Astronomy and Planetary Science Thread

Flyaway said:
Water, the key ingredient for life, found to have formed shortly after the Big Bang



www.port.ac.uk

Water, the key ingredient for life, found to have formed shortly after the Big Bang

New research suggests the essential ingredient for life could have emerged billions of years earlier than previously believed
www.port.ac.uk www.port.ac.uk

Related paper:

Nature Astronomy

Nature Astronomy is a truly multidisciplinary journal for the field, representing — and fostering closer interaction between — all of the key ...
www.nature.com www.nature.com
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IIRC water is one of the most common molecules in deep space and once large amounts of Oxygen appeared in the universe after the destruction of Population-III stars water would've formed rapidly.
 
An interesting new revelation concerning the shape of the Oort-cloud, from Anton Petrov:


Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about the Oort cloud discoveries
Links:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2502.11252https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/pdf/2502.11252&v=fIV-ZW68dOg
https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.12673
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/abs/2310.12673&v=fIV-ZW68dOg
Previous videos: • Unbelievable JWST Images of a Primord...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QOf8bMONuQ&t=0s
• A Star That Will Pass Within 0.065 Li...

• SCHOLZ'S STAR - A Solar System Visito... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I18kG7nHYuo&t=0s
#oortcloud #astronomy #solarsystem
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0:00 Oort cloud and how we discovered everything about it
2:55 Overall structure and mass of the cloud
6:02 Discoveries of objects that even collided with Earth
6:45 Why comets happen and what disturbs the Oort cloud
8:20 Shape is a spiral and not a sphere
10:05 Additional discoveries and how this compares to previous discoveries
11:05 Future studies and conclusions
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PBS Space Time has put out a video about how apparently some of our DNA comes from outer-space (Sort of):


Did you know that many of us have up to 4% neanderthal DNA? And that 100% of your DNA may come from outer space? No joke. The biochemistry that defined the coding system of your DNA may have happened off-world, and perhaps even long before Earth existed.
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Gravity from entropy: A radical new approach to unifying quantum mechanics and general relativity

The study, titled Gravity from Entropy, introduces a novel approach that derives gravity from quantum relative entropy, bridging the gap between two of the most fundamental yet seemingly incompatible theories in physics: quantum mechanics and Einstein’s general relativity.
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Paper linked to in the article.

www.qmul.ac.uk

Gravity from entropy

www.qmul.ac.uk
 
A new Astrum video about decoding the "Sounds" of space:


The universe is far from silent. An eerie symphony echoes through the cosmos, lurking in the depths of space. Prepare for a spine-chilling journey through the haunting sounds of space, including the song of black holes, comets, and the mysterious rings of Saturn.
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▀▀▀▀▀▀
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0:00 The Scariest Sounds in Space
2:32 The Sound of Saturn’s Rings
6:09 The Sound of a Comet
8:43 The Sound of a Supermassive Black Hole
12:36 The Sound of Black Holes Colliding
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The History Channel's excellent "The Universe" series had at least one episode dealing with this.
 
NMaude said:
An interesting new revelation concerning the shape of the Oort-cloud, from Anton Petrov:

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That makes sense, it seems logical that the cloud warps every time the solar system passes through the galactic plane, rising and falling on it periodically, launching comets outward or pushing them toward the sun. There are non-scientific studies on this periodicity.
 
An interesting astronomy tale back from the days before atmospheric nuclear-tests were banned:


