News Archive for June 2020

The exceptionally preserved Protoceratops specimen includes six embryos that preserve nearly complete skeletons. Image credit: M. Ellison / American Museum of Natural History.

Eggs of Earliest Dinosaurs Had Soft, Leathery Shells

Jun 18, 2020 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from the United States, Canada and Argentina has analyzed the fossilized eggs of two different non-avian dinosaurs, Protoceratops...

A group of Neanderthals in a cave. Image credit: Tyler B. Tretsven.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Neanderthal Woman from Chagyrskaya Cave

Jun 18, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of researchers has sequenced and analyzed the genome of an 80,000-year-old Neanderthal woman from Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai Mountains,...

An artist’s impression of ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter detecting the green glow of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. This emission, spotted on the dayside of Mars, is similar to the night glow seen around Earth’s atmosphere from space. Image credit: ESA.

ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter Detects Glowing Oxygen in Martian Atmosphere

Jun 18, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the NOMAD (Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery) ultraviolet and visible spectrometer instrument on board ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas...

SOHO-4000 is seen here in an image from the SOHO alongside its 3,999th comet discovery. The two comets are relatively close at approximately 1 million miles apart, suggesting that they could have been connected together as recently as a few years ago. Image credit: ESA / NASA / SOHO / Karl Battams.

SOHO Spacecraft Discovers Its 4,000th Comet

Jun 17, 2020 by News Staff

The ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) detected its 4,000th comet on June 15, 2020. SOHO-4000 is seen here in an image from the SOHO alongside...

Keraphyton mawsoniae: (A) specimen before preparation; (B) general view of stem showing the 4 rib systems (Ia, Ib, IIa and IIb); (C) central segment and four fundamental ribs; (D) rib system Ib showing a short branch dividing into two equal ultimate ribs at right and a long branch producing at least three long ultimate ribs at left; (E) long branch of rib system IIa producing short ultimate ribs; (F) short branch of rib system IIa dividing into two ultimate ribs; (G) long branch of rib system IIb producing short ultimate ribs; (H) long branch of rib system Ia producing long, but broken, ultimate ribs. Abbreviations: cs - central segment, fr - fundamental rib, ic - inner cortex, oc - outer cortex, Lb - long branch, sb - short branch. Yellow arrowheads indicate ultimate ribs. (DH) are all oriented with the cortex of the axis towards the top of the photo. Scale bars - 500 μm, (B) - 2 mm. Image credit: Champreux et al, doi: 10.7717/peerj.9321.

360-Million-Year-Old Fossil Reveals Extinct Species of Fern-Like Plant

Jun 17, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of fern-like plant from a single fossilized specimen collected in the New England region of New...

Voyager 2 image of Triton showing the south polar region with dark streaks produced by geysers visible on the icy surface. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

NASA Wants to Send Probe to Triton: Mission Trident

Jun 17, 2020 by News Staff

Trident, a new mission competing for selection under NASA’s Discovery Program, would explore Triton, a unique and highly active icy moon of Neptune....

π-Earth: Newfound Earth-Sized Exoplanet Orbits Its Star in 3.14 Days

Jun 17, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Using data from NASA’s Kepler/K2 mission, the SPECULOOS telescopes and the High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) on the Keck I telescope at W.M....

A Nenets man traveling on a sled pulled by three reindeer, Tambei region of the Yamal peninsula, June 2018. In his left hand he holds the khorei (a wood pole) and in his right the nenzamindya’sa (head rope), both of which are used to communicate with the reindeer during sledding. Image credit: Losey et al, doi: 10.1007/s10816-020-09455-w.

Earliest Evidence of Reindeer Domestication Found in Arctic Siberia

Jun 17, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of archeologists has unearthed numerous L-shaped barbed antler objects at three early sites — Ust’-Polui, Tiutei-Sale I,...

An artist’s conception of the HR 858 planetary system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Study: 18% of Sun-Like Stars May Host Potentially Habitable Earth-Sized Exoplanets

Jun 16, 2020 by News Staff

New estimate suggests that 18% of Sun-like (G-type) stars could have a planet the size of Earth orbiting in their conservative habitable zone. There may...

An artist’s illustration of complex organic molecules in space. Image credit: Jenny Mottar / NASA.

