Why the universe's ancient galaxies were extra bright

New research based on observational data from the Spitzer telescope provides clues as to how the universe first emerged from its dark age.

ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgements: D. Calzetti (UMass) and the LEGUS Team
  • Researchers using the Spitzer telescope were able to analyze some of the most distant and ancient galaxies in the universe.
  • They discovered that these galaxies were far brighter than anticipated, shedding clues into how the universe first emerged from the "dark ages" that lasted until about a billion years after the Big Bang.
  • This research serves as a stepping stone for future work to be conducted with the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to be launched in early 2021.
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Surprising Science

The moon is shrinking — also, moonquakes are a thing

A new NASA report shakes up lunar geology.

Image source: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
  • The moon is indeed shrinking. It has been since it formed.
  • The shrinking is producing thousands of fault lines.
  • Archived seismometer data from Apollo missions show moonquakes.
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Surprising Science

There’s gold in your brain — we now know where it came from

The answer is surprisingly simple, if cataclysmic.

Image source: tomertu/BravissimoS/Shutterstock/Big Think
  • A unique, tiny grain of stardust has provided a look at the early universe.
  • Computer simulations point to a single neutron-star collision as a significant source of heavy metals.
  • Gold is more than bling — it's in our neurons.
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Surprising Science

Watch how this video brilliantly compares planet sizes

What if all planets were the same distance from Earth as the Moon?

Yeti Dynamics
  • A video imagines what it would look like if the planets were all the same distance from Earth as the Moon.
  • The largest planets like Jupiter and Saturn would loom large in the sky.
  • Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system.
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Surprising Science

A mind-blowing explanation of the speed of light

Light exists outside of time.

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  • The only things that travel at the speed of light are photons.
  • Nothing with any mass at all can travel at the speed of light because as it gets closer and closer to the speed of light, its mass increases. And if it were actually traveling at the speed of light, it would have an infinite mass.
  • Light does not experience space or time. It's not just a speed going through something. All of the universe shifts around this constant, the speed of light. Time and space itself stop when you go that speed.
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