These fissures in the crust are called fossae, and are due to tectonic extension, where the ground is pulled apart from pressure under the surface. As I ve written before:
What caused these cracks? They are most likely due to tectonic extension, when the surface is stretched for some reason. You ve seen something like this before if you ve ever made a cake or muffins. The top will brown and harden first before the middle. As the interior of the cake cooks, it expands, pushing up against the already-cooked top. That pressure can cause the top to split and pull apart, creating a crack or rift.
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It s not. Credit: Phil Plait
To be honest, no explanation so far explains everything seen, which is frustrating. But a new paper just published has what may be a clue: A faint star seen very close to Boyajian s Star in the sky is actually a true companion to it, meaning the star is a binary, two stars orbiting each other.
Why does this matter? Because it s possible
possible, nothing s proven yet that the secondary star could drop lots of comets past the brighter one, which might explain its behavior.
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Boyajian’s Star (center, artificially dimmed in the middle to show its position) has another star (left) moving along with it in space, and they may be in a binary system orbiting each other. Two companion candidates (indicated) look to be background stars. Credit: Pearce et al.
Merrick Garland Trends As Ted Cruz Says GOP Senate Didn t Rig the Supreme Court
On 4/23/21 at 12:07 AM EDT
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) speak against a Democratic proposal to expand the Supreme Court outside the court in Washington, D.C. on April 22, 2021.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was mocked and reminded of Attorney General Merrick Garland s blocked 2016 nomination to the Supreme Court after urging Democrats not to pack the court on Thursday.
Garland s name became a trending topic after a clip of Cruz making the remarks circulated on Twitter. Cruz was speaking against legislation introduced by a group of Democratic lawmakers last week, led by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). The bill would add new justices to the Supreme Court, with the likely practical effect of changing the ideological balance of court, something opponents have often referred to as court packing.
Generically, such an object is called an active galaxy
. If one of those beams happens to be pointed at Earth, we can see lots of light from across almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to X-rays.
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Artwork depicting binary quasars, two actively galaxies orbiting one another. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble/ESO/M. Kornmesser, adapted by Phil Plait
We know that there are extremely massive black holes out there which may have grown to such enormous size when two big galaxies merge. The black holes fall toward each other, eventually orbiting each other and then, after billions of years, they can merge together into one bigger black hole. This implies we should find binary supermassive black holes, or at least two that are close together (say, within a few thousand light years of each other). However very few are seen, mainly because they re hard to discover.
Nearly 14 tons of extraterrestrial dust lands on Earth every year, according to new report dailymail.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymail.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.