How long is a day on Uranus? Slightly longer than we thought, it seems

Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Joel Kontinen

How long does a day last on Uranus? It seems that it is longer than on Earth, The gas planets shield Earth From space rubble, just as God  promised  to safeguard  the only planet with life.

A day on Uranus just got slightly longer, thanks to more accurate measurements of its rotation period that should help scientists plan missions to probe the gas giant.

Figuring out the rotation period of the solar system’s giant planets is much harder than for the likes of Mars and Earth because ferocious wind storms make direct measurements impossible.

The first measurement of Uranus’s rotation came from the Voyager 2 probe, which made its closest approach on 24 January 1986. Researchers at the time determined that the planet’s magnetic field was offset by 59 degrees from celestial north, while its rotation axis was 98 degrees offset.

These extreme offsets mean that Uranus effectively rotates “lying down” compared with Earth, while its magnetic poles trace a large circle as the planet rotates. By measuring both the planet’s magnetic field and radio emissions from aurora at its magnetic poles, researchers at the time found that Uranus was completing a full rotation every 17 hours, 14 minutes, 24 seconds, with a margin of error of plus or minus 36 seconds.

Now, Laurent Lamy at the Paris Observatory in France and his colleagues have measured it to be 28 seconds longer. More importantly, their measurement is 1000 times more accurate, reducing the margin of error to a fraction of a second.

The researchers looked at images of Uranus’s ultraviolet aurora, taken between 2011 and 2022 by the Hubble Space Telescope, to track the long-term evolution of the planet’s magnetic poles as they circle the axis of rotation

 The margin of error of the previous measurement meant it became impossible to accurately determine a position on Uranus more than a few years later, but the new measurement should remain valid for decades. That means it could be relied on to calculate mission-critical objectives such as where a probe might orbit and enter the planet’s atmosphere.

Tim Bedding at the University of Sydney in Australia calls the team’s measurement technique “very clever”, but points out that the new duration of a day on Uranus isn’t that much  different, being within the margin of error of the old calculation. “It’s not so much that it’s changed,” B edding says. “It’s now accurate enough to be more useful.”

Source:

James Woodford 2025 How long is a day on Uranus? Slightly longer than we thought, it seems | New Scientist 8 April 

The universe's water is billions of years older than scientists thought — and may be nearly as old as the Big Bang itself

 

Image courtesy of NASA

Joel Kontinen

When did life appear in the world? Scientists say that the appearance of water might say something about it.

“A new study suggests that water first appeared in the universe just a couple hundred million years after the Big Bang — meaning life could have evolved billions of years earlier than previously thought.”

Now some evolutionists say that humans came from ape like creatures and were moulded by Darwinian processes to become human They said that life may have appeared some 100 to 200 million years earlier that they  thought.

Water may have emerged in the universe far earlier than scientists thought — and it could mean that the life could be billions of years older too, new research suggests.

“Water is one of the most essential ingredients for life as we know it. But exactly when water first appeared has been a question of scientific interest for decades.”

Source:

Joanna Thompson 2025 The universe's water is billions of years older than scientists thought — and may be nearly as old as the Big Bang itself | Live Science 11 March

Hohle Fels water bird: The oldest depiction of a bird in the world

 

Image courtesy of © Alamy 

Joel Kontinen

This tiny bird sculpture was created 40,000 years ago by early humans in Europe who carved the key animals in their lives. 

It is from Hohle Fels cave, Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. it looks like a modern bird, not featured by evolution.

“Archaeologists excavating Hohle Fels cave in southwestern Germany over two decades ago discovered three tiny figurines carved out of mammoth ivory. Dated to around 40,000 years ago, the sculptures represent some of the oldest examples of figurative art, and the tiny carved bird is god, the oldest depiction of a bird anywhere in the world.”

The date of the bird is not correct, as such birds came into existence about 6 000 years ago, when God created the world.

Source:

Khoristina Killgrove 2025 Hohle Fels water bird: The oldest depiction of a bird in the world 31 March

 

Cave spiders use their webs in a way that hasn't been seen before

 

A cave orb spider Image courtesy of blickwinkel/Alamy

Joel Kontinen

Cave-dwelling orb spiders have adapted their webs so they act as tripwires for prey that crawl on the walls of the caves.

Can spiders make orbs in the dark? This must be inspired by intelligent design,  

Spiders known for elaborate circular webs have altered their spinning style in dark spaces to create apparent tripwires for walking prey.

