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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

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Defector

Enter Our Raffle To Win A Visit And Home-Cooked Meal From Drew Magary

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tip jar sweepstakes

<div>Paola Rosa-Aquino is a freelance journalist covering science, space and the environment. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her canine co-worker Cece.</div>
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Paola Rosa-Aquino

&lt;&gt; on August 21, 2017 in Casper, Wyoming.

Solar Eclipse Visible Across Swath Of U.S.

Science

Solar Eclipses: No Longer Scary, Still Astonishingly Cool


<p>charismatic megafauna (they/them)</p>


Typing

Sabrina Imbler

a silhouette of a semi truck in front of a starry sky

Vibrations From “Interstellar Meteor” Actually From Local Truck; Or, Fact-Checking The Celebrity Scientist

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Barry Petchesky

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I Think I Found The Problem Here: The Rocket Blew Up

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Landing On The Moon Isn’t Getting Any Easier

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I Bonked My Head On The Moon

The Little Mars Helicopter That Could

VALLES MARINERIS, MARS - Mars' own Grand Canyon, Valles Marineris, is shown on the surface of the planet in this composite image made aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The image was taken from a video featuring high-resolution images from Arizona State University's Thermal Emission Imaging System multi-band camera on board the spacecraft. The mosaic was then colored to approximate how Mars would look to the human eye. Valles Marineris is 10 times longer, five times deeper and 20 times wider than Earth's Grand Canyon. (Photo by NASA/Arizona State University via Getty Images)

Valles Marineris Cuts Through Mars Surface

There’s So Much Ice On Mars, You Guys

Low angle view of moon against clear sky at night

Is There A Better Way To Honor Your Dog Than Littering The Moon?

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Neptune’s A Pale Blue Fraud!

The graceful winding arms of the grand-design spiral galaxy M51 stretch across this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Unlike the menagerie of weird and wonderful spiral galaxies with ragged or disrupted spiral arms, grand-design spiral galaxies boast prominent, well-developed spiral arms like the ones showcased in this image. This galactic portrait was captured by Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). In this image the reprocessed stellar light by dust grains and molecules in the medium of the galaxy illuminate a dramatic filamentary medium. Empty cavities and bright filaments alternate and give the impression of ripples propagating from the spiral arms. The yellow compact regions indicate the newly formed star clusters in the galaxy. M51 — also known as NGC 5194 — lies about 27 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici, and is trapped in a tumultuous relationship with its near neighbour, the dwarf galaxy NGC 5195. The interaction between these two galaxies has made these galactic neighbours one of the better-studied galaxy pairs in the night sky. The gravitational influence of M51’s smaller companion is thought to be partially responsible for the stately nature of the galaxy’s prominent and distinct spiral arms. If you would like to learn more about this squabbling pair of galactic neighbours, you can explore earlier observations of M51 by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope here.  This Webb observation of M51 is one of a series of observations collectively titled Feedback in Emerging extrAgalactic Star clusTers, or FEAST. The FEAST observations were designed to shed light on the interplay between stellar feedback and star formation in environments outside of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Stellar feedback is the term used to describe the outpouring of energy from stars into the environments which form them, and is a crucial process in determining the rates at which stars form. Understanding stellar feedback is vital to building accurate universal models of star formation. The aim of the FEAST observations is to discover and study stellar nurseries in galaxies beyond our own Milky Way. Before Webb became operative, other observatories such as the Atacama Large Millimetre Array in the Chilean desert and Hubble have given us a glimpse of star formation either at the onset (tracing the dense gas and dust clouds where stars will form) or after the stars have destroyed with their energy their natal gas and dust clouds. Webb is opening a new window into the early stages of star formation and stellar light, as well as the energy reprocessing of gas and dust. Scientists are seeing star clusters emerging from their natal cloud in galaxies beyond our local group for the first time. They will also be able to measure how long it takes for these stars to pollute with newly formed metals and to clean out the gas (these time scales are different from galaxy to galaxy). By studying these processes, we will better understand how the star formation cycle and metal enrichment are regulated within galaxies as well as what are the time scales for planets and brown dwarfs to form. Once dust and gas is removed from the newly formed stars, there is no material left to form planets. [Image Description: A large spiral galaxy takes up the entirety of the image. The core is mostly bright white, but there are also swirling, detailed structures that resemble water circling a drain. There is white and pale blue light that emanates from stars and dust at the core’s centre, but it is tightly limited to the core. The detailed rings feature bands of deep orange and cloudy grey, which are interspersed by darker empty regions throughout.]

