Articles by News Staff

This collage of radar images of 1999 JD6 was collected by NASA scientists on July 25, 2015. The asteroid appears to be a contact binary. These views, which are radar echoes, were obtained by pairing NASA's 230-foot-wide Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, with the 330-foot Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. Using this approach, the Goldstone antenna beams a radar signal at an asteroid and Green Bank receives the reflections. The technique, referred to as a bistatic observation, dramatically improves the amount of detail that can be seen in radar images. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSSR.

Astronomers Capture Radar Images of Near-Earth Asteroid 1999 JD6

Aug 4, 2015 by News Staff

Using NSF’s Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and NASA’s Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, astronomers bounced radar signals...

Artist’s reconstruction of the Fractofusus community: the bottom right features a large Fractofusus around which there are 5 to 8 medium specimens clustered; each of the medium specimens also has small specimens clustered around them; the small specimens therefore form an independent double cluster pattern, namely clusters of clusters. Image credit: C.G. Kenchington.

Paleontologists Find Earliest Example of Reproduction in Complex Organisms

Aug 3, 2015 by News Staff

A new study has found that Ediacaran organisms known as rangeomorphs reproduced by taking a joint approach: they first sent out an ‘advance party’...

This Hubble image shows the center of the Lagoon Nebula. The region is filled with intense winds from hot stars, churning funnels of gas, and energetic star formation, all embedded within an intricate haze of gas and pitch-dark dust. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Trauger, JPL.

Hubble Space Telescope Snaps Amazing Image of Lagoon Nebula

Aug 3, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning new image of the Lagoon Nebula, one of the finest and brightest star-forming regions known...

How bees vaccinate their babies and why understanding this is important to humans. Image credit: Sabine Deviche.

Queen Bees Naturally ‘Vaccinate’ Their Offspring

Aug 3, 2015 by News Staff

An international group of researchers – led by Dr Dalial Freitak from the University of Helsinki, Finland – has found that a bee blood protein...

This Hubble image of the planetary nebula NGC 6818 (Little Gem Nebula) shows two layers of gas (with dust): a spherical outer region and a brighter, vase-shaped interior bubble. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / Judy Schmidt, geckzilla.com.

Hubble Captures Amazing Photo of Little Gem Nebula

Aug 3, 2015 by News Staff

The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of a planetary nebula called NGC 6818. This...

Global map of Charon as of July 30, 2015. The map is in simple cylindrical projection, with zero longitude (the Pluto-facing direction) in the center. It includes all available resolved images of the moon’s surface captured between July 7-14, 2015 on the anti-Pluto facing hemisphere. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Releases Global Map of Pluto’s Moon Charon

Aug 3, 2015 by News Staff

NASA scientists have created the best-ever global map of Charon, using images taken by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager in July 2015. Global...

This image shows a water strider together with robotic insects that can jump on water. Image credit: Seoul National University.

Researchers Create Robotic Water Strider

Jul 31, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers and engineers, led by Dr Kyu-Jin Cho of Seoul National University in Korea, has created an insect-like robot that can jump on water...

An artist’s depiction of Earth’s magnetic field deflecting high-energy protons from the Sun around 4 billion years ago. Image credit: Michael Osadciw / University of Rochester.

Earth’s Magnetic Field Older than Thought, Says New Study

Jul 31, 2015 by News Staff

American and Canadian scientists have reported in the latest issue of Science that the magnetic field of our planet is at least 4 billion years old, up...

The African golden wolf (Canis anthus) in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Image credit: Gordon E. Robertson / CC BY-SA 3.0.

African Golden Wolf: Scientists Discover ‘New’ Canid Species

Jul 31, 2015 by News Staff

African and Eurasian golden jackals are genetically distinct lineages, according to a research team led by Dr Klaus-Peter Koepfli from the Smithsonian...

Rosetta NavCam image taken on 14 March 2015 at 85.7 km from the center of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; it has been cleaned to remove the more obvious bad pixels and cosmic ray artefacts, and intensities have been scaled. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NAVCAM / CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.

Philae Lander Finds Organic Compounds on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Jul 31, 2015 by News Staff

A special issue of the journal Science highlights seven new studies that delve into the data that has been collected by ESA’s probe Philae on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This...

