Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.
An international team of astronomers reports the detection of a peculiar merger of two similar ring galaxies that morphologically resemble an owl's face. The galaxy merger was detected at a redshift of 1.14. The collected images show that the Cosmic Owl consists of two interacting galaxies that have formed nearly identical collisional ring structures, each with a diameter of approximately 26,000 light years. The researchers estimated that the stellar mass of the merging system is about 320 billion solar masses, while the black holes in the two galaxies have masses of around 67 and 26 million solar masses. Galaxy mergers play a crucial role in the evolution of galaxies. These events redistribute the gas around galaxies, impact the stellar kinematics, transform galaxy morphology, and eventually lead to effective stellar mass assembly.
Humans sometimes find that they have a sudden "eureka" moment on a problem they've been working on, producing sudden insight or breakthroughs. Scientists have yet to have their own "aha" moment of insight on how it might work, though sleep appears to play a role. Meanwhile, lot of us have made the subjective experience of having important realizations after a short nap. It's really intriguing that a short period of sleep can help humans make connections they didn't see before. The next big question is why this happens. Scientists are working on to get more details about the link between sleep and “aha”-moments.
Mitochondria have primarily been known as the energy-producing components of cells. But scientists are increasingly discovering that these small organelles are also involved in immune functions such as controlling inflammation, regulating cell death and responding to infections. Mitochondria sense bacterial activity and help neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, trap and kill them.
Mitochondria sit at the heart of this interaction. Their ability to sense, respond to and even shape the metabolic environment of a cell gives them a critical role in determining how and when immune responses are deployed, as per recent findings.
(Credit: BBC)
The world's oldest boomerang is older than previously thought, casting new light on the ingenuity of humans living at the time. The tool, which was found in a cave in Poland in 1985, is now thought to be 40,000 years old. Archaeologists say it was fashioned from a mammoth's tusk with an astonishing level of skill. Researchers worked out from its shape that it would have flown when thrown, but would not have come back to the thrower. Boomerangs are generally associated with Aboriginal culture in Australia. The oldest images of boomerangs in Australia are rock art paintings 20,000 years old, according to National Museum Australia.
