Astronomers believe they’ve uncovered the source behind mysterious cosmic signals known as fast X-raytransients (FXTs) — and it adds a grim twist to our understanding of the death of stars.
Right as a massive star explodes in a supernova, it unleashes a tremendously energetic stream of particles called a jet, producing a gamma ray burst — one of the most powerful explosions in the universe. The rest of the star, typically, collapses into a black hole.
But a pair of newstudies suggests that this last gasp by a star before winking out of existence can get “trapped” by some of the star’s own remains, slamming the door shut on the jet so it can’t fully shine.
“As the jet is being launched, that extra material from the star that didn’t collapse into the black hole [interacts] with the jet in such a way that sort of suppresses the jet from actually breaking out of the outer layers,” Jillian Rastinejad, an astronomer at Northwestern University and lead author of one the two studies set to published in the The Astrophysical Journal Letters, toldGizmodo.
That produces the weaker X-ray emissions, in the form of an FXT, which can last from seconds to hours.
The nickname astronomers have for these weakened blasts is nearly as brutal as the catastrophic event itself: a “failed” jet.
According to the findings, FXTs arise from a type of stellar explosion called a Type Ic supernova, which occurs in stars that have long shed their outermost layers of hydrogen and helium.
Because of their ephemeral nature and the extreme distance of most detected FXTs to date, pinpointing their origins has been a challenge for astronomers.
Rastinejad and her team’s breakthrough came when data collected in the Einstein Probe, an X-ray telescope program run by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the European Space Agency, revealed an FXT that was unusually close to Earth — a mere 2.8 billion light years away.
Dubbed EP 250108a, telescopes including the Keck Observatory in Hawai’i and the James Webb Space Telescope rushed to extensively image the X-ray burst in multiple wavelengths, collecting infrared and optical data.
“It’s important to note that X-ray data alone cannot tell us what phenomena created an FXT,” Rastinejad said in a statement about the work. “Rapid observations of the location of the FXT at optical and infrared wavelengths are key to identifying the aftermath of an FXT and assembling clues to its origin.”
With that wealth of data, the astronomers were able to observe how the signal evolved over time. Over the course of several weeks, the stunted supernova increased in brightness before eventually fading. The brief peak in brightness allowed the astronomers to determine that the blast was a Type Ic supernova — and one that was clearly lacking a gamma ray burst.
This has profound implications for our understanding of a star’s demise, because according to the work, with sufficiently large stars — the one that produced EP 250108a is estimated to be between 15 to 30 times heavier than the Sun — the full-blown gamma ray bursts we’ve come to equate with supernovas may not actually be the norm.
Instead, Rastinejad said, “this ‘trapped’ jet outcome is more common in massive star explosions than jets that successfully emerge from the star.”
More on space: Astronomers Capture First-Ever Image of Star That Exploded Twice
Pepper, the pet cat who made headlines last year for his role in the discovery of the first jeilongvirus found in the U.S., is at it again. This time, his hunting prowess contributed to the identification of a new strain of orthoreovirus.
John Lednicky, Ph.D., Pepper’s owner and a University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions virologist, took Pepper’s catch — a dead Everglades short-tailed shrew — into the lab for testing as part of his ongoing work to understand transmission of the mule deerpox virus.
Testing revealed the shrew had a previously unidentified strain of orthoreovirus. Viruses in this genus are known to infect humans, white-tailed deer, bats and other mammals. While orthoreoviruses’ effects on humans are not yet well understood, there have been rare reports of the virus being associated with cases of encephalitis, meningitis and gastroenteritis in children.
“The bottom line is we need to pay attention to orthoreoviruses, and know how to rapidly detect them,” said Lednicky, a research professor in the PHHP Department of Environmental and Global Health and a member of UF’s Emerging Pathogens Institute.
The UF team published the complete genomic coding sequences for the virus they named “Gainesville shrew mammalian orthoreovirus type 3 strain UF-1” in the journal Microbiology Resource Announcements.
“There are many different mammalian orthoreoviruses and not enough is known about this recently identified virus to be concerned,” said the paper’s lead author Emily DeRuyter, a UF Ph.D. candidate in One Health. “Mammalian orthoreoviruses were originally considered to be ‘orphan’ viruses, present in mammals including humans, but not associated with diseases. More recently, they have been implicated in respiratory, central nervous system and gastrointestinal diseases.”
The Lednicky lab’s jeilongvirus and orthoreovirus discoveries come on the heels of the team publishing their discovery of two other novel viruses found in farmed white-tailed deer. Given the propensity of viruses to constantly evolve, paired with the team’s sophisticated lab techniques, finding new viruses isn’t entirely surprising, Lednicky said.
“I’m not the first one to say this, but essentially, if you look, you’ll find, and that’s why we keep finding all these new viruses,” Lednicky said.
Like influenza virus, two different types of orthoreovirus can infect a host cell, causing the viruses’ genes to mix and match, in essence, creating a brand new virus, Lednicky said.