This graphic illustrates how a star can magnify and brighten the light of a background star when it passes in front of the distant star. If the foreground star has planets, then the planets may also magnify the light of the background star, but for a much shorter period of time than their host star. Astronomers use this method, called gravitational microlensing, to identify planets. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Field, STScI.

Astronomers Confirm Failed-Jupiter Exoplanet around Distant Star

Jul 31, 2015 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, two teams of astronomers have independently confirmed the existence of...

Adult female chimp Nambi using a leaf-sponge at waterhole, watched by 10-year-old juvenile Karo. Image credit: C. Hobaiter.

Diet of Some Chimpanzees Includes Clay, Scientists Say

Jul 30, 2015 by News Staff

Wild chimpanzees of the Sonso community in the Budongo forest, Uganda, are increasingly eating clay to supplement the minerals in their diet, says a team...

Rosa californica in Irvine, CA. Image credit: Wintertanager J.T. Storey / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Stressed Plants Use Animal-Like Signals, New Study Shows

Jul 30, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Nature Communications has shown that, despite not having a nervous system, plants send signals normally associated...

This artist’s impression shows the super-Earth exoplanet HD 219134b. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

HD 219134: Three Super-Earths Found Orbiting Star 21 Light-Years Away

Jul 30, 2015 by News Staff

Using the HARPS-N spectrograph on the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Canary Islands), astronomers have...

False-color micrograph of human hair cross-section: the top region shows the external part of the hair - cuticle region; the bottom region shows the internal macrofibrils - cortex region. Image credit: Fabiano Emmanuel Montoro / LNNano / CNPEM.

Scientists Discover New Structural Features of Human Hair

Jul 30, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of scientists – led by Dr Vesna Stanic of the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Source – has detected new structural features of...

Reddish streaks cut across the surface of Tethys in this image. The streaks are narrow, curved lines on the moon’s surface, only a few miles wide but several hundred miles long. The yellowish tones on the left side of the view are a result of alteration of the moon’s surface by high-energy particles from Saturn’s magnetosphere. This particle radiation slams into the moon’s trailing hemisphere, modifying it chemically and changing its appearance in enhanced-color views like this one. The area of Tethys shown here is centered on 30 degrees north latitude, 187 degrees west longitude, and measures 305 by 258 miles (490 by 415 km) across. The original color images were obtained at a resolution of about 2,300 feet (700 m) per pixel on April 11, 2015. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Spots Strange Red ‘Arcs’ on Saturn’s Moon Tethys

Jul 30, 2015 by News Staff

This enhanced-color mosaic of Tethys shows a range of features including mysterious arc-shaped streaks. This mosaic of Tethys is an orthographic projection...

Artist’s impression of an auroral display on a brown dwarf. Image credit: Chuck Carter / Gregg Hallinan / Caltech.

Brown Dwarfs Host Powerful Aurora Displays, Astronomers Say

Jul 29, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the United States and Europe has discovered that brown dwarfs – the so-called failed stars – host powerful auroras...

Dr Yan Li and co-authors followed the journey of water through the Tarim Basin from the rivers at the edge of the valley to the desert aquifers under the basin. They found that as water moved through irrigated fields, the water gathered dissolved carbon and moved it deep underground. Image credit: Yan Li.

Desert Aquifers Could Hold More Carbon Dioxide than All Earth’s Plants

Jul 29, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, massive aquifers underneath deserts contain approximately one trillion...

This image shows Nova Centauri 2013 (brightest star in the center) in July 2015. This was more than eighteen months after the initial explosive outburst. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Detect Lithium in Nova for First Time

Jul 29, 2015 by News Staff

Using the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory and the ESO 0.5-m telescope at the Observatory of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de...

Schematic illustration of Earth's magnetic field. Image credit: Peter Reid / University of Edinburgh.

Earth’s Core Region beneath Southern Africa May Be Trigger for Magnetic Pole Reversals

Jul 29, 2015 by News Staff

A group of scientists – led by Dr John Tarduno from the University of Rochester, NY – has recovered a magnetic field record from minerals for Iron...

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