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New Delhi: For the first time, scientists have discovered seismic data on a ‘boomerang earthquake’ that occurred under water. In 2016, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake shook the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Liberia in western Africa.
Looking at the data from the South American and African tectonic plates, scientists found that the quake first rose to the northeast, then unexpectedly turned and struck the fault line again to the west, returning to the place from which it originated. So the name ‘boomerang’ is earthquake.
If such shakes were to land, the tremors would be much stronger and cause significant damage. This study can help to better understand and prepare for the physics behind boomerang earthquakes. More on that National Geographic.
NASA decodes mystery behind unusual dimming of giant star Betelgeuse
Using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA has deciphered what caused the mysterious dimming of a giant star Betelgeuse more than 500 light-years away.
Betelgeuse is a red redundant star that recently began to dim in large swells and then in October 2019. The star got several astronomers excited, because such events in a star are similar to what happens before a supernova explosion.
Observations now show that Betelgeuse’s unexpected dimming was probably caused by an enormous amount of hot material protruding into space, forming a cloud of dust that blocked starlight from the surface of Betelgeuse. By May this year, the star returned to normal brightness. More on that Space.
NASA’s TESS telescope supports 66 new planets outside our solar system
NASA’s exoplanet-hunting TESS space telescope has helped discover 66 new planets in outer space, and spotted nearly 2,100 potentials yet to be confirmed.
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TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) completed its primary two-year mission on July 4th. However, the space telescope will continue to search for new worlds in outer space on an extended mission until September 2022.
TESS was launched in April 2018. It hunts to alien worlds using the transit method, in which stars check for a small, periodic dip in brightness as a planet crosses the path between the star and the telescope.
Using the same principle, NASA’s Kepler space telescope found more than 2,600 planets. Although the Kepler telescope was launched in 2018, data from telescope scientists are still helping to find new planets. More on that Scientific American.
Also read: Scientists in Japan revived microbes buried in rocks more than 100 million years ago
Climate change drove prehistoric woolly rhinoceros to extinction
Ancient woolly rhinoceros, which roamed the planet until just a few thousand years ago, became extinct due to climate change – and not due to overhunting by humans – a new study has found.
Scientists sequenced the DNA from the fossils of 14 woolly rhinos and found that these mega-herbivores disappeared from Siberia when temperatures were probably too high for the species adapted to live in cold climates.
Initially, it was thought that humans appeared in northeastern Siberia 14,000 or 15,000 years ago, which was almost the same as the extinction of these woolly rhinos.
However, several other research teams found evidence of older human settlements, some of which are about 30,000 years old. This indicates that the decline of the woolly rhinoceros does not coincide with the appearance of people in the region.
A look at the genomic requirements of these woolly rhinos revealed that their population began to decline about 4,500 years ago, coinciding with a brief warming period in Siberia, leading scientists to conclude that the extinction of the species was linked to climate change. More on that CNN.
Dinosaur species from the T.rex family discovered in the United Kingdom
Scientists have discovered a new dinosaur species that lived 115 million years ago. Researchers at the University of Southampton concluded that the dinosaur came from the same family as the Tyrannosaurus, commonly referred to as T.rex. This family of dinosaurs were giant predators, with sharp teeth and claws to devour their prey.
The dinosaur had large air spaces in some of its bones, which the team believes is an extension of its lungs. The team believes that these airbags helped him breathe better, while also making his skeleton lighter.
The team has derived all this information based on four bones discovered in 2019. The bones discovered were from the neck, back and tail of the reptile. More on that BBC.
Also read: Dinosaurs may also be suffering from cancer – scientists have discovered fossils with diseased bones
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