Martin Odegaard’s penalty proved enough to give 10-man Arsenal a gritty 1-0 victory at Crystal Palace to maintain their winning start to the Premier League season. Only Manchester City and Brighton had won their opening two games but the Gunners joined them on six points after a narrow success at Selhurst Park. In a close-fought encounter, captain Odegaard stepped up to steer home a second-half spot-kick, with the visitors then hanging on for the final quarter of the game after Takehiro Tomiyasu was sent off. The defender was the only change to Mikel Arteta’s starting XI from their opening-day win against Nottingham Forest as he replaced the injured Jurrien Timber at left-back – but he will now be banned for Saturday’s visit of Fulham after a controversial dismissal here. Palace – unchanged from their own victory at Sheffield United a week ago – were fast out of the blocks, Aaron Ramsdale making a low stop to keep out an Eberechi Eze drive as the hosts built up a head of steam. Cheick Doucoure then flashed a speculative effort wide as Arsenal struggled to get a foothold on proceedings. The visitors gradually started to see more of the ball and Eddie Nketiah was unfortunate to see his shot come back off a post after beating Sam Johnstone in the Palace goal. With the game opening up, both sides had good chances, with Jordan Ayew almost capitalising on a poor William Saliba touch, only for the France defender to makes amends with a fine, last-ditch tackle. Arsenal went down the other end and Nketiah wasted a gilt-edged opportunity as he tried – and failed – to execute a deft lob over Johnstone from close range. Odegaard was next to come close to breaking the deadlock for Arteta’s side, his curled strike from outside the box tipped over by Johnstone. Arsenal would eventually hit the front soon after the restart, Gabriel Martinelli’s quick free-kick playing in Nketiah, who went to ground under pressure from the sliding Johnstone. Referee David Coote pointed to the spot and the decision survived a VAR check for a foul by Thomas Partey in the build-up, with Odegaard making no mistake as he sent Johnstone the wrong way from 12 yards. Coote was to make another couple of controversial calls shortly after, showing a yellow card to Tomiyasu for time-wasting at a throw-in before dismissing the Japan full-back seven minutes later for a soft foul on Ayew. Arteta reacted by introducing Gabriel Magalhaes in place of Martinelli, while Jorginho replaced Nketiah as Arsenal shut up shop in the closing stages. Jakub Kiwior and fit-again Oleksandr Zinchenko added even more steel to the defensive unit as Odegaard and Bukayo Saka made way. It proved just enough to keep Palace at bay, the Arsenal rearguard high-fiving and celebrating every challenge and clearance as they hung on to secure the win. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s world title ‘just one step on comeback journey’ England stars reflect on World Cup final defeat – Monday’s sporting social Corey Domachowski: World Cup call-up was bittersweet moment before nan’s funeral

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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