STATES CHRONICLE – Scientists are now more attracted to the idea of becoming the first discoverers of dark matter and dark energy. However, there is another element of the cosmos with a more concrete structure of particles that seems to be overlooked. Its nickname is ‘the missing matter.’ Two teams of scientists have recently identified the first profs that attest the existence of such a mysterious substance.

The Missing Matter Is the One that Keeps Galaxies Together

Several reports indicated that the visible part of the universe consisting of galaxies and galaxy clusters are filling only 10% of baryon content. Therefore, it has been scientists’ priority quest to identify the matter that makes up the rest of 90%. Thanks to latest advancements in research methods, scientists succeeded to point out the missing matter of the universe.

This compound is made of particles that are known as baryons. Professionals believe this matter is the one that keeps galaxies together through filaments of hot gas. However, there was no proof to back up this theory until recently.

The two teams of researchers started off by taking hundreds of thousands of pictures of pairs of galaxies with the Planck satellite. Afterward, they organized the photos by scaling and rotating accordingly. In the end, they obtained a comprehensive view of the galaxies.

The next step was to obtain the ideal light to observe phenomena and analyze them. Therefore, they amplified the signals of the filaments until they became bright enough to watch them.

This is how scientists found that the universe contains ten times more baryons than humans previously estimated. Even though scientists couldn’t catch a clear glimpse of the filaments despite their advanced equipment, other revelations gave its presence away. They counted enough baryons to reveal the strings of gas that connect galaxies together.

“This goes a long way toward showing that many of our ideas of how galaxies form and how structures form over the history of the universe are pretty much correct.”

Researcher Ralph Kraft at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics commented this discovery as proof for what scientists have already deducted. However, there is still a lot of mysteries humans have to learn when it comes to the universe.

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Two possibly habitable planets are orbiting around the nearby Sun-like star, tau Ceti.

STATES CHRONICLE – International astronomers led by researchers from the University of Hertfordshire discovered four planets orbiting a nearby Sun-like star, tau Ceti. Two of these are possibly habitable planets, according to reports. Radial velocity, a technique using spectroscopy to measure the wobble in a star’s motion due to planets orbiting it, produced these finding. This discovery is an exciting step in the search for habitable planets, especially ones close enough to Earth for future interstellar travel.

Locating Possibly Habitable Planets

Tau Ceti, located just 12 light years from our planet, is in the constellation Cetus. In galactic terms, this is considered a stellar nearby neighbor. Tau Ceti is similar to our solar system’s Sun in size and brightness. This seemingly increases the probability that an orbiting planet could be habitable. NASA defines habitable planets as ones where liquid water can exist and pool. The four planets identified have orbits of 20, 49, 160, and 642 days.

The 160-day orbit planet is similar to Mars, on the hot side of possibly habitable planets. In contrast, the 642-day orbit planet compares to Venus and is on the cold end of planets able to support life.

The study project was truly international. Data collection required advanced spectrographs at the European Southern Observatory, Chile and the W. M. Keck Observatory, Hawaii. Fabo Feng, a research fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, England was the lead author, and his co-author was Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Their article, “Color difference makes a difference: our planet candidates around tau Ceti,” has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal.

NASA reports that in the past 20 years, more than 3000 planets orbiting distant suns have been identified. However, few of these are possibly habitable planets. Two of tau Ceti’s planets can potentially meet the requirement for sustaining liquid water. An issue is the amount of stellar nearby debris which could strike the planets. Still, some consider that even with these concerns, the tau Ceti system may be an initial target for interstellar colonization.

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Crops are at risk of losing protein if carbon dioxide levels keep rising

STATES CHRONICLE – Climate change and global warming put us at great risks, including animal extinction, strong heat waves, or economic collapse. However, they might also have other dangerous consequences we have failed to consider so far. Our food might become less nutritious. The increase of levels of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere make crops lose proteins.

Researchers from Harvard University developed a study where they assessed carbon dioxide levels and what they might lead to. Their models showed how these levels are extremely likely to continue rising. If this happens, 18 countries and their crops will be affected.

Higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will cause a decrease of at least 5 percent of dietary proteins from crops like wheat or rice from all these countries. This is likely to happen by 2050, if we don’t do something to limit greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. Also, around 150 million people will be affected by this protein deficiency.

More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means less protein in crops

At the moment, more than half of the population of the globe gets its daily intake of protein from plants. To see how they will be affected if protein levels from the crops drastically fell, they exposed several of these plants to high levels of carbon dioxide and looked at how they reacted.

They observed how the levels of protein from potatoes, rice, wheat, and barley decreased between 6.4 and 14.1 percent. One of the main things that happens to them is losing the ability to absorb nitrate, which they could later convert into protein. This phenomenon puts around 354 million children and 1.05 billion women at risk.

There’s no doubt that humans have a great influence on these rising levels of carbon dioxide. These are also related to higher temperatures, which have already started affecting agriculture. What researchers want to warn us about is the fact that we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, so that temperatures won’t continue soaring.
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