Tag

Metal Enrichment

All articles tagged with #metal enrichment

space10 days ago•13 min saved

JWST Spots Crowded Galaxy Merger at Cosmic Dawn Enriching Surrounding Gas

JWST has imaged JWST’s Quintet, a merger of at least five galaxies at redshift ~6.7 (about 800 million years after the Big Bang), revealing a compact, clumpy system with ~17 galaxy-sized clumps, a combined star-formation rate around 255 solar masses per year, and a halo of oxygen-emitting gas (O III) and Hβ linking the galaxies. The presence of metal-enriched gas around the system shows heavy elements were already dispersed into the surrounding medium by intense interactions, implying the early universe was chemically mature and dynamically complex far earlier than some models predict and potentially related to the emergence of massive, quiescent galaxies later on.

via Space Daily|

#circumgalactic-medium #cosmic-dawn #galaxy-mergers

science2 months ago•7 min saved

Scorpions Get Metallic Armor: Metals Harden Stingers and Claws

Researchers mapped metal distribution (zinc, manganese, iron) in the stingers and pincers of 18 scorpion taxa from the Smithsonian using high‑resolution imaging. They found intentional metal enrichment: zinc at the stinger tip to harden the spear, manganese lower down to improve flexibility and vibration absorption, and iron in claw denticles to boost abrasion resistance. Patterns vary with species’ hunting vs. defensive use, with zinc enrichment higher in weaker, slender claws and an inverse relationship between stinger and claw zinc levels, suggesting evolutionary allocation of metals to the weapon most used. The study also notes intra‑species variation and life‑stage differences remain to be explored.

via Ars Technica|

#chelae #evolution #metal-enrichment

science2 months ago•4 min saved

Scorpions’ Claws and Stingers Harbor Metals, Study Finds

A Smithsonian-led study analyzing 18 scorpion species finds metals, especially zinc and manganese, are embedded in their pincers and stingers and vary by species in a way that reflects an evolutionary trade-off between durability and leverage; the research, using electron microscopy and X-ray fluorescence, suggests metal enrichment is widespread among scorpions and lays groundwork for broader comparisons and future questions about diet and gender differences, with the findings published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

via Gizmodo|

#evolution #manganese #metal-enrichment

astronomy6 months ago•46 min saved

Cosmic teens grow up fast: JWST reveals rapid maturity of early galaxies

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (with Hubble and ALMA) observed 18 galaxies about 12.5 billion light-years away and found they were rapidly forming stars and already metal-rich (carbon, oxygen), with rotating disks and vigorously accreting supermassive black holes—indicating structural and chemical maturity far earlier than models had predicted.

via Space|

#astronomy #black-holes #early-universe