Could you see a nuclear explosion on the moon with the naked eye? That was the question posed by the United States military in the 1950s as the cold war was heating up and the space race between the US and the Soviet Union was in full swing.
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Project A119, details of which were declassified in 2000, tasked scientists to “safely” target and hit the moon with a nuclear weapon in order to send a message to the USSR. We only discovered the details of this unconventional and bizarre plan 40 years later, via a posthumous biography…of the greatest science communicator to ever live: Carl Sagan.
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This episode of [HALF-LIFE HISTORIES] explores the true story of the plan to nuke the moon.Watch the whole [HALF LIFE-HISTORIES] series: • [HALF-LIFE HISTORIES] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNg1m3Od-GgNmXngCCJaJBqqm-7wQqGAW
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00:00 Intro
01:23 Rocket’s Red Scare
05:07 Prime Directive
08:12 Shock and Awe
11:23 Personal Voyage
15:09 Deterrence
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SOURCES:
Research and Citation Compilation by: ‪@adef‬
Barnett, Antony. “US Planned One Big Nuclear Blast for Mankind.” The Guardian, 13May 2000, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2....
Broad, William J. “U.S. Planned Nuclear Blast on the Moon, Physicist Says.” The NewYork Times, 16 May 2000, https://web.archive.org/web/200805211....
Chyba, Christopher. “An exobiologist’s life search.” Nature, vol. 401, 28 Oct. 1999, pp.857–858, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.10....
eukaryote. “Carl Sagan, Nuking the Moon, and Not Nuking the Moon.” LessWrong, 12Apr. 2024,www.lesswrong.com/posts/hwtt9zM3MxoKnwgbd/carl-sagan-nuking-the-moon-and-not-nuking-the-moon.
Myler, Joseph L. “Latest Red Rumor: They’ll Bomb Moon.” The Pittsburgh Press, 1Nov. 1957, pp. 25.
Piesing, Mark. “The Crazy Plan to Explode a Nuclear Bomb on the Moon.” BBC News,BBC, 8 May 2023,www.bbc.com/future/article/20230505-the-crazy-plan-to-explode-a-nuclear-bomb-on-the-moon.
Reiffel, L. “Sagan breached security by revealing US work on a lunar bomb project.”Nature, vol. 405, 04 May 2000, pp.13, https://doi.org/10.1038/35011148.
Reiffel, et al. “UNCLASSIFIED: AD 425380 - A Study of Lunar Research Flights.” Headquarters of the Air Force Special Weapons Center at Kirtland Air Force Base, NM & the Armour Research Foundation of the Illinois Institute of Technology, 19 June 1959, https://archive.org/details/DTIC_AD04....
“U.S. Weighed A-Blast on Moon in 1950s.” Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, 18May 2000, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-may-18-mn-31395-story.html.
Zheleznyakov, Aleksandr. The E-4 Project - Exploding a Nuclear Bomb on the Moon,Space History Notes, www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/E3/E3orig.htm.
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Anton Petrov has a video about a study concerning the Milankovitch cycles:


Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about Milankobitch cycles and the ice ages
Links:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...org/doi/10.1126/science.adp3491&v=YYU1QWCesKE
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4156...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...com/articles/s41561-022-00956-9&v=YYU1QWCesKE
Previous video: • Previously Unknown Impact 2.5 Million... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_2sLdHN5k&t=0s
#iceage #earth #milankovitchhttps://www.youtube.com/hashtag/milankovitch
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0:00 Milankovitch cycles and how ice ages started
2:05 Milankovitch cycles explained
3:30 What starts the ice formation and how do ice sheets form?
4:40 How does this connect to Milankovitch cycles?
5:30 Issues with cycle calculations
6:20 Study discovers new patterns and how cycles affect the glaciation
8:10 Next ice age will begin in...
9:10 Why does this happen?
10:30 Small issues in the study
11:35 Conclusions
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I have read in non-scientific publications interesting ideas about the origin of cycles, there is numerous fossil evidence about the most well-known mass extinctions, studies on small glaciations and much more diffuse references in some Egyptian, Roman, Babylonian and medieval historical records, which are not seriously considered because of the "Daniken Effect".

Very little has been written about the possibility of the solar system passing through a cloud of interstellar gas that decreases solar radiation... or activates it with a new injection of hydrogen.

Little has been written about a hypothetical relationship between sunspot cycles and volcanic activity, because it would weaken the paradigm of human-caused climate change.

History is written in fossils, in seeds preserved in ice, in air bubbles trapped in glaciers, in amber, in meteorites, in lunar samples... we just need to learn to read that language.
 
An interesting video by Anton Petrov about how an ancient meteorite crater be rewriting geology textbooks on how plate-tectonics started on Earth:


Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about the oldest crater on Earth
Links:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4146...
Previous videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TKvT8iNwyE&t=0s
• Evidence Shows Huge Impacts Created C...

