In The News: College of Sciences
An international team of astrophysicists has reported the discovery of a unique cosmological gamma-ray burst (GRB) that defies current theories of how the violent cosmic explosions form. This exceptional burst has resulted in a new proposed model, or source, for certain types of gamma-ray bursts.
To find evidence of prehistoric microbial life and to better understand the processes that formed the surface of Mars, scientists wish to analyze Martian samples with high-tech lab equipment on Earth. The majority of the samples will be made up of rock. Still, scientists are also interested in studying regolith, or broken rock and dust, not only for what it can reveal about Mars’ geological processes and environment but also help astronauts prepare for some of the difficulties they will encounter. Regolith is fascinating to scientists and engineers because it can impact everything from solar panels to spacesuits.

Scientists have ample evidence to prove the Earth is a sphere. But some social media users claim to have devised an experiment showing the earth is flat.
Astronomers have spotted a bright gamma-ray burst that upends previous theories of how these energetic cosmic eruptions occur.

Last December, astronomers caught sight of an extremely bright, extremely close gamma ray burst that lasted for a little under a minute — close as far as gamma ray bursts, anyways: about a billion light-years away. Ordinarily, it would be interesting, but nothing groundbreaking, something to be filed away with the tens of thousands of other long gamma ray bursts that have been observed over the past half-century. But then, something didn’t happen: the supernova required to create such a lengthy explosion was nowhere to be found.
NASA’s Perseverance rover snagged two new samples from the Martian surface on Dec. 2 and 6. But unlike the 15 rock cores collected to date, these newest samples came from a pile of wind-blown sand and dust similar to but smaller than a dune. Now contained in special metal collection tubes, one of these two samples will be considered for deposit on the Martian surface sometime this month as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign.

More than a year and a half after its first flight on Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter has set a new record.

Social media is flooded with posts that claim to prove the Earth is flat. A recent example is a post that claims a photo of Chicago taken from Indiana demonstrates the Earth's flatness.
Mankind's crucial fossil fuels—coal, natural gas and crude oil—all unfortunately contain large amounts of carbon. But why is that and where does it come from?
Certain metals are essential to producing renewable energy products, and tellurium (Te) is one that is becoming more widely used in the manufacturing of photovoltaic cells for solar panels.
Since Hubble Space Telescope was launched and deployed in April 1990, scientists have used it to observe the most distant stars and galaxies. One of these cosmic wonders that Hubble captured was the image of the star cluster NGC 2660.

What a tangled web we weave. Well, when it comes to the climate crisis' impact on marine food webs, we apparently didn't know the half of it. That's according to a new UNLV study which compared ancient and modern ocean ecosystems in a bid to understand how to make them healthier and more resilient.