News Archive for September 2022

Reconstruction of a Devonian arthrodire placoderm. Image credit: Trinajstic et al., oi: 10.1126/science.abf3289.

380-Million-Year-Old Mineralized Organs Reveal Insights into Early Evolution of Jawed Vertebrates

Sep 16, 2022 by News Staff

Paleontologists from Curtin University and elsewhere have studied a three-dimensionally mineralized heart (the oldest ever found), stomach, intestine and...

Composite of a true color image of Saturn, observed by Cassini in 2016, overlaid with a false color representation of the ultraviolet aurora in the northern hemisphere as observed on August 20, 2017. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute / A. Bader, Lancaster University.

Destroyed Moon Could Explain Saturn’s Young Rings and Present-Day Tilt

Sep 16, 2022 by News Staff

Saturn’s rings — thought to have formed a mere 100 million years ago — are one of the most distinctive planetary features in our Solar System....

An artist’s impression of Ibirania parva. Image credit: Matheus Gadelha / Divulgação.

New Small Titanosaur Species Discovered in Brazil

Sep 16, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a small-sized titanosaurian dinosaur in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. An artist’s impression of...

An artist’s impression of the MICROSCOPE satellite. Image credit: CNES / David Ducros.

MICROSCOPE Space Mission Confirms Equivalence Principle with Unprecedented Accuracy

Sep 15, 2022 by News Staff

The final results from CNES’ MICROSCOPE (MICROSatellite with Compensated drag for the Observation of the Principle of Equivalence) space mission —...

Callistoctopus xiaohongxu, live specimen. Image credit: Zheng et al., doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1121.86264.

New Species of Octopus Discovered

Sep 15, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Marine biologists have described a new species of the genus Callistoctopus from the waters of southeast China. Callistoctopus xiaohongxu, live specimen....

This Hubble image shows NGC 1961, an intermediate spiral galaxy some 197 million light-years away in the constellation of Camelopardalis. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Dalcanton, University of Washington / R. Foley, University of California, Santa Cruz / G. Kober, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Catholic University of America.

Hubble Focuses on Enormous Spiral Galaxy: NGC 1961

Sep 15, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released a stunning photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 1961. This Hubble image shows NGC...

An artistic interpretation of Opisthiamimus gregori. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi / Smithsonian Institution.

Fossils of Jurassic Tuatara Relative Unearthed in Wyoming

Sep 15, 2022 by News Staff

Opisthiamimus gregori is an extinct, small-bodied relative of the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), the only living member of the reptilian order Rhynchocephalia. An...

An artist’s illustration of a protoplanet around LkCa 15; the protoplanet resides within dense rings of dust and gas that surround the star; material accumulates in a clump and arc-shape, about 60 degrees away from the protoplanet. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard & Smithsonian’s Center for Astrophysics.

ALMA Finds Evidence of Neptune-Mass Protoplanet around LkCa 15

Sep 15, 2022 by News Staff

LkCa 15, also known as IRAS 04363+2215, EPIC 247520207 or TIC 118681038, is a K5-type star with a mass of 1.2 solar masses. An artist’s illustration...

Kapil et al. describe the phase behavior of monolayer-confined water by calculating its pressure-temperature phase diagram: (a-g) the pressure-temperature phase diagram of monolayer water was calculated using an machine learning potential that delivers first-principles accuracy; the solid and dashed lines indicate first-order and continuous phase transitions, respectively; the gray regions indicate the statistical uncertainty for solid-solid phase transitions and, for the other transitions, the uncertainties arising from studying a finite number of thermodynamic states; the diagonally hatched area indicates the region in which square and flat-rhombic phases are near degenerate; diagrams of the hexagonal (a), pentagonal (b), square (c), flat-rhombic (d), hexatic (e), superionic (f) and liquid (g) phases are shown with oxygen atoms in red, hydrogen atoms in gray and hydrogen bonds shown by blue lines. Image credit: Kapil et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05036-x.

Monolayer-Confined Water Acts Like Neither Liquid Nor Solid, Scientists Say

Sep 14, 2022 by News Staff

Water in a one-molecule layer acts like neither a liquid nor a solid, and becomes highly conductive at high pressures, according to a new paper published...

McGreen et al. found the number of cravings a person experiences can indicate how many soft drinks they would eventually drink, with cravings triggered by a number of factors beyond thirst. Image credit: Ernesto Rodriguez.

Study: Stronger Cravings for Soft Drinks, Coffee Associated with Drinking More of Craved Beverage

Sep 14, 2022 by News Staff

Cravings for a range of substances including drugs, alcohol, and food have been shown to predict subsequent consumption or use. However, this link has...

This composite image shows SNR 0519-69.0, a Type Ia supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud: X-ray data from Chandra with low, medium and high energies are shown in green, blue, and purple respectively, with some of these colors overlapping to appear white; optical data from Hubble shows the perimeter of the remnant in red and stars around the remnant in white. Image credit: NASA / CXC / GSFC / Williams et al. / STScI.

Astronomers Determine Age of Supernova Remnant in Large Magellanic Cloud

Sep 14, 2022 by News Staff

Light from a Type Ia supernova explosion that created the supernova remnant SNR 0519-69.0 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky...

Gibbons at play (c. 1427) by the Xuande Emperor, the fifth emperor of the Ming dynasty of China.

7.5-Million-Year-Old Gibbon Fossil Fills Gap in Evolutionary History of Apes

Sep 14, 2022 by News Staff

Paleontologists have examined the fossilized remains of Yuanmoupithecus xiaoyuan, a small Old World monkey species that lived in China during the Late...

