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

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.
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 probably has a more Earthlike pH level and higher than previously known concentrations of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, providing more favorable conditions for microbial life in the ocean than previous estimates. A new study by Fifer et al suggests more favorable conditions for life in Enceladus’...

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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...

Almond kernels.

Almond Genome Sequenced

Jun 17, 2019 by News Staff

The domesticated almond tree (Prunus amygdalus) has been feeding humans for millennia. Derivation from the wild, bitter, and toxic almond required loss...

A specimen of Redlichia rex from the Emu Bay Shale, Kangaroo Island, Australia. Scale bar - 10 mm. Image credit: Holmes et al, doi: 10.1080/14772019.2019.1605411.

Giant Cambrian Trilobite Species Unearthed in Australia

Jun 14, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists have unearthed fossils of a giant trilobite species that inhabited Australian waters approximately 500 million years ago (Cambrian period). An...

No one knows what dark matter is, but this invisible form of matter makes up roughly a quarter of the Universe. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Dark Monopoles: Theoretical Physicists Propose New Candidate for Dark Matter

Jun 13, 2019 by News Staff

Professor John Terning and Dr. Christopher Verhaaren from the University of California, Davis, have a new candidate for dark matter — a dark monopole...

The surface of Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view; image scale is 1.6 km per pixel; north on Europa is at right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SETI Institute.

Hubble Spots Sodium Chloride on Jupiter’s Moon Europa

Jun 13, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the yellow color visible on portions of the surface of Europa, the second Galilean...

Study: Pterosaurs Had Remarkable Ability to Fly from Birth

Jun 12, 2019 by News Staff

Pterosaurs were winged flying reptiles that lived at the same time as dinosaurs, between 210 million and 65 million years ago. Previously, they were thought...

A northern pitcher plant with a trapped salamander. Image credit: M. Alex Smith.

Biologists Find Salamander-Eating Pitcher Plants in Canada

Jun 11, 2019 by News Staff

A team of biologists from the Universities of Guelph and Toronto has discovered that a species of carnivorous plant called the northern pitcher plant (Sarracenia...

The South Pole-Aitken Basin on the lunar far side is one of the largest and oldest impact features in the Solar System. It’s easily seen in the elevation data. The low center is dark blue and purple. Mountains on its edge, remnants of outer rings, are red and yellow. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / University of Arizona.

Mysterious Mass of Material Discovered Beneath Moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin

Jun 11, 2019 by News Staff

The South Pole-Aitken basin — the largest crater in the Solar System — is a gigantic impact structure on the far side of the Moon. Data from...

Scientists Find 1.2-Billion-Year-Old Impact Crater Off Coast of Scotland

Jun 10, 2019 by News Staff

A 3,300-foot- (1 km) wide asteroid struck our planet 1.2 billion years ago, according to new research published in the Journal of the Geological Society. An...

Hubble Looks at Explosive Spiral: NGC 4051

Jun 10, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a spectacularly detailed image of a spiral galaxy called NGC 4051. This Hubble image shows the intermediate...

An artist’s reconstruction of Fostoria dhimbangunmal. Image credit: James Kuether.

New Herbivorous Dinosaur Species Identified in Australia: Fostoria dhimbangunmal

Jun 7, 2019 by News Staff

A new species of two-legged iguanodontian dinosaur has been identified from fossils discovered three decades ago in an opal mine in Australia. A paper...

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