• Evidence For The Biggest Impact Crate... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKAcT2X9lkU&t=0s
#earth #impact #australia
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0:00 Oldest crater that may rewrite textbooks again
1:05 Older study that suggests asteroid caused plate tectonics
3:05 Giant impacts and cratons
3:40 Pilbara craton and why it's important
4:50 First evidence of impact hypothesis
6:30 Oldest crater in Australia (unrelated)
7:00 New study and new discoveries
7:50 Shatter cone discovery
9:30 Conclusions and what this means
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Flyaway said:
www.iflscience.com

Astronaut On ISS Captures Mysterious Blue Jet Sprite Lighting Up Earth's Atmosphere

"The tops of this [upward directed lightning] are around 75-80km [47-50 miles], boarding on the fringes of space."
www.iflscience.com www.iflscience.com
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Before an earthquake starts, microfractures are created in the rocks at great depth, generating a massive displacement of electrons and a huge magnetic field that extends to the ionosphere. These fields are also generated during large thunderstorms, tornadoes, large fires and nuclear explosions, generating two kinds of luminous phenomena recently discovered by satellite cameras and which scientists call Sprites and Elves.

Sprites are red flashes, measuring between 15 and 100 kilometers in height and only having a life of three-tenths of a second, could be considered hallucinations if science had not obtained graphic proof of their existence.

Elves are intense white flashes that form in the mesosphere between 50 and 90 kilometers above thunderstorms.

Sprites and Elves are luminous entities that have already been investigated by science but have not yet identified the causes that generate two other luminous phenomena discovered in 1994 and 1997: dark blue luminous waterfalls that form at altitudes below 40 km and strange pulses of gamma rays that are emitted from the interior of the planet into space.
 
A massive blackhole has been discovered moving at 800mi/s, from Anton Petrov:


Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about a massive black hole caught moving at 1300 km/s
Links:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.18730https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/abs/2501.18730&v=SlQfd0dEUw8
Other videos:
• Ridiculously Massive Black Hole Was H...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AW8w4dvT_A
• Final Parsec Problem - The Paradox of...
• Two Very Massive Black Holes In This ...
• Explosions In a Distant Galaxy May So... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snolGHQChVk
#blackhole #smbh #collisionhttps://www.youtube.com/hashtag/collision
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0:00 3C 186 galaxy was hiding a major mystery
0:50 We have no idea how some black holes get so big
3:40 Galaxies with missing black holes
4:22 Quasar that surprised everyone
5:55 New observations reveals a strange black hole
7:02 Recoilining black hole explanation
8:15 Timeline
9:25 Conclusions and additional explanations
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Black holes: Not endings, but beginnings? Theoretical study delves into 'white holes'

Our understanding of black holes, time and the mysterious dark energy that dominates the universe could be revolutionized, as new University of Sheffield research helps unravel the mysteries of the cosmos.
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…

The study uses a simplified, theoretical model of a black hole, known as a planar black hole. Unlike typical black holes, which have a spherical shape, a planar black hole's boundary is a flat, two-dimensional surface. The researchers' ongoing work suggests that the same mechanism could also apply to a typical black hole.
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…

The scientists' findings demonstrate how, using the laws of quantum mechanics, the black hole singularity is replaced by a region of large quantum fluctuations—tiny, temporary changes in the energy of space—where space and time do not end. Instead, space and time transition into a new phase called a white hole—a theoretical region of space thought to function in the opposite way to a black hole. As such, a white hole could be where time begins.
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phys.org

Black holes: Not endings, but beginnings? Theoretical study delves into 'white holes'

Our understanding of black holes, time and the mysterious dark energy that dominates the universe could be revolutionized, as new University of Sheffield research helps unravel the mysteries of the cosmos.
phys.org

Related paper:

 
K-State researcher's study makes puzzling observation about Milky Way, deep space galaxies' rotations

In images of the deep universe taken by the James Webb Space Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES, the vast majority of the galaxies rotate in the same direction, according to research by Lior Shamir, associate professor of computer science in the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering. About two third of the galaxies rotate clockwise, while just about a third of the galaxies rotate counterclockwise.
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…

In a random universe, the number of galaxies that rotate in one direction should be roughly the same as the number of galaxies that rotate in the other direction. The fact that James Webb Space Telescope shows that most galaxies rotate in the same direction is therefore unexpected.

