Author: Science News Staff / Source: Science News
An ultraviolet glow spotted by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft may signal a hydrogen wall that separates the solar system from the rest of the Milky Way galaxy, Lisa Grossman reported in “New Horizons may have seen a glow at the solar system’s edge” (SN: 9/15/18, p.
10).Online reader RayRay wondered if researchers could see similar walls at the edges of other solar systems.
Probably, but it’s difficult, Grossman says. “The wall would show up as an ultraviolet glow around the star, similar to what New Horizons may be seeing. But the star has to be moving the right way with respect to Earth for the wall to be visible,” she says. “Researchers are currently using the Hubble Space Telescope to look for walls around four sunlike stars, and they made their first observations this summer. I’m hoping to write about it if they see anything!”
Porcine potential
Pigs implanted with lab-grown lungs showed no signs of rejection, Maria Temming reported in “Scientists successfully transplant lab-grown lungs into pigs” (SN: 9/15/18, p. 8).
A glow at the solar system’s edge, reported in “New Horizons may have seen a glow at the solar system’s edge” (SN: 9/15/18, p. 10), inspired Reddit user PM_ME_UR_CHILDHOOD to parody Oasis’ hit 1995 song “Wonderwall.”
Today was gonna be the day
that we reach the wall and drive thru/By now we should’ve somehow
realized Fermi’s paradox
might be true/I can’t believe that New Horizons
will continue to look for the wall
about twice each year…
The lungs were made by stripping donor pig lungs of their cells and then seeding those scaffolds with cells from the porcine patients….
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