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Source:  MAVEN EPO, NASA

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Early universe’s ‘little red dots’ may be black hole stars

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By Daniel Clery , Science.  Excerpt: It’s as if the baby universe had caught a case of measles. Since NASA’s JWST observatory began peering into the distant universe in 2022, it has discovered a rash of “little red dots”—hundreds of them, shining within the first billion years of the 13.8-billion-year-old universe, so small and red that they defied conventional explanation. Only in the past few months has a picture begun to emerge. The little red dots, astronomers say, may be an entirely new type of object: a colossal ball of bright, hot gas, larger than the Solar System, powered not by nuclear fusion, but by a black hole. ...JWST couldn’t resolve the dots into a recognizable shape, which meant they must have been tiny—less than 2% of the diameter of the Milky Way....  Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/early-universe-s-little-red-dots-may-be-black-hole-stars . 
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The Vera Rubin Observatory is ready to revolutionize astronomy

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By Lisa Grossman , Science News.  Excerpt: Perched on a high, flat-topped mountain called Cerro Pachón, the Rubin Observatory ...can investigate some of the universe’s slowest, most eternal processes, such as the assembly of galaxies and the expansion of the cosmos. And by mapping the entire southern sky every couple of nights, it can track some of the universe’s fastest and most ephemeral events, including exploding stars and  visits from interstellar comets . ...Rubin data will be made available online to anyone in the world, from professional astronomers to elementary school students. ...the observatory has what’s now the  largest digital camera ever built ...at 1.65 meters wide...It combines 189 individual CCDs...roughly the same number of pixels as 260 smartphone cameras. ...In June, the telescope hit another big milestone:  releasing Rubin’s first images  to the public. ...the Rubin team shared videos made up of hundreds of individual images from...
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Auroras Are Spotted on Neptune for the First Time, and Lead to a New Mystery

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By Robin George Andrews , The New York Times.  Excerpt: The vermilion, amethyst and jade ribbons of the northern and southern lights are some of Earth’s most distinctive features. But our planet doesn’t have a monopoly on auroras. Scientists have spied them throughout the solar system, ... Mars , Saturn,  Jupiter  ...some of Jupiter’s  fiery and icy moons ... Uranus , too. But auroras around our sun’s most distant planet, Neptune, have long eluded astronomers. That has changed with the powerful infrared instruments aboard the James Webb Space Telescope. In a study published on Wednesday in the journal  Nature Astronomy , scientists reveal unique auroras that spill over either side of Neptune’s equator, a contrast with the glowing gossamer seen arcing over other worlds’ poles..  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/science/neptune-aurora-nasa-webb-telescope.html . 
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