According to a new study which the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society recently published, there is enough greasy matter in the Milky Way to make about 40 trillion trillion trillion packs of butter. The team of Australian and Turkish astronomers which conducted the study discovered that there are 100 greasy carbon atoms for every million hydrogen atoms in the entire Universe. According to them, the so-called space grease is not only toxic, but also dirty and only forms in the interstellar space and inside a laboratory. It’s also very interesting that such an important organic material is so abundant in the Universe.

Tim Schmidt, one of the authors of the study, says that their team wanted to discover just how much greasy carbon exists in the Universe. So, in order to do this, they recreated interstellar dust in their laboratory. They copied the entire natural process through which stars make organic molecules by expanding a plasma that contains carbon into a vacuum at very low temperatures. Then, they were able to analyze how strongly the dust absorbed the light by using a certain wavelength. That indicated the amount of aliphatic carbon.

There is a lot of space grease all over the Universe

According to Schmidt, the next step was to combine the results that they got with certain observations from astronomical observatories. This process allowed the team to measure just how much aliphatic carbon there is between us and the stars in the Universe.

It seems that this greasy and toxic carbon represents between a quarter and a half of the entire carbon that exists in the Universe. Now, the team wants to discover how much aromatic, or mothball-like carbon there is. Knowing how much of these two types of carbon there is in space, experts might be able to figure out the entire quantity of this element in the Universe.

Image source: Wikimedia

The process of modern art restoration has become a highly non-invasive and scientific one which usually brings masterpieces back to their former glory. But the term “usually” can be misleading. Like in the case of the restoration process of a 16-Century Spanish wooden statue of St. Jorge, or St. George. Instead of making the statue look as if it was new, the restorer obliterated every detail of the saint’s face. Now, he has big browneyes and a peachy skin tone. His armor, saddle and horse were also completely changed, and they now look monochromatic in only two shades: grey and red.

 Some experts even suggested that the 16-Century statue of St. George fighting a dragon now resembles a Pixar character. Others even compared the botched restoration with a similarly-disastrous one in the town of Borja. The 2012 “monkey Jesus” fresco was created by an elderly artist who wanted to restore an old painting. According to reports, St. George was not looking very good before the restoration. The wood was dark, and the pain was flaking off. So, a local priest decided to do something about it. And he did.

A botched restoration of a St. George Spanish statue

Spain’s @A_CR_E has criticised the botched restoration of a 16th century sculpture of San Jorge: https://t.co/DefODOtJnr pic.twitter.com/vR1FZfnaMK

— Newstalk (@NewstalkFM) June 28, 2018

He hired a local teacher from a handicrafts school to solve the situation. Carmen Usua, who is a professional restorer, is the one who brought the atrocity in front of the media. She admitted that she felt offended by what happened because it takes years before someone can call themselves a restorer. If everyone would be able to do it, then we would only have monkey Jesuses and Pixar-like St. Georges around.

What’s even more frustrating is that the original statue was a rare example of polychrome sculpture. This means that it was painted after being carved first through a special technique. For now, nobody knows whether or not the statue will be fixed or even if it’s possible to do it now.

Image source: pxhere

After a study from researchers at Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute made waves these past few days, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, is now more convinced than ever that humans should colonize other planets. The controversial study put forward the theory according to which we really are along in the universe. Moreover, that, in fact, alien life has never existed, and we are the only intelligent beings in the universe.

Elon Musk is a strong believer in interplanetary colonization. According to him, in case a giant asteroid hits Earth, a huge solar storm messes up our electronics, or we accidentally destroy the planet we call home, it would be a good idea to have a backup plan. Most likely, it will be a new civilization on Mars. So, in order to accomplish that, SpaceX has enrolled thousands of employees to design and build the most advanced spaceship ever. It seems that the Big Falcon Rocket will be able to 100 people and 150 tons of cargo to the Red Planet, with the aim of relocating these people there.

Elon Musk, now more than ever, thinks that we should relocate to another planet

It is unknown whether we are the only civilization currently alive in the observable universe, but any chance that we are is added impetus for extending life beyond Earth

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 25, 2018

On Monday, Elon Musk took to Twitter to voice his opinion on the matter. In referring to the new study, he said that the fact that we might be alone in the universe should make us think about relocating even more. As for the study itself, it deals with the famous Fermi Paradox. It is based on a famous idea supposedly first voiced by physicist Enrico Fermi.

The paradox asks why we are yet to hear from alien civilization when there are hundreds of billions of stars out there? Then there is the Drake equation, which is a mathematical formula that proposes seven variables that would affect chances of life. Then, it multiplies them, and the result is the approximate number of alien races that might be sending signals into space inside the Milky Way.

Image source: flickr

Everybody knows that Mars is also nicknamed the red Planet because of the color it has. However, things might not change after NASA managed to obtain some interesting pictures from one of its orbiters. The Mars Renaissance Orbiter managed to capture what looks like a blue sand dune on the surface of the planet. The orbiter reportedly used the HiRISE camera, which NASA described as the most powerful to ever be sent on another planet. However, it’s worth noting that after analysis and a few editing efforts, the dune appears to actually be grey, not blue.

