News Archive for November 2015

This wine press was found at the site, near Netivot. Image credit: Assaf Peretz / Israel Antiquities Authority.

1,500-Year-Old Settlement Unearthed in Southern Israel

Nov 23, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

Excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) at a site near the town of Netivot, southern Israel have revealed a Byzantine-era settlement dating...

A day on the dwarf planet Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Images Show Full Day on Pluto, Charon

Nov 23, 2015 by News Staff

On approach to the Pluto system in July 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft captured images of the dwarf planet and its biggest moon, Charon, rotating...

Close-up image of the shell of the West Indian fuzzy chiton (Acanthopleura granulata) shows the two kinds of sensory organs that cover the shell surface: the eyes are the dark bumps with shiny centers; the exact function of other sensory organs called aesthetes - small bumps with black centers - is not yet known. Image credit: Ling Li et al.

Chitons See with Ceramic Eyes, New Research Shows

Nov 23, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

Marine biologists have long known that armored mollusks called chitons have hundreds of small eyes dotting the surface of their hard turtlelike shells....

This Hubble image shows the elliptical galaxy LEDA 3087775. In this galaxy, some ribbons of dust notably obscure parts of the conglomerated galaxy’s central, bluish region; those dust lanes could be remnants of the spiral arms of the recently departed galaxies. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Zooms in on Distant Elliptical Galaxy

Nov 23, 2015 by Natali Anderson

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is likely the best of an extremely distant galaxy known as LEDA 3087775. This Hubble image shows the...

Male specimen of Iandumoema smeagol foraging in its natural habitat. Image credit: Ricardo Pinto-da-Rocha et al.

Iandumoema smeagol: New Eyeless Harvestman Species Found in Brazil

Nov 20, 2015 by Sergio Prostak

A team of Brazilian arachnologists has described a new species of cave-dwelling harvestman in the genus Iandumoema, bringing the total number of species...

Torres del Paine, southern Andes, Chile. Image credit: Miguel Vieira.

New Research Suggests Andes Mountains Older Than Previously Thought

Nov 19, 2015 by News Staff

According to new research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the Andes have been a mountain chain for much longer than previously thought. Torres...

Paleontologists Unearth Tropical Fossil Forests in Norway

Nov 19, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A team of UK paleontologists has unearthed three 380-million-year-old fossil forests in Svalbard, an archipelago administered by Norway and located far...

LkCa 15b: Astronomers Capture Image of Exoplanet Forming around Young Star

Nov 19, 2015 by Sergio Prostak

A team of astronomers has captured a photo of an extrasolar planet in the making. Left: composite image of the young planetary system LkCa 15. Right: zoomed...

This image, taken with Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on September 8, shows Dione (near) and Enceladus (far). Although these moons are composed of nearly the same materials, Enceladus has a considerably higher reflectivity than Dione. This view looks toward the leading hemisphere of Enceladus. North on Enceladus is up and rotated 1 degree to the right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Spies Two of Saturn’s Moons: Dione and Enceladus

Nov 19, 2015 by Natali Anderson

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has snapped a beautiful photo of two Saturnian moons, Dione and Enceladus. This image, taken with Cassini’s narrow-angle...

Part of the 1,700-year-old mosaic floor unearthed in Israel. Image credit: Assaf Peretz / Israel Antiquities Authority.

1,700-Year-Old Magnificent Mosaic Unearthed in Israel

Nov 18, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

A beautiful Roman-era mosaic has been uncovered in the Neve Yerek neighborhood of Lod, southeast of Tel Aviv, by archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities...

The VISTA telescope has discovered a horde of previously hidden giant galaxies that existed when the Universe was in its infancy. By discovering and studying more of these galaxies than ever before, astronomers have for the first time found out exactly when such galaxies first appeared. A few of the newly discovered early galaxies are shown in this image. Image credit: ESO / UltraVISTA Team / TERAPIX / CNRS / INSU / CASU.