“It is still not clear what causes this to happen, but there are two primary possible explanations," Shamir said. "One explanation is that the universe was born rotating. That explanation agrees with theories such as black hole cosmology, which postulates that the entire universe is the interior of a black hole. But if the universe was indeed born rotating it means that the existing theories about the cosmos are incomplete.”
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…

That could be another explanation for why such galaxies are overrepresented in the telescope observations, Shamir said. Astronomers may need to reconsider the effect of the Milky Way's rotational velocity — which had traditionally been considered to be too slow and negligible in comparison to other galaxies — on their measurements.
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www.k-state.edu

K-State researcher's study makes puzzling observation about Milky Way, deep space galaxies' rotations

A study of James Webb Space Telescope images finds astronomers should factor the Milky Way's rotational velocity in observations of deep space galaxies.
www.k-state.edu

Related paper:

 
First radio pulses traced to dead-star binary

An international team of astronomers, including a Northwestern University astrophysicist, has traced a series of mysterious radio pulses to an unprecedented home.

Starting a decade ago, astronomers have detected a pulse of radio emission every two hours, coming from the direction of the Big Dipper. After combining observations from multiple telescopes, the team can now reveal the culprit: a binary system with a dead star.

According to the new study, a red dwarf and white dwarf are orbiting each other so tightly that their magnetic fields interact. Each time they bump together — which is every two hours — the interaction emits a long radio blast.
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Related paper:

www.nature.com

Sporadic radio pulses from a white dwarf binary at the orbital period - Nature Astronomy

ILT J1101 is a white dwarf–M dwarf binary that emits minute-duration radio pulses with a 2-h periodicity. The period of the radio pulses is linked to the orbital period of the binary, rather than the rotation period of the stellar components.
www.nature.com www.nature.com
 
It turns out that Barnard's Star has four small terrestrial planets orbiting it but they're too hot for life:


Read the full story at https://phys.org/news/2025-03-tiny-pl...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ets-orbiting-nearest-stars.html&v=q4hVxUZo5RM
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Four small planets, each 20-30% Earth's mass, orbit Barnard's Star, the second-nearest star system to Earth. Their close proximity to the star likely makes them too hot for habitability. This discovery marks a significant step in detecting smaller planets around nearby stars.
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In this video: An artist's conception of the four planets circling around Barnard's Star. The planets are so close to the star that they zip around their sun in a matter of days. Credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / R. Proctor / J. Pollard
#Astronomy #Exoplanets #BarnardsStar
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Anton Petrov has a video out about an experiment on "Plastic" ice which would be found in extremely high-pressure environments such as at the bottom of an ocean on a ocean world:


Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about the formation of bizarre type of water ice that becomes plastic
Links:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...com/articles/s41586-025-08750-4&v=s-Tk4JO4Ohc
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqp4_I6JxAs
• Previously Unknown Type of Water Ice ...

• Major Updates From Titan Reveal Incre... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7ux7bVpwGY

#ice #water #plastichttps://www.youtube.com/hashtag/plastic
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0:00 Exotic plastic ice
1:30 Types of water ice and why water is strange
4:05 Ice VII on other planets and its properties
6:30 Plastic ice...?
8:30 Experimental evidence
9:15 Why this matters
11:30 Conclusions and what's next?
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CONFIRMED AT LAST: BARNARD’S STAR HOSTS FOUR TINY PLANETS

Just last November, researchers reported the discovery of a planet orbiting Barnard’s Star with a period of 3.154 days. The data hinted at the presence of three other planets, but these candidates could not be confirmed. In a new research article published today, Ritvik Basant (University of Chicago) and collaborators leveraged years of data to confirm that Barnard’s Star hosts not just one, but four planets.
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…

Ultimately, Basant’s team confirmed the presence of four planets with minimum masses between 19% and 34% of Earth’s mass. Barnard e is possibly the lowest-mass planet to be detected using the radial-velocity method.
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…

These planets are in remarkably close quarters, with periods of just 2.34, 3.15, 4.12, and 6.74 days. Is such a compact setup likely to be stable? Using a machine-learning algorithm, the team showed that if the planets have perfectly circular orbits, the system is stable long term. However, using the best-fitting orbital parameters — which are consistent with circular orbits within 1.5 sigma — the system became unstable within just 2,000 years. More work is needed to understand the orbits of the newfound planets and the long-term stability of the system.

