Good Morning! 🌞 

Did you know that a day wasn’t always 24 hours?

Over 1.4 billion years ago, a day on Earth was only about 18 hours long. The length of a day has gradually increased due to the Moon’s gravitational interaction with Earth, which slows down Earth’s rotation.

Entertainment

‘The Smashing Machine’ First Look

Dwayne Johnson is nearly unrecognizable in the first look at his upcoming A24 drama "The Smashing Machine," directed by Benny Safdie and co-starring Emily Blunt.

Johnson plays legendary MMA fighter Mark Kerr, who battled addiction and marital issues while rising to fame. Blunt portrays Kerr’s wife, Dawn Staples. The film is currently in production.

In the first look, Johnson appears muscular as Kerr, with facial prosthetics aiding his transformation. Kerr was a two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion and World Vale Tudo Championship tournament winner, accumulating over two dozen MMA titles throughout his career.

The movie is currently under production but is currently stirring up interest. I personally find it refreshing to watch The Rock in a movie with no jungle or cars around!😆 

Science

The Universe’s Oldest Star

The James Webb Space Telescope is designed to detect stars from the universe's earliest periods, just a few million years after the Big Bang.

However, a team of MIT students has found that some of these ancient stars might be much closer, only thousands of light-years away instead of billions.

They identified about 65 stars formed 13 billion years ago in the Milky Way’s halo, a discovery that could significantly impact our understanding of the early universe. This research began when MIT physics professor Anna Frebel started a project called Observational Stellar Archaeology, where students analyzed data from the Magellan-Clay telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory.

The Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago, and the first stars, mostly composed of helium and hydrogen with trace amounts of strontium and barium, formed shortly after. Frebel and her students focused on these elements in their data review.

They found 10 stars with low levels of strontium, barium, and iron, similar to ancient stars and dwarf galaxies observed in the distant universe. These stars have about 1/10,000th of the elements found in our Sun.

To support their theory that the Milky Way contains remnants of ancient dwarf galaxies, Frebel and her students examined the orbital data of these stars. They found that the stars moved in retrograde, orbiting in the opposite direction of the Milky Way’s galactic disk and halo. Frebel explained, “The only way you can have stars going the wrong way is if you threw them in the wrong way.”

They also noticed these stars were moving quickly, at hundreds of kilometers per second. Frebel and her team call these stars Small Accreted Stellar System stars, or SASS stars, theorizing they are the remnants of ancient dwarf galaxies absorbed by the Milky Way.

Frebel and her students have developed a straightforward method to identify these stars, providing astronomers with a new way to study the early universe by observing stars closer to Earth. “These oldest stars should definitely be there, given what we know of galaxy formation,” Frebel said. “They are part of our cosmic family tree. And we now have a new way to find them.”

World News

2,200-Year-old Tomb Discovered

Chinese archaeologists have completed the initial phase of excavations on a royal tomb believed to originate from the state of Chu, dating back 2,200 years. Chu, a significant kingdom in early Chinese history, once dominated the birthplace of Confucius through conquest and annexation.

Situated in Anhui province, the tomb's exploration commenced in 2019 due to reports of frequent looting attempts. The findings have revealed it as the most intricate funerary structure of its era ever uncovered in China.

Among the unearthed artifacts—over 3,000 in total—are lacquered wood items, bronze vessels, figurines, chariot and horse pits, and sacrificial remains. A woven bamboo mat provided crucial data for radiocarbon analysis, confirming the tomb's age.

Gong Xicheng, deputy director of the Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, noted that the excavation has progressed to the coffin chamber's interior, raising hopes of uncovering the tomb owner's identity and resolving the mystery.

Based on historical records, King Kaolie, who reigned from 262 to 238 BCE, is a leading candidate for the tomb's occupant. Kaolie's relocation of the Chu capital to Shouxian County aligns with the tomb's discovery in the same region. Moreover, other Chu kings ruling from Shouxian likely faced circumstances precluding such a grand burial.

Chu's emergence followed the disintegration of the Zhou Dynasty, a pivotal period in Chinese history marked by the genesis of foundational texts like the I Ching and the early development of Confucianism.

Mind Stretchers

❔

What’s the next shape in the pattern?

Yesterday’s Answer:
Crescent mooon, Gerry Moore got the correct answer first for this one— way to go Gerry! 🌞 

Be the first to send us the correct answer for today’s mind stretcher for a shout-out with the answer tomorrow. Just send us the answer and your name to [email protected]

If you have any uplifting stories and experience you might want to share, send those over to [email protected] for the chance to be featured.