VISTA Telescope Discovers Massive Galaxies in Early Universe

Nov 18, 2015 by Natali Anderson

Using the VISTA Survey Telescope at ESO’s La Silla Paranal Observatory, astronomers have discovered almost 600 new massive galaxies in the distant Universe. The...

This artistic rendering depicts an Earth-like exoplanet orbiting an evolved star that has formed a stunning planetary nebula; earlier in its life, this planet may have been like one of the eight newly discovered worlds orbiting in the habitable zones of their stars. Image credit: David A. Aguilar / CfA.

Kepler-438b: Red Dwarf May Have Stripped Away Atmosphere of Earth-Like Exoplanet

Nov 18, 2015 by Sergio Prostak

The atmosphere of Kepler-438b is thought to have been stripped away as a result of radiation emitted from the planet’s violent parent star, says a team...

Fresh spores of the myxozoan species Kudoa iwatai; each spore is 10 micrometers in width. Image credit: A. Diamant.

Myxozoans: Widespread Parasites Are Actually ‘Micro Jellyfish’

Nov 17, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genetic study of myxozoans, a large group of parasites that infect invertebrate and aquatic vertebrate hosts, confirms that these weird microorganisms...

U.S. scientists have created UV light-driven, single-molecule submersibles. Image credit: Loic Samuel / Rice University.

Researchers Create Light-Driven Submersible Nanomachines

Nov 17, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A team of researchers from North Carolina State University and Rice University has created UV light-driven, unimolecular ‘submarines’ that contain...

The different volumes of water stored in the global water cycle. Global volumes of young (less then 100 years old), modern (less then 50 years old) and total groundwater to 2 km depth compared with other fresh water volumes stored in the atmosphere, in surface waters (that is, wetlands, rivers and lakes), within plants or in soils. Image credit: Tom Gleeson et al.

Scientists Produce First Data-Driven Estimate of Earth’s Supply of Groundwater

Nov 17, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

According to a new study in the journal Nature Geoscience, the total groundwater volume in the upper 2 km of the Earth’s landmass is approximately...

Hunter-gatherers. Image credit: T.P.S. Dave.

Scientists Discover New Strand of European Hunter-Gatherer Ancestry

Nov 17, 2015 by News Staff

An international group of researchers has sequenced the genomes of Late Upper Paleolithic (13,300 years old) and Mesolithic (9,700 years old) males from...

Messier 87 is the dominant galaxy at the center of the neighboring Virgo cluster of galaxies. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team.

Astronomers Detect Stellar Pulsations in Messier 87

Nov 16, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A team of astronomers has measured the ‘heartbeats’ of stars within Messier 87, a giant elliptical galaxy located some 53 million light-years from...

Our Solar System is located at the center of the circle on this artist’s impression of the Milky Way Galaxy. The insert shows one view from the 3D visualization tool developed by the astronomers. Image credit: ESA / H. Bouy, CSIC-INTA / J. Alves, University of Vienna.

ESA’s Hipparcos Satellite Sheds New Light on Solar Neighborhood

Nov 16, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using data from ESA’s Hipparcos space astrometry mission have produced a 3D visualization of all of O and B type stars within 1,630 light...

This image shows that high levels of active PCSK9 gene (green color) prevent LDL cholesterol (red color) from binding to the surface of liver cells. Image credit: Rockefeller University.

Scientists Develop LDL Cholesterol-Lowering Vaccine

Nov 16, 2015 by Sergio Prostak

A new virus-like particle-based vaccine leads to dramatic reductions in ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol in mice and macaques, says a team of scientists led by...

This dramatic image shows the Hubble’s view of a dynamically young lenticular galaxy known as NGC 3610, which lies 72 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

NGC 3610: Hubble Team Releases Beautiful Image of Lenticular Galaxy

Nov 16, 2015 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of a galaxy known as NGC 3610. This dramatic image shows the...

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