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TESS Discovers Its Third Small Exoplanet: Sub-Neptune HD 21749b

TESS discovered three small exoplanets around nearby stars. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / MIT News.
Jan 9, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its third small exoplanet, named HD 21749b. The discovery will be reported in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. TESS discovered three small exoplanets around nearby stars. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / MIT News. HD 21749b is about 2.8 times Earth’s size, which puts it in the category of a sub-Neptune. Surprisingly, it is also a whopping 23 times...

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Hubble Captures Best Ever Image of Triangulum Galaxy

Jan 8, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking portrait of the Triangulum Galaxy, displaying a full spiral face aglow with the light of nearly...

Large Magellanic Cloud on Collision Course with Milky Way Galaxy

Jan 7, 2019 by News Staff

The Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy located approximately 163,000 light-years away, is on a collision course with the Milky Way with which it will...

The Yutu-2 rover moves across the far side of the Moon. Image credit: CNSA.

Chang’e-4 Probe Touches Down on Far Side of the Moon

Jan 4, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

At 9:26 p.m. EST on January 2, 2019 (2:26 a.m. GMT, 10:26 a.m. Beijing Time on January 3), China National Space Administration’s Chang’e-4 lunar probe...

This image taken by New Horizons’ Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) is the most detailed of Ultima Thule returned so far by the spacecraft. It was taken at 12:01 a.m. EST (5:01 a.m. GMT) on January 1, 2019, just 30 minutes before closest approach from a range of 18,000 miles (28,000 km). Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Ultima Thule is Contact Binary, New Horizons Team Says

Jan 3, 2019 by News Staff

New images from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft — taken from as close as 17,000 miles (27,000 km) on approach — revealed Ultima Thule as a...

JunoCam acquired three images of Io prior to when it entered eclipse, all showing a volcanic plume illuminated beyond the terminator; the image shown here, reconstructed from red, blue and green filter images, was acquired at 12:20 p.m. GMT on December 21, 2018; Juno was 186,411 miles (300,000 km) from Io. Image credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS.

Juno Observes Volcanic Plume on Io

Jan 3, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Juno orbiter has captured images of a volcanic plume on Jupiter’s moon Io during the mission’s 17th flyby of the giant planet. JunoCam acquired...

Researchers Identify Genetic Variant Responsible for Tuberculosis Vulnerability

Jan 3, 2019 by News Staff

A research team led by Rockefeller University scientists has discovered a genetic variant that makes people more vulnerable to tuberculosis, a disease...

Ultima Thule. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Returns First Clear Photo of Ultima Thule

Jan 2, 2019 by News Staff

NASA has released the first image from the historic Ultima Thule flyby taken with New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera. Ultima...

Just over 24 hours before its closest approach to Ultima Thule, New Horizons has sent back the first images that begin to reveal Ultima Thule’s shape. Image-sharpening techniques combining multiple images show that Ultima Thule is elongated, perhaps twice as long as it is wide. The spacecraft was approximately 1.2 million miles (1.9 million km) from Ultima Thule when this image was taken on December 30, 2018. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Arrives at Ultima Thule

Jan 1, 2019 by News Staff

After a journey of 13 years and 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km), NASA’s New Horizons probe had a close encounter with a Kuiper Belt object known as...

Artist’s impression of New Horizons encountering a Pluto-like object in the distant Kuiper Belt. Image credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI / Alex Parker.

New Horizons to Reach Ultima Thule on New Year’s Day: Watch Live

Dec 31, 2018 by News Staff

On January 1st, 2019, at 12:33 a.m. EST (5:33 a.m. GMT), NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will fly past a Kuiper Belt object known as 2014 MU69 (nicknamed...

Klobiodon rochei. Image credit: Mark Witton.

New Jurassic-Era Pterosaur Discovered in England

Dec 28, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists from the University of Portsmouth have discovered the fossilized remains of a new species of ancient flying reptile. Klobiodon rochei....

Andesite blocks at Pumpapunku. Image credit: Brattarb / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Pumapunku: Researchers Reconstruct Enigmatic Pre-Columbian Monument

Dec 27, 2018 by News Staff

The Pumapunku (Gateway of the Puma or Jaguar), a highly damaged pre-Columbian monument at the ancient archaeological site of Tiwanaku, Bolivia, has been...

Physarum polycephalum on an oak log. Image credit: Mushroom Observer / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Slime Mold Can Solve Exponentially Complicated Problems in Linear Time

Dec 26, 2018 by Sam Sander Effron

Researchers from Lanzhou University in China have shown that the slime mold Physarum polycephalum is able to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem, a combinatorial...

An artist’s impression of New Horizons encountering Ultima Thule. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / Alex Parker.

New Horizons Team Puzzled by Lack of Light Curve from Ultima Thule

Dec 25, 2018 by News Staff

Over the past three months, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has been taking images to measure the brightness of its next flyby target — a Kuiper...

The 51st known Mersenne prime has 24,862,048 digits. Image credit: Pete Linforth.

Largest Known Prime Number Has Almost 25 Million Digits

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

Professional and amateur mathematicians from a worldwide research project called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) have discovered the largest...

ALMA image of 46P/Wirtanen taken on December 2, 2018, as the comet approached Earth. The image shows the concentration and distribution of HCN molecules near the center of the comet’s coma. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / M. Cordiner / NASA / CUA.

ALMA Takes Close Look at Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) captured the radio image of 46P/Wirtanen on December 2, 2018, when the comet...

Perspective view of Korolev crater. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter Spots Water Ice-Filled Crater

Dec 21, 2018 by News Staff

New images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft show an impact crater in the northern lowlands of Mars. Known...

Life reconstruction of Saltriovenator zanellai. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna.

Saltriovenator zanellai: New Carnivorous Dinosaur Unveiled

Dec 20, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

A partial skeleton of a ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur unearthed over two decades ago in Italy has been recognized as belonging to a new genus and species. Life...

Material from the dusty and gas-rich disk (orange) plus hot gas (blue) mildly flows onto the star, creating a hot spot. Image credit: Caltech / T. Pyle, IPAC.

Astronomers Spot Young Star in ‘Growth Spurt’

Dec 19, 2018 by News Staff

A young star in the midst of a dramatic growth phase has been observed with the help of ESA’s Gaia satellite and NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field...

An artist’s concept of 2018 VG18. Image credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa / Carnegie Institution for Science.

2018 VG18 Farout: Astronomers Discover Most Distant Solar System Object Ever

Dec 18, 2018 by News Staff

Carnegie Institution astronomer Dr. Scott S. Sheppard, University of Hawaii’s Dr. David Tholen and Northern Arizona University’s Dr. Chad Trujillo...

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