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Interstellar Object ‘Oumuamua Has Purely Natural Origin, Say Astronomers

This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid -- 1I/2017 U1 (’Oumuamua). Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.
Jul 2, 2019 by News Staff

A fast moving, cigar-shaped object of extrasolar origin was discovered on October 19, 2017 by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawai’i. Named 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua), the object was first spotted three days after its closest approach to Earth, well after it had passed closest to the Sun on September 9, 2017. Its discovery provoked intense and continuing interest from the scientific community and the general public. Reports of its unusual characteristics...

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Astronomers have monitored the Eta Carinae binary system for more than two decades. It has been prone to violent outbursts, including an episode in the 1840s during which ejected material formed the bipolar bubbles seen here. Now, using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument to probe the nebula in ultraviolet light, they have uncovered the glow of magnesium embedded in warm gas (shown in blue) in places they had not seen it before. The luminous magnesium resides in the space between the dusty bipolar bubbles and the outer shock-heated nitrogen-rich filaments (shown in red). The streaks visible in the blue region outside the lower-left lobe are a striking feature of the image. These streaks are created when the star’s light rays poke through the dust clumps scattered along the bubble’s surface. Wherever the ultraviolet light strikes the dense dust, it leaves a long, thin shadow that extends beyond the lobe into the surrounding gas. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / N. Smith, University of Arizona / J. Morse, BoldlyGo Institute.

Hubble Captures Eta Carinae in Ultraviolet Light

Jul 2, 2019 by News Staff

Eta Carinae is a binary stellar system approximately 7,500 light-years away in the constellation Carina. Also known as HD 93308 and Hen 3-481, the system...

An artist’s conception of the L 98-59 planetary system. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

TESS Discovers Planetary System with Three Terrestrial-Size Exoplanets

Jul 1, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered three small planets orbiting a bright M-dwarf star called L 98-59....

Self-Torque: Physicists Discover New Property of Light

Jul 1, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of physicists has theoretically predicted and experimentally generated light beams with a new property that they call the self-torque...

An artist’s impression of ASKAP finding a fast radio burst and determining its precise location. The Keck, VLT and Gemini South optical telescopes joined ASKAP with follow-up observations to image the host galaxy. Image credit: Andrew Howells / CSIRO.

Astronomers Pinpoint Location of Non-Repeating Fast Radio Burst

Jun 28, 2019 by News Staff

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief radio emissions from distant astronomical sources. Some are known to repeat, but most are single bursts, occurring only...

Pachystruthio dmanisensis. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

Giant Birds Roamed Europe Two Million Years Ago

Jun 28, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A giant ostrich-like bird that lived about two million years ago (Pleistocene epoch) has been identified from a fossilized femur found in the Crimean Peninsula,...

Hospital insects present a potential to contribute to persistence and spread of antimicrobial-resistant pathogenic bacteria in the hospital environment. Image credit: Virvoreanu Laurentiu.

Hospital Insects Harbor Potentially Harmful Bacteria, Finds New Study

Jun 28, 2019 by News Staff

In a new study published this month in the Journal of Medical Entomology, researchers from Aston University collected and analyzed 19,937 flying insects...

The occasional use of stone tools as ‘strike-a-lights’ was a technocultural feature shared among Neanderthals in France.

Neanderthals Used Pine Resin as Glue to Haft Stone Tools into Handles

Jun 27, 2019 by News Staff

The hafting of stone tools was an important advance in the technological evolution of Paleolithic humans. Joining a handle to a knife or scraper and attaching...

An artist’s concept depicting the presence of buckyballs in space. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Find Ionized Buckyballs in Interstellar Medium

Jun 27, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed the presence of ionized (electrically-charged) buckminsterfullerene in the interstellar...

Scientists Find Extraterrestrial Cyanide Compounds in Meteorites

Jun 26, 2019 by News Staff

A research team led by scientists from Boise State University and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has identified several complex cyanide compounds...

