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This Hubble image shows a massive galaxy cluster, about 4.6 billion light years away. Along its borders 12 images within the four arcs are visible; these are copies of the same galaxy called PSZ1 G311.65-18.48, which is almost 11 billion light-years away. Three of these arcs are visible in the top right of the image, while one counterarc is visible in the lower left -- partially obscured by a bright foreground star within our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Rivera-Thorsen et al.

Hubble Sees Twelve Images of Same Galaxy Split by Gravitational Lens

Nov 8, 2019 by News Staff

An effect called strong gravitational lensing has allowed the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to see the same remote galaxy twelve times. Called PSZ1 G311.65-18.48,...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Neanderthals May Have Gone Extinct Because of Human Tropical Infections

Nov 8, 2019 by News Staff

The initial encounter between Neanderthals and anatomically modern Homo sapiens migrating out of Africa occurred more than 130,000 years ago in a region...

Danuvius guggenmosi, a great ape that lived some 12 million years ago (Miocene period) in what is now Germany. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski.

Miocene-Period Great Ape Unearthed in Germany: Danuvius guggenmosi

Nov 7, 2019 by News Staff

A previously unknown species of great ape that was well adapted to both walking upright as well as using all four limbs while climbing has been identified...

NASA’s Voyager 2 Spacecraft Sends Back New Data on Interstellar Space

Nov 5, 2019 by News Staff

In November 2018, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft became only the second human-made object to cross the outer edge of the Sun’s heliosphere, the bubble...

The Niemitz’s tarsier (Tarsius niemitzi) from Malenge Island, Sulawesi. Image credit: Myron Shekelle.

New Species of Tarsier Discovered

Nov 4, 2019 by Natali Anderson

An international team of scientists has discovered a new species of tarsier living on the Togean Islands of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Niemitz’s...

On October 12, 2019, Hubble observed the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov at a distance of approximately 261 million miles from Earth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Jewitt, University of California, Los Angeles.

Water Detected in Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

Nov 2, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

Astronomers have detected the signature of vaporized water in the coma of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, also known as C/2019 Q4. On October 12, 2019,...

An artist’s imagining of an ancient rhinoceros splashing through a stream next to turtles and fish in the Yukon. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Rhinoceroses Lived in Yukon Territory 8-9 Million Years Ago

Nov 1, 2019 by News Staff

The fossil tooth fragments from extinct rhinoceroses that lived 8-9 million years ago have been found in Canada’s Yukon Territory. An artist’s imagining...

An artist’s rendition of a giant star in orbit around a low-mass black hole. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

New Class of Low-Mass Black Holes May Exist, Astronomers Say

Nov 1, 2019 by News Staff

In a paper published in the November 1, 2019 issue of the journal Science, a team of astronomers offers a new way to search for stellar-mass black holes,...

An artistic rendering of Aniakchak National Monument in the Late Cretaceous epoch. Image credit: Karen Carr / Fiorillo et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223471.

New Dinosaur Footprints Found in Alaska

Oct 31, 2019 by News Staff

Footprints of duck-billed dinosaurs, armored dinosaurs and a tyrannosaur discovered in Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska, shed new light...

Super-Neptune Discovered Just 12 Light-Years Away

Oct 30, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers have discovered a super-Neptune exoplanet orbiting a star in the binary system Gliese 15. An artist’s impression of two exoplanets orbiting...

Van Moerkercke et al made the surprising discovery that a plant’s reaction to rain is close to one of panic. Image credit: Anthony, Inspired Images.

Plants’ Reaction to Rain is Close to Panic, Study Shows

Oct 30, 2019 by News Staff

Complex chemical signals are triggered when water lands on a plant to help it prepare for the dangers of rain, according to a new study published in the...

Ancient humans. Image credit: sjs.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Origin of Anatomically Modern Humans Traced to Southern Africa

Oct 29, 2019 by News Staff

The earliest ancestors of anatomically modern Homo sapiens emerged in a region south of the Zambezi River in Botswana, Africa, according to a new analysis...

This image, taken by the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows the main-belt asteroid Hygiea. Image credit: ESO / P. Vernazza et al / MISTRAL algorithm / ONERA / CNRS.

Astronomers Measure Size and Shape of Main-Belt Asteroid Hygiea

Oct 29, 2019 by News Staff

Hygiea is the fourth largest main belt asteroid and the only known asteroid whose surface composition appears similar to that of the dwarf planet Ceres....

Diversity within the family Viridiplantae. Image credit: Leebens-Mack et al, doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1693-2.

Researchers Generate Gene Sequences for 1,124 Plant Species, Illuminate One Billion Years of Evolution

Oct 28, 2019 by News Staff

As part of the One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes (1KP) Initiative, an international consortium of scientists has sequenced transcriptomes — the set...

SOFIA Spots Debris from Catastrophic Collision between Two Rocky Exoplanets

Oct 25, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) have observed an unusually warm, dusty debris disk around BD +20 307,...

Rats Taught How to Drive Tiny Cars

Oct 24, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Rats can learn the complex task of navigating a rodent-operated vehicle (ROV) to a desired area, according to new research from the University of Richmond. Crawford...

An artist’s reconstruction of the Devonian-period Sosnogorsk lagoon just before a storm. Image credit: Mikhail Shekhanov / Ukhta Local Museum.

Devonian Tetrapod Had Crocodile-Like Lifestyle

Oct 24, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered the fossils of a new type of early tetrapod (four-limbed vertebrate) in the Komi Republic. Dubbed Parmastega aelidae, the...

Freshly-Synthesized Strontium Detected in Neutron Star Merger

Oct 23, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have detected a freshly made heavy element, strontium, in the aftermath of GW170817, a merger of two...

Massive Star-Forming Galaxy Spotted in Early Universe

Oct 23, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered faint traces of a huge dust-obscured star-forming galaxy never seen before,...