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Dust from Disintegrated Asteroid Triggered Mid-Ordovician Ice Age

Schmitz et al argue that the mid-Ordovician ice age was caused by global cooling, triggered by extra dust in the atmosphere of Earth from the breakup of a giant asteroid in the main asteroid belt. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Sep 19, 2019 by News Staff

There’s always a lot of extraterrestrial dust floating down to Earth, but this dust is normally only a tiny fraction of the other dust in our atmosphere such as volcanic ash, dust from deserts and sea salt. But when a 93-mile (150 km) wide asteroid broke apart in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter some 466 million years ago (the middle of the Ordovician period), it created way more dust than usual. Schmitz et al argue that the mid-Ordovician...

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NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Saturn’s Rings are as Old as Solar System Itself, Study Suggests

Sep 18, 2019 by News Staff

The famous ring system of Saturn may be much older than some planetary scientists think, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. NASA’s...

Artist’s illustration showing a massive exoplanet falling into its host star -- one of the possible explanations for the strange dimming of KIC 8462852. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Alfred Vidal-Madjar, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS.

Melting Exomoon May Explain Long-Term Dimming of Milky Way’s ‘Most-Mysterious Star’

Sep 18, 2019 by News Staff

A team of astrophysicists from Columbia University proposes that the strange long-term dimming of the KIC 8462852 star (also known as Tabby’s star or...

Rudapithecus hungaricus was pretty ape-like and probably moved among branches like apes do now. However, it would have differed from modern great apes by having a more flexible lower back, which would mean when Rudapithecus hungaricus came down to the ground, it might have had the ability to stand upright more like humans do. Image credit: John Siddick.

Miocene Hominid Fossil Sheds New Light on Evolution of Human Bipedalism

Sep 18, 2019 by News Staff

Researchers have analyzed a pelvis of the 10 million-year-old fossil ape Rudapithecus hungaricus and found that human bipedalism might possibly have deeper...

Protodontopteryx ruthae. Image credit: Derek Onley / Canterbury Museum.

Bony-Toothed Seabird Lived in New Zealand 62 Million Years Ago

Sep 18, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found the remains of a pelagornithid bird that lived 62 million years ago (early Paleocene epoch) in New Zealand. Protodontopteryx...

Astronomers Find Most Massive Neutron Star Ever Discovered

Sep 17, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using NSF’s Green Bank Telescope have identified a record breaking neutron star with the highest mass yet known. The object, called MSP J0740+6620,...

Wild Chinese giant salamander. Image credit: Ben Tapley, Zoological Society of London.

Two New Giant Salamander Species Identified

Sep 17, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United Kingdom, Canada and China has discovered there are not just one but three distinct species of Chinese giant salamanders....

This composite image, obtained by the Gemini North Multi-Object Spectrograph on the 8.2-m Gemini North telescope, shows the interstellar comet C/2019 Q4. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / NSF / AURA / Travis Rector.

Astronomers Observe Interstellar Comet C/2019 Q4

Sep 16, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

Using several ground-based telescopes on La Palma and Hawaii, astronomers have observed C/2019 Q4, the first-known interstellar comet and the second-known...

Comet C/2019 Q4. Image credit: G. Borisov.

C/2019 Q4: Second Interstellar Object Spotted in Our Solar System

Sep 16, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers have spotted what they believe is the second object of interstellar origin ever observed in the Solar System. Comet C/2019 Q4. Image credit:...

Radio image of the center of the Milky Way with a portion of the MeerKAT telescope array in the foreground. Image credit: University of Oxford / SARAO.

Astronomers Detect Giant Radio Bubbles in Milky Way’s Center

Sep 12, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the MeerKAT telescope at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory have spotted a pair of enormous radio-emitting bubbles in the...

This artist’s impression shows planets K2-18b and c and their host star. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.

Astronomers Detect Water in Atmosphere of Habitable-Zone Super-Earth K2-18b

Sep 12, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have detected water vapor in the atmosphere of K2-18b, a planet of eight Earth masses in the habitable...