Those that make circular webs are known as orb-weavers, and most of them trap mosquitoes, beetles and other flying insects in sticky spiral frame webs sparsely attached to outdoor structures, like tree branches. But European cave orb spiders (Meta menardi) anchor their webs to cave walls using twice as many silk strands, which appear to vibrate when tripped by unsuspecting crawlers, says Thomas Hesselberg at the University of Oxford.

Source:

Christa Lesté-Lasserre 2025 Cave spiders use their webs in a way that hasn't been seen before | New Scientist 31 March 

Unusually tiny hominin deepens mystery of our Paranthropus cousin

 

The thigh and shin bones of Paranthropus robustus. Image courtesy of Jason L. Heaton

Joel Kontinen

Paranthropus was an ape-like hominin that survived alongside early humans for more than a million years. A fossilised leg belonging to a strikingly small member of the group. 

What do people say about the ape men hypothesis?. According to Darwinists who think that we evolved from ape like creatures, the answer is yes, but according  to Bible believing scientist, it is no.

According to Darwinists,  “ a fossilised left leg unearthed in South Africa belongs to one of the smallest adult hominins ever discovered – smaller even than the so-called “hobbit”, Homo floresiensis.

The diminutive hominin was a member of the species Paranthropus robustus. This was one of several species of Paranthropus, a group of ape-like hominins that shared the African landscape with the earliest representatives of our human genus, Homo, between about 2.7 and 1.2 million years ago. Paranthropus had heavily build  skulls that housed small brains and large teeth.”

 Source:

 Colin Barras 2025 Unusually tiny hominin deepens mystery of our Paranthropus cousin | New Scientist 31 March 

.

Ancient wasp may have used its rear end to trap flies

 

Image courtesy of Qiong Wuh

Joel Kontinen

Wasps might use there rear end to catch  fear end to catch flies and other insects. Scientist have analysed a wasp they taught was 99 million years old. ‘

But the evolutionists dating  relies on amber that was so old in Myanbar and it is not based on fossils. Only evolution can think of millions of years.  

“An extraordinary extinct wasp preserved in amber may have used its abdomen to grasp other insects like a Venus flytrap before laying its eggs on them.”

Source:

Chris Simms 2025 Ancient wasp preserved in amber may have used its rear end to trap flies | New Scientist 27 March 

Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

A painting of what Prototaxites may have looked like, 400 million years ago. (Image credit: Painting by Mary Parrish, National Museum of Natural History.)

Joel Kontinen

An ancient and enormous organism called Prototaxites, initially found to be a type of fungus, may actually be an unknown branch of life, researchers say.

When were the first organisms formed?

According to evolutionist, they were formed some 420 million years ago.

“A bizarre ancient life-form, considered to be the first giant organism to live on land, may belong to a totally unknown branch of the tree of life, scientists say.”

These organisms, named Prototaxites, lived around 420 million to 375 million years ago during the Devonian period and resembled branchless, cylindrical tree trunks. These organisms would have been massive, with some species growing up to 26 feet (8 meters) tall and 3 feet (1 meter) wide.

Since the first Prototaxites fossil was discovered in 1843, scientists haven't been sure whether they were a plant, fungus or even a type of algae. However, chemical analyses of Prototaxites fossils in 2007 suggested they were likely a giant ancient fungus.

Yes, according to evolution, these organisms were in The Devonian period.

Source:

Jess Thomson 2025 Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life | Live Science 27 March

An early hint of cosmic dawn has been seen in a distant galaxy

 

Image courtesy of SA/Webb, NASA & CSA, JADES Collaboration, J. Witstok, P. Jakobsen, M. Zamani

Joel Kontinen

How can galaxies form? A study has them forming some 239 million years ago after the Big Bang.

A galaxy found at the dawn of the universe appears to be the earliest known evidence of cosmic reionisation, the period when the universe was lit up for the first time.

Following the big bang, the early universe was filled with hot hydrogen and helium gas that scattered photons, making the cosmos somewhat opaque. Over the next few hundred million years, as stars began to shine, their light ionised the hydrogen and helium, enabling photons to flow freely and making the universe transparent, though the exact timing of this is uncertain.

Joris Witstok at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and his colleagues used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study a galaxy called JADES-GS-z13-1-LA. The galaxy is seen 330 million years after the big bang, making it one of the earliest known galaxies in the universe.

Ultraviolet light from the galaxy suggests it was surrounded by a bubble about 200,000 light years across, which might be the result of its starlight interacting with the surrounding cosmic hydrogen. Seeing evidence for this so early in the universe is “beyond even our wildest expectations,” says Witstok.

