NASA to Buy a New Space Station. Price Tag: $34.1 Billion - The Motley Fool

Psilocybin, the psychedelic substance found in more than 200 species of mushrooms, appears to have an unexpected effect on aggressive fish. Most mushrooms containing this compound belong to the gilled mushroom genus Psilocybe. In mammals, psilocybin interacts with serotonin receptors in the brain, influencing emotions and behaviors such as mood, appetite, and aggression. However, scientists still know relatively little about how the substance affects social interactions among animals. To investigate this question, researchers in Canada examined the effects of psilocybin on the amphibious mangrove rivulus fish (Kryptolebias marmoratus). Their findings, published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, suggest that even a brief exposure to a low dose can significantly reduce aggressive behavior without disrupting normal social interactions.

Can a dying star reveal the location of a black hole that has otherwise gone unnoticed? Turns out, it can. Astronomers have now traced a stellar destruction event to a massive black hole about 3,500 light-years from the center of its host galaxy. This discovery offers a rare look at a so-called wandering black hole and raises a further question: how did it end up so far from home?

Japan is to launch a spacecraft on the world’s first mission to bring back samples from Phobos, one of the two small, potato-shaped moons orbiting Mars. Scientists hope the mission, which is expected to take five years, will provide clues to how Phobos and its smaller sibling Deimos formed, and hopefully even shed light on the origins of life in the solar system. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) is aiming to launch the spacecraft on Tuesday on a new Japanese mainstay H3 rocket. Yasuhiro Kawakatsu, the project manager for the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, said samples from Phobos would provide useful data for scientists to consider using a Martian moon as a base for a future manned mission to the planet. The US, China and others are hoping to send astronauts to Mars. “Despite their potential importance, Martian moons have never been fully investigated,” Kawakatsu said. “They are known as the most important unclimbed mountains in the solar system.”Japan is leading an international mission, which includes equipment and communications support from Nasa and other national space agencies.

Supermassive black holes are thought to exist at the centers of nearly all large galaxies. These enormous objects can weigh millions or even billions of times as much as the Sun, but scientists still do not fully understand how they grow to such extraordinary sizes. Pulling in (accreting) gas from their surroundings is one way they gain mass, although this process alone may be too slow to explain the largest examples. Merging with other massive black holes could provide the missing explanation. Galaxy collisions are common throughout the universe, making it likely that their central black holes also eventually come together. As two galaxies merge, their black holes are expected to move closer, begin orbiting one another, and gradually spiral inward until they combine into a single object.