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Earth's satellites at risk if asteroid smashes into Moon: study

Earth's satellites at risk if asteroid smashes into Moon: study

Yahooa day ago

If a huge asteroid smashes into the Moon in 2032, the gigantic explosion would send debris streaming towards Earth that would threaten satellites and create a spectacular meteor shower, according to researchers.
Earlier this year there were briefly fears that the 60-metre-wide (200-foot-wide) asteroid called 2024 YR4, which is big enough to level a city, would strike Earth on December 22, 2032.
It was given the highest chance -- 3.1 percent -- of hitting our home planet that scientists have ever measured for such a giant space rock.
Subsequent observations from telescopes definitively ruled out a direct hit on Earth.
However, the odds that it will crash into the Moon have risen to 4.3 percent, according to data from the James Webb space telescope in May.
A new preprint study, which has not been peer-reviewed, is the first to estimate how such a collision could affect Earth.
It would be the largest asteroid to hit the Moon in around 5,000 years, lead study author Paul Wiegert of Canada's University of Western Ontario told AFP.
The impact would be "comparable to a large nuclear explosion in terms of the amount of energy released", he added.
Up to 100 million kilograms (220 million pounds) of material would shoot out from the Moon's surface, according to a series of simulations run by the researchers.
If the asteroid hit the side of the Moon facing Earth -- which is roughly a 50-percent chance -- up to 10 percent of this debris could be pulled in by Earth's gravity over the following days, they said.
- 'Like a bullet' -
Earth's atmosphere would protect the surface from the millimetre- to centimetre-sized lunar rocks, Weigert said. 0.04-2.54
But these meteors could be capable of destroying some satellites -- and there are expected to be a lot more of those orbiting the planet by 2032.
"A centimetre-sized rock travelling at tens of thousands of metres per second is a lot like a bullet," Wiegert said.
In the days after the impact, there could be more than 1,000 times the normal number of meteors threatening Earth's satellites, he added.
Meanwhile, those of us on the ground would be treated to a "spectacular" meteor shower lighting up the night sky, the study said.
But the current odds of a direct hit on the near side of the Moon remain at just two percent, Wiegert emphasised.
The asteroid is not expected to be visible again until 2028, so the world will have to wait to find out more.
If a direct hit is eventually found to be likely, humanity probably has enough time to plan a mission to spare the Moon.
"I'm sure it will be considered," Wiegert said.
The asteroid is half as wide and has 10 percent of the mass of Dimorphos, which NASA's DART mission smashed into in 2022, successfully changing its trajectory.
If 2024 YR4 is on a collision course with the Moon, it would be "a good target" for another test of our planetary defences, Wiegert said.
But if not, trying to deflect something zooming so close to Earth could be a little "dangerous", he added.
The preprint study, which published on the arXiv database last week, has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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Your daily cup of coffee could help you live longer and healthier, new study says
Your daily cup of coffee could help you live longer and healthier, new study says

CNN

time3 hours ago

  • CNN

Your daily cup of coffee could help you live longer and healthier, new study says

Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being. Want to reach older age with a sharp mind and healthy body? Part of the answer may be in your coffee cup, according to new research. 'Women who drank one to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day in their 50s were more likely to reach older age free from major chronic diseases and with good cognitive, physical, and mental health,' said lead study author Dr. Sara Mahdavi, adjunct professor in the faculty of medicine and department of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto. Researchers analyzed dietary data from more than 47,000 women who were part of the Nurses' Health Study, according to the research released Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Orlando. The study was presented as an abstract, but a more in-depth manuscript of the investigation will be submitted for peer review in the coming months, Mahdavi said. The women were surveyed in middle age and followed for 30 years to understand their rates of death and disease. 'In this study, we found that moderate caffeinated coffee consumption during midlife was associated with a higher likelihood of healthy aging 30 years later,' Mahdavi said. The effects were found in caffeinated coffee in particular, according to the research. The same link was not found for tea or decaffeinated coffee — and drinking more cola or other caffeinated sodas was tied to a lower chance of healthy aging. 'This would imply that coffee in particular has health preserving or promoting effects,' said Dr. David Kao, Jacqueline Marie Schauble Leaffer Endowed Chair in Women's Heart Disease and associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical School in an email. 'As with other studies, they also appear to have found that coffee has a particular benefit over other caffeinated drinks.' That said, the research is high quality, added Kao, who was not involved in the research. The study is also observational, meaning it is limited in its ability to examine direct cause and effect. The new research can only show that a behavior and an outcome are more likely to occur together. Researchers did take that into account and adjusted for other factors that could link coffee drinking and healthy aging such as lifestyle, demographic and other dietary differences, but it is still possible there is another variable at play, Mahdavi said. But the link between coffee and healthy aging isn't surprising –– it is consistent with prior research, Kao said. Moderate coffee drinking has been linked before to lower risks of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, he added. Does this mean you should take on a coffee habit if you don't have one already? Not necessarily, Mahdavi said. 'Coffee may support longevity, but it's not a universal prescription — especially for women. Hormonal shifts influence how caffeine is metabolized, so the benefits depend on timing, biology, and individual health,' she said in an email. Estrogen inhibits a liver enzyme that is crucial for breaking down caffeine, which means that caffeine may last longer in the body of some people, especially those going through hormonal transitions such as menopause or pregnancy or those using oral contraception, Mahdavi said. Midlife, the time period examined in this study, is a life stage marked by hormonal and metabolic shifts for women, she added. 'Moderate caffeinated coffee consumption — typically one to three cups per day — can be part of a healthy diet for many adults,' Mahdavi said. 'However, this should not be taken as a blanket recommendation for everyone to begin or increase coffee intake with the goal of longevity.' For one thing, the data can't say whether increasing coffee consumption would help to preserve health, Kao said. 'In other words, although women who drink 3 cups of coffee/day might have better long-term functioning than non-coffee drinkers, we don't know if non-coffee drinkers started drinking 3 cups a day, whether they would have better functioning than if they remained non-coffee drinkers,' he said in an email. The findings do suggest that people don't necessarily need to decrease their coffee consumption in the name of healthy aging, Kao said. 'Coffee is an important and positive part of daily life in many cultures around the world, he said. 'For many … the knowledge that a daily coffee or 3 is probably not harmful is welcome news.' That said, some people do need to watch their coffee consumption, including those with high blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety and sleep disorders, said Dr. Lu Qi, HCA Regents Distinguished Chair and professor at Tulane University Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. Qi was not involved in the research but was involved in another recent study showing that having coffee in the morning had a better impact on lowering death rates than drinking it throughout the day. Although coffee may be an enjoyable aspect of good health, it does not replace other healthy behaviors such as eating nutritious foods, exercising and getting good sleep, Mahdavi added.

Semaglutide Shows Benefits for PAD Across T2D Subgroups
Semaglutide Shows Benefits for PAD Across T2D Subgroups