Astronomers Detect Organic Molecules in Starless and Prestellar Regions of Nearby Stellar Nursery

Jun 16, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers have detected the signatures of two complex organic molecules, methanol and acetaldehyde, in starless and prestellar cores of the Taurus Molecular...

Rhombophryne ellae. Image credit: Mark Scherz.

New Species of Diamond Frog Discovered in Madagascar

Jun 16, 2020 by News Staff

German herpetologist Mark Scherz has discovered a new species of diamond frog living in northern Madagascar. Rhombophryne ellae. Image credit: Mark Scherz. The...

$Earthquakes send sound waves through the Earth. Seismograms record the echoes as those waves travel along the core-mantle boundary, diffracting and bending around dense rock structures. Kim et al provide the first broad view of these structures, revealing them to be much more widespread than previously known. Image credit: Doyeon Kim, University of Maryland.$

Geophysicists Find Dense Rock Structures near Earth’s Core

Jun 16, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study, a team of geophysicists from the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and Tel Aviv University has analyzed echoes of seismic...

Curiosity Spots Earth and Venus from Martian Surface

Jun 16, 2020 by News Staff

The Mast Camera (Mastcam) onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has captured new images of Earth and Venus as seen from the surface of the Red Planet. Two...

Westby & Conselice present a cosmic perspective on the search for life and examine the likely number of CETI civilizations in our Milky Way Galaxy by utilizing the latest astrophysical information. Image credit: Angela Yuriko Smith.

Astronomers Say There Could Be 36 Communicating Extraterrestrial Civilizations in Milky Way

Jun 15, 2020 by News Staff

Using the assumption that intelligent life develops on exoplanets in a similar way as it does on Earth, a duo of researchers from the School of Physics...

Bone projectile points (A to H) and scrapers (I to K) from Fa-Hien Lena. Image credit: Langley et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aba3831.

48,000-Year-Old Arrowheads Unearthed in Sri Lanka

Jun 15, 2020 by News Staff

Archaeologists have found over a hundred bone arrow points at the Pleistocene cave site of Fa-Hien Lena in Sri Lanka. The artifacts were used to hunt tree-dwelling...

An artist’s impression of the Proxima Centauri system. Image credit: Lorenzo Santinelli.

Astronomers Confirm Two Planets in Proxima Centauri System

Jun 15, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

Astronomers have finally confirmed the existence of two exoplanets — Proxima b and c — orbiting Proxima Centauri, the Sun’s closest stellar...

This anaglyph image can be viewed with red-blue stereo glasses to reveal Proxima Centauri’s distance from its background. Image credit: Siding Spring node, Las Cumbres Observatory / NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Obtains Parallax Measurements for Two Nearby Stars

Jun 15, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers have long used a so-called parallax effect — how a star appears to shift against its background when seen from different locations —...

This Hubble image shows a massive galaxy cluster (center); along its borders reddish dots are visible; these are copies of the same galaxy called PLCK G045.1+61.1, which is 12 billion light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / B. Frye.

Hubble Uses Gravitational Lens to Capture Extremely Distant Starburst Galaxy

Jun 15, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Thanks to the presence of a cosmic lens, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope got a close-up look at PLCK G045.1+61.1, a starburst galaxy located approximately...

Paaru, one of the red pandas tracked by the study. Image credit: James Houston, Red Panda Network.

Researchers Use GPS Collars to Track Red Pandas

Jun 14, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of scientists has conducted a GPS tracking collar study on red pandas (Ailurus fulgens) in eastern Nepal. This is the first time...

Cosmic rays striking Venus’ atmosphere eject neutrons that gradually fly into space. As neutrons move to higher altitudes, more time passes, and more neutrons radioactively decay. MESSENGER counted the number of neutrons seen at various altitudes, allowing researchers to home in on where neutron numbers start falling off. Using models, researchers can then estimate the neutron lifetime. Image credit: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

NASA’s MESSENGER Mission Carries Out Space-Based Measurements of Neutron’s Lifetime

Jun 12, 2020 by News Staff

Using data acquired in 2007 and 2008 during flybys of Venus and Mercury by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, researchers found the neutron lifetime to be...

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