This artist’s concept of a lake at the north pole of Titan illustrates raised rims and rampartlike features such as those seen by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft around the moon’s Winnipeg Lacus. New research using Cassini radar data and modeling proposes that lake basins like these are likely explosion craters, which could have formed when liquid molecular nitrogen deposits within the crust warmed and quickly turned to vapor, blowing holes in the moon’s crust. This would have happened during a warming event (or events) that occurred in a colder, nitrogen-dominated period in Titan’s past. The study may provide evidence of these cold periods in Titan’s past, followed by a relative warming to conditions like those of today. Although Titan is frigid compared to Earth, methane in the atmosphere provides a greenhouse effect that warms the moon’s surface. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Titan’s Small Methane-Filled Lakes are Explosion Craters: Study

Sep 11, 2019 by News Staff

Small methane-filled lakes on the surface of Titan were likely formed by explosive, pressurized nitrogen just under the hazy moon’s surface, according...

Cryodrakon boreas. Image credit: David Maas.

New Pterosaur Species Identified in Canada

Sep 11, 2019 by News Staff

Cretaceous pterosaur remains discovered in the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta have been identified as a new genus and species, Cryodrakon boreas. Cryodrakon...

Hoaxed photo of the Loch Ness ‘monster’ from April 21, 1934.

Scientists Find Significant Amount of Eel DNA in Loch Ness

Sep 10, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has announced the results of investigations into the environmental DNA (eDNA) present in Loch Ness, a large freshwater...

Mathematicians Solve Sum-of-Three-Cubes Problem for Number 42

Sep 9, 2019 by News Staff

University of Bristol’s Professor Andrew Booker and MIT Professor Andrew Sutherland have found a solution to x3 + y3 + z3 = 42, the famous 65-year-old...

An artist’s reconstruction of the gateway and drain at the ancient city of Harappa. Image credit: Chris Sloan.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Ancient Harappan Woman

Sep 9, 2019 by News Staff

A multinational team of scientists has sequenced the first genome of an individual from the Harappan Civilization. The genome, which belongs to a woman...

Life reconstruction of Kamuysaurus japonicus with a carcass of a mosasaur (Phosphorosaurus ponpetelegans), a sea turtle (Mesodermochelys undulates), and shells of ammonoids (Patagiosites compressus and Gaudryceras hobetsense) and bivalves (Nannonavis elongatus) on the beach. Image credit: Kobayashi et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-48607-1.

New Duck-Billed Dinosaur Unveiled: Kamuysaurus japonicus

Sep 6, 2019 by Natali Anderson

A new genus and species of hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur has been identified from bones discovered six years ago in Japan. Life reconstruction of...

A graphic thermal image of a T. rex with its dorsotemporal fenestra glowing on the skull. Image credit: Brian Engh.

Tyrannosaurus rex Had ‘Thermostat’ in Its Head

Sep 5, 2019 by News Staff

Tyrannosaurus rex, a species of carnivorous dinosaur that lived about 68 million years ago, had an internal thermostat in its head, according to a study...

The asteroid (6478) Gault is seen with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, showing two narrow, comet-like tails of debris that tell us that the asteroid is slowly undergoing self-destruction. The bright streaks surrounding the asteroid are background stars. Image credit: NASA / ESA / K. Meech & J. Kleyna, University of Hawaii / O. Hainaut, European Southern Observatory.

Astronomers Find Color-Shifting Asteroid

Sep 4, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility have caught an active asteroid called (6478) Gault in the act of changing color — in the near-infrared...

A composite image of Venus as seen by JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft. Image credit: Institute of Space and Astronautical Science / Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Unidentified ‘Absorbers’ Soak Up Solar Energy in Upper Cloud Layer of Venus

Sep 4, 2019 by News Staff

Venus’ surface has never been seen by the human eye because of opaque, highly reflective clouds which permanently cover the planet. What is curious about...

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