In 2019, Lednicky and colleagues isolated the first orthoreovirus found in a deer. That strain’s genes were nearly identical to an orthoreovirus found in farmed mink in China and a deathly ill lion in Japan. How in the world, the scientific community wondered, could the same hybrid virus appear in a farmed deer in Florida and two species of carnivores across the globe? Some experts speculated that components of the animals’ feed could have come from the same manufacturer.
With so many unanswered questions about orthoreoviruses and their modes of transmission, prevalence in human and animal hosts and just how sick they could make us, more research is needed, DeRuyter and Lednicky said.
Next steps would include serology and immunology studies to understand the threat Gainesville shrew mammalian orthoreovirus type 3 strain UF-1 may hold for humans, wildlife and pets.
For readers concerned about Pepper’s health, rest assured. He has shown no signs of illness from his outdoor adventures and will likely continue to contribute to scientific discovery through specimen collection.
“This was an opportunistic study,” Lednicky said. “If you come across a dead animal, why not test it instead of just burying it? There is a lot of information that can be gained.”
Many expect warmer winters to reduce cold snaps, but that hasn’t happened. A new study reveals that what happens high in the stratosphere still controls much of what happens at ground level.
A swirling band of cold air, the stratospheric polar vortex (SPV), sometimes shifts or weakens. Two specific variations of this vortex send Arctic air plunging into the U.S. One pattern (called P2) leads to severe weather in the Northwest.
The other (P3) hits the Central and Eastern regions. Since 2015, the Northwest has faced more of these brutal cold events, while the East has seen fewer. This shift aligns with more frequent La Niña episodes.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“The public often hears about the ‘polar vortex’ when winter turns severe, but we wanted to dig deeper and understand how variations within this vortex affect where and when extreme cold hits,” said the researchers.
The vortexes that drive winter cold
Using four decades of data, the researchers clustered five recurring SPV shapes (P1 to P5). Two of them, P2 and P3, were most associated with U.S. cold outbreaks.
P2 features a strong vortex centered over the pole with a stretched lower vortex. It often brings snow and cold to the Northwestern U.S.
P3 shows a weaker, displaced vortex toward the North Atlantic, steering cold into the Central and Eastern U.S. These variations do not just depend on vortex position but also on how atmospheric waves behave.
Planetary waves can either be absorbed or reflected in the stratosphere. When reflected, they can send cold air barreling southward. P3 events consistently show this reflection during the cold wave itself. P2 events often have wave reflection before the cold snap hits.
Where the cold hits and why
The researchers used the rAWSSI index, which considers temperature, snow depth, and snowfall.
The analysis revealed that P3 patterns produce the most extreme winter conditions in the Central and Eastern U.S., while P2 patterns primarily affect the Northwestern region with intense cold and snowfall. The findings help explain recent cold events, including the severe Texas freeze of 2021.
The Northwest has seen more P2 days recently. This increase matches a northwestward shift in cold air outbreaks. The central and eastern parts still get hit, but less often now.
Wave activity flux (WAF) offers clues. Before P2 events, reflection happens over Siberia and Alaska. During P3 events, strong reflection occurs over Asia and the Pacific. In P3, this reflection continues as the cold air descends.
Cold air starts in the east, spreads across the Midwest, and settles in the Northwest. These transitions help forecast where the next cold wave might land.
Global cycles influence winter cold
P2 is more frequent during La Niña conditions. P3 prefers El Niño phases. This suggests tropical ocean temperatures influence how the polar vortex behaves.
Other climate patterns play a role as well. The westerly phase of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) often coincides with P2 days.
On the other hand, the Arctic Oscillation (AO) tends to be more negative during P3 events, a state that supports increased cold outbreaks in the Central and Eastern United States.
Winter cold is shifting
Despite a warming climate, these findings suggest extreme cold will still return. But its location may shift. In the past decade, the coldest anomalies moved westward. That’s a change from decades of more common Eastern U.S. cold.
With better tracking of SPV patterns, meteorologists can now look 2 to 4 weeks ahead. The study shows that P3 often precedes P2, which means that a Central or Eastern cold event may be followed by a Northwestern one.
The high-altitude stratosphere, once seen as distant and separate, plays an active role in shaping winter. As climate change accelerates, it’s no longer enough to track surface temperatures. We need to watch the sky, too.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) , the U.S.–Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) , the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) , and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The study is published in the journal Science Advances.
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Lockheed Martin is trying to position itself as a savior for many NASA missions currently facing the chopping block at the hands of the Trump administration. The administration has already detailed massive budget cuts to NASA, which could include a complete shutdown of the Mars Sample Return mission, which Perseverance has been working on for the past several years.
However, Lockheed Martin — yes, the same company known for its extensive role in America’s defense system — has come up with a fixed budget plan to save the Sample Return mission and bring back the collections Perseverance has already made.
Over the years, NASA has struggled to bring its plans for Mars exploration to life. While the Mars Sample Return mission was a great idea, its actual execution has been less than smooth, with the budget often skyrocketing above the original numbers NASA provided years ago when it started operating on the mission. The numbers have changed so much, in fact, that even before the Trump administration’s shocking budget cuts, NASA was already looking at possibly canceling the MSR or finding cheaper alternatives. Thankfully, those cuts seem to have been relinquished for now, but it doesn’t mean NASA is out of the fire just yet.
