in deep space, a new study reveals. Stellar streams are elongated threads of gravitationally entwined stars that have likely been ripped … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Voyager 1 Stops Transmitting Data

Voyager 1 - Deposit Photos

NASA’s Voyager 1 probe is currently unable to transmit any scientific or systems data back to Earth. The 46-year-old spacecraft is capable of receiving commands, but a problem seems to have arisen with the probe’s computers. Voyager 1’s flight data system (FDS), which collects onboard engineering information and data from the spacecraft’s scientific instruments, is … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Human Activity Ushers In a New Era – On the Moon

Humans and the Moon - deposit photos

A new geological epoch has begun on the moon, which reflects the fact that humans are now the biggest influence on the lunar surface, a group of scientists suggest. The researchers named the moon’s new epoch the “Lunar Anthropocene.” “Cultural processes are starting to outstrip the natural background of geological processes on the moon,” Justin … Read more

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Writer Fuel: What Do Cauliflower and Asteroid Bennu Have in Common?

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Tasked with finding clues about origins of life on Earth, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft scooped up pieces of a rugged, rubble-pile asteroid named Bennu in late 2020 and delivered them to Earth about two months ago. On Monday (Dec. 11), scientists got their first detailed description of some of that extraterrestrial collection. “We definitely have hydrated, … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Was There Life Right After the Big Bang?

Big Bang - Deposit Photos

Life has found a home on Earth for around 4 billion years. That’s a significant fraction of the universe’s 13.77 billion-year history. Presumably, if life arose here, it could have appeared anywhere. And for sufficiently broad definitions of life, it might even be possible for life to have appeared mere seconds after the Big Bang. … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Are We Unprepared for a Big Solar Storm?

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The strength of solar storms hitting Earth can vary dramatically over short distances, with places just a few dozen miles apart experiencing very different magnetic disruptions, new research finds. This could mean that some areas are more vulnerable to large solar storms than previously appreciated, study co-author Eija Tanskanen, the director of the Sodankylä Geophysical … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Does Space Have a Smell?

Astronaut in space over Earth planet. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. Deposit Photos

When astronauts return from spacewalks, they often describe unexpected scents similar to burnt steak and spent gunpowder. But why does outer space smell like torched things, and where does this odor come from? To be clear, space is a near-perfect vacuum. While in space, astronauts protect themselves in spacecraft, spacesuits and space stations, “since direct … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Chinese Robo Chemist Could Extract Oxygen From Water on Mars

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Scientists in China have created a robot chemist powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that can extract oxygen from Martian water without human supervision. Synthesizing useful resources from local materials on Mars will be essential for humans’ survival on the Red Planet. Extracting oxygen from materials — in a process called oxygen evolution reaction (OER) — is particularly … Read more