The largest digital camera ever built has released its first shots of the universe
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located on a mountaintop in Chile, was built to take a deeper look at the night sky, covering hidden corners. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy, it will survey the southern sky for the next 10 years.
The observatory's first look features the vibrant Trifid and Lagoon nebulas located thousands of light-years from Earth. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles. A gaggle of galaxies known as the Virgo Cluster were also captured, including two bright blue spirals.
The observatory hopes to image 20 billion galaxies and discover new asteroids and other celestial objects.
The effort is named after astronomer Vera Rubin, who offered the first tantalizing evidence that a mysterious force called dark matter might be lurking in the universe. Researchers hope the observatory's discerning camera may yield clues about this elusive entity along with another called dark energy.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab Times
a day ago
- Arab Times
Researchers uncover prehistoric whale with Pokémon-like face and sharp teeth
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Aug 16, (AP): Long before whales were majestic, gentle giants, some of their prehistoric ancestors were tiny, weird, and feral. A chance discovery of a 25-million-year-old fossil on an Australian beach has allowed paleontologists to identify a rare, entirely new species that could unlock mysteries of whale evolution. Researchers this week officially named Janjucetus dullardi, a cartoonish creature with bulging eyes the size of tennis balls, in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Unlike today's whales, the juvenile specimen was small enough to fit in a single bed. Boasting fiendish teeth and a shark-like snout, however, this oddball of the ocean was nasty, mean and built to hunt. "It was, let's say, deceptively cute,' said Erich Fitzgerald, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute, and one of the paper's authors. "It might have looked for all the world like some weird kind of mash-up between a whale, a seal, and a Pokémon, but they were very much their own thing.' The rare discovery of the partial skull, including ear bones and teeth, was made in 2019 on a fossil-rich stretch of coast along Australia's Victoria state. Jan Juc Beach, a cradle for some of the weirdest whales in history, is becoming a hotspot for understanding early whale evolution, Fitzgerald said. Few family trees seem stranger than that of Janjucetus dullardi, only the fourth species ever identified from a group known as mammalodontids, early whales that lived only during the Oligocene Epoch, about 34 to 23 million years ago. That marked the point about halfway through the known history of whales. The tiny predators, thought to have grown to 3 meters (10 feet) in length, were an early branch on the line that led to today's great baleen whales, such as humpbacks, blues, and minkes. But the toothy ancestors with powerful jaws would have looked radically different to any modern species. "They may have had tiny little nubbins of legs just projecting as stumps from the wall of the body,' said Fitzgerald. That mystery will remain tantalizingly unsolved unless a specimen is uncovered with more of its skeleton intact, which would be something of a miracle. Even the partial skull that allowed the initial identification this week was an astonishing discovery. Janjucetus dullardi was named by researchers after an amateur fossil hunter who doesn't mind its looks in the slightest. "It's literally been the greatest 24 hours of my life,' said Ross Dullard, who discovered the skull while fossil hunting at Jan Juc Beach. After Wednesday's confirmation of the new species, the school principal walked like a rock star onto campus with "high fives coming left, right and center,' he said. His friends and family are probably just relieved it's over. "That's all they've heard from me for about the last six years,' he said. Dullard was on a regular low-tide hunt at Jan Juc the day he spotted something black protruding from a cliff. Poking it dislodged a tooth. He knew enough to recognize it was unlikely to belong to a dog or a seal. "I thought, geez, we've got something special here,' he said. Dullard sent photos to Museums Victoria, where Fitzgerald saw them and immediately suspected a new species. Confirming the find was another matter. This was the first mammalodontid to be identified in Australia since 2006 and only the third on record in the country. Fossils of sufficient quality, with enough of the right details preserved to confirm uniqueness, aren't common. "Cetaceans represent a fairly miniscule population of all life,' Fitzgerald said. Millions of years of erosion, scavengers, and ocean currents take their toll on whale skeletons too. "It's only the chosen few, the vast minority of all whales that have ever lived and died in the oceans over millions of years, that actually get preserved as fossils,' he added. Finds such as Janjucetus dullardi can unlock insights into how prehistoric whales ate, moved, behaved - and evolved. Researchers said the discoveries also helped to understand how ancient cetacean species adapted to warmer oceans, as they study how today's marine life might respond to climate change. Meanwhile, Dullard planned to host a fossil party this weekend, featuring cetacean-themed games and whale-shaped treats in jello, to celebrate his nightmare Muppet find, finally confirmed. "That's taken my concentration for six years,' he said. "I've had sleepless nights. I've dreamt about this whale.'
