8. Iron rain
A planet where it rains iron? Sounds like something from a sci-fi movie but it really
exists, that is, according to data gathered about an exoplanet 640 light years away. What’s
an exoplanet? It’s a planet that isn’t part of an established solar system. Kind
of an outcast we guess. But then, outcasts always make for more interesting subjects,
and this exoplanet - called WASP-76b - certainly fits that bill.
Where does the rain made of iron come in? It’s tied up in the type of world WASP-76b
is, which is something known as tidally locked. That means it’s basically like our Moon.
It takes a while to rotate, in fact it takes the same amount of time to rotate as it does
to orbit a star. This results in a permanently bright side, lit by the star, and a dark side
that never sees daylight.
Because the day side features a lot of radiation, it’s extremely hot. To give you an idea,
scientists believe the temperature is 2,400º C/4,352ºF. In short, you can’t keep anything
nice down there. And when it comes to elements such as metals, well, they don’t stand a
chance. It’s so intensely hot that stuff like iron
evaporates. What happens when iron evaporates? It turns into vapour. And there’s a lot
of wind on this exoplanet to blow stuff around. The combo of a hot side and a cool side produces
some wild weather conditions. These become even wilder once the iron vapour reaches the
planet’s night side.
Going from super hot to super cool, the vapour hardens where it falls like rain. Gonna take
more than an umbrella to cope with that shower, right?
7. Seriously ancient material
What’s the oldest stuff you can find on Earth? Would it surprise you to learn that
the answer is dust? Yep, and not just any old dust. This is a very cool form of stardust
that comes from deep space, and landed on our planet in the shape of a meteorite. Itty
bitty specks from dying stars known as presolar grains, travelled here on the surface of space
rocks.
Luckily for scientists, a prime example of this landed in Australia back in 1969. The
Murchison meteorite, named after the place where it landed, made quite an impact… in
more ways than one. For starters, it weighed 220 lb (100 kg). What an impressive object,
though at the time a lot of people didn’t know what they were looking at.
In fact, in an amusing case of country folk taking things in their stride, a dairy farmer
reportedly saw a lump of what he thought was charcoal on his property. He simply picked
it up and threw it away! Once he realized it might be something special, he took a sample
to the press.
Geology students then got involved, and naturally wanted to investigate the farmer’s charcoal
for themselves. One little problem - it had wound up in the manure. It’s a dirty job
but someone’s gotta do it, right? Flash forward to 2020, and scientists are studying
the presolar grains found on what we now call the Murchison meteorite.
To their amazement, the grains are between 4 million and 3 billion years older than the
Sun! And that’s a relatively young 4.6 billion years old in the first place. This super ancient
material was probably on Earth at one point, having been in the mix when the planet was
being formed. Unfortunately the grains have long since gone. So this is a great find,
and evidence of our galaxy’s fascinating cosmic history.
6. Baby Tyrannosaurs
Tyrannosaurs are easily one of the most fearsome creatures Earth has ever seen, and luckily
they are long gone. Well, unless that whole Jurassic Park thing we’ve been hearing about
manages to get up and running. In the meantime, we can get a taste of what a real life T-Rex
might look like courtesy of these embryonic fossils, which were found in 1983 and 2017
respectively.
These unique discoveries were only examined in depth in 2020, and the results are incredible.
The 1983 example is a jawbone in Montana belonging to a baby T-Rex, with the other fossil being
a toe claw in Alberta. One detail that came from the research is that a little Tyrannosaur
had a skull which was comparable in size to a mouse!
When it came to the jawbone, it was very much stuck in the rock and we guess people were
afraid of breaking it whilst trying to get it out . Today’s experts can now check it
out without damaging it by using a particle accelerator. Another interesting detail was
the Tyrannosaur’s chin, which is particular to the ferocious, and world famous carnivore.
As for where they come from, evidence points to a time period of 70 - 75 million years
ago, or Late Cretaceous period. Scientists were stunned by the findings, which show that
while fossils may be static lumps of ancient rock, they’re packed with information that
really brings our planet’s history to life. Just when you think you’ve seen everything
about a T-Rex, something else comes along and knocks your socks off. Or bites your head
off, which seems more appropriate for a T-Rex.
5. Radio from space
The business of sending radio waves into space is long-established. Beginning in the 1970s,
we sent signals into the cosmos, hoping someone, or something, might pick it up and drop by
for a visit. Well, did you know that we’ve been receiving radio waves back?
Since 2007, experts have been aware of a phenomenon called FRBs, or Fast Radio Bursts. These powerful
energy releases are being studied as we speak. But a strange development has led to the sense
of mystery around these bursts deepening. You see, initially the thinking was that FRBs
came from magnetars, or stars which lived fast and died young. In that sense, FRBs sound
a little rock and roll.
However, at the start of 2020, a repeating series of bursts was picked up from an area
near a spiral galaxy dubbed M81. Situated 11.7 million light years away, the bursts
have been identified as coming from a group of stars. These are unflatteringly called
a globular cluster. What’s fascinating about this is that the cluster is very old, meaning
that more than just hot young magnetars are capable of producing FRBs. Now we know the
kind of places they come from, all we’ve got to do is work out what they are in the
first place.
