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Exquisite layered sandstone exists in Mars Holden Crater

 According to foreign media reports, the layered sandstone of Mars Holden Crater reminds people of the red rock topography of the southwestern United States. This photo was taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) airborne high-resolution scientific experiment imaging camera (HiRISE), showing the presence of eddy layered sandstone in the 140-kilometer-diameter Holden Crater.    On June 8, NASA officials described this photo as saying that most of Mars is covered by sand and dust, but piles of sediment can be seen in some areas. In this photo, the sand layer in the southern part of Holden crater presents a delicate sense of layering. These layered sequences provide important clues for understanding the complex geological history of Mars.    This period of history includes that the surface of Mars in ancient times may support the survival of terrestrial life. The survey data of the Mars Survey Orbiter and the Curiosity rover show that there were rivers and lakes in the ancie...

The global magnetic field strength dropped by 9%

 A long-existing weak intensity zone in the earth's magnetic field is becoming more and more strange, and may even split into two distinct anomalous areas.   South Atlantic Anomaly is an area of ​​the earth's magnetic field located between Africa and South America, covering all areas of southern South America and the South Atlantic Ocean. For at least decades, the magnetic field in this region has become weaker and weaker, and this is part of the global trend. According to data from the European Space Agency (ESA), the global magnetic field strength has dropped by 9% in the past 200 years. The South Atlantic anomaly appears to be a special point of change. Now, satellite detection results for investigating the anomaly area show that in southwest Africa, the geomagnetic intensity is getting weaker, indicating that the South Atlantic anomaly area may split into two separate low-magnetic areas.    The European Space Agency pointed out that this change does not mean that there will...

The soaring atmospheric CO2 concentration poses serious challenges to mankind

 The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere today has reached its highest value in a long time. According to a recent study published in the journal Geology, scientists found that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere today exceeds the highest record in the past 23 million years, and its soaring speed is also unprecedented.    Since industrialization, mankind has continuously upgraded and developed demand, and greenhouse gas emissions have become increasingly strong. Long-term studies have shown that the concentration of CO2 has risen sharply since the beginning of the 19th century, and this point in time was before and after the industrial revolution. At present, CO2 is considered to be one of the pollutants with the strongest greenhouse effect, and the increase in CO2 concentration is closely related to climate change. Currently, the existing direct records can be traced back hundreds of years, but before that, the situation was very vague. The ice cores dri...

Is the sun awakened? Outbreak the biggest flare since 2017

 According to foreign media( https://www.hermesonline.org ) reports, a few days ago, the sun broke out the biggest flare event since 2017, and our sun may wake up from its deep sleep.    On May 29, the sun erupted with the strongest flare event since October 2017, which was observed by NASA’s Solar Observation Dynamics Observatory. Solar flares are the radiation produced when sunspots erupt. Sunspots are areas of the sun's surface that are temporarily dark and relatively low in temperature, and have a strong magnetic field. Scientists divide strong flares into three levels: C, M, and X. M-class flares are 10 times stronger than C-class flares, but 10 times weaker than X-class flares.    It was an M-class flare that erupted on May 29, so it was not the strongest flare event, and the flare did not erupt towards the earth, so there would be no super-auroral phenomenon caused by coronal mass ejection. However, NASA officials said the flare outbreak may still be a sign that solar activi...

How close can you get to a black hole?

 For humans, the "death fall" of these gases is too far away to be directly observed. However, astronomers have designed a new technology that can detect their last radiation traces and understand the most extreme gravitational environment in the universe.    In this new study, physicists calculated the shortest distance to avoid falling into a black hole by observing specific radiation characteristics. This threshold is called the "innermost stable circular orbit" (ISCO). Using this method, more sensitive X-ray telescopes in the future may be able to truly reveal the mystery of this orbit.    event horizon    Black holes are undoubtedly the most mysterious celestial bodies in the universe. They hide in the darkness and swallow all incoming light. Regardless of size, all black holes have a common feature, which is the event horizon. Cross this line and you will never come back. Once anything passes through the event horizon, even light itself cannot return to the un...

Quark matter inside neutron stars may be confirmed

 In the past 40 years, confirming the existence of quark nuclei in neutron stars has been one of the most important goals of neutron star physics. Finnish scientists wrote in the latest issue of "Nature Physics" magazine that they have found strong evidence that there is strange quark matter in the core of the largest neutron star to date. This conclusion may be.    The researchers explained that all ordinary matter around us is composed of atoms, and the dense atomic nucleus is composed of protons, neutrons and the surrounding electrons. But inside a neutron star, atoms will collapse into extremely dense nuclear matter, in which neutrons and protons "snuggle" closely together, so the entire neutron star can be regarded as a huge nucleus. Previously, scientists had not been clear whether the matter in the core of the most massive neutron star would collapse into more exotic quark matter.    The latest research found that the material in the nucleus of the largest st...

The disappearing baryon may be hidden in interstellar space

 Observing the light emitted by the young universe, the data obtained show that ordinary matter accounts for about 5% of the total mass and energy of the universe, but the ordinary matter that can be seen now only accounts for about half of the expected total matter, which “disappears” Where did half of ordinary matter go? Scientists wrote in the latest issue of "Nature" magazine that they studied fast radio bursts from other galaxies and found that half of the ordinary matter "disappeared" in the universe actually lurks in interstellar space.    These "disappearing" ordinary substances are composed of baryons such as protons and neutrons, and have puzzled cosmologists for nearly 20 years. Although they have always suspected that these substances are hidden between galaxies, "but we cannot detect them with certainty because they are very scattered and do not emit bright light." said Jason Hessel, an astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam i...