I\u2019m so hungry I could eat my own moon<\/p>\n
Kane, Stephen R. et al. \u201cTidal Demise: The Evolution and Fate of a Hypothetical Venus Moon.\u201d The Astrophysical Journal.<\/a><\/p>\n Venus is a bizarro world with a year that is shorter than its day, a surface shaped by diabolical heat and pressure, and skies soaked in sulfuric acid. Frankly, this planet is metal enough as it is, but scientists have now suggested that Venus is also a moon-eater.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n For years, researchers have pondered why Venus lacks a moon, in contrast to all other planets except Mercury. One possibility is that Venus was once orbited by a primordial satellite that it ultimately tore apart and swallowed, according to a new study. And honestly, that sounds like something Venus would do. It\u2019s in character.<\/p>\n To reach this conclusion, scientists ran simulations of Venusian moons ranging from half to ten times as massive<\/a> as Earth\u2019s Moon. Because Venus has a very slow rotation rate equal to 243 Earth days, most of the modeled satellites were drawn inward, ultimately crashing into Venus. Earth\u2019s fast rotation rate, in contrast, has pushed the Moon to recede farther from our world, at a rate of about 1.5 inches each year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe absence of a Venusian satellite can be understood as a natural consequence of tidal evolution alone,\u201d said researchers led by Stephen Kane of the University of California, Riverside. The researchers added that the obliteration of a past moon around Venus may offer one reason why the planet became so aggressively inhospitable, while Earth evolved into a comfy haven for life.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe fate of a Venus moon carries direct implications for early Venus habitability,\u201d the team said. \u201cThe eventual destruction of the moon\u2026would deliver a massive energy pulse to the Venusian surface and atmosphere, with potential implications for the loss of surface water and the onset of a runaway greenhouse state.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible that NASA\u2019s DAVINCI orbiter, which is due for launch to Venus in 2029, could search for the chemical signatures of an ancient obliterated moon, according to the study. In the meantime, my takeaway is that Majora\u2019s Mask is based on a true Venusian story.\u00a0<\/p>\n In other news\u2026<\/p>\n If it\u2019s not Gondwana, I don\u2019t wanna<\/p>\n Chen, Bei and Campbell, Ian H. \u201cDo Himalayan-style mountains lie under the Antarctic ice: Implication for the Gondwana Supermountains, the rise of oxygen and the Cambrian explosion?\u201d Earth and Planetary Science Letters.<\/a><\/p>\n Shout out to my fellow Gondwana-heads! Just a week after a study<\/a> came out minting Gondwana as a bonafide \u201csupercontinent,\u201d another work has probedthe remnants of Himalaya-scale \u201cGondwana supermountains\u201d buried deep under Antarctica\u2019s ice sheet.<\/p>\n Both studies argue that the geological upheaval associated with Gondwana\u2019s formation directly led to the Cambrian \u201cexplosion\u201d of complex life that began about 538 million years ago. But the new study focuses on the role of Gondwana\u2019s colossal mountain range and the massive submarine \u201cfan\u201d system underneath it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is unlikely to be a coincidence that Earth\u2019s most dramatic period of evolution correlates with the planet\u2019s most important period of mountain building: the formation and erosion of the Gondwana Supermountains,\u201d said authors Bei Chen and Ian H. Campbell of the Australian National University.\u00a0<\/p>\n By studying 1,700 zircons\u2014hardy minerals that can be used to reconstruct continental timelines\u2014the researchers found a disproportionate spike in Antarctic zircons dating from 650 and 450 million years ago, consistent with the formation of Gondwana. The supermountains and their underlying fan systems provided the necessary nutrients for the meteoric rise of animals and other complex life in the Cambrian period, according to the study.<\/p>\n \u201cAnalyses of detrital zircons from Antarctica show that its tectonics were dominated by Himalayan-style mountains, the roots of which now underlie the ice sheet,\u201d the team concluded.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gondwana broke apart during the age of dinosaurs, but as these studies show, its body parts live on, scattered under ice and dispersed across new continents. This has been Gondwana News.<\/p>\n Occupy Mouse Brain<\/p>\n Konstantin Kaganovsky, Kevin W. Kelley, Tilo Gschwind, Paul M. Harary et al.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cDevelopmental xenocortication using human-derived organoids in mice.\u201d Nature.<\/a><\/p>\n It is notoriously challenging to study human brain tissue in vivo on both practical and ethical levels. It\u2019s not as if you can just cut open someone\u2019s noggin and rummage around in there like you\u2019re Victor Frankenstein.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n But scientists have now discovered a promising workaround by transplanting human brain \u201corganoids\u201d\u2014lab-grown structures based on human stem cells\u2014into the heads of mice that have been engineered to have open space in their brains instead of a cortex. Scientists who developed this new experimental technique of \u201cxenocortication\u201d report that the human organoids grew to occupy the cavities in the rodents\u2019 heads, and showed analogous development to real brain tissues.\u00a0<\/p>\n The xenocortical (abbreviated XCX, no relation to Charli) mice seemed to behave more or less normally, despite having millions of human-derived neurons in their heads.<\/p>\nVenus as captured by Mariner 10 in the 1970s. Image: NASA<\/p>\n
Reconstruction of Gondwana highlighting core blocks, interior orogens and peripheral orogens. Image: Chen, Bei and Campbell, Ian H.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n