Articles by News Staff

Mimas’ surface, like the surfaces of most of the other major Saturnian moons without atmospheres, is not pure ice but contains some dark impurities; the relatively dark markings appear along the lower portion of the walls of the 130-km-wide Herschel Crater (the peak in the middle of the crater is about as tall as Mount Everest; the impact that made it likely almost destroyed the moon) and some of the smaller craters; scientists interpret this darkening as evidence for the gradual concentration of impurities from evaporating icy materials in areas where the dark impurities slide slowly down the crater wall. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Moon Mimas Harbors Global Ocean beneath Its Icy Shell, Study Suggests

Feb 7, 2024 by News Staff

From detailed analysis of Mimas’ orbital motion based on data from NASA’s Cassini mission, planetary researchers from Sorbonne Université, Nantes...

Glikmanius careforum. Image credit: Benji Paynose.

Two New Species of Carboniferous Ctenacanth Sharks Identified in the United States

Feb 7, 2024 by News Staff

A focused search for ancient marine vertebrates during a paleontological resource inventory of Mammoth Cave National Park has yielded a wealth of new fossil...

This artist’s impression shows the evolution of the Universe beginning with the Big Bang on the left followed by the appearance of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The formation of the first stars ends the cosmic dark ages, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Which Came First: Supermassive Black Holes or Galaxies? New Insights from Webb

Feb 6, 2024 by News Staff

New insights from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope upend theories of how black holes shape the cosmos, challenging classical understanding that...

This image from the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, shows NGC 4753, a lenticular galaxy some 60 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. Miller, International Gemini Observatory & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Rodriguez, International Gemini Observatory & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Gemini South Telescope Focuses on Peculiar Lenticular Galaxy NGC 4753

Feb 6, 2024 by News Staff

NGC 4753’s prominent and complex network of dust lanes that twist around its galactic nucleus define its ‘peculiar’ classification and are the likely...

This artist impression shows ultra-fast winds blasting out from the center of galaxy Markarian 817. These winds, moving at many millions of km per hour, clear out interstellar gas from a vast region of space. Without this gas, the galaxy can’t form new stars and the black hole in the galactic center has little left to eat. The inset shows what is happening at galaxy’s heart. A supermassive black hole draws in gas from its surroundings, which forms a hot, brightly lit accretion disk (orange). The cause of the winds (white) is magnetic fields within the disk, which fling particles out in all directions at incredibly high speeds. These winds effectively block out X-rays (blue) which are sent out by the extremely hot plasma surrounding the black hole, called the corona. Zak et al. caught Markarian 817 blasting out ultra-fast winds using ESA’s X-ray telescope XMM-Newton. Lasting for around a year, the winds will have significantly affected star formation in the galaxy. The fact that the black hole at the center of the galaxy was showing rather average activity levels before producing the winds suggests that ultra-fast black hole winds are much more common than previously thought. In other words, black holes and their host galaxies strongly affect each other’s evolution. Image credit: ESA / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

XMM-Newton Detects Ultra-Fast Black Hole Wind in Markarian 817

Feb 1, 2024 by News Staff

Markarian 817 is a Seyfert 1 galaxy located 430 million light-years away in the constellation of Draco. Also known as Mrk 817 or QSO J1436+5847, it hosts...

A new octopus hatchling swims away from its egg near a small outcrop of rock unofficially called El Dorado Hill. Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute.

Four New Deep-Sea Octopus Species Discovered in Pacific Ocean

Feb 1, 2024 by News Staff

Marine biologists aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor discovered at least four new species of deep-sea octopuses during two 2023 expeditions...

Consumption of 1-3 servings/day of total kimchi is associated with a lower risk of obesity in men. Image credit: Dongwon Lee.

Daily Consumption of Kimchi May Reduce Men’s Obesity Risk

Feb 1, 2024 by News Staff

In a cross-sectional study, researchers from Chung Ang University and elsewhere analyzed the data from the HEXA cohort study in Korea to investigate the...

Stratigraphy with location of Homo sapiens bones, map of LRJ sites and stone tools from the site of Ranis, Germany. Image credit: Mylopotamitaki et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06923-7.

Homo sapiens Reached Northern Europe by 45,000 Years Ago, Scientists Say

Jan 31, 2024 by News Staff

Homo sapiens associated with the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician culture were present in central and northwestern Europe long before the extinction...

This collection of 19 face-on spiral galaxies from Webb in near- and mid-infrared light is at once overwhelming and awe-inspiring. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / J. Lee, STScI / T. Williams, Oxford / PHANGS Team / E. Wheatley, STScI.

Webb Images 19 Nearby Spiral Galaxies

Jan 30, 2024 by News Staff

These new images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope are part of the large, long-standing Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS...

Masterson et al. identified 18 new tidal disruption events -- extreme instances when a nearby star is tidally drawn into a black hole and ripped to shreds. Image credit: Masterson et al., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad18bb.

Astronomers Discover 18 New Tidal Disruption Events

Jan 30, 2024 by News Staff

A tidal disruption event occurs when a star winds up so close to a supermassive black hole that the tidal forces exceed the star’s self-gravity and shred...

A photograph of the tardigrade Ramazzottius varieornatus, in the center of a phylogeny of CAHS, the largest of the six desiccation-related protein families analyzed by Fleming et al. Image credit: Kazuharu Arakawa, Keio Institute of Advanced Biosciences.