But Lockheed Martin’s plan could make that unnecessary. According to a detailed post and video shared to Lockheed Martin’s website, the company has come up with at least one way it could utilize existing services and vehicles to complete NASA’s expensive Mars Sample Return mission. Further, the company says it would be able to pull it off for $3 billion, less than half NASA’s current $7 billion projection.
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If true, it could give NASA the extra hand that it needs to get the Mars Sample Return mission back on track. While Trump and others have put a renewed focus on actually getting humans to Mars, being able to understand the Red Planet better will be key to surviving there and creating a human colony that can thrive. That’s why these samples are so important.
They could finally help us answer vital questions about the history of water on Mars, as well as determine the best places to land and colonize the planet. Of course, NASA and the U.S. government have to say yes to all of that first. But it’s at least a nice plan that the bigwigs out there can mull over in the meantime. And, with a little luck, we could see the plans to can the Mars Sample Return turned on their head. And that would be a great thing to see.
Niagara Falls pulls in tourists by the boatload. Angel Falls towers higher than city skyscrapers. Yet both pale in comparison to Earth’s largest waterfall – an enormous, rushing torrent concealed below Arctic waves.
The Denmark Strait cataract drops in slow motion beneath the chilly surface between Iceland and Greenland.
The chute begins thousands of feet down, rolls over a hidden ledge, and keeps sliding for 11,500 feet – more than twice the cruising altitude of a commercial jet.
No roar reaches the surface, no mist fills the air, and passing ships glide on as if nothing remarkable lies below these crucial Arctic waters, which drive Earth’s climate.
The Denmark Strait cataract
Most of Earth’s largest waterfalls form when a river meets a cliff and spills over. Turbulent water gouges the rock, the lip grows steeper, and a postcard scene is born.
Submarine waterfalls follow a different script. Here, colder, saltier water sinks below lighter layers, slipping along the seafloor like syrup down a tilted pan. The motion is silent, pulling entire water masses rather than a single stream.
Oceanographers first confirmed the Denmark Strait cataract decades ago by tracing temperature and salinity profiles through the channel.
Sensors revealed a dense ribbon of Nordic Sea water sliding into the Atlantic basin, gathering speed until it tumbled past a submerged ridge. That ridge acts as the unseen cliff, setting off the tallest plunge on Earth.
Where Arctic chill meets Atlantic warmth
Icy water leaving the Nordic seas is both colder and saltier than the milder Atlantic layer to the south. Density differences created by that contrast drive the flow.
As the dense water reaches the sill between Iceland and Greenland, it spills downward, widening as it falls until the sheet stretches roughly 300 miles – about the driving distance from Chicago to St. Louis.
During the Last Ice Age, roughly 17,500 to 11,500 years ago, glaciers carved trenches across the seabed and left behind the ridge that now serves as the cataract’s tipping point.
Glacial debris, volcanic eruptions, and relentless currents have since hardened the structure, locking a geological funnel in place for the descending water.
Climate change and the largest waterfall
More than 3.2 million cubic meters of water – around 113 million cubic feet – slip over the cataract every second, far outpacing the Amazon River’s flow into the Atlantic.
This slide feeds the lower limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the global “conveyor belt” that ferries heat, oxygen, and nutrients around the planet.
There is increasing evidence of the effects of global change on the phenomenon of undersea waterfalls.
“A good example is on the Catalan coast, where the decrease in the number of tramontane days in winter in the Gulf of Lion and north of the Catalan coast is causing a weakening of this oceanographic process, which is decisive in regulating the climate and has a great impact on deep ecosystems,” explains marine scientist Anna Sanchez Vidal.
Size of the Denmark Strait cataract
Angel Falls drops 3,212 feet in Venezuela. Niagara clears a modest 167 feet on the U.S.-Canada border. Stack all of Niagara’s water several dozen times, and you still won’t match the cataract’s flow.
Even the Mississippi at flood stage would struggle. Yet the Denmark Strait cataract remains invisible, its roar muffled by more than a half-mile of seawater.
Instruments tell a different story: moored profilers register velocities topping three knots, while sediment cores show layers rearranged by the hidden torrent.
The phenomenon of dense water overflow is particularly intense in the Arctic and Antarctic.
In the Denmark Strait, southward-flowing frigid water from the Nordic Seas meets warmer water from the Irminger Sea. The cold, dense water quickly sinks below the warmer water and flows over the huge drop in the ocean floor, creating a downward flow estimated over 123 million cubic feet per second. Click image to enlarge. Credit: NOAA
“The poles are the regions where most of the dense water masses – generated by the formation of sea ice at the surface – eventually reach the global ocean floor,” explains David Amblàs of the Department of Earth and Ocean Dynamics at the University of Barcelona.
“The polar areas are like the heart of the oceanic circulatory system: they pump cold, dense water into the great oceanic troughs through the ‘heartbeats’ made by overflows of dense water.”
Much more to learn
The cataract may slow or speed up as Arctic warming alters salinity and temperature patterns. Researchers use autonomous gliders, deep-sea landers, and satellite altimetry to watch for any shift that could ripple through weather systems.
A weakening flow might stall the North Atlantic’s heat pump, cooling Europe and nudging hurricanes onto new tracks.
