News Archive for July 2015

This close-up image was taken about 1.5 hours before New Horizons closest approach to Pluto, when the craft was 47,800 miles (77,000 km) from the dwarf planet’s surface. The image easily resolves structures smaller than a mile across. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New, Close-Up Image of Pluto Reveals Youthful Mountains

Jul 16, 2015 by News Staff

The new image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows a range of youthful mountains rising as high as 11,000 feet (3.5 km) above the dwarf planet’s...

Streptococcus pyogenes under the electron microscope (false color). Image credit: Vincent Fischetti, Rockefeller University / CDC.

Scientists Discover New Dangerous Subtype of Streptococcus pyogenes

Jul 15, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by Imperial College London has discovered a new subtype of emm89 Streptococcus pyogenes that has contributed to a rise in disease...

The Korean melon (Cucumis melo L. var. makuwa). Image credit: D. Hutchman / CC BY 2.0.

New Study Reveals Genomic Architecture of Melon Genome

Jul 15, 2015 by News Staff

A team of genetic researchers from Italy and Spain has completed the first comprehensive analysis of the genomes of seven melon varieties. The Korean melon...

Igneous clast named Harrison embedded in a conglomerate rock in Gale crater shows elongated light-toned feldspar crystals. The mosaic merges an image from Curiosity’s Mastcam with higher-resolution images from ChemCam’s Remote Micro-Imager. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / LANL / IRAP / U. Nantes / IAS / MSSS.

Curiosity Finds Evidence for Continental Crust on Early Mars

Jul 15, 2015 by News Staff

According to a team headed by Dr Violaine Sautter from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France, Martian crustal components bear a strong...

An artist’s rendering shows an exoplanet called HIP 11915b around the Sun-like star HIP 11915. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

HIP 11915b: Jupiter Twin Found Orbiting Sun-Like Star

Jul 15, 2015 by News Staff

Using the HARPS planet-hunting instrument on the 3.6-m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, Chile, astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-mass exoplanet...

This July 13, 2015, image of Pluto is presented in false colors to make differences in surface material and features easy to see. It was obtained by New Horizons’ Ralph instrument, using three filters to obtain color information, which is exaggerated in the image. The image reveals that the bright heart-shaped region of Pluto includes areas that differ in color characteristics. The western lobe, shaped like an ice-cream cone, appears peach color in this image. A mottled area on the right (east) appears bluish. Even within Pluto’s northern polar cap, in the upper part of the image, various shades of yellow-orange indicate subtle compositional differences. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Sends Signal Home

Jul 15, 2015 by News Staff

New Horizons called home around 9 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. PDT, 1 a.m. GMT Wednesday) Tuesday to tell the world it had successfully completed the historic flyby...

Collisions at 13 TeV send particle tracks through the LHCb detector. Image credit: LHCb.

CERN Physicists Confirm Existence of Pentaquark Particles

Jul 14, 2015 by News Staff

Physicists from CERN’s LHCb experiment announced today the observation of a pentaquark, a hadron consisting of five quarks. Illustration of the possible...

Pluto nearly fills the frame in this image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, taken on July 13, 2015, when the spacecraft was 476,000 miles (768,000 km) from the dwarf planet’s surface. This is the last and most detailed image sent to Earth before the spacecraft’s closest approach to Pluto on July 14. The color image has been combined with lower-resolution color information from the Ralph instrument that was acquired earlier on July 13. This view is dominated by the large, bright feature informally named the ‘heart,’ which measures around 1,000 miles (1,600 km) across. The heart’s diameter is about the same distance as from Denver to Chicago, in America’s heartland. The heart borders darker equatorial terrains, and the mottled terrain to its east (right) are complex. However, even at this resolution, much of the heart’s interior appears remarkably featureless-possibly a sign of ongoing geologic processes. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Arrives at Pluto

Jul 14, 2015 by News Staff

After a journey of nine and a half years through the Solar System, New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto today, about 7,750 miles (12,470 km)...

A 3D relief map of the volcanic cluster on the sea floor. The sea floor is represented by a dark blue color and there are four calderas rising out of the sea floor in shades of green, yellow, orange and red. Image credit: University of New South Wales.

Ancient Underwater Volcanoes Discovered off Australia

Jul 14, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers aboard an ocean-going research vessel called RV Investigator has discovered a cluster of 50-million-year-old volcanoes off the coast...

Until now, it was believed that chromosomes only played a passive role in animal cell division. Image credit: NIH.