Michele Trenti at the University of Melbourne agrees that the observations are consistent with the process of cosmic reionisation. “It’s both surprising and exciting,” says Trenti. “I would not expect the ultraviolet light emitted from this galaxy to reach JWST. The cold neutral hydrogen gas that we were expecting would have surrounded the galaxy should have blocked the photons. We are witnessing the onset of reionisation.”

The nature of the small galaxy itself is not entirely clear; it might be shining brightly because of a population of massive hot and young stars, or a powerful central black hole. “This would be the earliest known evidence for a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy,” says Trenti.

While astronomers have seen other, later galaxies with a similar bubble around them, JADES-GS-z13-1-LA is the earliest known example. “It’s a benchmark,” says Richard Ellis at University College London. “It tells us that this galaxy must have been around for quite a while, and pushes that little bit further back to the beginning of when galaxies first emerged from darkness.”

JWST was able to unearth the secrets of this galaxy only by staring at it for a relatively long time, about 19 hours. Witstok is hopeful we might soon see other early evidence for cosmic reionisation. “We have a few more candidates,” he says. “We might find it even further [back in time], or maybe this is the most extreme that it gets.”

The millions of years in this study are not based on science but on  evolutionary thinking,

Source:

Jonathan O’Callaghan 2025 An early hint of cosmic dawn has been seen in a distant galaxy | New Scientist 26 March 

Why do giraffes have spots? Not for the reason you might think

 Image courtesy of Monica Bond

Joel Kontinen

Why do giraffes have spots? It may have to do with intelligent design bringing them.

“The beautiful “mottled patterns of a giraffe’s coat work as more than camouflage – the size of the spots seems to be linked to how well the animals survive during unusual temperatures.

Every giraffe has a unique array of spots. Patterns with larger and rounder spots can increase the chance of a baby giraffe surviving its first four months, because they help them blend into the background in the dappled light near bushes. But spots are are darker than the rest of the fur, it is also thought they help them to survive. “

 Just like in the case of the zebra, intelligence design helps them to succeed.

Source:

 Chris Simms 2025 Why do giraffes have spots? Not for the reason you might think | New Scientist March 

Sharks aren’t silent after all

 Image courtesy of Paul Caiger

Joel Kontinen

Can sharks be talkative? They were thought to be quiet, but new research shows they are not.  

”At least one shark species has a bark to go along with its bite. It can make clicking noises, scientists report, a first among an animal group once thought to be totally silent.

During her doctoral research at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, Carolin Nieder, now at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, was studying sharks’ hearing. When handling the sharks during experiments, she noticed one species – a houndshark called the rig (Mustelus lenticulatus) – appeared to make metallic clicking sounds.”

Yes. even animals know how to tell stories to their kin.

“I was just kind of ignoring it because sharks are not supposed to make sounds,” says Nieder. “And it just kept happening.”

Source:

Jake Buehler 2025 Sharks aren’t silent after all | New Scientist 25 March

Budgie brains have a map of vocal sounds just like humans

 

Image courtesy of BROKER.com / Alamy

Joel Kontinen

Recordings of brain activity in budgerigars reveal sets of brain cells that represent different sounds like keys on a keyboard – a structure never seen before in any bird brain

According to evolutionists, some birds have vocal sounds just like humans, but this does not mean that they are like humans. In their view, chimps are most clearly related to humans.

”Budgerigars are some of the chattiest birds, and that is reflected in their brains. Budgie brains contain a map of the vocal sounds, which is similar to that found in the human brain and has not been seen in any other bird.

“We found that there was a representation of vocal sounds in a part of the brain that is analogous to a key speech region.”

Source:

 Michael Marshall 2025 Budgie brains have a map of vocal sounds just like humans | New Scientist 19 March

4 tiny, Earth-like planets found circling secod-closest star system to us

 

Image courtesy of International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Proctor/J. Pollard

Joel Kontinen

A new study reveals that four exoplanets, each about 20% to 30% the size of our planet, circle one of our closest stellar neighbour. The rocky alien worlds are close enough that future generations of humans may be able to visit them with futuristic rocket propulsion technology.

 But we would not find live in each of them.  

“Astronomers have long suspected that there was at least one exoplanet orbiting Barnard's Star — a red dwarf with a mass around one-sixth that of the sun. At 5.97 light-years from Earth, it is the fourth-closest star to our solar system, after the three interconnected stars of the Alpha Centauri system. (Five potential planets have also been detected around the stars of Alpha Centauri, though not all of them have been confirmed yet.)”

”But in a new study, published March 11 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers say they have discovered that this wobbling is not caused by the pull of one gas giant but instead by the combined force exerted by four smaller, rocky worlds, each around four times more massive than as they are so close to their sun, they are probably not habitable..