This enhanced-color view of Enceladus is largely of the southern hemisphere and includes the south polar terrain at the bottom of the image. Ancient craters remain somewhat pristine in some locales, but have clearly relaxed in others. Northward-trending fractures, likely caused by a change in the moon’s rate of rotation and the consequent flattening of the moon’s shape, rip across the southern hemisphere. The south polar terrain is marked by a striking set of ‘blue’ fractures and encircled by a conspicuous and continuous chain of folds and ridges, testament to the forces within Enceladus that have yet to be silenced. The mosaic was created from 21 false-color frames taken during Cassini’s close approaches to Enceladus on March 9 and July 14, 2005. Images taken using filters sensitive to UV, visible and IR light (spanning wavelengths from 338 to 930 nm) were combined to create the individual frames. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Enceladus’ Ocean Contains High Concentrations of Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen, Scientists Say

Jun 25, 2019 by News Staff

Saturn’s small icy moon Enceladus contains a global subsurface ocean. According to new research from the University of Washington, the ice-covered ocean...

Swimming in Ocean Alters Diversity and Composition of Human Skin Microbiome, Study Shows

Jun 25, 2019 by News Staff

A new study by University of California, Irvine researchers has found that recreational ocean water exposure changes the human skin microbiome, and waterborne...

Composite image of Uranus’ atmosphere and rings at radio wavelengths, taken with the ALMA in December 2017. Dark bands in Uranus’ atmosphere at these wavelengths show the presence of radiowave-absorbing molecules, in particular hydrogen sulfide gas, whereas bright regions like the north polar spot contain very few of these molecules. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / E. Molter and I. de Pater.

Astronomers Snap Thermal Images of Uranian Ring System

Jun 24, 2019 by News Staff

The rings of the ice giant Uranus are invisible to all but the largest telescopes — they weren’t even discovered until 1977. However, they are...

Marine Biologists Identify First Narwhal-Beluga Hybrid

Jun 21, 2019 by News Staff

Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) and beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) are medium-sized toothed whales and the sole representatives of the Monodontidae...

Rock-boring and rock-ingesting Lithoredo abatanica shipworms live in carbonate limestone bedrock in the Abatan River on the Philippine Island of Bohol. Image credit: Dan Distel.

Rock-Eating Shipworm Discovered in Philippines

Jun 20, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international research team led by Northeastern University marine biologists has discovered a new genus and species of shipworm burrowing into the bedrock...

An artist’s impression of two planets orbiting Teegarden’s Star. Image credit: Institute for Astrophysics, University of Göttingen.

Two Earth-Mass Exoplanets Found in Habitable Zone around 8-Billion-Year-Old Red Dwarf

Jun 20, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exoearths with Near-infrared and optical Échelle Spectrographs) instrument...

An artist’s rendering of ancient Arctic hyenas belonging to the genus Chasmaporthetes. Image credit: Julius T. Csotonyi.

Hyenas Once Lived above Arctic Circle

Jun 19, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found two fossilized teeth of extinct cursorial hyenas (genus Chasmaporthetes) in the remote Old Crow River region in northern Yukon...

This is an artist’s impression of Çatalhöyük. Image credit: Dan Lewandowski.

Neolithic Çatalhöyük Experienced Modern Urban Problems

Jun 18, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has found that the inhabitants of the Neolithic settlement Çatalhöyük (7100-5950 BCE) experienced overcrowding,...

Milky Way Collided with Dark-Matter Dominated Galaxy Less Than Billion Years Ago

Jun 18, 2019 by News Staff

According to new research led by Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), the collision of the recently-discovered dwarf galaxy Antlia 2 with our Milky...

Kaminski et al show that, in only 33,000 years, domestication transformed the facial muscle anatomy of dogs specifically for facial communication with humans; dogs with expressive eyebrows had a selection advantage and ‘puppy dog eyes’ are the result of selection based on humans’ preferences. Image credit: JacLou DL.

Dogs Evolved New Muscles around Eyes to Better Communicate with Humans, Study Says

Jun 18, 2019 by News Staff

Domestication shaped wolves (Canis lupus) into dogs (Canis familiaris) and transformed both their behavior and their anatomy. A new study, published in...

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