Galaxy bunch

Taking advantage of the high sensitivity of the ESA’s XMM-Newton and the sharp vision of NASA’s Chandra X-Ray space observatories, a group of international astronomers have studied the behaviour of a massive fossil galaxy clusters. The main aim of the study was to solve a puzzle ? according to simple theoretical models, such clusters simply could not have formed in the time available to them.

Threat to laws

US physicists have performed the first-ever-precision measurements using ultra-cold molecules, in work that may help solve a long-standing scientific mystery?whether so-called constants of nature have changed since the dawn of the universe. The research, reported in the journal Physical Review Letters, is important because these constants form the basis for almost all the fields of physics. Therefore, these measurements are a way to test the consistency of existing theories.

New history

Separated in history by 100 years, the seafaring Minoans of Crete and the mercantile Canaanites of northern Egypt and the Levant (a large area of the Middle East) at the eastern end of the Mediterranean were never considered trading partners at the start of the Late Bronze Age. Until now. A new Cornell University radiocarbon study of tree rings and seeds shows that the Santorini (or Thera) volcanic eruption, a central event in Aegean prehistory, occurred about 100 years earlier than previously thought. This means Bronze Age history needs to be rewritten, says the study published in the journal Science.