The Sky Today on Monday, October 19: Feast your eyes on the Southern Fish - Astronomy.com

Astronomers have discovered an unusual star system about 300 light-years from Earth where a small star is gradually consuming a nearby brown dwarf. Instead of swallowing its companion in one dramatic event, the star is steadily pulling material from it, creating a cosmic feeding process that could continue for billions of years. Most planets, including Earth, travel around their stars in relatively stable orbits. But these peaceful arrangements can sometimes end violently. If a planet ventures too close to its host star, the star's gravity can drag it inward and eventually engulf it.

As NASA continues humanity’s slow march back to the Moon, different pieces of the puzzle of establishing a more permanent base there are falling into place. One of these pieces is the the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTR), and [Cleo Abram] and [Michelle Khare] got a look at the LTR candidate from Lunar Outpost. Designed to help astronauts traverse the lunar surface as well as function as a semi-autonomous rover when uncrewed, the LTR will be an integral part to any future Moon base. NASA announced earlier this year that it would be moving forward with the LTR featured in this video and another from competitor Astrolab. Regardless of manufacturer, the LTR will have to deal with some wild conditions in the lunar environment.

Submicron IR microscopy is opening new opportunities in biological sciences with the development of a new technique: optical photothermal infrared (O-PTIR) spectroscopy. Developments in life sciences research are playing an increasingly important role in global health, and advancements in technology have the potential to offer new and improved approaches to support the health and wellbeing of people worldwide.

We’re sharing this article early to provide faster access to peer-reviewed, accepted research. It is citable and carries a permanent DOI. This version is subject to further edits and will be replaced automatically by the final Version of Record. All legal disclaimers apply. AbstractErigeron breviscapus is a widely utilized medicinal herb in traditional Chinese medicine, characterized by high annual demand and notable pharmacological activities. Light intensity is a critical environmental factor influencing secondary metabolism in medicinal plants. However, the effects of light intensity on the accumulation of active ingredients in E. breviscapus remain largely unexplored. In this study, we examined the transcriptomic and metabolomic responses of E. breviscapus to five levels of light intensity (50, 100, 200, 400, 800 μmol·m−2·s−1). The results revealed that higher light intensity (EB-L800) significantly increased the accumulation of scutellarin, chlorogenic acid, isochlorogenic acid A, and isochlorogenic acid C. A total of 1,334 metabolites were detected, and 127.10 Gb of high-quality clean data were generated through transcriptomic sequencing.