Gigantic star has gone through a rapid transformation and may explode

 

Image courtesy of ESO/L. Calçada

Joel Kontinen

Space is wonderful, but stars can be fickle. Some exoplanets seem to change their composition oddly. This happened to a star that is about to explode as a supernova.

”One of the largest stars in the known universe is undergoing a strangely rapid transformation and may soon explode as a supernova.

First catalogued in 1981, WOH G64 sits some 160,000 light years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It is one of the biggest red supergiants, the largest stars we know of. These are massive, cool stars that have run out of hydrogen fuel in their core and instead burn an envelope of hydrogen gas that surrounds them.”

Source:

Chris Simms WOH G64: Gigantic star has gone through a rapid transformation and may explode | New Scientist 20 February 2025

Ex hostage thanks Israel and Trump for her release

 Image courtesy of  X Screenshot

Joel Kontinen  

Agam Berger was stationed on the Gaza border, where she was taken prisoner for almost 500 days. Now she has just produced two You tube presentations.

Former hostage Agam Berger delivered a public message to the people of Israel for the first time since her release from Hamas captivity, emphasizing the necessity of Jewish unity and “taking on a mitzvah” to overcome the enemy and bring back the rest of the hostages.

“Thank you to the IDF soldiers and members of the security forces who risked and are still risking their lives to protect the country and bring all the kidnapped men and women home safely,” she began in a YouTube video.

Thank you to the Creator of the Universe, by whose grace I am here.

She then recalled that “when we were there [in captivity], and [Hamas] saw our division – it made them happy. They said that when we are together, we are strong. So I ask you, despite all the differences, let’s maintain unity and maintain our strength as the Jewish People.” I am here.

After 15 months in captivity, Agam Berger wants the world to know she believes Donald Trump helped bring her home.

In a heartfelt message on social media on Monday, the former Hamas hostage spoke with urgency about those still trapped in Gaza’s tunnels.

“I want to take this chance to say to you, President Trump: thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Berger shared on social media.

“Thanks to you, we have returned home. But we must remember, there are still people who truly depend on you and are waiting for you to save them.”

Source:

 'Trump, you're my hope' - Freed hostage to US president | World Israel News February 18 2025

Stunning, rainbow-colored object spotted by James Webb telescope could be an alien solar system in the making

 

Image courtesy of ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, Tazaki et al.

Joel Kontinen

 What Is space like? Now, scientist have discovered a young star that is just beginning to  evolve – that is what the news articles says.

But then they say that stars are formed in millions years. ” growing from dense, billowing clouds of turbulent dust and gas to gently glowing protostars, before materializing into gigantic orbs of fusion-powered plasma like our sun.”

”The young star, called HH 30, is a Herbig-Haro object — a bright knot of gas formed when the gas streaming from young protostars collides with nearby matter, producing shockwaves, It is situated 450 light years from us,”

So, how they take so much time to develop into stars? As Genesis says, God made the stars immediately at the beginning of time. It did not take millions of years.

Source:

Ben Turner 2025 Stunning, rainbow-colored object spotted by James Webb telescope could be an alien solar system in the making | Live Science February 7

See the fluorescing tail feathers of a male emperor bird-of-paradise

Birds-of-paradise are known for their bright colours and courtship displays. Now, it turns out that many species also have body parts that fluoresce

Image courtesy of American Museum of Natural History

Joel Kontinen

”This striking plume of yellow is the fluorescing tail feathers of a male emperor bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea guilielmi). Birds-of-paradise are known for their bright colours and courtship displays. Now, it turns out that many species also fluoresce – absorbing light and re-emitting it at lower-energy wavelengths. Fluorescent patches are found in body parts used during courtship, like tail feathers and bills.”

When God  make the birds, He formed some of them beautiful, as can be said in this instance.

Source:

See the fluorescing tail feathers of a male emperor bird-of-paradise | New Scientist

12 February 2025 

How a moth uses an optical illusion to disguise itself as a leaf

 The fruit-sucking moth bears an uncanny resemblance to a leaf

Image courtesy of  Bridgette Gower.

Joel Kontinen

“A moth found in northern Australia and South-East Asia has an astonishing camouflage trick: it creates an optical illusion to look like a three-dimensional leaf, complete with a raised midrib, when it is actually smooth.

“If I gave you a specimen now, you wouldn’t believe it was flat,” says Jennifer Kelley at the University of Western Australia in Perth. “When we showed it to people, they were very confused by it. It really does not look flat.”

The smooth wings of fruit-sucking moths appear to be ridged like a leaf – but the resemblance is created by nanostructures that reflect light in an unusual way.

The fruit-sucking moth (Eudocima aurantia) resembles a leaf to fool predators, especially birds, into thinking it isn’t food. Although it was first described in 1877, until now this likeness was thought to be caused by pigments and the shape of its body.

In fact, the moth uses extremely sophisticated physics to give the impression it is a leaf, says Kelley.

This cannot be the result of evolution. This strategy is the result of intelligence design that God has provided for this species.

Source:

 James Woodford 2025 How a moth uses an optical illusion to disguise itself as a leaf | New Scientist 12 February

 

 

Distant exoplanet may be the most volcanic world ever found

 

Illustration of the volcanic exoplanet L 98-59 b. Image courtesy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Joel Kontinen

The more we know about exoplanets, the mysterious they become.  Now a planet with a large volcanic  world has just ben found.

“An alien world with a seemingly sulphur-filled atmosphere may be the most volcanic planet astronomers have ever spotted.

We have never directly detected volcanic activity outside our solar system, in part because current telescopes aren’t powerful enough to take images of exoplanets’ surfaces. We might be able to spot alien volcanoes by measuring the gases they pump into a planet’s atmosphere, but this is also at the very limit of what current telescopes can do – there have been tantalising hints of atmospheres on rocky surface.”

Source:

 Alex Wilkins  2025 Distant exoplanet may be the most volcanic world ever found | New Scientist 10 February 

Humpback whale songs have patterns that resemble human language

 

Image courtesy of Tony Wu/Nature Picture Library/Alamy

Joel Kontinen 

“Humpbackwhale songs have statistical patterns in their structure that are remarkably similar to those seen in human language. While this doesn’t mean the songs convey complex meanings like our sentences do, it hints that whales may learn their songs in a similar way to how human infants start to understand language.

Only male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) sing, and the behaviour is thought to be important for attracting mates. The songs are constantly evolving, with new elements appearing and spreading through the population until the old song is completely replaced with a new one.

“We think it’s a little bit like a standardised test, where everybody’s got to do the same task but you can make changes and embellishments to show that you’re better at the task than everybody else,” says Jenny Allen at Griffith University in Gold Coast, Australia.

Instead of trying to find meaning in the songs, Allen and her colleagues were looking for innate structural patterns that may be similar to those seen in human language. They analysed eight years of whale songs recorded around New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean.”

But humpback whales are not deriving a proto language that people could use. They are animals with created ways to tell their message.

Source:

James Woodford 2025 Humpback whale songs have patterns that resemble human language | New Scientist 6 February