News Archive for March 2017

Reconstruction of Umaltolepis mongoliensis showing four seed-bearing structures and attached Pseudotorellia resinosa leaves. Note that three seed-bearing organs have split at the level of the flange into four lobes releasing the seeds. The seeds (right) were probably membranous and wind-dispersed. The cupule has been shed from one of the seed-bearing structures leaving the stalk, flange and column attached to the short shoot. Most, probably all, of the small dark spots on leaves are the remains of fungal stromata. Image credit: Fabiany Herrera et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1621409114.

Fossil from Mongolia is Ancient Relative of Today’s Ginkgo biloba

Mar 24, 2017 by News Staff

Exceptionally well-preserved specimens unearthed in Early Cretaceous sediments of Mongolia belong to an ancient, dinosaur-era relative of the living plant...

The elliptical galaxy 3C186, located about 8 billion years from Earth, is most likely the result of a merger of two galaxies. This is supported by arc-shaped tidal tails, usually produced by a gravitational tug between two colliding galaxies, identified by M. Chiaberge et al. The merger of the galaxies also led to a merger of the two supermassive black holes in their centers, and the resultant black hole was then kicked out of its parent galaxy by the gravitational waves created by the merger. The bright, star-like looking quasar can be seen in the center of the image. Its former host galaxy is the faint, extended object behind it. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Chiaberge, STScI.

Supermassive Black Hole Found 35,000 Light-Years from Home

Mar 24, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have uncovered a monster black hole that has been propelled out of the center of a distant galaxy, called 3C 186, by what could be the power...

This artist’s impression displays TRAPPIST-1 and its planets reflected in a surface. Image credit: NASA / R. Hurt / T. Pyle.

TRAPPIST-1 System Ideal for Planet-Hopping Life?

Mar 24, 2017 by James Romero

Exoplanet hunters struck gold earlier this year with the discovery of seven rocky bodies orbiting around dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, a find that both raised...

The Ecuadorian rainfrog (Pristimantis ecuadorensis), adult female. Image credit: J.M. Guayasamin et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172615.

New Frog Species Discovered: Ecuadorian Rainfrog

Mar 23, 2017 by News Staff

A species of frog that is completely new to science has been discovered in the cloud forests of Ecuador. The Ecuadorian rainfrog (Pristimantis ecuadorensis),...

Entanglement across a spherical boundary: a container of superfluid helium-4 is bipartitioned into a sphere of helium atoms A (green) and its complement A- (blue). The entanglement between A and A- is dominated by an area law, scaling with area of the bounding surface. Image credit: C.M. Herdman et al, doi: 10.1038/nphys4075.

Sphere of Superfluid Helium Behaves Like Black Hole, Physicists Say

Mar 23, 2017 by News Staff

A team of physicists from the Universities of Vermont and Waterloo has discovered that a sphere of cold helium atoms follows a bizarre law of physics —...

Cascolus ravitis. Image credit: David J. Siveter et al.

Cascolus ravitis: Fossil Crustacean Species Named in Honor of David Attenborough

Mar 23, 2017 by News Staff

A fossil crustacean, discovered by a University of Leicester-led team of paleontologists, has been named Cascolus ravitis in honor of the naturalist and...

An experiment proposed by Dr. Donald Chang aims at resolving divergence between special relativity and standard model of cosmology. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / J. Blakeslee, NRC Herzberg, DAO / H. Ford, JHU.

Is There a Resting Frame in Universe?

Mar 23, 2017 by News Staff

Physics is sometimes closer to philosophy when it comes to understanding the Universe. Dr. Donald Chang, a physicist at the Hong Kong University of Science...

Showcase of the different types of changes identified in high-resolution images of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko during more than two years of monitoring by ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft. The approximate locations of each feature are marked on the central context images. Dates of when the ‘before’ and ‘after’ images were taken are also indicated. Note that the orientation and resolution between image pairs may vary, therefore in each image set arrows point to the location of the changes, for guidance. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NAVCAM / MPS for OSIRIS Team / MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Spectacular Changes Spotted on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Mar 22, 2017 by News Staff

A study published this week in the journal Science summarizes the types of surface changes — including the growing fractures, collapsing cliffs,...

Torvosaurus gurneyi. Image credit: © Sergey Krasovskiy.

Paleontologists Redraw Dinosaur Family Tree

Mar 22, 2017 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from the University of Cambridge and the Natural History Museum, London, UK, has proposed radical changes to the dinosaur family...