New Research Sheds Light on Evolutionary History of Tardigrade Extremotolerance

Jan 30, 2024 by News Staff

Tardigrades, also known as water bears, can tolerate high doses of radiation, low-oxygen environments, desiccation, and both high and low temperatures...

Predicted areas of slope instability in the south polar region of the Moon; the image is centered on Shackleton crater; locations of proposed Artemis III landing regions are shown (blue boxes); the model predicts that large portions of the interior walls of Shackleton crater are susceptible to landslides (inset), as are portions of the interior crater walls in the Nobile Rim 1 region. Image credit: Watters et al., doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ad1332.

Earth’s Moon is Shrinking, New Modeling Study Suggests

Jan 29, 2024 by News Staff

Earth’s Moon shrank more than 46 m (150 feet) in circumference as its core gradually cooled over the last few hundred million years, according to a paper...

This enhanced color view of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter was generated using data collected by the Perseverance rover on August 2, 2023. Image credit: NASA.

NASA Announces End of Ingenuity Mission

Jan 29, 2024 by News Staff

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter made history by achieving the first powered, controlled flight on another planet on April 19, 2021. Despite initial plans...

Fletcher et al. suggest that kiwifruit consumption, and to a lesser extent vitamin C supplementation, can lead to mood-related improvements in a relatively short period of time (from 4 to 16 days), even in a relatively healthy population with good mental health. Image credit: Photo Mix.

Kiwifruit Consumption Can Improve Vitality and Mood in As Little As Four Days, Study Suggests

Jan 26, 2024 by News Staff

Foods rich in vitamin C can improve mood; however, the timecourse of these benefits is unknown. In new research, scientists from the University of Auckland...

The water detection in the transit spectrum of Gliese 9827d makes it the first water world candidate with an atmospheric water detection consistent with a water-rich envelope. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Leah Hustak, STScI / Ralf Crawford, STScI.

Hubble Detects Water Vapor in Atmosphere of Gliese 9827d

Jan 25, 2024 by News Staff

Using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have detected water vapor in the transmission...

Vasas et al. show 3 male orange sulphurs (Colias eurytheme). These butterflies display strong angle-dependent UV iridescence on the dorsal side of their wings. The UV-iridescent portions appear more orange to the human observer than the otherwise yellow wings (see human-visible inset). The avian false color depiction (main image) is based on the coordinates of the receptor noise-limited (RNL) opponent space. Coordinates in this space represent differences in an animal’s photoreceptor responses, and the distances between the coordinates approximate the perceptual distances between the colors. The inset color key illustrates human-visible colors around the perimeter of a circle colored according to RNL coordinates, where UV colors start at the epicenter and mix with other colors. In this depiction, the UV-iridescent portions appear purple, because they most strongly reflect in the ultraviolet and the red part of the spectrum. The ventral part of the wings, visible when the animals are in their resting position, are depicted as gray-brown, just like the leaves, as they are close to the achromatic point. Image credit: Vasas et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002444.

Novel Camera System and Software Records Natural Animal-View Videos with Over 90% Accuracy

Jan 24, 2024 by News Staff

A new camera system and associated software package allows scientists to produce videos that accurately replicate the colors that different animals see...

2D display of the quark contribution to the distribution of forces in the proton as a function of the distance from the proton’s center. The light gray shading and longer arrows indicate areas of stronger forces, while the dark shading and shorter arrows indicate areas of weaker forces. Left panel: normal forces as a function of distance from the center; the arrows change magnitude and always point radially outward. Right panel: tangential forces as a function of distance from the center; the force changes direction and magnitude as indicated by the direction and length of the arrow; the forces change sign near 0.4 fm from the proton center. Image credit: Burkert et al., doi: 10.1103/RevModPhys.95.041002.

Physicists Determine Distribution of Strong Force inside Proton

Jan 24, 2024 by News Staff

The physics of the gravitational form factors of the proton, as well as their understanding within quantum chromodynamics, has advanced significantly in...

Bierenbroodspot et al. sequenced 24 new transcriptomes of Klebsormidiophyceae and combined them with 14 previously published genomic and transcriptomic datasets. Image credit: Bierenbroodspot et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.070.

Study: Multicellularity Emerged in Streptophyte Plants about One Billion Years Ago

Jan 23, 2024 by News Staff

New research led by University of Goettingen scientists provides evidence that the first multicellular streptophytes likely lived about a billion years...

This Hubble image shows N79, a star-forming region located 163,000 light-years away in the constellation of Dorado. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / M. Meixner.

Webb Looks at Massive Star-Forming Complex in Large Magellanic Cloud

Jan 23, 2024 by News Staff

Using the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have captured a spectacular image of N79, a region...

The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration released new images of M87* from observations taken in April 2018, one year after the first observations in April 2017. The new observations reveal a familiar, bright ring of emission, the same size as as first observed. The brightest part of the ring has shifted by about 30º, to a 5 o’clock position, relative to the 2017 image. Image credit: EHT Collaboration.

New Observations of Messier 87’s Black Hole Support Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity

Jan 23, 2024 by News Staff

In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration reported the first-ever event-horizon-scale images of a black hole, resolving the central...

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