Yet there is still no direct video of the full descent, and no sensor array captures every eddy. Each expedition peels back only a sliver of the story.
Future projects aim to stitch those slivers together, mapping the plunge in three dimensions and tracking its pulse through the seasons.
Why Earth’s largest waterfall matters
Anyone enjoying mild January weather or a fish fillet pulled from Icelandic waters owes thanks, in part, to the Denmark Strait cataract.
By dragging cold, dense water southward, the cataract clears space for warmer Gulf Stream water to flow north. That exchange tempers winter, nourishes plankton, and steers migratory species toward fertile feeding grounds.
When the torrent quickens, more carbon-rich deep water rises elsewhere, boosting ocean productivity. When it slackens, heat piles up in the tropics, whipping up stronger storms.
In other words, the waterfall no one can see holds a backstage pass to everyday weather and the seafood aisle alike.
From a tourist’s point of view, the cataract offers nothing to watch. From a planetary perspective, it’s a crucial lever, tilting climate and commerce with the quiet push of density-driven flow.
Scientists will keep chasing its rhythm, because the better we know this hidden giant, the better we can forecast the moods of the sea and the sky above it.
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A University of Portsmouth student has discovered a new species of prehistoric mammal dating back 145 million years to the Berriasian age, providing fresh insights into the diversity of early mammals that lived alongside dinosaurs.
carried out “digital dental surgery” using CT scanning to isolate individual teeth for detailed study
A University of Portsmouth student has discovered a new species of prehistoric mammal dating back 145 million years to the Berriasian age, providing fresh insights into the diversity of early mammals that lived alongside dinosaurs.
Benjamin Weston, 22, an undergraduate paleontology student, made the remarkable discovery while conducting fieldwork in the cliffs of Durlston Bay near Swanage, Dorset. The fossilized lower jaw he found represents a completely new species of multituberculate — an extinct group of early mammals known for the distinctive tubercles on their posterior teeth.
The 16.5mm-long jaw is characterized by a long pointed incisor at the front, followed by a gap and then four razor-sharp premolars. While superficially resembling a rabbit’s jaw, the pointed incisors and distinctive premolars identify it as belonging to the multituberculate group.
This discovery, published in Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, marks the first multituberculate jaw found at Swanage since Victorian times, and its unique size and shape confirmed it as an entirely new species.
“I instantly had my suspicions of what the jaw was when I found it at the beach, but couldn’t have imagined where the discovery would take me,” said Ben Weston. “I’m extremely grateful to the team and to the university for helping me take my first steps into academic paleontology.”
Dr Roy Smith and Emeritus Professor David Martill, who supervised the research, enlisted the expertise of Dr Steve Sweetman, a former Portsmouth student and now honorary research fellow, who specializes in rare Early Cretaceous mammal fossils from the Isle of Wight and Isle of Purbeck regions.
This was not the first time a student made a once-in-a-lifetime discovery in Dorset. In 2017, undergraduate Grant Smith recovered fossilis of two new species of Humankind’s earliest ancestors from rocks exposed in cliffs near Swanage.
Dr Sweetman said: “This is a remarkable find that reminds me of when Grant found those extraordinary eutherian mammal teeth. When I first saw Grant’s specimens, my jaw dropped — and I had exactly the same reaction to Ben’s multituberculate jaw. It’s incredible that Durlston Bay keeps delivering such significant mammal discoveries by our undergraduate students.”
Advanced technology reveals hidden details
The delicate fossil presented challenges, with pieces of rock obscuring vital details. The University’s advanced CT scanning capabilities proved crucial to the research. Dr Charles Wood, Senior Scientific Officer in the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, used CT scanning to reveal the specimen inside the rock, producing remarkable results due to the contrast between fossil and rock.
The team then collaborated with Jake Keane, a former Portsmouth paleontology student now working in Abu Dhabi (UAE), who processed the CT scans digitally. Within hours, Keane had digitally removed all surrounding rock and performed “digital dental surgery” to isolate individual teeth for detailed study.
Using these digital files, Lead Technician John Fearnly at the University’s 3D printing lab in the Faculty of Technology created replicas magnified ten times, allowing safe study of the precious fossil without risk of damage.
Introducing Novaculadon mirabilis
The new species has been named Novaculadon mirabilis, with “novacula” describing its razor-like back teeth and “mirabilis” referring to the miraculous preservation of the specimen.
Portsmouth paleontology student Hamzah Imran created an artistic reconstruction showing the animal as a small, furry creature with speculative spots and stripes.
The fossil evidence suggests Novaculadon mirabilis was omnivorous, likely feeding on small invertebrates such as worms and insects. The sharp-pointed incisors and ridged, blade-like premolars indicate a feeding strategy distinct from modern rodents like squirrels and rats.
Emeritus Professor Martill reflected on the collaborative nature of the research: “Looking back now that the discovery has been published, I am amazed at how many people it took to describe this little mammal. I especially appreciated that all team members were University staff or present and former students — a true team effort including academics, technicians, alumni, and students with diverse talents across three departments.”
