🛰 This is what a moon of Jupiter sounds like to human ears

By Claire Cameron

Is the dark getting you down? It is the day after the longest night of the year for myself and other northern hemisphere folks — the winter solstice. The days will slowly (very slowly) lengthen from this point on. Back in Scotland, we just do everything you usually do in sunlight, in the dark — sports practice under floodlights or commutes with headlamps on full beam. Here in New York, I honestly feel lucky to have daylight until 4 p.m. 

And indeed, shining a light on both the very, very small and the very, very large is the theme of today’s newsletter. I’m Claire Cameron, an editor at Inverse. The James Webb Telescope got delayed again. I’m not going to say I told you so, but it is very tempting. ‘Twill be a true Christmas miracle — or they might delay it again later today.

Dinosaur embryo appears freakishly like a chicken in an egg

Nicknamed Baby Yingliang, a well-preserved dinosaur embryo sheds light on a unique trait shared by modern chickens. Writing in the journal iScience, Baby Yingliang was revealed in all its glory as a near-complete theropod dinosaur fossil, still in its egg.

Identified as an Oviraptorsaur, a group of dinosaurs known for their coats of feathers and hollow, toothless skulls, it looks surprisingly familiar. 

Such excellently preserved, unhatched dinosaur fossils are extremely rare, the researchers say. And using 3D technology, they have unlocked its secrets for you and me to marvel upon. 

See the fossil →

Go deeper:

• This dinosaur had a natural weapon unlike any other
  

NASA probe captures “wild” sounds from the Solar System’s largest moon

Juno just picked up some odd frequencies at Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, which hint at its structure below. This includes the possibility of water oceans.

As Juno zipped by Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, it tuned its radio and plasma instruments to the icy satellite. Pitch-shifted into audible frequencies, the result is an audible account of the spacecraft’s journey and a valuable trove of data on the moon’s properties.

The spacecraft came within 645 miles of Ganymede on its flyby, hurtling past at more than 41,000 miles per hour. As it did, the Juno team attuned the Waves instrument to the radio and plasma waves generated by the magnetic interactions between Ganymede and Jupiter. By turning the resulting data into sound waves that humans can hear, the Juno team has given us the chance to listen to the largest moon in the solar system, a kind of celestial soundtrack.

Listen up →

Updated!

• James Webb Space Telescope launch date, time, and how to watch NASA’s live stream
  

Is Venus habitable? A new study fuels ongoing debate

Venus might not be your first thought in terms of habitable planets, but in the latest addition to the ongoing debate, a team of scientists suggests the presence of ammonia in the Venusian clouds, which could make for habitable conditions. But as skepticism still looms over Venus’ potential habitability, the latest findings are just one step in understanding the complex atmosphere of the planet.

Sara Seager, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lead author of the new study, was also involved in a 2020 study that first proposed habitable conditions in Venus’ clouds due to the purported presence of phosphine.

“It was quite controversial, but it brought a lot of new attention to Venus,” Seager tells Inverse.

Following the initial discovery, some team members wanted to further investigate the possibility of habitable conditions in the Venusian clouds, independent of the phosphine detection, according to Seager.

Here’s what they found →

Read this next:

• NASA flew a spacecraft directly into the Sun’s corona — here’s what it found
  

With just 5.4 grams of asteroid Ryugu, space scientists make 2 huge discoveries

Japanese space agency scientists are just beginning to analyze samples of an asteroid returned to Earth in late 2020 — specifically, 5.4 grams of material from the near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu. And in a pair of papers published today in Nature Astronomy, those scientists detail the first discoveries yielded by these valuable grains.

The discoveries alter our understanding of Ryugu's appearance — the diamond-shaped space rock is both darker and more porous than expected. This fragility is essential in terms of assessing whether it or similar asteroids could one day threaten Earth.

The rocks also contain volatile compounds, suggesting Ryugu preserves material from the outer Solar System. This means scientists now have in their labs some of the most pristine stuff from the Solar System’s infancy — a time capsule from before the beginning of our world.

Read the full story →

Read this next:

• SpaceX sends NASA spacecraft directly into an asteroid (on purpose)
  

Meanwhile ...

• Did scientists just discover a warp bubble? Crunched up space-time, explained
  
• New study discovers a key gender split in how people react to stress and alcohol
  
• 'No Way Home’s ending finally fixes the MCU’s Spider-Man — what took so long?
  
• 'The Witcher' Season 3 could change Netflix’s fantasy series in one historic way
  
• Review: 'The Matrix Resurrections' is a disappointing Matrix cover song that still slays

Inverse Loot

Shop our favorite deals. We only recommend products we love.

• The best home & kitchen deals on Amazon right now
  
• 80 cheap gift ideas for the holiday season

We need your help!

Help Inverse readers expand their alternative holiday listening and send us your top holiday tune no one else appreciates but you. The most obscure will be featured in a newsletter over the next week. Send yours to newsletter@inverse.com.

About the newsletter: Do you think it can be improved? Have a story idea? Want to share a story about the time you met an astronaut? Send those thoughts and more to newsletter@inverse.com. 

• Today in history: On this day in 1989, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate re-opened after almost 30 years and the division of East and West Germany was essentially no more.
• Song of the day: “Dominick the Donkey,” by Lou Monte. This one goes out to the many ID fans who have written to hype this song.

A technical note — To ensure your email open is counted toward our rewards program, confirm that all the images have loaded and your ad blocker is turned off.  Please wait one day for your new open total to be reflected. Add newsletter@inverse.com to your contact list to never miss an email.

You’ve opened 19 out of 19 emails this month and unlocked Inverse Platinum!

Congrats! This is your 4th consecutive open!

• Next Rewards Level: $100 Amazon Gift Card

Read Inverse Daily every day to advance your rank in our monthly giveaways. The more you read, the better the prizes.

Lifetime Stats

You rank in the 100th percentile of Inverse Daily subscribers with 3341 lifetime opens. That’s 4% up from last week.

Share Inverse Daily

Do you know someone who would enjoy reading Inverse Daily? Take a few minutes to share it with them.

Click to Share

Or copy & paste your personal referral link:

https://www.inverse.com/newsletter?referral_code=024cfe3d-65ed-4a7d-923d-6538f2414d1d&list=inverseDaily