News Archive for March 2016

In an artist’s conception, heated galactic wind shown in the hazy portion of the picture emanates from the bright quasar at the edge of a black hole, scattering dust and gas. If allowed to cool, that dust and gas would begin to form stars. Image credit: Johns Hopkins University.

Ancient Quasars Slowed Star Formation 11 Billion Years Ago, Scientists Say

Mar 24, 2016 by News Staff

Researchers appear to have an explanation for a longstanding question in astrophysics: why did the pace of star formation in the Universe slow down 11...

Myloplus zorroi: female (upper image) and male. Image credit: Douglas Bastos / Andrade M.C. et al.

Myloplus zorroi: New Species of Pacu Discovered in Rio Madeira Basin

Mar 23, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Scientists led by Dr. Marcelo Andrade of the Universidade Federal do Para report that they have discovered a new species of omnivorous freshwater fish...

Researchers Find What Causes Jupiter’s X-ray Aurora

Mar 23, 2016 by Natali Anderson

According to a study led by University College London researcher William Dunn, the solar wind is causing intense X-ray bursts over Jupiter’s polar regions. Solar...

This electron micrograph shows particles of the Phoenix provirus resurrected from human DNA in 2006. Scale bar - 200 nm (Marie Dewannieux et al).

Nineteen New Pieces of Ancient Retroviral DNA Found in Human Genome

Mar 23, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Nineteen previously unidentified pieces of non-human DNA — left by retroviruses that first infected human ancestors hundreds of thousands of years...

This image shows the dwarf irregular galaxy Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte. Image credit: ESO / VST / Omegacam Local Group Survey.

Astronomers Snap Breathtaking Picture of Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte Galaxy

Mar 23, 2016 by News Staff

Using the OmegaCAM wide-field imager, a large camera mounted on ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope, astronomers have captured this vivid image of a small galaxy...

The bright spots near the center of Occator crater are shown in enhanced color in this view from NASA’s Dawn robotic spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / PSI / LPI.

New Images of Ceres Show Its Mysterious Bright Spots in Unprecedented Detail

Mar 22, 2016 by News Staff

Planetary researchers from NASA’s Dawn mission have released new images of the dwarf planet Ceres, including anticipated views of its intriguing ‘bright...

The Barbados bullfinch (Loxigilla barbadensis). Image credit: Postdlf / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Urban Birds are Smarter than Their Rural Counterparts, Say Ornithologists

Mar 22, 2016 by News Staff

Birds living in urban environments are smarter than their country counterparts, says a group of ornithologists at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. The...

This view of the Martian gravity map shows the Tharsis volcanoes and surrounding flexure: the white areas in the center are higher-gravity regions produced by the massive Tharsis volcanoes, and the surrounding blue areas are lower-gravity regions that may be cracks in the crust. Image credit: MIT / UMBC-CRESST / GSFC.

NASA Scientists Release Map of Mars’ Gravity

Mar 22, 2016 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Dr. Antonio Genova of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has released a detailed new map of Mars’ gravity. This view of...

This false color image shows Cassiopeia A, a remnant of a Type IIb supernova. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Catch Two Supernovae in Act of Exploding

Mar 22, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international group of astronomers, led by Prof. Peter Garnavich from the University of Notre Dame, has caught two Type II supernovae at the moment...

HD 20782b. Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

HD 20782b: Astronomers Discover Exoplanet with Highly Eccentric Orbit

Mar 21, 2016 by News Staff

HD 20782b’s orbit closely resembles that of a comet, making it the most eccentric planet ever known. This artist’s rendering shows HD 20782b, the most...

Geckos can stick to walls and ceilings because of Van der Waals forces. Image credit: Skitterphoto.

Physical Chemists Demonstrate Wave-Like Nature of Van der Waals Forces

Mar 21, 2016 by News Staff

According to an international team of physical chemists, led by University of Luxembourg researcher Prof. Alexandre Tkatchenko, intermolecular attractions...

This image of the galaxy cluster MACS J0416 combines data from three telescopes - Hubble (showing the galaxies and stars), Chandra (diffuse emission in blue), and the Jansky Very Large Array (diffuse emission in pink). MACS J0416 acts as a powerful natural lens by bending and magnifying the light of far-more-distant objects behind it. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CXC / NRAO / AUI / NSF / STScI / G. Ogrean, Stanford University / J. Lotz, STScI / HFF Team.

Astronomers Snap Image of Huge Cluster of Galaxies

Mar 21, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers have taken a stunning photo of a very massive cluster of galaxies, MACS J0416.1-2403. This image of the galaxy cluster MACS J0416 combines...

A pair of Boreonykus certekorum. Image credit: University of New England.

Boreonykus certekorum: Paleontologists Discover New Dinosaur Species in Canada

Mar 19, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

A new species of dromaeosaurid (raptor) dinosaur — Boreonykus certekorum — that thrived in the cold has been discovered in a remote part of...

This galaxy, named SDSS J094700.08+254045.7, is one of the biggest and brightest super spirals; its starry disk and spiral arms stretch about 320,000 light-years across, or more than three times the breadth of our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: SDSS.

Astronomers Discover Monstrous ‘Super Spirals’

Mar 18, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by Dr. Patrick Ogle from the California Institute of Technology has discovered a new type of galaxy called a super spiral. Images...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

Denisovan DNA Found in Modern-Day Melanesians

Mar 18, 2016 by News Staff

Residents of the Pacific islands of Melanesia share fragments of genetic code with two early human species: Denisovans, whose remains were found in Siberia,...

This high-resolution image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons on July 14. Pluto’s surface sports a remarkable range of subtle colors, enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have their own distinct colors, telling a complex geological and climatological story that scientists have only just begun to decode. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Science Papers Provide New Data from Pluto System Flyby

Mar 18, 2016 by News Staff

Researchers on the New Horizons team have released a set of five scientific papers describing results from the July 2015 flyby of the Pluto system. This...

This image shows ‘11:00 a.m.’ in a natural speech recording. Image credit: Simeon Floyd.

Study Uncovers Unusual Method of Communicating Human Concept of Time

Mar 17, 2016 by News Staff

Speakers of the Nheengatú language talk about time of day by pointing at where the Sun would be in the sky at that particular time, according to a study...

Artist’s impression of the giant molecular clouds surrounding the Milky Way’s center, bombarded by very high energy protons accelerated in the vicinity of Sagittarius A*. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick / H.E.S.S. Collaboration.

PeVatron: Source of Very-High-Energy Cosmic Rays Discovered at Milky Way’s Center

Mar 17, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System) Observatory, a system of four imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes in Namibia, astronomers have...

In this image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the brilliance of R136, a young star cluster in 30 Doradus. The image is composed of observations from both Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Paul Crowther, University of Sheffield.

Hubble Discovers Nine Extremely Massive Stars in R136

Mar 17, 2016 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have identified nine extremely massive stars in the young star cluster R136. In this image, the...

Paleontologists Solve Mystery of ‘Tully Monster’

Mar 17, 2016 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from the United States has determined that Tullimonstrum gregarium (popularly known as the Tully monster) — a large soft-bodied...

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