Medscape

time3 hours ago

  • Medscape

Semaglutide Shows Benefits for PAD Across T2D Subgroups

CHICAGO — Use of the GLP-1 receptor agonist semaglutide improved walking capability in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D), regardless of duration of diabetes, BMI, or glycemic control, a post-hoc analysis of phase 3 double-blind randomized STRIDE showed. 'PAD remains a recalcitrant problem in people living with diabetes. We need solutions for improving quality of life and preventing limb loss' said senior study author Subodh Verma, MD, PhD, a cardiovascular surgeon and professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, Canada, here at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 85th Scientific Sessions, where the results were presented. The data was simultaneously published online in Diabetes Care . About 230 million people globally — and up to a third of those with diabetes — have PAD, which is why the ADA recommends using ankle-brachial index testing in individuals with T2D who are over 65 and meet certain criteria. The STRIDE Study STRIDE was conducted at 112 sites in 20 countries, enrolling 792 patients aged 18 years and older with T2D and PAD with intermittent claudication and reduced ankle-brachial or toe-brachial index. The median age was 68 years, the mean diabetes duration was 13.3 years, and 195 (25%) participants were female and 597 (75%) were male. Patients were randomized to subcutaneous semaglutide 1 mg per week for 52 weeks (n = 396) or to placebo (n = 396). The primary analysis of the trial, presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session 2025 in March, showed that semaglutide significantly improved walking distance, pain, and quality of life in patients with symptomatic PAD and T2D. It was also associated with reductions in disease progression and use of rescue therapy and improvement in ankle-brachial index. At baseline, trial participants could walk a maximum of 184 m, and the pain-free walking distance was 119 m. Two-thirds of the individuals said PAD moderately-to-severely impacted quality of life. At week 52, patients taking once-weekly semaglutide had a roughly 40-m improvement in maximum walking distance, and a 30-m improvement in pain-free walking distance on a treadmill with a fixed speed of 3.2 kph (2.3 mph) and fixed inclination of 12%, when compared with placebo. For the current analysis, the researchers stratified the participants by baseline T2D characteristics. The mean BMI was 29.6; 41% had a BMI > 30, and 44% had A1C < 7%. Only a third used insulin and a third used an SGLT2 inhibitor. Their analysis showed no meaningful distinction between the subgroups for improvement in either maximum walking distance or pain-free walking distance, said lead author Neda Rasouli, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, at the meeting. The estimated treatment ratio favored semaglutide regardless of diabetes duration, BMI, A1C, or medication used, she added. These findings support semaglutide's 'consistent efficacy and safety profile across the spectrum of type 2 diabetes, including those who are non-obese and have well-controlled diabetes,' she concluded. Vascular Medications 'This was a really important study,' said Kim Eagle, MD, the Albion Walter Hewlett professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan, when asked to comment by Medscape Medical News . Eagle said that while the additional 40 m of walking distance might not seem huge, it could be meaningful for a golfer, for instance, who could walk that much further to their ball, without a golf cart. 'We're still learning about the effects of GLP-1s,' said Eagle, who is also director of the Frankel Cardiovascular Center at the University of Michigan. 'They clearly affect vascular function,' he said, adding that the effects in PAD would be expected for the entire class. 'The thesis here is that these are vascular medications,' said Verma, noting in a briefing with reporters that patients had an improvement in hemodynamics. The improvement is not driven by changes in weight or A1C, he added. Given the results of STRIDE and the post-hoc analysis, 'I would suggest that it should be strongly considered by our patients living with PAD and diabetes as a strategy to not only improve MACE outcomes, but to also improve functional outcomes in PAD,' said Verma. Eagle noted, however, that clinicians often face barriers in prescribing GLP-1s. 'We're basically scrambling to see what's covered by patients' insurance,' he said. Verma and his co-authors said that more research is needed to understand if semaglutide's benefits extend to people with PAD who do not have diabetes. The study was funded by Novo Nordisk A/S. Rasouli reported receiving consultation fees and/or research funding from Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Sanofi and SomaLogic. Verma disclosed research grants and/or speaking fees from Amarin, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, HLS Therapeutics, Anthos, Janssen, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, PhaseBio, S&L Solutions Event Management, and Sanofi. Eagle reported no relevant conflicts.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help astronomers investigate dark matter, continuing the legacy of its pioneering namesake
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help astronomers investigate dark matter, continuing the legacy of its pioneering namesake

Yahoo

time6 hours ago

  • Yahoo

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help astronomers investigate dark matter, continuing the legacy of its pioneering namesake