But as the planets are too close to the sun, they probably are not habitable,

Source:

 Harry Baker 2025 4 tiny, Earth-like planets found circling 2nd-closest star system to us — and could be visited by future human generations | Live Science 19 March

Two-fingered dinosaur used its enormous claws to eat leaves

 

Image courtesy of Masato Hattori

Joel Kontinen 

A dinosaur fossil discovered in Mongolia boasts the largest ever complete claw, but the herbivorous species only used it to grasp vegetation.

How can a dinosaur with just two fingers live? This is according to a study just published, but fossils may have some missing items that are found elsewhere.  

A new species of dinosaur found at a Mongolian building site has the largest fully preserved claw ever found. The bipedal, herbivorous animal had only two fingers on each hand, which it may have used to grasp branches and pull fingers them towards its mouth.

The 90-million-year-old fossil – which included parts of the pelvis, both arms and hands, and numerous vertebrae – was found near Khanbogd in the Gobi desert in 2012, but it has only now been properly studied and given the scientific name Duonychus tsogtbaatari. The genus name means “two claws” and the species name honours Mongolian palaeontologist Khishigjav Tsogtbaatar.

Source:

James Woodford  2025 Two-fingered dinosaur used its enormous claws to eat leaves | New Scientist 20 March 

 

Giant Milky Way-like galaxy formed unusually soon after the big bang

 

Image courtesy of Weichen Wang

Joel Kontinen

“The Big Wheel, discovered using the James Webb Space Telescope, formed just 2 billion years after the Big Bang - surprisingly early for a spiral galaxy of a similar size to our Milky Way.”

 According to Big Bang cosmology, no galaxy should be this young, but research shows that this is incorrect and not true.  The Big Bang according to Darwinists cannot produce a galaxy so fast. The millions of years that are placed there, but this is an incorrect testimony of evolution that cannot happen in our time.  

“A newly-discovered spiral galaxy, dubbed the Big Wheel, formed just 2 billion years after the big bang – far earlier, considering its size, than astronomers thought possible.

Themiya Nanayakkara, at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, says the discovery was an accident. He and his colleagues were looking for quasars, energetic regions at the heart of some galaxies, with the James Webb Space Telescope in November 2022 when a “large spiral galaxy popped up”.

Source:  

James Woodford 2025 Big Wheel: Giant Milky Way-like galaxy formed unusually soon after the big bang | New Scientist 17 March

 

Hubble hunts a stellar 'imposter' hiding in the Great Bear

 

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Jacobson-Galán, A. Filippenko, J. Mauerha

Joel Kontinen

The legendary Hubble Space Telescope has turned its gaze to the Ursa Major-adjacent galaxy UGC 5460, revealing spiral arms, star clusters and a possible supernova "imposter".

 Where it is: 60 billion light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.

When it was shared: Feb. 21, 2025 and the beginning of creation.

Space is big and wonderful. It has the signature of the One who made it, at the beginning of creation.

“This stunning new image of a spiral galaxy — and a very bright star above it — was recently captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The image shows the galaxy's central bar of stars, along with its spiral arms and young, blue star clusters. The top-left of the image, meanwhile, is dominated by a star that's just 577 light-years away in the Milky Way.

This galaxy has hosted two significant supernova explosions in the last 14 years. Such events are landmarks for astronomers and are the final, destructive stage for some massive stars. A supernova explosion can briefly have the power of up to 100 billion stars and temporarily outshine their host galaxies.”

Source:

By Jamie Carter 2025 Space photo of the week: Hubble hunts a stellar 'imposter' hiding in the Great Bear | Live Science March 9

Fossils reveal what the fur of early mammals looked like

 

Image courtesy of Chuang Zhao, Ruoshuang Li

Joel Kontinen

What did the early mammals look like, according to evolution? Some researchers say that the fossils say that they do like their ancestors of all today’s species.

But the fossils have many problems.  Some had said that the ancestor of all whales lived on land and then moved to waters.

“While many dinosaurs and pterosaurs flaunted flamboyant feathers, early mammals were a dull lot. A study of the fossilised fur of six mammals that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods has found they all had greyish-brown fur.

“They were dinosaur food,” says Matthew Shawkey at Ghent University in Belgium. “You didn’t want to be conspicuous.”

A study of the fossilised fur of six mammals from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods has found they were all greyish-brown in colour, which would have helped them hide from dinosaurs.