In fact, orbiters do not touch the surface of a planet, like rovers do. Instead, they watch and monitor the planet from outside its atmosphere, sometimes catching interesting images. Actually, without this camera, the naked human eye might only see a grey dune and nothing else. But with the camera, a lot more details become visible and even like this, not everything is clear because of the dust on the planet. There are some steps that need to be take in order for these images to appear as clear as they are.

Orbiter finds unusual blue sand dune on the Red Planet

NASA image shows blue sand dune on Mars https://t.co/vWwLStEc7J pic.twitter.com/kGMHr6pitL

— Orlando Sentinel (@orlandosentinel) June 26, 2018

According to Alfred McEwen, director of the Planetary Image Research Laboratory at the University of Arizona, the orbiter takes three separate images of a certain area. After that, a team adjusts the colors individually to red, green and blue. They use infrared technology to do this and obtain the final result that everyone can see.

So, because of the contrast, the sand dune on Mars appears to be a shade of blue. This is because it’s made of something else than the surroundings. It’s worth mentioning that the orbiter found the dune on the Lyot Crater. This blue dune is special because of its shape, because all the other in the area are crescent-shaped.

Image source: pixabay

Not many people are aware of the existence of the tomb of Lady Xia, who was the grandmother of China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuang. Apart from being 2,200-years old, it is basically an ancient zoo. After being initially found back in 2004, researchers found some different kind of bones in its pits, apart from the expected ones. Remains of cranes, a leopard, a lynx, and a black bear, among others, were scattered all over the place. But one of the most interesting remains was the bizarre skull of a gibbon.

Now, a few years later, researchers have finally finished their analysis and established that skull came from an unknown and now extinct gibbon genus. This journey actually began in 2009, when, while touring a museum in China, gibbon expert Samuel Turvey noticed the unusual skull. Because it didn’t look like anything he had seen, he decided to take a closer look. So, after comparing the ancient skull with a database that contained the dimensions of the four known gibbon species, they reached a conclusion. It seems that, among other differences, the brain of the ancient skull was larger and the cheekbones narrower.

A new and extinct gibbon species discovered

The journal Science has recently published the study in which the authors have described this fascinating finding. However, it’s worth noting that apart from these aforementioned characteristics, the team has no other ideas about this gibbon species. They don’t know if it truly came from China, where it fits in their family tree, and when or why it went extinct.

However, it’s interesting that not all experts think that the skull belongs to an unknown species. Terry Harrison, a biological anthropologist at New York University thinks that the gibbon might have been a captive animal. Usually, when kept captive, animals can develop growth abnormalities.

Image source: maxpixel

On May 30, a big dust storm was spotted for the first time on the surface of Mars. At the time, NASA’s 15-year old Opportunity rover was right in its path. This resulted in a rough couple of weeks for it and it seems that now, the dust storm has only gotten bigger and more dangerous. For example, on June 12, it already reached 14 million square miles. This means that it was covering about a quarter of the planet. Moreover, earlier this week, NASA confirmed that the storm has engulfed the Red Planet completely and it doesn’t show any signs of stopping soon.

It’s important to note that when the storm hit, Opportunity put itself in a low power mode, to preserve energy. There is another rover on Mars, Curiosity, but that one is nuclear powered. So far, it has been analyzing the effects of the dust storm on the other side of Mars. According to a NASA Rover Status Report, Opportunity has not emitted any signal. There have been efforts to listen in case it may want to communicate during its fault window. However, according to a recent analysis, it seems that Opportunity internals can stay warm long enough to function, despite the extremely cold conditions on the Red Planet.

A dust storm has swallowed the entire Red Planet

It seems that NASA is still listening to the rover every day, in the hope of hearing something useful or hopeful from Opportunity. This might seem like s stressful situation, but it’s worth noting that Opportunity has gone through a lot of dangerous situations in the past. For example, back in 2007, it endured an even larger dust storm, also on Mars. Opportunity also had a partner called Spirit which, unfortunately, is now defunct. NASA says that the rover will most likely survive this storm, even if it wasn’t designed to do so.

Image source: wikimedia

For a long time, experts have said that usually, people tend to worry about the wrong asteroids. Newspapers also like to publish bombastic titles regarding possibly hazardous asteroids that might end all life on Earth. When it created this category, NASA probably didn’t expect it to become so misleading. In fact, we should worry about the smaller asteroids, not the bigger ones. According to a new report which the US National Science and Technology Council released, there are plans to do something about this issue.

It all started back in 2005 when a congressional mandate said that NASA would try to track about 90% of all near-Earth objects bigger than 460 feet. It seems that we are only one third there for now. Moreover, the catalogue that NASA currently has might be full of mistakes. Apart from this, before tracking something, you must first document it. This is what the recent report is planning to do, mainly because that effort is behind schedule too. It’s not the big asteroids that we can track that pose a risk. In fact, it’s the smaller ones that escape tracking. We even have a clear example of that.