Arab Times
2 days ago
- Arab Times
Horned Rabbits? Here's the Weird but True Story
DENVER (AP) — A group of rabbits in Colorado with grotesque, hornlike growths may seem straight out of a low-budget horror film, but scientists say there's no reason to be spooked — the furry creatures merely have a relatively common virus. The cottontails recently spotted in Fort Collins are infected with the mostly harmless Shope papillomavirus, which causes wart-like growths that protrude from their faces like metastasizing horns. Viral photos have inspired a fluffle of unflattering nicknames, including 'Frankenstein bunnies,' 'demon rabbits' and 'zombie rabbits.' But their affliction is nothing new, with the virus inspiring ancient folklore and fueling scientific research nearly 100 years ago. The virus likely influenced the centuries-old jackalope myth in North America, which told of a rabbit with antlers or horns, among other animal variations. The disease in rabbits also contributed to scientists' knowledge about the connection between viruses and cancer, such as the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer. The virus in rabbits was named after Dr. Richard E Shope, a professor at The Rockefeller University who discovered the disease in cottontails in the 1930s. The virus in rabbits was named after Dr. Richard E Shope, a professor at The Rockefeller University who discovered the disease in cottontails in the 1930s. News about the rabbit sightings in Fort Collins, 65 miles (105 kilometers) north of Denver, started getting attention after residents started spotting them around town and posting pictures. Kara Van Hoose, a spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the agency has been getting calls about the rabbits seen in Fort Collins. But she said that it's not uncommon to see infected rabbits, especially in the summer, when the fleas and ticks that spread the virus are most active. The virus can spread from rabbit to rabbit but not to other species, including humans and pets, she said. The growths resemble warts but can look like horns if they grow longer, Van Hoose said. The growths don't harm rabbits unless they grow on their eyes or mouths and interfere with eating. Rabbits' immune systems are able to fight the virus and, once they do, the growths will disappear, she said.
Arab Times
5 days ago
- Arab Times
Niger is investigating the $5 million sale of the largest Mars rock found on Earth
DAKAR, Senegal, Aug 12, (AP): It's the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth - a 54-pound (25-kilogram) meteorite that fetched more than $5 million at a New York auction last month, setting a world record. But in the West African nation of Niger, where the rusty-red rock was unearthed in the Sahara Desert, officials have launched an investigation into what they call possible "illicit international trafficking,' claiming it may have been smuggled out of the country. Here's what to know about the meteorite and the legal dispute: Sotheby's said the rock, named NWA 16788, was blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike and traveled 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) to Earth. It was discovered in the Sahara in northwestern Niger by a meteorite hunter in November 2023, according to the auction house. His identity was not disclosed. Nor was the identity of the buyer last month. Meteorite hunting is growing in arid Saharan countries like Niger. Though meteorites can fall anywhere on Earth, the Sahara has become a prime spot for their discovery in part due to the favorable climate for their preservation. Hunters often search for space rocks that can be sold to collectors or scientists. The rarest and most precious are from Mars and the moon. According to the Heritage academic journal, the rock was sold to an international dealer before it ended up in a private gallery in Italy. A team of scientists from the University of Florence examined the rock last year to learn more about its structure and where it came from before falling to Earth, the publication said. The meteorite was also briefly on display in Rome before it was next seen in public in New York last month during the auction. Following the sale, Niger raised questions about how the meteorite came to be sold at auction. Niger's government announced an investigation last month to determine the circumstances of the meteorite's discovery and sale, saying in a statement it was "akin to illicit international trafficking.' Last week, President Abdourahamane Tiani suspended the export of "precious stones, semiprecious stones and meteorites nationwide' in an effort to ensure their traceability. Sotheby's said in a statement sent to The Associated Press that the meteorite was exported from Niger and transported in line with all relevant international procedures. "As with everything we sell, all necessary documentation was in order at each stage of its journey, by best practice and the requirements of the countries involved," the statement read. Authorities in Niger did not respond to AP questions. Patty Gerstenblith, a cultural heritage lawyer and expert on illicit trade, said that under the UNESCO convention on cultural property - which Niger and the U.S. have ratified - rare minerals, like meteorites, can qualify as cultural property. However, Gerstenblith said Niger needs to be able to prove it owned the meteorite and that it was stolen. "If the meteorite was not stolen and if it was properly declared upon import into the US, then it would not seem that Niger can recover the meteorite,' she told the AP. Paul Sereno, a paleontologist who has spent years uncovering dinosaur fossils in Niger's Sahara, is campaigning to return the country's cultural and natural heritage - including meteorites. "When you have laws that clearly say rare minerals like meteorites are cultural artifacts, you cannot simply come in and take something that is so unique and valuable to a country,' he told the AP. "We're just not in the colonial era anymore,' he added.