Everything in space – from the Earth and Sun to black holes – accounts for just 15% of all matter in the universe. The rest of the cosmos seems to be made of an invisible material astronomers call dark matter. Astronomers know dark matter exists because its gravity affects other things, such as light. But understanding what dark matter is remains an active area of research. With the release of its first images this month, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory has begun a 10-year mission to help unravel the mystery of dark matter. The observatory will continue the legacy of its namesake, a trailblazing astronomer who advanced our understanding of the other 85% of the universe. As a historian of astronomy, I've studied how Vera Rubin's contributions have shaped astrophysics. The observatory's name is fitting, given that its data will soon provide scientists with a way to build on her work and shed more light on dark matter. From its vantage point in the Chilean Andes mountains, the Rubin Observatory will document everything visible in the southern sky. Every three nights, the observatory and its 3,200 megapixel camera will make a record of the sky. This camera, about the size of a small car, is the largest digital camera ever built. Images will capture an area of the sky roughly 45 times the size of the full Moon. With a big camera with a wide field of view, Rubin will produce about five petabytes of data every year. That's roughly 5,000 years' worth of MP3 songs. After weeks, months and years of observations, astronomers will have a time-lapse record revealing anything that explodes, flashes or moves – such as supernovas, variable stars or asteroids. They'll also have the largest survey of galaxies ever made. These galactic views are key to investigating dark matter. Deep field images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope and others have visually revealed the abundance of galaxies in the universe. These images are taken with a long exposure time to collect the most light, so that even very faint objects show up. Researchers now know that those galaxies aren't randomly distributed. Gravity and dark matter pull and guide them into a structure that resembles a spider's web or a tub of bubbles. The Rubin Observatory will expand upon these previous galactic surveys, increasing the precision of the data and capturing billions more galaxies. In addition to helping structure galaxies throughout the universe, dark matter also distorts the appearance of galaxies through an effect referred to as gravitational lensing. Light travels through space in a straight line − unless it gets close to something massive. Gravity bends light's path, which distorts the way we see it. This gravitational lensing effect provides clues that could help astronomers locate dark matter. The stronger the gravity, the bigger the bend in light's path. For centuries, astronomers tracked and measured the motion of planets in the solar system. They found that all the planets followed the path predicted by Newton's laws of motion, except for Uranus. Astronomers and mathematicians reasoned that if Newton's laws are true, there must be some missing matter – another massive object – out there tugging on Uranus. From this hypothesis, they discovered Neptune, confirming Newton's laws. With the ability to see fainter objects in the 1930s, astronomers began tracking the motions of galaxies. California Institute of Technology astronomer Fritz Zwicky coined the term dark matter in 1933, after observing galaxies in the Coma Cluster. He calculated the mass of the galaxies based on their speeds, which did not match their mass based on the number of stars he observed. He suspected that the cluster could contain an invisible, missing matter that kept the galaxies from flying apart. But for several decades he lacked enough observational evidence to support his theory. In 1965, Vera Rubin became the first women hired onto the scientific staff at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism in Washington, D.C. She worked with Kent Ford, who had built an extremely sensitive spectrograph and was looking to apply it to a scientific research project. Rubin and Ford used the spectrograph to measure how fast stars orbit around the center of their galaxies. In the solar system, where most of the mass is within the Sun at the center, the closest planet, Mercury, moves faster than the farthest planet, Neptune. 'We had expected that as stars got farther and farther from the center of their galaxy, they would orbit slower and slower,' Rubin said in 1992. What they found in galaxies surprised them. Stars far from the galaxy's center were moving just as fast as stars closer in. 'And that really leads to only two possibilities,' Rubin explained. 'Either Newton's laws don't hold, and physicists and astronomers are woefully afraid of that … (or) stars are responding to the gravitational field of matter which we don't see.' Data piled up as Rubin created plot after plot. Her colleagues didn't doubt her observations, but the interpretation remained a debate. Many people were reluctant to accept that dark matter was necessary to account for the findings in Rubin's data. Rubin continued studying galaxies, measuring how fast stars moved within them. She wasn't interested in investigating dark matter itself, but she carried on with documenting its effects on the motion of galaxies. Today, more people are aware of Rubin's observations and contributions to our understanding of dark matter. In 2019, a congressional bill was introduced to rename the former Large Synoptic Survey Telescope to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. In June 2025, the U.S. Mint released a quarter featuring Vera Rubin. Rubin continued to accumulate data about the motions of galaxies throughout her career. Others picked up where she left off and have helped advance dark matter research over the past 50 years. In the 1970s, physicist James Peebles and astronomers Jeremiah Ostriker and Amos Yahil created computer simulations of individual galaxies. They concluded, similarly to Zwicky, that there was not enough visible matter in galaxies to keep them from flying apart. They suggested that whatever dark matter is − be it cold stars, black holes or some unknown particle − there could be as much as 10 times the amount of dark matter than ordinary matter in galaxies. Throughout its 10-year run, the Rubin Observatory should give even more researchers the opportunity to add to our understanding of dark matter. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Samantha Thompson, Smithsonian Institution Read more: Dark matter: The mystery substance physics still can't identify that makes up the majority of our universe What is space made of? An astrophysics expert explains all the components – from radiation to dark matter – found in the vacuum of space Researchers dig deep underground in hopes of finally observing dark matter Samantha Thompson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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