M51 (MIRI image)

Fall Into The Whirlpool Galaxy

A flattened scroll of lead with words etched on it: “sathanas taleke belzebuk hinrik berith”

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This Month In Curse Tablets

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Patrick Redford

A crowd of Icelanders stands in awe of the volcanic cloud

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The Icelandic Eruption Is Finally Here

Uranus Wide (NIRCam Image)

Here’s A Cool Picture Of Uranus

at the Extinction: Not the End of the World exhibition at The Natural History Museum on February 5, 2013 in London, England. More than 99 percent of species that once roamed the planet are now extinct. Organisers of the exhibition hope to show that a diverse range of plants and animals survived. 80 Museum specimens are on display from February 8-8, September 2013.

Exhibits In The Natural History Museum’s Extinction: Not The End Of The World? Exhibition

What Kind Of Future Does De-Extinction Promise?

The Popular Science Logo on a black background

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Journalismism

Popular Science Ends And Science Journalism Keeps Shrinking

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND - JULY 16: Mount Fagradalsfjall volcano spews lava after an eruption in Reykjavik, Iceland, on July 16, 2023. (Photo by Emin Yogurtcuoglu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Mount Fagradalsfjall volcano erupts in Iceland

Iceland, As Always, Is Being Ripped Apart

Illustration of the giant impact hypothesis, with the hypothetical planet Theia colliding with Earth 4.5 billion years ago, created on July 19, 2015. This impact is suggested to be the source of material that created the Moon. (Illustration by Tobias Roetsch/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Theia & Earth Impact Illustration

Curious Earth Lumps Might Be Leftovers From Another Planet It Ate

People carry injured and dead Palestinians from the rubbles of buildings as civil defense teams and civilians conduct search and rescue operations after Israeli attacks on Al-Shati refugee camp of Gaza City, Gaza on October 27, 2023 as Israeli attacks continue on the 21st day on Gaza

Israeli attacks continue on the 21st day in Gaza

Who Is Allowed To Do Science?

Three photos depicting fossil human footprints at White Sands National Park, one showing a person photographing them, one shot of several footprints, one shot of a single footprint

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Kick Back And Read About This Ancient Feet Controversy

A photo of a black UFO looking thing in the desert

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This Is How You Get Zombies, NASA

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Mexico Is Probably Alien-Free, But K2-18b Is Still TBD

IN SPACE - APRIL 10: In this handout photo provided by the National Science Foundation, the Event Horizon Telescope captures a black hole at the center of galaxy M87, outlined by emission from hot gas swirling around it under the influence of strong gravity near its event horizon, in an image released on April 10, 2019. A network of eight radio observatories on six mountains and four continents, the EHT observed a black hole in Messier 87, a supergiant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo, on and off for 10 days in April of 2017 to make the image. (Photo by National Science Foundation via Getty Images)

National Science Foundation Holds News Conference On First Results From Event Horizon Telescope Project

Black Holes Are Doing Something Weird After They Eat

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It’s OK That Ötzi The 5,000-Year-Old Ice Man Was Not Hot

Sunrise Arc (NIRCam Image)

A Quick Update On A Thing 28 Billion Light Years Away

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Chris Thompson

A laser's view of the interior of a hohlraum, the capsule at the ignition point of the fusion reaction.

Researchers Have Once Again Kicked Fusion’s Ass With Bitchin’ Lasers