The research demonstrates how early mammals carved out ecological niches while dinosaurs dominated the landscape. Although multituberculates survived the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs, they eventually became extinct around 33 million years ago during the Oligocene period.
Multituberculata represents the most diverse order of Mesozoic mammals, with over 200 known species ranging from mouse-sized to beaver-sized. These mammals occupied various ecological niches over their 130-million-year evolutionary history, from burrow-dwelling to squirrel-like tree climbers.
The discovery adds to Portsmouth’s growing reputation in paleontological research and demonstrates the value of undergraduate fieldwork in advancing scientific knowledge.
The University of Portsmouth’s BSc (Hons) Palaeontology degree offers a uniquely hands-on learning experience, thanks to its location near the Isle of Wight — nicknamed “Dinosaur Island” for its rich fossil heritage. Students benefit from frequent field trips to world-famous fossil sites like the Isle of Wight and the Jurassic Coast, gaining real-world experience that complements classroom learning.
Accredited by The Geological Society of London, the course combines cutting-edge facilities, expert teaching, and a flexible “Connected Degree” structure that allows for paid placements or self-employment years, preparing graduates for careers in science, consultancy, or museum work.
As a crescent moon sank into the forest, I looked high above the cabin behind me to see just how dark it was getting. Staring back at me was the Beehive Cluster, a swarm of stars that’s a surefire sign of dark skies. From here, a west-facing deck deep in the woods of southern New Brunswick, Canada, there was nothing but silence, a touch of frost, and some of the darkest skies in the Americas.
What brought me here wasn’t just astronomy but astrotourism. “The U.S. has just announced an astrotourism project along U.S. Route 89, from Canada to Mexico,” said Stéphane Picard, an astronomer and astrophotographer at Cliff Valley Astronomy. “It’s impressive, but it stretches a thousand miles. We’ll have six dark-sky sites within 100 miles [160 kilometers] — and dozens of unique astrotourism experiences.”
Picard is one of the driving forces behind a corridor of dark-sky destinations along the dramatic coast of the Bay of Fundy, which is famous for its great range of tides (as well as its maple syrup). Dubbed the Fundy Dark-Sky Corridor, it could soon become the densest cluster of certified dark-sky reserves on Earth.
New Brunswick’s dark-sky reserves
The skies above Mountain Chalet in Broadleaf Ranch, New Brunswick, are Level 2 on the Bortle scale, which ranges from 1 (the darkest skies) to 9 (inner-city skies with the most light pollution). (Image credit: Cliff Valley Astronomy)
New Brunswick has a pedigree of dark-sky sites. The 70%-forested province, which borders Maine, is already home to three Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC)-designated Dark-Sky Preserves: Kouchibouguac National Park, Mount Carleton Provincial Park farther north, and Fundy National Park on the coast. It’s the latter, which hosts RASC’s annual star party, that’s the anchor for the project.
“Tourism here has always relied on things like snowmobiling and fishing because those have measurable data — permits and licenses — but now we have real numbers for the night sky,” Picard said, noting that the 2024 total solar eclipse generated almost $40 million in economic activity. Recent years have seen a surge of sightings of the aurora borealis, further contributing to this trend.
“When the night sky is clear, there’s nothing like it,” Picard said.
The Fundy Dark-Sky Corridor
The proposed Fundy Dark-Sky Corridor. (Image credit: Cliff Valley Astronomy)
With Fundy National Park at its center, the corridor would include the following sites:
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New River Beach Provincial Park nocturnal preserve: This area would include campsites, picnics, scenic coastal nature trails, beaches and breathtaking coastal views halfway between the U.S. border and Saint John, New Brunswick.
Irving Nature Park urban star park: This wooded park on the immediate west side of Saint John is home to Saints Rest Beach, which would be perfect for urban dwellers seeking easily accessible dark skies.
Fundy-St. Martins international dark sky community: This is a proposed community on the Bay of Fundy with historic country inns and spectacular coastal views. It’s also where two UNESCO designations — Stonehammer UNESCO Global Geopark and the Fundy Biosphere Region — overlap.
Fundy Trail Provincial Park dark-sky preserve: There are plans to add an RV park and cabins to the campground at this 6,323-acre (2,559 hectares) park with a scenic drive along the Bay of Fundy coast, hiking and biking trails, coastal lookouts, beaches and waterfalls.
Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park nocturnal preserve: This site features picture-perfect views of the “flowerpot rocks,” the 39-to-69-foot-tall (12 to 21 m) sea stacks caused by tidal erosion.
The northern edge may eventually expand toward Kouchibouguac National Park and even spill into Nova Scotia, but for now, it’s all about protecting dark skies and encouraging astrotourism in rural southern New Brunswick.
Astrotourism experiences
A telescope in Tide Watcher’s Cottage in St. Martins, New Brunswick. (Image credit: Jaime Carter)
The dark-sky designations now being sought serve as the foundation for astrotourism in New Brunswick. I was wowed by the unpretentiousness of the corridor’s parks, from the sheer accessibility of Irving Nature Park and New River Beach Provincial Park to the remote feel of Fundy Trail Provincial Park and Fundy National Park itself. There are places to stay within them — largely campgrounds and cabins — but it’s the dark-sky destinations in between that are the real jewels. In beautiful St. Martins (population 4,000) is Tide Watcher’s Cottage, whose vast lawn and hot tub overlook the world’s highest tides on the Bay of Fundy.
