Articles by News Staff

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...

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...

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...

Ground-Based Telescope Detects Methanol at Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

Jul 3, 2017 by News Staff

Using the IRAM radio telescope, astronomers have observed an extended gas cloud around Saturn’s moon Enceladus and detected the signature of the organic...

Dr. Louderback stands behind large stone metates, the grindstones on which ancient Native Americans processed their food. Image credit: University of Utah.

Researchers Discover Earliest Evidence of Wild Potato Use in North America

Jul 3, 2017 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists and anthropologists, led by the University of Utah, has discovered potato starch residues in the crevices of a 10,900-year-old...

In this image, Hubble has captured the brilliance of the spiral galaxy IC 342. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees ‘Hidden Galaxy’

Jul 3, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this vivid image of the spiral galaxy IC 342. In this image, Hubble has captured the brilliance of the...

Artist’s conception of an exoplanet’s atmosphere being stripped by the radiation from its parent star. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick / University of Warwick.

Atmosphere Stripping May Limit Habitability of Extrasolar Planets

Jul 2, 2017 by News Staff

Huge coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on the Sun produce extreme space weather effects at Earth. Models of solar CMEs have now been applied to M-dwarf and...

Artist’s impression of two hypervelocity stars speeding from the center of the Milky Way to its outskirts. Image credit: ESA / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Gaia Satellite Spots Six Hypervelocity Stars

Jul 2, 2017 by News Staff

With the help of an artificial neural network, ESA’s Gaia satellite spotted six hypervelocity stars — stars whose velocity in the rest frame of...

Neanderthals used toothpicks likely made of bones or stems of grass. Image credit: Abel Grau, CSIC Communication.

Paleoanthropologists Find Evidence of Neanderthal Dentistry

Jun 30, 2017 by News Staff

University of Kansas Professor David Frayer and co-authors have discovered multiple toothpick grooves on teeth of a Neanderthal individual who lived 130,000...

The starlet sea anemone (Nematostella vectensis). Image credit: Sinigaglia et al / University of Vienna.

Do Muscle-Less and Heartless Sea Anemones Hold Key to Heart Regeneration?

Jun 30, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Florida has found genes known to form heart cells in humans and other animals in the gut of the starlet sea...

Cocoa and chocolate are good for your cognition. Image credit: Steve Buissinne.

Cocoa, Chocolate Consumption Enhances Cognitive Abilities and Memory, New Review Finds

Jun 30, 2017 by News Staff

Regular dietary intake of cocoa flavanols — naturally occurring substances found in cacao beans — improves general cognition, attention, processing...

This artist’s conception shows two supermassive black holes, similar to those observed by Bansal et al, orbiting one another more than 750 million light years from Earth. Image credit: Josh Valenzuela, University of New Mexico.

First Detection of Orbital Motion in Supermassive Black Hole Binary

Jun 29, 2017 by News Staff

For the first time ever, astronomers have been able to observe and measure the orbital motion between two supermassive black holes — a discovery...

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