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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightInterstellar Stardust Found Inside Australian Meteorite Is a Staggering 7 Billion Years Old
A meteorite that crashed into Australia back in 1969 contains stardust dating back some 7 billion years, predating the formation of Earth by 2.5 billion years. The remarkable discovery offers a snapshot of the conditions that existed long before our solar system came into existence. Ancient grains found inside the Murchison meteorite have been dated … Continued
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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightCosmic Rays May Have Blasted Gigantic Sand Dunes Into Existence on Saturn’s Moon Titan
The equatorial dunes on Saturn’s moon Titan are among the most dramatic surface features in the Solar System, but scientists aren’t exactly sure how they formed. New experimental evidence suggests the dunes arose as a result of cosmic rays hitting Titan’s surface ice. Titan is one of the neatest places in the Solar System. It’s … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryFamous Nebula Produces Highest-Energy Light Ever Observed
A telescope in Tibet consisting of plastic detectors and underground water vat observed the highest-energy light yet—and it came from one of the most famous light sources in the sky. For the first time, a team of scientists from 28 institutions across China, Tibet, and Japan report having measured photons, particles of electromagnetic radiation, with … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryIce Cores Could Solve Thousand-Year-Old Cosmic Ray Mystery
New evidence confirms that an influx of cosmic rays struck the entire planet around 994 CE—and it might solve the mystery of the event’s origin. Ice cores and tree rings around the world show mysterious increases in the concentrations of certain elements around 994 CE. The newest evidence originates in Antarctic ice, validating the prior … Continued
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Tech News
Policing Police Drones, Inheriting Facebook Messages, and Unexplained Sounds: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
We here at Gizmodo had a lot of questions this week, and we did our best to give you some answers because you’re probably wondering some of the same things. For instance, if you’ve ever asked yourself who is regulating police drones to keep them from being abused, the answer is, “Pretty much nobody is … Continued
By AJ Dellinger -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
See the South Pole Message That Alerted Astronomers to the Cosmic-Ray-Spewing Blazar
Today, scientists made a huge announcement: Telescopes around the world recorded a source of mysterious, ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, the highest-energy particles that hit the Earth. It all started with a text message. The recent discovery has, at least partially, solved a hundred-year-mystery—the identity of a space object that could possibly send particles with energies a … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Cosmic Ray Mystery Finally Cracked Thanks to Supermassive Black Hole Beaming Energy Straight at Earth
Every so often, protons and even entire atomic nuclei strike the Earth with extremely high energies—much higher than what scientists can produce in their most powerful physics experiments. Since the discovery of “cosmic rays” a hundred years ago, no one knew for sure where the most energetic of these particles came from—until now. On Thursday, … Continued
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Tech News
Mysterious New Results Can’t Explain Why So Much Antimatter Hits Earth
New observations of nearby pulsars—lighthouse-like neutron stars beaming energy—seem to have deepened a mystery that’s been bugging scientists for around a decade. The Earth is being hit with too much antimatter from outer space, and no one is sure why. Super high-energy radiation from outer space bombards this planet daily. These “cosmic rays” can have … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Highest-Energy Cosmic Radiation Comes From a Mysterious Source Beyond Our Galaxy
Not to scare you, but you’re getting hit with radiation constantly. First, there’s just regular old light (yep, that’s a kind of radiation). Then there are low levels of higher energy radiation like the kind in nuclear reactors, including particles coming out of the soil and off of bananas. But the highest-energy radiation is the … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Pluto Isn’t the Only Thing New Horizons is Studying
New Horizons has been sending back some incredible information about Pluto, but the Dwarf planet isn’t the only thing it’s been studying. NASA recently noted that the spacecraft’s vantage point is ideal for studying Solar Wind, and it’s been doing just that. New Horizons is one of the furthest man-made objects in our solar system, … Continued
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Tech NewsCosmic Rays Could Help Unlock the Secrets of the Pyramids
There’s a long and colorful history of people trying to unlock the secret of how the Egyptian pyramids were built—and possibly find hidden rooms and corridors, for good measure. And now, a new international project aims to peer through the stone walls of these ancient structures, using cosmic rays. Actually, the ScanPyramids Project will use … Continued
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io9
Astronauts May Be Seeing Cosmic Rays Shoot Through Their Eyeballs!
This is simultaneously cool and horrifying. Cosmic rays are actually particles—tiny protons and neutrons, that shoot through space. They’re too small to see, but astronauts may still be seeing them. One of the things they don’t tell you about being an astronaut is the fact that you will see little flashes of light. You will … Continued
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Tech News
What the Hell Is the “Oh-My-God” Particle?
The Fly’s Eye was a crude cosmic ray detector perched on top a Utah mountain in the early 80s and 90s. It’s long obsolete now, but it’ll always have a place in astronomy history: On October, 15 1991, it detected something called the Oh-My-God particle, a cosmic ray going faster than astronomers thought possible. Natalie … Continued
By Sarah Zhang
