News Archive for July 2017

This is an artist's impression of the SN 1987A remnant. The image is based on real data and reveals the cold, inner regions of the remnant, in red, where tremendous amounts of dust were detected and imaged by ALMA. This inner region is contrasted with the outer shell, lacy white and blue circles, where the blast wave from the supernova is colliding with the envelope of gas ejected from the star prior to its powerful detonation. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Alexandra Angelich, NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Supernova Remnant SN 1987A Reveals Clues to How Stars are Born

Jul 11, 2017 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), two teams of astronomers have discovered a rich inventory of molecules at the center of...

Currais et al find benefits of fisetin in a mouse model of premature aging, Alzheimer’s disease. Image credit: Carl Stridsberg.

Natural Chemical Found in Strawberries May Protect against Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases

Jul 11, 2017 by News Staff

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have found further evidence that fisetin, a natural flavonoid found in strawberries and other...

Amaya et al created 78% cubic ice crystals. Image credit: Ohio State University.

Physical Chemists Create 78% Cubic Ice Crystals

Jul 10, 2017 by News Staff

Physical chemists from Ohio State University and elsewhere have set a new record for creating ice crystals that have a near-perfect cubic arrangement of...

Triticum turgidum. Image credit: Stan Shebs / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Researchers Reconstruct Genome of Wild Wheat

Jul 10, 2017 by News Staff

An international research team led by Tel Aviv University scientist Dr. Assaf Distelfeld has reconstructed the genome of the wild wheat Triticum turgidum,...

The study suggests that night work is associated with reduced repair of 8-OH-dG lesions in DNA and that the effect is likely driven by melatonin suppression occurring during night work relative to night sleep. Image credit: Skeeze.

Night Shift Work May Hinder Human Body’s Ability to Repair Oxidative DNA Damage

Jul 10, 2017 by News Staff

According to new research from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, night shifts may hinder the body’s ability to repair DNA damage caused by...

This image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 2500, which lies in the northern constellation of Lynx, about 32 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Snaps Beautiful Barred Spiral Galaxy Image

Jul 10, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the nearby galaxy NGC 2500, also known as LEDA 22525 and IRAS 07581+5052. This image...

The photo of the super-Jupiter HIP 65426b. Image credit: ESO / SPHERE Consortium / G. Chauvin et al.

Astronomers Directly Image Super-Jupiter around HIP 65426

Jul 9, 2017 by Sergio Prostak

Using an adaptive optics system and coronagraphic facility at ESO’s Very Large Telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered and directly...

This artist’s illustration portrays what the gravitationally lensed galaxy SGAS 1110 might look like up close. A sea of young, blue stars is streaked with dark dust lanes and studded with bright pink patches that mark sites of star formation. SGAS 1110 is one of more than 70 studied as part of the Sloan Giant Arcs Survey, an imaging survey that searched 240 galaxy clusters to find new examples of gravitational lensing. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Z. Levay, STScI.

Hubble Finds Patches of Newborn Stars in Galaxy 11 Billion Light-Years from Earth

Jul 7, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a detailed image of an extremely distant, gravitationally lensed galaxy they believe...

This image shows the Trelleborg-type Viking fortress of Fyrkat. Image credit: Heritage Agency of Denmark.

Borgring Fortress Discovery: Dendrochronological Dating Results

Jul 7, 2017 by News Staff

In September 2014, archaeologists from Aarhus University and the Museum of South East Denmark announced the discovery of a Viking ring fortress at Borgring,...

This image shows the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77, which lies in the constellation Cetus, about 62 million light-years away. Image credit: ESO.

Very Large Telescope Takes Close Look at Messier 77

Jul 7, 2017 by News Staff

ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has delivered an unrivalled snapshot of the spiral galaxy Messier 77. This image shows the barred spiral galaxy Messier...

The doubly charmed baryon Ξcc++ contains two charm quarks and one up quark. Image credit: Daniel Dominguez, CERN.

CERN Physicists Confirm Existence of Doubly Charmed Baryons

Jul 6, 2017 by News Staff

The LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty) collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland has reported the observation of a doubly charmed...

Sketch of the quantum Maxwell demon experiment: (A) after preparation (step 1) in a thermal or quantum state by a pulse at frequency fs, the system S (superconducting qubit) state is recorded (step 2) into the demon’s quantum memory D (microwave cavity); a pulse incoming toward port a at fD populates the cavity mode with a state ραin only if the qubit is in the ground state |g>s; this information is used to extract work W (step 3) which charges a battery B (a microwave pulse at frequency fs on port b) with one extra photon; importantly, the system emits this photon only when the demon’s cavity is empty; the work is determined by amplifying and measuring the average output power at fs on bout; the memory reset (step 4) is performed by cavity relaxation. (B) when the system starts in a quantum superposition of |g>s and |e>s, the demon and system are entangled after step 2. Image credit: Cottet et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1704827114.