It’s minutes from a few historic covered bridges (New Brunswick has 58 of these “kissing bridges”) and the wild, majestic Fundy Trail Provincial Park. In nearby Norton to the north, far from light pollution (and close to the Midland Ice Caves) is Forest Lane Domes & Experiences, where a couple of eco-conscious geodesic domes have every luxury possible, including stargazing decks, a wood-fired hot tub and Bortle Level 2 skies. (The Bortle scale ranges from 1, which designates the darkest skies, to 9, which corresponds to inner-city skies with the most light pollution.)
Just outside Fundy National Park in Alma is Falcon Ridge Inn, a bed-and-breakfast with stunning views across the Bay of Fundy to Cape Chignecto Provincial Park in Nova Scotia. “We’ve had guests come who wanted to photograph the stars but were afraid to go into Fundy National Park alone at night,” said the owner, William Hutchinson. The park is home to black bears, coyotes and moose.
“I set one guest up right outside, and she got some great astro-shots — there’s not too much light pollution here,” Hutchinson said.
Another completely different astrotourism experience can be had at Broadleaf Ranch, located nearby in Riverside-Albert. The ranch features wood-paneled log cabins, a mountain chalet and several glamping pods that resemble lighthouses, tipis, and even covered bridges. All are south-facing for spectacular Milky Way views. It’s an astrophotographer’s dream — as is the nearby Cape Enrage, photographed during my trip by legendary astro-imager Alan Dyer.
There are so many stories and experiences to tap into in New Brunswick, from the star lore of the Mi’kmaw First Nations people to night hikes that tell the story of how Black families escaped slavery by following the stars out of Maine in the 19th century.
“We could have 200 astrotourism experiences in New Brunswick, and they would all be unique,” Picard said.
People of the night
Cliff Valley Astronomy’s Stéphane Picard in Fundy National Park. (Image credit: Jaime Carter)
For small communities on the Bay of Fundy coast, such as St. Martins, astrotourism is a no-brainer. “People here always knew they had great skies, but they didn’t know what to do with them,” said Elaine Shannon, vice president of the St. Martins and District Chamber of Commerce. “Now, more folks are starting to understand what this could mean.”
A gateway to the Fundy Trail Provincial Park, it’s known for red cliffs, caves and bird-watching, as well as its out-of-the-way location. It’s also beginning to host star parties and astronomy events while promoting its dark skies.
“We have three campgrounds here where you can stargaze and a lighthouse nearby with great views, but when I searched online for photos of this area at night, there’s almost nothing. No one knows about it,” said Jordan Jamison, owner and operations manager at Bay of Fundy Adventures and president of the St. Martins and District Chamber of Commerce.
For astrophotographers who prioritize originality, that’s gold dust. The same could be true for St. Martins, which reliably sees a lot of day-trippers.
“If 1 in 10 people take an astrotourism-themed trip, it means people staying overnight, eating in our restaurants, going on our tours — it’s massive for a small place like this,” Jamison said. That sentiment was echoed by Micha Fardy, executive director at Friends of Fundy in Alma, which tries to increase tourism in the area around Fundy National Park.
“Astrotourism is slow tourism — it turns day-trippers into overnight guests, especially in the off-season,” she said. “But the number one thing is that the local community understands the importance of dark skies — not because it’s a tourism draw, but because it’s vital to the ecosystem that we live in.”
A rising tide for astrotourism
There are 58 covered bridges in New Brunswick. (Image credit: Jaime Carter)
Few places in Canada showcase nature’s raw power like the Bay of Fundy, which moves 100 billion tons of water every day — more than all the world’s rivers combined — and has a tidal range of about 52 feet (16 meters). At Hopewell Rocks, you can walk the ocean floor beneath towering “flowerpot” sea stacks at low tide and kayak among their crowns just hours later.
Before I left the province, I stopped in Moncton to witness the famous tidal bore up the Petitcodiac (which locals call the “chocolate river”). At Bore Park downtown, a low rumble marked the moment the tide reversed the river, sending a meter-high wave upstream. Heightened by the gravitational pull of a recent supermoon, it was a reminder that the moon’s influence on the tides is more potent along the New Brunswick coast than anywhere else on Earth.
“Astronomy is looking at objects beyond the horizon,” Picard said. “Astrotourism is about what’s within the horizon.”
With its dark-sky corridor, astrotourism in New Brunswick looks set to rise like its tides.
Editor’s note: Travel and accommodations for this article were partially supported by Tourism New Brunswick.
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Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:
Evolution is often portrayed as stepping toward ever-greater complexity, but the natural world is filled with examples of organisms actually reverting back to a previous evolutionary state.
A new study examines this process in progress with tomato plants in Galápagos, finding that plants on the newer, western islands have developed alkaloids similar to eggplant relatives millions of years ago compared to modern tomato plants.
It’s possible these plants developed this strategy because the newer islands are barren and less biologically diverse, so the ancient molecule might provide better protection in such a harsh environment.