Now, for the million-dollar question: could any of these planets be habitable? None of the newly discovered planets lie within Barnard’s Star’s habitable zone, which spans orbital periods from 10 to 42 days. The current data also rule out the presence of habitable-zone planets with masses greater than 0.57 Earth mass, though smaller planets are still possible.
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Related paper:

 
Due to how tight those four planets orbiting Barnard's star not only would they be tidally-locked their daysides would be roasting and I doubt they'd have much in the way of an atmosphere, these planets are almost certainly too hot to be habitable.
 
Violent supernovae 'triggered at least two Earth extinctions'

At least two mass extinction events in Earth's history were likely caused by the "devastating" effects of nearby supernova explosions, a new study suggests.

Researchers at Keele University say these super-powerful blasts – caused by the death of a massive star – may have previously stripped our planet's atmosphere of its ozone, sparked acid rain and exposed life to harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.

They believe a supernova explosion close to Earth could be to blame for both the late Devonian and Ordovician extinction events, which occurred 372 and 445 million years ago respectively.
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The researchers came to their conclusion after carrying out a "census" of massive stars within a kiloparsec (around 3,260 light-years) of the Sun.

They were studying the distribution of these massive stars, known as OB stars, to learn more about how star clusters and galaxies form by using the Milky Way itself as a benchmark, and the rate at which these stars form in our galaxy.

This census allowed the researchers to calculate the rate at which supernovae occur within the galaxy, which is important for observations of supernovae, and the production of supernova remnants and massive stellar remnants such as black holes and neutron stars throughout the universe.
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…

As part of this the research team calculated the supernova rate within 20 parsecs of the Sun, or approximately 65 light-years, and compared this with the approximate rate of mass extinction events on Earth that have previously been attributed to nearby supernovae.

This excludes extinction events linked to other factors such as asteroid impacts or the ice ages.
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This excludes extinction events linked to other factors such as asteroid impacts or the ice ages.
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In regards to the end Ordovician extinction it was pointed out to me on a documentary that a nearby supernova caused caused or aggravated an existing ice-age through the formation of Nitrogen Oxides (Nix) in the Earth's upper-atmosphere. Why? Well presence of Nix doesn't just attack the Ozone-layer there's so much of it that it greatly attenuates the visible light component of sunlight causing a large-scale cooling of the Earth's surface.
 
NMaude said:
Anton Petrov has a video out about an experiment on "Plastic" ice which would be found in extremely high-pressure environments such as at the bottom of an ocean on a ocean world:
Click to expand...
From 11:00, a very interesting point. Some astrobiologists have argued that waterworlds could not have life because a deep shell of Ice VII would separate the crust from the ocean, preventing any nutrients from getting into the ocean. However, if the ice is metastable/plastic it could convect or better still, elements could diffuse through it up to the ocean after all.
 
What we know for sure is that it is statistically unlikely that life began in primordial soup, in my opinion that must have occurred in an environment in which water was subjected to other more extreme conditions.
 

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This was uploaded four days by Anton Petrov and it concerns evidence of Population III stars in a distant galaxy:


Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about a galaxy with population 3 stars
Links:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.11678https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/abs/2501.11678&v=WM3icldUUYM
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.00953https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/abs/2306.00953&v=WM3icldUUYM
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.14413https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.14413&v=WM3icldUUYM
Previous videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-wyWQCAo_M
• Did James Webb Finally Find The Elusi...

• Evidence For Massive Population 3 Sta...

• 100 Years Ago a Single Star In Androm...

• JWST Finds Something Unusual Inside G... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mqw1k9fI20
#population3 #earlystars #universe
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0:00 New JWST evidence of population III stars
0:50 Metalicity and star population
3:20 Pop III stars and what they are
4:20 Previous hints of these stars
5:50 New evidence and best observations so far
8:25 Conclusions and what's next?
Click to expand...
 

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