A broad plume of dust is imaged by Rosetta’s navigation camera on July 10, 2015, which can be traced back to an area on the comet that encompasses the Seth region; the Aswan cliff is included within the marked rectangle. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NavCam / MPS / MPS for OSIRIS Team / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA / CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.

Collapsing Cliff Reveals Pristine Interior of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Mar 22, 2017 by News Staff

In a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, researchers make the first definitive link between an outburst of dust and gas from the nucleus of...

Specific calls of playing kea trigger playful emotions in other, non-playing birds, just as laughter does for us. Image credit: Raoul Schwing, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna.

‘Laughter’ is Catching in New Zealand’s Kea Parrots

Mar 22, 2017 by News Staff

The kea (Nestor notabilis) — a large species of parrot endemic to the Southern Alps of New Zealand — has become the first non-mammal to show...

A member of the Ngogo community of chimpanzees in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. Image credit: Brian Wood, Yale University.

Study: Uganda’s Ngogo Chimpanzees Have Surprisingly Long Life Expectancies

Mar 21, 2017 by News Staff

A 20-year demographic study of a relatively undisturbed and exceptionally large community of eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Ngogo,...

This digital-image mosaic of Mars’ Tharsis plateau shows the extinct volcano Arsia Mons. It was assembled from images that NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter took during its 1976-1980 working life at Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL / USGS.

Martian Shield Volcano Arsia Mons Was Last Active 50 Million Years Ago, Research Reveals

Mar 21, 2017 by News Staff

According to new research reported in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, the 10-mile- (16 km) high Martian shield volcano called Arsia Mons...

Every discovered planet in the Solar System under 10,000 km in diameter, to scale. The geophysical definition of planet includes 110 known planets. Image credit: Emily Lakdawalla, Planetary Society / K.D. Runyon et al.

Planet Count May Reach 110

Mar 21, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

Kirby Runyon, a PhD candidate in planetary geology at the Johns Hopkins University, and co-authors are proposing to rewrite the textbooks to say that the...

Map of the United States (including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico), showing the mean annual temperature and the magnitude of the β coefficients from the obesity-adjusted meta-regression analysis, per state or territory over the period 1996–2009. The β coefficient from meta-regression analysis, representing the difference in diabetes incidence rate per 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature; red circles indicate a positive β coefficient, while blue circles indicate a negative β coefficient. Adjusted for the effect of time passage. Diabetes incidence rate is the age-adjusted diabetes incidence rate per 1,000. Image credit: Lisanne L. Blauw et al, doi: 10.1136/bmjdrc-2016-000317.

Rising Global Temperatures Could Be Contributing to Worldwide Diabetes Epidemic

Mar 21, 2017 by News Staff

Growing global temperatures may be playing a part in the rising numbers of people developing type 2 diabetes, suggests new research from the Leiden University...

Tsimane village from the water. Image credit: Hillard Kaplan et al.

Bolivian Tsimane People Have World’s Healthiest Arteries, Study Says

Mar 20, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in The Lancet, the Tsimane (pronounced chee-MAH-nay) — an indigenous people of lowland Bolivia — have the...

This composite image of the Kleinmann-Low Nebula is composed of several pointings of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in optical and near-infrared light. The revealed stars are shown with a bright red color in the image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Spots Fast-Moving Runaway Star in Kleinmann-Low Nebula

Mar 20, 2017 by News Staff

In the search for free-floating exoplanets and brown dwarfs, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have created a mosaic image of the Kleinmann-Low...

The Tatama tapaculo (Scytalopus alvarezlopezi) upon capture at Cerro Montezuma, Risaralda department, Colombia, April 2, 2015. Image credit: Julian Heavyside, doi: 10.1642/AUK-16-205.1.

Tatama Tapaculo: New Bird Species Discovered in Colombia

Mar 20, 2017 by Sergio Prostak

A new species of tapaculo — called the Tatama tapaculo (Scytalopus alvarezlopezi) — has been discovered in the cloud forests of Colombia’s...

This Hubble image captures an ongoing cosmic collision between two galaxies: NGC 3447A and NGC 3447B. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Views Two Galaxies Merging: NGC 3447

Mar 20, 2017 by News Staff

This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows two galaxies (NGC 3447A and NGC 3447B) merging into one approximately 60 million light-years...

This mosaic image taken by the Cassini spacecraft is one of the highest resolution views ever obtained of Mimas. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Icy Moon Mimas Amazes in Final Flyby Photo

Mar 18, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

This mosaic of Mimas, the smallest and innermost of Saturn’s main moons, was constructed from images taken by the narrow-angle camera onboard NASA’s...

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