The famous ape-to-man illustration, known as The March of Progress, depicts evolution as a one-way street toward evolutionary perfection—but nature isn’t always so simple.
Many organisms have displayed what appears to be “reverse evolution,” or regression, where ancient attributes of past ancestors seem to reappear down the evolutionary line. Cave fish, for example, will lose eyesight and return to a state similar to a previous ancestor that lacked this visual organ, but the argument remains whether this is reverse evolution or simply the ending of an evolutionary pathway that creates a vestigial organ.
Of course, complex animals are not the only ones that appear to rewind the evolutionary clock. A new study in Nature Communications, led by scientists at University of California (UC) Riverside, analyzed species of tomato in the Solanaceae family, comparing populations from both eastern and western islands of the Galápagos—that famous Pacific island chain that inspired Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory nearly 200 years ago.
The team specifically analyzed the tomato’s alkaloids, a bitter molecule that acts as a kind of pesticide to deter would-be predators and fungi. On the eastern islands, the tomatoes exhibited alkaloids similar to modern tomatoes, but on the western islands—which are geologically younger than the eastern ones—the tomatoes exhibited changes in four amino acids in the enzyme that makes these alkaloid molecules. They found this simple change caused the tomatoes to create alkaloids more similar to eggplant relatives from millions of years ago, seemingly reversing evolution.
“It’s not something we usually expect, but here it is, happening in real time, on a volcanic island,” UC Riverside’s Adam Jozwiak, lead author of the study, said in a press statement. “Our group has been working hard to characterize the steps involved in alkaloid synthesis, so that we can try and control it.”
However, this “reverse” wasn’t a spontaneous event. The researchers theorize that the cause of this evolutionary quirk could be traced to the new, western islands themselves. While the eastern islands are millions of years old, the western ones are only hundreds of thousands of years old and are still forming today. This means these islands contain less biological diversity as well as more barren soil. This more ancient landscape may have pushed the tomato to then adopt a more ancient survival strategy.
“It could be that the ancestral molecule provides better defense in the harsher western conditions,” Jozwiak says. “Some people don’t believe in this, but the genetic and chemical evidence points to a return to an ancestral state. The mechanism is there. It happened.”
Whether organisms experience “reverse” evolution could largely be chalked up to semantics. With both cave fish and Galápagos tomatoes, evolution did its usual work of making life fit for the conditions at hand. Usually that means improving into ever greater complexity, and at other, less often times, it means reverting back to a golden oldie.
Despite a warming climate, bone-chilling winter cold can grip parts of the U.S. — and this study explains why. Researchers found that two specific patterns in the polar vortex, a swirling mass of cold air high in the stratosphere, steer extreme cold to different regions of the country. One pattern drives Arctic air into the Northwest U.S., the other into the Central and Eastern areas. Since 2015, the Northwest has experienced more of these cold outbreaks, thanks to a shift in stratospheric behavior tied to broader climate cycles. In short: what happens high above the Arctic can shape the winter on your doorstep.
As winters in the United States continue to warm on average, extreme cold snaps still manage to grip large swaths of the country with surprising ferocity. A new study offers a powerful clue: the answer may lie more than 10 miles above our heads — in the shifting patterns of the stratosphere.
The international team includes Prof. Chaim Garfinkel (Hebrew University), Dr. Laurie Agel and Prof. Mathew Barlow (University of Massachusetts), Prof. Judah Cohen (MIT and Atmospheric and Environmental Research AER), Karl Pfeiffer (Atmospheric and Environmental Research Hampton), Prof. Jennifer Francis (Woodwell Climate Research Center), Prof. Marlene Kretchmer (University of Leipzig). The study published in Science Advances, reveals how two specific patterns in the stratospheric polar vortex — a high-altitude ribbon of cold air circling the Arctic — can trigger bone-chilling weather events across different parts of the U.S.
“The public often hears about the ‘polar vortex’ when winter turns severe, but we wanted to dig deeper and understand how variations within this vortex affect where and when extreme cold hits,” said the researchers.
Two Vortex Patterns, Two U.S. Outcomes
The team identified two distinct variations of the polar vortex, both linked to what scientists call a “stretched” vortex — a distorted and displaced circulation pattern that leads to unusual weather on the ground.
One variation pushes the vortex toward western Canada, setting the stage for intense cold in the Northwestern U.S.
The other nudges the vortex toward the North Atlantic, unleashing frigid air across the Central and Eastern U.S.
Both versions are associated with changes in how atmospheric waves bounce around the globe — essentially altering the jet stream and dragging Arctic air far southward.
A Westward Shift in the Cold
Perhaps most striking is the discovery that since 2015, much of the northwestern U.S. has been getting colder in winter, contrary to broader warming trends. The researchers tie this shift to the increased frequency of the westward-focused vortex pattern, which also coincides with stronger negative phases of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) — a key global climate driver.
“Climate change doesn’t just mean warming everywhere all the time. It also means more complex and sometimes counterintuitive shifts in where extreme weather shows up,” explained the researchers.
