Scientists have seen one of the mysterious “dark spots” on Neptune from Earth for the first ever time. Researchers spotted the feature using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, or VLT. Using that telescope, astronomers were able to examine a large dark spot – which was joined by a smaller, bright spot, they said, of a kind that has never seen before. Scientists still do not know why those spots form on Neptune’s blue atmosphere. But they hope that the new observations could help answer questions about their origin. “Since the first discovery of a dark spot, I’ve always wondered what these short-lived and elusive dark features are,” said Patrick Irwin, professor at the University of Oxford and lead investigator of the study. It has already helped rule out one possibility: that the dark spots are caused when the clouds on the planet clear. The observations instead suggest that the spot is formed when air particles make a layer below the main one go darker, caused by ice and haze mixing in the atmosphere. Understanding the spots has been difficult because they leave the planet’s surface as mysteriously as they arise. They have also been difficult for researchers to actually examine, given the difficulty of spotting them through telescopes. Previously, scientists were forced to send spacecraft to see the spots, and the first was observed in 1989, when Nasa’s Voyager 2 flew past. It disappeared a few years later. In recent years, scientists have been able to examine them with the Hubble Space Telescope, which has seen more spots on the atmosphere. When it did so, astronomers were able to point ground-based telescopes towards them, allowing for more detailed research. “This is an astounding increase in humanity’s ability to observe the cosmos,” said Michael Wong, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley and a co-author on the paper. “At first, we could only detect these spots by sending a spacecraft there, like Voyager. “Then we gained the ability to make them out remotely with Hubble. Finally, technology has advanced to enable this from the ground.” The new observations allowed scientists to examine the spot using the VLT’s Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, which let them split the light from Neptune and the spot into its component colours. That in turn means that astronomers can understand the height at which the spot sits, and how the atmosphere is composed. As well as helping examine the dark spots, scientists also saw a surprise result: another, entirely new kind of bright spot. “In the process we discovered a rare deep bright cloud type that had never been identified before, even from space,” said Wong. The work is described in a new paper, ‘Cloud structure of dark spots and storms in Neptune’s atmosphere’, published in Nature Astronomy. Read More Mysterious dark spot on Neptune detected from Earth for the first time We just received the first ever pictures taken near the Moon’s uncharted south pole Chandrayaan-3 mission rover exits Moon lander to explore lunar south pole Mysterious dark spot on Neptune detected from Earth for the first time We just received the first ever pictures taken near the Moon’s uncharted south pole Chandrayaan-3 mission rover exits Moon lander to explore lunar south pole

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The Trump campaign used stock footage of a man sitting in a basement, claiming that it was an American unable to afford a home while it was actually filmed in Ukraine 25 miles from the frontline. The dramatic footage shows a man working on his laptop as he shelters from the shelling of the Russian invasion in Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine last year, according to the New York Post. In the ad released on Wednesday, the Trump campaign slammed President Joe Biden for the effect inflation has had on Americans during his time in the White House. To make this argument, instead of using footage of Americans, the Trump campaign used footage from Ukraine, showing the man sitting in a basement as a voiceover claims that young Americans can’t buy homes because of high inflation. Another piece of stock footage used in the video shows a young couple seemingly walking away from a real estate agent. That clip was also filmed in Ukraine, in Lviv, in the western part of the country in 2021 before the war began in February of last year. The Trump campaign ad was entitled Mourning in America and criticised Mr Biden for his handling of the southern US border, the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well as trans issues. As the footage from Ukraine can be seen, the voiceover states: “Under Biden’s unprecedented inflation, the hope of home ownership gone. And young adults, forced to abandon seeking the American dream to live in their parents’ basement longer.” The man behind the footage showing the couple failing to purchase a home told the New York Post that he “can only say bad things about Trump”. The creator said he didn’t want to be identified to avoid affecting his relationship with his stock footage vendor. “But unfortunately, anyone can buy our or another video … I can’t control it,” he told the paper. “I wouldn’t want him to use [the] video in his ad. But rules are rules.” Yevhen Shkolenko owns the company that filmed the footage in the basement in Zaporizhzhya. He told the Post that the man in the footage is an actor but shows what Ukrainians have to deal with as air sirens ring out to warn of an incoming strike by the Russians. “This video was made 100 per cent in Ukraine during war in real sheltered basement in my city Zaporizhzhya, which is 40 km (25 miles) [from the] frontline,” Mr Shkolenko told the paper. “We were one of those who stayed in our city to help people and the army and we continued our work of filming and when we were doing this filming, we went down to the basement many times in order to hide from rocket fire.” The Trump campaign released the attack ad shortly before Donald Trump appeared on CNN for a town hall event that was widely criticised for giving a platform for the former president to spout a litany of lies. During the town hall event in front of a friendly audience, Mr Trump claimed that he would be able to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours after re-entering the Oval Office on 20 January 2025 simply by speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he refused to call a war criminal. Mr Trump also refused to say if he wanted Ukraine to be victorious, instead arguing that he wanted the fighting to cease, adding that calling someone a war criminal might be detrimental to a possible peace process. A former Trump official who worked on his re-election campaign in 2020 told the Post that “as president, Trump bragged about the billions of dollars worth of weapons and aid he sent to Zelensky in Ukraine. Now he’s paying for stock footage from Ukraine to depict the American Dream in his lame campaign ads? What a joke”. The Independent has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment. Read More The danger of America’s ageing politicians The two-word slur that tells us everything we need to know about Donald Trump Trump news – live: Trump defends CNN ratings as E Jean Carroll threatens to sue him again over ‘vile’ remarks The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

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