What do you think these messages mean? What are the aliens saying to us? Let us know your
thoughts in the comments below and if you’re liking this video, be sure to hit the thumbs
up and subscribe buttons if you haven’t already! :)
4. Huge coral reef
Coral reefs are a well-known feature of the ocean. However, it’s rare that a coral reef
will stagger people with its sheer size. How big can a coral reef get? Keep watching to
find out. Oh and by the way, if you suffer from vertigo you might want to look away now.
Researchers have discovered a new reef that is as tall as a skyscraper! This awe-inspiring
reef, shaped like a blade, was found in 2020 by a team who were busy mapping the northern
Great Barrier Reef in Australia. They realized they’d discovered something that doesn’t
come along everyday. As the publicity notes, this is the first such sighting of an epic
reef in well over a century.
The reef stretches up to a mind-boggling height of 500 m (1.640 ft)! The base of it alone
measures 4,921 feet(1.5 km). It’s so high that you don’t have to dive down deep to
find it. The end is visible some 131 feet(40 m) down from the surface.
It’s referred to as a “detached” reef. What’s that? Well, these coral creations
can be part of the Great Barrier Reef itself, forming part of an enormous hole. This example
is very much its own chunk of coral! It’s comparable to the height of the Empire State
Building! The reef is taller by the way, just so you know. The Empire State is like the
baby brother to this thing.
3. Vanishing star Stars are actually pretty massive, despite
them looking so small from way down here on Earth. So when one seems to disappear it opens
up all kinds of interesting questions about how our universe works. As far as sky watchers
are aware, a star will go supernova when it dies. This is a lengthy and spectacular process,
a transformation that turns a living star into a black hole or neutron star.
In the case of one big blue star however, it didn’t behave as it was supposed to.
A blue variable star, named because… well, it’s variable in its behaviour… suddenly
ceased to exist in a dwarf galaxy. What’s a dwarf galaxy? It’s a small pocket of stars
and such, and by small we mean in relative terms. Some dwarf galaxies contain a few billion
stars, so they’re only small fry compared to the vastness of the universe.
This blue variable star, located 75 million light years away, was first spotted by astronomers
in 2001. Then in 2019 it was discovered that the star wasn’t there any more. Where did
it go? Analysis revealed the cosmic vanishing took place around 2011. So, did this big ball
of light just vamoose without saying goodbye?
It would certainly seem like it. What happened? The theory is that the star died but didn’t
go supernova for some reason. This would make it unique and something of a mystery. Did
it decide to skip to the black hole phase without putting on a light show for the world’s
telescopes?
Possibly. Though there is another potential explanation, and this one’s a bit more simple.
The blue variable star may still be in place, just obscured by dust and gas. Maybe those
stargazers should check again in a few years? If it’s still missing, thn everything people
know about stars could be going out the window.
2. Antarctica rainforest
With its icy vastness and rampaging polar bears, you’d be forgiven for believing that
Antarctica was just always freezing and covered in snow. Well actually, that’s not the case.
In fact, a long long time ago, a rainforest is known to have been part of the landscape
there before the area went into an epic cold snap.
The forest was there 90 million years ago, as in the Cretaceous period, and is believed
to have been a hang out hot spot for dinosaurs. You wouldn’t have thought such a thing were
possible. Yet it’s true, and we know this because in 2017 some fossilized rainforest
parts turned up at the bottom of the Amundsen Sea by West Antarctica.
Scientists explored the samples and discovered evidence of plant life. Long before the Antarctica
we know existed, a mild climate encouraged various creatures and other forms of life
to flourish and develop. Another staggering feature of this story is the way this forest
survived in spite of its position on the globe.
As we know, the area spends extended periods of time without sunlight. So what were these
plants using to sustain themselves? Did the animals migrate and come back, or did they
find some other way to keep going? It’s a fascinating scenario, one may never know
the true answer without the help of a time machine.
1. Mars spaceship
In 2015, reports came in of a spacecraft being spotted on the surface of Mars. If you didn’t
hear about it then don’t worry. This was more of a… hmm, how can we put this? “Interpretation”
rather than a definite sighting. There’s no definitive evidence of UFOs on the famous
Red Planet. However, we are seeing Mars up close and personal like never before.
The Curiosity Rover is doing great work photographing this strange alien landscape. And along the
way, as people study the results and their imaginations go wild, they start to see things.
Some of these things may sound a little crazy. The ‘spaceship’ is thought to measure
around 10 feet(3m), it was apparently a vehicle probably designed to hold up to 40 passengers.
Hey, wait? That sounds a little cramped. Very cramped in fact! But, there is an explanation
for that. Previous sightings have identified evidence of people who are just centimetres
in height. So actually a so-called “ship” like this could have been very spacious for
such small beings. Other strange sights on Mars include a huge crab and… Barack Obama?
Yes, it seems the Martians were keen to pay tribute to the former President of the United
States. He’s not making any comments.
Experts draw attention to a condition known as pareidolia. This is when human beings process
visual information and draw some interesting conclusions. A great example is an image of
rocks on Mars that resemble a face; leading some to believe an ancient alien race, the
same aliens that helped the ancient Egyptians build the pyramids hailed from the Red Planet.
Thanks for watching! Are there other crazy recent discoveries you think should have been
included on the list? Let us know in the comments. Be sure to subscribe and we will see you soon!
Bye! :)