Physicists See Maxwell’s Demon at Work

Jul 6, 2017 by News Staff

New research led by Paris Diderot University offers a view into the inner workings of the ‘mind’ of Maxwell’s demon, a famous thought experiment...

Nataliyamalikite (TlI) grains on the mineral mascagnite (NH4)2SO4. Image credit: Okrugin et al, doi: 10.2138/am-2017-6057.

New Mineral Discovered: Nataliyamalikite

Jul 6, 2017 by Natali Anderson

An international team of geologists led by Monash University Professor Joël Brugger has discovered a new thallium mineral — nataliyamalikite. Nataliyamalikite...

An artist’s rendering of the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Image credit: Benjamin de Bivort, debivort.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Hydrocarbon Seas on Saturn’s Moon Titan are Very Calm

Jul 6, 2017 by News Staff

New research has found that most waves on Titan’s seas of liquid hydrocarbons are diminutive, reaching only about 1 cm (0.4 inches) high and 20 cm (8...

False-color near-infrared image of the core of the young massive cluster RCW 38 taken with the adaptive-optics camera NACO on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. RCW 38 lies at a distance of about 5,500 light years from the Sun. The field of view of the central image is approximately 1 arc minute, or 1.5 light-years across. The insets, each spanning about 0.07 light-years on a side, show a subset of the faintest and least massive cluster candidate brown dwarfs (indicated by arrows) of RCW 38 discovered in this new image. Image credit: Muzic et al.

Milky Way Galaxy is Home to At Least 25 Billion Brown Dwarfs

Jul 5, 2017 by News Staff

A new estimate suggests that the Milky Way’s population of brown dwarfs — objects too large to be a planet but too small to be a star — exceeds...

Razanandrongobe sakalavae scavenging on a sauropod carcass. Unlike extant crocodilians, this animal walked on erect limbs. Image credit: Fabio Manucci.

Giant Prehistoric Crocodile Relative from Madagascar Had T. rex Teeth

Jul 5, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

Named Razanandrongobe sakalavae, the ancient predatory crocodile had a deep skull and powerful jaws with enormous serrated teeth that are similar in size...

A hypervelocity star leaving the Large Magellanic Cloud. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss / Ruth Bazinet, CfA / Sci.News.

Hypervelocity Stars are ‘Runaways’ from Large Magellanic Cloud, Astronomers Say

Jul 5, 2017 by News Staff

Hypervelocity stars — ultrafast stars with speeds up to a few hundred miles per second above the average — were likely ejected from the Large...

The CARDIS scanner at work. Image credit: CARDIS Project.

Researchers Developing Handheld Laser Scanner for Early Diagnosis of Heart Disease

Jul 5, 2017 by News Staff

A team of European researchers has developed a prototype of a compact multi-laser-beam device that can read your heart’s vital signs like a supermarket...

Portus Cosanus pier, Orbetello, Italy. Image credit: J.P. Oleson.

New Research Shows How Natural Chemistry Strengthened Ancient Roman Marine Concrete

Jul 4, 2017 by News Staff

While modern marine concrete structures crumble within years, ancient Roman piers and breakwaters endure to this day, and are stronger now than when they...

This composite, false-color infrared image of Jupiter reveals haze particles over a range of altitudes, as seen in reflected sunlight. It was taken using the Gemini North telescope’s Near-InfraRed Imager (NIRI) on May 18, 2017. The multiple filters corresponding to each color used in the image cover wavelengths between 1.69 microns and 2.275 microns. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) appears as the brightest (white) region at these wavelengths, which are primarily sensitive to high-altitude clouds and hazes near and above the top of Jupiter's convective region. The GRS is one of the highest-altitude features in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Narrow spiral streaks that appear to lead into it or out of it from surrounding regions probably represent atmospheric features being stretched by the intense winds within the GRS, such as the hook-like structure on its western edge (left side). Some are being swept off its eastern edge (right side) and into an extensive wave-like flow pattern, and there is even a trace of flow from its northern edge. Other features near the GRS include the dark block and dark oval to the south and the north of the eastern flow pattern, respectively, indicating a lower density of cloud and haze particles in those locations. Both are long-lived cyclonic circulations, rotating clockwise -- in the opposite direction as the counterclockwise rotation of the GRS. A prominent wave pattern is evident north of the equator, along with two bright ovals, which are anticyclones that appeared in January 2017. Both the wave pattern and the ovals may be associated with an impressive upsurge in stormy activity that has been observed in these latitudes this year. Another bright anticyclonic oval is seen further north. High hazes are evident over both polar regions with much spatial structure not previously been seen quite so clearly in ground-based images. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / AURA / NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Infrared Images of Jupiter from Subaru and Gemini Telescopes to Enhance Juno Flyby

Jul 4, 2017 by News Staff

High-resolution imaging of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot by the Subaru Telescope and the Gemini North telescope, both on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea peak, is...

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