your science briefing for 05.05.2025

A runaway star cluster, the continued search for Planet Nine, RFK Jr. is trying to give tuberculosis a global comeback tour, and more...

Nebulae and star clusters are spectacular cosmic phenomena which tend to be short lived. Nebulae from one supernova or several of them can dissolve in as little as a few million years, while those from lower mass dying stars like our Sun are gone in 20,000 years or thereabouts. Stellar clusters are much longer lived, dispersing over hundreds of million of years. Except the Ophion cluster, which is 20 million years old and holds a thousand stars, but is already flying apart. This is unusual because these clusters are form from clouds of cold gas and should move relatively slowly. Astronomers do have some ideas, but a lot more research will need to be done… (Space.com)

One reason why so much sci-fi imagines spacefaring militaries using naval ranks is a very obvious parallel between massive spacecraft outfitted with fighters, bombers, a fleet of cargo ships, and running autonomously for many years, and aircraft carriers at sea used for power projection. There was once an idea to create a gigantic plane that launched 22 fighters or bombers while cruising on nuclear engines, but it never really took off. (Ba-dum-tiss!) Now, the Space Force wants to resurrect a similar idea with a space station intended as an orbital carrier for satellites and drones… (BBC)

Tuberculosis killed an estimated billion people since it was first identified in 1882, but it has been with us for least 17,000 years. By the start of the last century, the disease known as the White Death and “consumption,” was responsible for one in seven of all human deaths, ever. Over a million people still die from it every year as drug resistant strains of the bacterium keep evolving. And thanks to the MAGA Nurgle at the DHHS and his incessant full frontal attack on public health, which is part of the greater war on science and expertise led by the Trump administration, it may be returning as our next big pandemic in the foreseeable future… (The Hill)

Planet Nine is one of those sore topics in astronomy. There are scientists who think a planet the size of Neptune orbiting the Sun between 400 and 800 times farther than Earth is the only explanation for the strange motion of object in the Kuiper Belt. Other experts point to the history of proposed planets like Vulcan, Phaeton, and Nemesis, which were originally created to explain phenomena we didn’t understand only to be consigned to the dustbin of wrong ideas once we got a better grip on physics. Many studies ruled out certain locations for it, but a new survey thinks it found a weak, but worthwhile signal of this hypothetical planet… (Futurism)

Much like Douglas Adams loved to watch deadlines fly overhead, so do governments all over the world whistle and wave as deadlines and targets for cutting back pollution and greenhouse emission caps come and go without being even remotely met. Right now, all we can say is that we’ve staved off the worst possible case for warming: a 5+ °C average rise in global temperatures by 2100. But we’re on course for 2.7 °C by that timeline, which is no picnic to put it mildly, and no government seems to be taking this prognosis seriously according to increasingly frustrated experts… (DW)