Why It Matters
These findings help explain recent cold waves in places like Montana, the Plains and even Texas as in February 2021 (which was very costly in terms of deaths and insured losses), while other regions may experience milder winters. Understanding the stratosphere’s fingerprints on weather patterns could improve long-range forecasting, allowing cities, power grids, and agriculture to better prepare for winter extremes — even as the climate warms overall.
The work was funded by a US NSF-BSF grant by Chaim Garfinkel of HUJI and Judah Cohen of AER&MIT.
Our galaxy may be wrapped in a richer swarm of tiny companions than astronomers have ever seen. New calculations predict that there are dozens of ultra-faint satellite galaxies circling close to the Milky Way.
They are too dim for current surveys to spot, but real enough to tip the cosmic balance sheet in favor of standard cosmology.
The forecast comes from cosmologists at Durham University. By combining the sharpest supercomputer simulations available with new mathematical modeling, the team argues that up to 100 additional satellites should be lurking nearby.
Many are likely to be “orphan” galaxies, almost entirely stripped of the dark matter cocoons that once cradled them. This twist could finally resolve a long-standing mismatch between theory and observation.
The Milky Way’s ghost galaxies
The study begins with the Lambda Cold Dark Matter framework. In this model, roughly five percent of the cosmos is ordinary matter, twenty-five percent is cold dark matter, and the remaining seventy percent is dark energy.
In this model, galaxies shine from the centers of vast dark-matter halos. Most star systems in the Universe are low-mass dwarf galaxies bound to a more massive host.
The problem is that classic LCDM computations generate far more dwarf satellites than astronomers have cataloged around the Milky Way. Either the model is wrong or the satellites are missing.
To probe that gap, the Durham group turned to the Aquarius simulation, the highest-resolution model yet of a Milky Way-like dark-matter halo. The team also used GALFORM, a code that tracks gas cooling, star formation, and feedback.
Even top tools miss tiny halos when they near the galaxy and feel its tidal pull. Analytical fixes revived erased halos, letting researchers track their stellar remnants across 13 billion years.
Lost galaxies cluster nearby
The key insight is that the galaxies whose halos entered the Milky Way’s neighborhood early have spent eons being stretched, prodded, and shaved by gravity. Their dark matter bleeds away first; their stars shrink into faint knots that simulations often drop but nature should keep.
The models suggest that these ghostly remnants have orbital histories similar to the brighter satellites we already know. They tend to cluster within a few hundred thousand light-years of the galactic center.
Because they are faint and sparse, current imaging misses them, but the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s LSST camera, now undergoing commissioning, should pull many into view.
“We know the Milky Way has some 60 confirmed companion satellite galaxies,” said lead author Isabel Santos-Santos, a cosmologist at Durham. “We think there should be dozens more of these faint galaxies orbiting around the Milky Way at close distances.”
If their predictions are correct, it strengthens support for the Lambda Cold Dark Matter theory of how structure in the Universe forms and evolves.
“Observational astronomers are using our predictions as a benchmark with which to compare the new data they are obtaining,” she said. “One day soon, we may be able to see these ’missing’ galaxies, which would be hugely exciting and could tell us more about how the Universe came to be as we see it today.”
Future images of the Milky Way
Over the past decade, wide-field cameras such as the Dark Energy Survey have turned up about thirty ultra-faint satellite candidates.
Yet astronomers still debate whether these specks are true dwarf galaxies embedded in dark matter or merely star-cluster outliers.
The study argues that many of them – and many more beyond – should indeed be galaxies, the visible tips of dark-matter fragments pared to the bone.
Future deep imaging and stellar-population studies will be critical for deciding which candidates carry dark matter signatures such as elevated velocity dispersions.
Finding the Milky Way’s ghost galaxies
“If the population of very faint satellites that we are predicting is discovered with new data, it would be a remarkable success of the LCDM theory of galaxy formation,” said co-author Carlos Frenk, a professor of computational cosmology at Durham.
“Using the laws of physics, solved using a large supercomputer, and mathematical modelling we can make precise predictions that astronomers, equipped with new, powerful telescopes, can test.”
Validating the prediction would also quiet doubts raised by the so-called “missing satellite” and “too-big-to-fail” problems – tensions often cited as cracks in LCDM.
If the Milky Way does host scores of nearly invisible ghost galaxies, then the theory’s tally of dark-matter clumps stands. What looked like a failure of physics may be a failure of detection.
Ghosts become neighbors
With LSST set to map the southern skies to unprecedented depths, the hunt for hidden satellites is gaining momentum. Other instruments, such as the European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope, will help sharpen the picture.
New algorithms tuned to pick out diffuse, low-surface-brightness objects will scan the LSST deluge, guided by the locations and properties the Durham models predict.
Discovering even a fraction of the proposed “orphan” galaxies would give cosmologists a richer lab for testing how dark matter behaves on small scales and how starlight survives in extreme environments.
It would also remind us that the Milky Way, though serene to the naked eye, belongs to a teeming, fragile community of companions.
For now, they remain ghosts in a computer. But new telescopes may soon reveal them as real, stellar neighbors, deepening our understanding of how galaxies, large and small, take shape in the dark.
The research was presented at the National Astronomy Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Image Credit: The Aquarius simulation, the Virgo Consortium/Dr. Mark Lovell
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