Bohn et al. identified a new set of previously undetected star-forming regions that are heavily obscured by dust in a starburst ring in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7469. The area of this image from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) is shown by a box in the image of NGC 7469 below. Image credit: Bohn et al., arXiv: 2209.04466

Webb Observes Powerful Starburst Ring in NGC 7469

Sep 14, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered 36 new star-forming regions in a circumnuclear starburst ring in the barred...

Ohmura et al. provide a proof of concept that infant transport robustly reduces cry and potentially promotes sleep, and propose a behavioral protocol, ‘5-min carrying, 5- to 8-min sitting before bed’ for crying infants. For secure holding, caregivers should attach the infant body snugly to their own body and support the infant’s head. Five-minute walking should be on a flat and clear passage and at a steady pace, preferably without abrupt stops or turns. With these precautions, this protocol can be safely performed within the range of regular parental care. It should be noted that, unlike most behavioral interventions for infant sleep difficulties, this protocol does not address any long-term improvement of sleep regulation. This protocol instead provides an immediate calming of infant cry and may be useful especially on special occasions when the regular sleep routines, breastfeeding, or pacifiers are not effective or available. Image credit: Ohmura et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.041.

Study: Five-Minute Walk Promotes Sleep for Crying Infants

Sep 13, 2022 by News Staff

Approximately 20-30% of infants cry excessively and exhibit sleep difficulties for no apparent reason, causing parental stress and even triggering impulsive...

This image, taken by the Dark Energy Camera on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-m telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, shows the Lobster Nebula. Image credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / DOE / NSF / AURA / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / J. Miller, Gemini Observatory & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani & D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Dark Energy Camera Celebrates Its 10th Birthday with Stunning Photo of Lobster Nebula

Sep 13, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a 570-megapixel U.S. Department of Energy-fabricated camera mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-m telescope at NOIRLab’s...

This image shows dark nebulae Barnard 92 (right) and Barnard 93 (left) in Messier 24. Image credit: ESO / VPHAS+ team / Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit.

VST Spots Prominent Dark Nebulae in Messier 24

Sep 13, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at Paranal Observatory have captured a detailed image of a spectacular part of a star cloud called...

Images of graphite, lonsdaleite, and diamond in ureilite meteorites: (A) reflected light image showing folded crystalline graphite, with fold morphology defined by graphite cleavage; different shading in the graphite is produced by axial planar kink bands; (B) reflected light image (stacked foci) showing an example of the inherited fold morphology preserved in lonsdaleite; (C) cathodoluminescence map of the same area as (B) indicating different phases of carbon, where the green regions are lonsdaleite and the red areas on the periphery (including the purple dashed circle) are cubic diamond (blue is the cathodoluminescence response from olivine); (D) scanning TEM image of a region cut out of the area indicated by yellow circle in (C), highlighting dark lonsdaleite crystals. Image credit: Tomkins et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2208814119.

Strange Meteoritic Diamonds Came from Mantle of Destroyed Dwarf Planet, Study Says

Sep 13, 2022 by News Staff

Lonsdaleite, a rare hexagonal form of diamond found in ureilite meteorites, formed shortly after an inner solar system dwarf planet collided with a large...

An artist’s impression of the giant exoplanet Kepler-1704b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Three Types of Planets Orbit Red Dwarf Stars, New Study Suggests

Sep 13, 2022 by News Staff

Exoplanets smaller than Neptune are common around red dwarf (M-dwarf) stars, and many of those that transit their host stars constitute the bulk of known...

Surgically amputated site of the left tibia and fibula of the Liang Tebo individual: (a) left and right legs with pelvic girdle, demonstrating the complete absence of the distal third of the left lower leg; (b) left tibia and fibula showing the amputation surface, atrophy and necrosis; the bone surface is more porous because lysis occurred to remove the dead bone (necrosis); (c) radiograph of the left tibia and fibula; (d) left tibia medial aspect; (e) left tibia medial aspect; (f) left fibula anterior aspect. Scale bars - 5 cm in (a), 5 mm in (b and c) and 2 mm in (d-f). Image credit: Maloney et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05160-8.

Stone Age Humans Conducted Surgical Amputation 31,000 Years Ago

Sep 12, 2022 by News Staff

Archaeologists excavating Liang Tebo Cave on the Indonesian island of Borneo have discovered the skeletal remains of a young individual who had the distal...

The inner region of the Orion Nebula as seen by the NIRCam instrument on board the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This is a composite image from several filters that represents emission from ionized gas, hydrocarbons, molecular gas, dust and scattered starlight. Most prominent is the Orion Bar, a wall of dense gas and dust that runs from the top left to the bottom right in this image, and that contains the bright star θ2 Orionis A. The scene is illuminated by a group of hot, young massive stars -- known as the Trapezium Cluster -- that is located just off the top right of the image. The strong and harsh ultraviolet radiation of the Trapezium cluster creates a hot, ionized environment in the upper right, and slowly erodes the Orion Bar away. Molecules and dust can survive longer in the shielded environment offered by the dense Bar, but the surge of stellar energy sculpts a region that displays an incredible richness of filaments, globules, young stars with disks and cavities. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / PDRs4All ERS Team / Salomé Fuenmayor.

Webb Captures Breathtaking Images of Orion Nebula

Sep 12, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have delivered the most detailed images ever taken of the inner region of the Orion Nebula. The...

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