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Science
The Secret Lives Of Squirting Cucumbers
40
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Sabrina Imbler
November 25, 2024
Science
Do Not Accept An Unscientific American
395
Comments
Sabrina Imbler
November 20, 2024
The Defector Crewneck Sweatshirt Is Back In Stock
Bad news: It's getting colder. Good news: The best way to cover your forearms has returned. The critically acclaimed Defector crewneck sweatshirt has been restocked in all sizes. Now's the time to get one of our most popular items, printed with union labor in the USA.
Science
This Week In Skeletons
54
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Sabrina Imbler
November 7, 2024
Climate
What Can We Learn From Back-To-Back Monster Hurricanes Helene And Milton?
155
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Sabrina Imbler
October 17, 2024
Science
Let’s Go See What’s Swimming Around On Europa
142
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Barry Petchesky
October 15, 2024
Science
It’s Totally Cool That I Didn’t Get To See The Northern Lights. Seriously! I Promise!!
114
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Rachelle Hampton
October 11, 2024
MLB
Tropicana Field Shredded By Hurricane Milton
247
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Barry Petchesky
October 10, 2024
Animals
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75
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Barry Petchesky
October 9, 2024
Science
What Is The Human Composting Industry Trying To Grow?
150
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Nicholas Russell
September 13, 2024
Science
Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars
566
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Albert Burneko
September 11, 2024
Science
No Need To Worry About Eerie, Mysterious “Pulsing” Noise Coming From Janky Boeing Starliner, NASA Insists
257
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Barry Petchesky
September 3, 2024
Science
Boeing Starliner Astronauts Electively Spending Five More Months In Space To Hitch Ride In Different Vehicle Due To Preference For Not Dying
203
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Albert Burneko
August 26, 2024
Science
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129
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Sabrina Imbler
August 22, 2024
Science
Point/Counterpoint: Monkeys Typing Shakespeare
203
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Kathryn Xu
and
Barry Petchesky
August 8, 2024
This Is So Stupid
Do Not Say The Boeing Starliner Astronauts Are Stranded In Space, Which They Cannot Presently Return From Due To Problems With Their Spacecraft
203
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Albert Burneko
August 1, 2024
Science
Don’t Bury Me At Biscuit Basin
101
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Barry Petchesky
July 24, 2024
Wings Week
You Motherfuckers Forgot About Dayton
385
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Amy Schneider
July 19, 2024
Science
NASA Must Put Me On The Simulated Mars Mission, To Test The Astronauts’ Patience
100
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Barry Petchesky
July 7, 2024
Science
What If We’re Stuck Down Here?
205
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Barry Petchesky
June 18, 2024
Science
Bill Anders First Saw The Earth
88
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Barry Petchesky
June 9, 2024
Science
Can We Exhume Gender From The Long-Dead?
77
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Sabrina Imbler
May 9, 2024
Science
Suddenly Every Deodorant Company Wants To Get In My Pants
232
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Drew Magary
April 30, 2024
Science
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110
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Barry Petchesky
April 30, 2024
Sports Highlight Of The Day
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43
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Barry Petchesky
April 7, 2024
This Is So Stupid
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318
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Defector Staff
April 5, 2024
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![The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. These observations show a part of the iconic nebula in a whole new light, capturing its complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution. Webb’s new images show part of the sky in the constellation Orion (The Hunter), in the western side of the Orion B molecular cloud. Rising from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33, which resides roughly 1300 light-years away. The nebula formed from a collapsing interstellar cloud of material, and glows because it is illuminated by a nearby hot star. The gas clouds surrounding the Horsehead have already dissipated, but the jutting pillar is made of thick clumps of material that is harder to erode. Astronomers estimate that the Horsehead has about five million years left before it too disintegrates. Webb’s new view focuses on the illuminated edge of the top of the nebula’s distinctive dust and gas structure. The Horsehead Nebula is a well-known photon-dominated region, or PDR. In such a region ultraviolet light from young, massive stars creates a mostly neutral, warm area of gas and dust between the fully ionised gas surrounding the massive stars and the clouds in which they are born. This ultraviolet radiation strongly influences the gas chemistry of these regions and acts as the most important source of heat. These regions occur where interstellar gas is dense enough to remain neutral, but not dense enough to prevent the penetration of far-ultraviolet light from massive stars. The light emitted from such PDRs provides a unique tool to study the physical and chemical processes that drive the evolution of interstellar matter in our galaxy, and throughout the Universe from the early era of vigorous star formation to the present day. Owing to its proximity and its nearly edge-on geometry, the Horsehead Nebula is an ideal target for astronomers to study the physical structures of PDRs and the evolution of the chemical characteristics of the gas and dust within their respective environments, and the transition regions between them. It is considered one of the best objects in the sky to study how radiation interacts with interstellar matter. This image was captured with Webb’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) instrument. [Image description: At the bottom of the image a small portion of the Horsehead Nebula is seen close-in, as a curved wall of thick, smoky gas and dust. Above the nebula various distant stars and galaxies can be seen up to the top of the image. One star is very bright and large, with six long diffraction spikes that cross the image. The background fades from a dark red colour above the nebula to black.]](https://lede-admin.defector.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2024/04/STScI-01HV4CG0EACM1MC07E10X19KNX.jpg?resize=2880%2C1920)