We should worry about smaller asteroids, not big ones

A while ago, a 60-foot-wide meteor called Chelyabinsk escaped detection and finally, exploded over Russia. It was not devastating, but it still injured a thousand people. Now, imagine this with a larger rock over an even more populated area. That would be catastrophic.

The idea that the report puts forward is for the United States to become more prepared in such cases. Improved capabilities when it comes to detecting such objects are mandatory. This means that technologically advanced computer and telescopes are also a necessity. Better-organized simulations might also play a big role in preventing such disasters, or their victims.

Image source: pixabay

It was 1921 when the Vatican Apostolic Library managed to acquire a very valuable copy of a letter written by Christopher Columbus back in 1493. In the letter, he was describing the Caribbean islands and his first impressions of them to the Spanish monarchy. About 90 years later, American officials contacted the library to say that they believed that real letter was actually stolen and replaced with an almost perfect fake. Fortunately, last week, the original letter was found in Atlanta, Georgia, and returned to its place in the Vatican library.

However, this doesn’t mean that the mysterious case of this letter’s disappearance has been solved. The problem is that the authorities still don’t have a clue regarding the date when the letter was stolen and who the thief was. Moreover, they are uncertain if this Vatican theft has anything to do with other similar cases which took place in other two libraries. The letter, which has eight pages, has been valued at $1.2 million. It is basically a copy of a message in Spanish which Columbus wrote to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. The letter was also translated into Latin and now, about 80 copies of it exist in the entire world.

The mysterious case of Christopher Columbus’ missing letter

Initially, the version that the Vatican has was printed in 1493, in Rome. Centuries later, collector Giovanni Francesco De Rossi gave it to the Apostolic Library. Back in 2011, a rare book and manuscript expert informed the United States Homeland Security Investigations about the possibility that the version in Vatican was a fake.

After a long investigation, the officials traced the real letter to a collector in Atlanta. The man had reportedly purchased it from a New York dealer for $875,000, in 2004. But who did it? Timothy Janz, director of the printed books department at the Vatican Library, thinks it was a binder. It seems that the library usually sends books out to be bound. A researcher who was reading in the reading room couldn’t have possibly done it without being seen.

Image source: flickr

After living a rather uneventful life in the oceans of the planet about 500-million years ago, a newly-discovered creature has the honor to be named after a former United States President. Researchers have given it the name Obamus coronatus, in honor of Barack Obama and his famous passion for science. The “coronatus” part in the name translates to “crowned”. In fact, this was a very small, disc-shaped aquatic animal with spiral grooves on it. It did not have an eventful life because it spent all of it embedded on the ocean floor. It probably never even moved.

What’s even more interesting is that another small ancient animal was also recently discovered. This critter was egg-shaped and most likely looked like a raisin. The researchers called this one Attenborites janeae, in honor of British naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough. The second part of the name is a reference to Jane Fargher, one of the owners of the property where the experts discovered the fossils. It’s worth noting that both of these are among the oldest animals to ever roam the Earth, or its oceans. They were found in a southern Australia mountain range, in a very well-preserved fossil bed.

The ancient creature named after former President Obama

According to paleontologist Mary Droser, who was part of the effort to discover these ancient creatures, in 30 years, nobody has seen such a remarkably well-preserved fossil bed that has so many beautiful and rare specimens. The same researchers who named the creatures, and who have a very profound passion for pop culture, also named this fossil bed “Alice’s Restaurant Bed”. This is a nod to the to the Arlo Guthrie song which goes “You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant”. It’s also important to note that these particular species no longer exist in today’s world.

Image source: pxhere

There are a lot of ancient turquoise mines all over Arizona and New Mexico. At the same time, Central America and Southern Mexico have very few of them. This is why researchers have long theorized that the Mixtec cultures and the Aztec empire must have traded with those in the Southwest for this special blue-green mineral that is so beautiful. According to a new study, which the journal Science Advances recently published, it seems that between 1970s and 1990s, archaeologists analyzed the Aztec turquoise. This chemical analysis finally revealed that the turquoise actually came from the northern mines.

However, for this new study, a team of researchers wanted to take a second look using modern techniques. So, they analyzed the mosaics at the Aztec Temple of Mayor in Mexico City and the Mixteca tiles. So, after removing the edge of the tiles, the team dissolved them in acid and searched for the isotopic ratios. This is how they found that the chemical signature of this turquoise actually matched the geology in Mesoamerica, not the Southwest. According to this, it means that the Aztecs actually got their turquoise supplies locally.

The origin of the Aztec turquoise

According to Alyson Thibodeau, the lead author of this new study, she was very happy when the results of the analysis finally came in. It’s also interesting that archaeologists have not found too many turquoise mines in Mesoamerica. However, this doesn’t mean that they do not exist. Usually, turquoise appears near the surface of copper deposits. This also means that smaller and shallow turquoise deposits could have been mined to extinction. This is why experts have not found any. Also, it’s highly possible that experts have simply missed them So, these samples simply gave experts an idea about where these minerals came from but did not offer the exact location of these mines.

Image source: publicdomainpictures