Biologists Discover New Mechanism of Cell Division

Jul 14, 2015 by News Staff

Chromosomes play an active role in animal cell division, reports a study published in the journal Nature. Until now, it was believed that chromosomes only...

This image of Pluto from New Horizons was received on July 8, 2015, and has been combined with color information from the spacecraft’s Ralph instrument. The image was taken on July 7, when New Horizons was 5 million miles (8 million km) from the dwarf planet. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Watch Live on NASA TV: New Horizons Pluto Flyby

Jul 14, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons will complete a close flyby of Pluto today at 7:49 a.m. EST (4:49 a.m. PST, 11:49 a.m. GMT, 1:49 p.m. CET, 5:19 p.m. IST, 9:49 p.m....

Plutonium-238 sphere under its own light. With a half-life of 89 years, plutonium-238 is being used in space applications requiring a power source with a long service life. Plutonium-238 has a relatively high heat production rate which makes it useful as a power source. Image credit: DoE.

Plutonium’s Magnetism Confirmed in New Study

Jul 13, 2015 by News Staff

Physicists at the DoE’s Los Alamos and Oak Ridge national laboratories have made the first direct measurements of a unique characteristic of plutonium’s...

This new Hubble image shows a massive open star cluster known as the Quintuplet Cluster in infrared light. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.

Hubble Sees Quintuplet Cluster in Infrared Light

Jul 13, 2015 by News Staff

The Wide Field Camera 3 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the Quintuplet Cluster, a very dense cluster of young stars...

This illustration shows a black hole that grew faster than its host galaxy. Image credit: Michael S. Helfenbein / Yale University.

Astronomers Discover Monstrous Black Hole in Early Universe

Jul 13, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational team of astronomers has spotted an oversized black hole in the center of a typical star-forming galaxy, called CID-947. This illustration...

Chasms, craters, and a dark north polar region are revealed in this image of Pluto’s largest moon Charon taken by New Horizons on July 11, 2015. The annotated version includes a diagram showing Charon’s north pole, equator, and central meridian, with the features highlighted. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Latest Image of Pluto’s Moon Charon from New Horizons

Jul 13, 2015 by News Staff

A new image of the largest of Pluto’s five known moons shows various craters and chasms (canyons). Chasms, craters, and a dark north polar region are...

This image of Pluto reveals intriguing geologic details that are of keen interest to New Horizons team members. This image, taken early the morning of July 11, 2015, shows newly-resolved linear features above the equatorial region that intersect, suggestive of polygonal shapes. This image was captured when the spacecraft was 2.5 million miles (4 million km) from Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Ready for Historic Pluto Flyby

Jul 13, 2015 by News Staff

After a journey of nine and a half years and three billion miles, NASA’s New Horizons is ready for a close look at the dwarf planet Pluto and its five...

This Hubble image shows the galaxy ESO 381-12. The strikingly uneven structure and the clusters of stars that orbit around the galaxy suggest that ESO 381-12 may have been part of a dramatic collision sometime in its relatively recent past. Image credit: NASA / ESA / P. Goudfrooij, STScI.

Hubble Zooms in on Ghostly Shells of Lenticular Galaxy

Jul 10, 2015 by News Staff

The Advanced Camera for Surveys on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this beautiful image of the galaxy ESO 381-12. This Hubble image shows...

A drainage pipe found at the Legio VI Ferrata’s camp site. Image credit: Jezreel Valley Regional Project.

Roman Legionary Camp Uncovered in Israel

Jul 10, 2015 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Jezreel Valley Regional Project say they have unearthed the remains of a 1,900-year-old camp of Legio VI Ferrata (Sixth Ironclad...

To maintain mutualism, carnivorous pitcher plants specifically appeal to their animal partners’ perception. Image credit: Michael G. Schöner et al / C.C. Lee / M.D. Tuttle.

Pitcher Plants Attract Bats with Echo-Reflecting Structures, Says New Study

Jul 10, 2015 by News Staff

The study, published in the journal Current Biology, shows that carnivorous plants have reflective structures that are acoustically attractive for mutualistic...

New Horizons was about 3.7 million miles (6 million km) from Charon when it snapped this image on July 8, 2015. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Snaps New Image of Pluto’s Moon Charon

Jul 10, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons space probe, which will do a close flyby of the Pluto system on July 14, has sent back a new image of Charon, the largest of Pluto’s...

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