Source:

Michael Le Page 2025 Fossils reveal what the fur of early mammals looked like | New Scientist 13 March 

The asteroid Bennu is even weirder than we thought

 

Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

Joel Kontinen

“The asteroid Bennu is puzzling scientists, with samples from the space rock showing weirder properties than they expected. These include extremely high nitrogen levels and improbably magnetic properties.

Scientists have been analysing clumps of rock from Bennu since NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned samples from the asteroid to Earth in 2023. They quickly found these contained a plethora of chemical building blocks for life.”

Space is big and we do not know all that is hiddenthere. “

Source:

 Alex Wilkins 2025 The asteroid Bennu is even weirder than we thought | New Scientist 11 March 

Megalodon may have grown up to 80 feet long

 

Image courtesy of FunkMonk Public Domain

Joel Kontinen  

Certain megalodons grew up to 80 feet (24 metres) long. That is 15 feet (4.5 metres) longer than scientist taught before.

These massive sharks may also have been slenderer than originally believed, the researchers said.

"Previous estimates using teeth to predict its size had the shark reaching about 18-20 meters total length (59-65 feet)," study co-author Phillip Sternes, an educator at SeaWorld San Diego said. “

According to evolutionists, “Megalodon ruled the seas of ancient Earth between around 20 million and 3.6 million years ago. “

The dates of these creatures is wrong,

Source:

Jess Thomson 2025 Megalodon may have grown up to 80 feet long — far larger than previous estimates | Live Science 10 March

Speeding star offers a rare glimpse of the Milky Way's galactic centre

 

Image courtesy of ESA/Gaia/DPAC

Joel Kontinen

When do astronomers see a n errant star that is speeding from the centre of our galaxy? They see it now,. This did not happen years and years ago.

“Astronomers have had a rare glimpse into the heart of the Milky Way thanks to an errant star expelled from the galactic centre.

At the middle of our galaxy is a supermassive black hole, closely surrounded by a group of hundreds of stars. Slightly further out is a larger disc of stars, and further out still is an even larger star group, called the nuclear star cluster (NSC).”

Space is big and wonderful, as God made it that way, and unexpected things happen all the time, like this speeding star.

Source:

Alex Wilkins 2025 Speeding star offers a rare glimpse of the Milky Way's galactic centre | New Scientist 7 March 

Two huge black holes merged into one and went flying across the cosmos

 

An image of the quasar 3C 186, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Joel Kontinen

Space is wonderful, we cannot see how God made it,  Just now two big black holes are  merged into one.  and it is flying at a speed of a thousand kilometres per second,

A rare collision between two supermassive black holes (SMBH) appears to have sent the resulting merger speeding through the universe, making it one of the fastest-moving black holes we have ever seen.

Astronomers have long puzzled over how the gargantuan black holes at the centres of galaxies can grow to be so large. One possible route is for smaller – but still extremely massive – black holes to merge together, but there has been little direct evidence of this happening.

Source:

Alex Wilkins 2025 Two huge black holes merged into one and went flying across the cosmos | New Scientist 6 March 

The secret of how Greenland sharks can live cancer-free for 400 years

 

Image courtesy of dotted zebra/Alamy.

 Joel Kontinen

Can sharks live for over 400 years?

According to a study, some sharks do that - they are the Greenland sharks.  They can live for years without tumours. This is a case of intelligent design that keeps them alive.

Death came to the world following Adam and Eves strategy in the Garden of Eden, from which they were exiled and were subject to death, and also animals died.  

A genomic study may have revealed how Greenland sharks live for centuries and yet rarely get cancer.

These sharks (Somniosus microcephalus) are slow-moving dwellers of the deep that can reach more than 6 metres long and weigh over a tonne. We know little about their lives because they roam in dark, cold waters, but it is thought they don’t reach sexual maturity until they are 150 years old and their lifespan has been estimated at about 400 years, making them the longest-living vertebrates that we know of.

Source:

 Chris Simms 2025 The secret of how Greenland sharks can live cancer-free for 400 years | New Scientist 4 March 

 

Extreme Cold Grips the South: Is This the Coldest January Since 2011?

 

Image courtesy of pixabay

Joel Kontinen

It has been cold in America and Britain. The American election results on January 20 had to be arranged indoors as it was too cold in Washington, D.C. to hold it. Its also been cold in the British Islands, with snow covering all the ground at times. And the winds have been great in both countries.  

“To understand why the South is facing such extreme cold, we must explore the intricate dynamics of weather patterns. A key factor is the polar vortex, a massive zone of low pressure and icy air that encircles the Earth's poles.”

It might also have to do with no climate change, occurring.

Source:

John Dyson, 2025, Extreme Cold Grips the South: Is This the Coldest January Since 2011?