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Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus). Image credit: Holger Detje.

Koala Genome Sequenced

Jul 3, 2018 by News Staff

The Koala Genome Consortium, a research group that includes 54 scientists from 29 different institutions across seven countries, has produced the first...

This image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of an exoplanet caught in the very act of formation. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. Image credit: ESO / A. Müller et al.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Directly Images Newborn Exoplanet

Jul 3, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope have found an infant gas giant orbiting the young dwarf star PDS 70. Not only have...

This artistic concept shows Kepler-186f. Image credit: NASA Ames / SETI Institute / JPL-CalTech.

Study: Habitable Zone Exoplanets Kepler-62f and Kepler-186f Have Stable Climate, Regular Seasons

Jun 29, 2018 by News Staff

New research from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics suggests that exoplanets Kepler-62f and Kepler-186f...

Theosodon arozquetai (left) and Llullataruca shockeyi. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski.

Paleontologists Discover Two New Hoofed Mammals from Miocene Epoch

Jun 29, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of paleontologists has identified two new species of ancient mammals that lived about 13 million years ago (middle Miocene epoch)...

This artist’s painting of the south polar region of Enceladus shows massive jets of water ice being blasted into space. Image credit: Karl Kofoed / NASA.

Cassini Scientists Find Complex Organic Molecules in Geyser-Like Plumes of Enceladus

Jun 28, 2018 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, a research team led by University of Heidelberg scientists Frank Postberg and Nozair Khawaja found that complex,...

This artist’s impression shows ‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered in our Solar System. Recent observations show that the object is moving faster than predicted while leaving the Solar System. Astronomers assume that venting material from its surface due to solar heating is responsible for this behavior. This outgassing can be seen in this artist’s impression as a subtle cloud being ejected from the side of the object facing the Sun. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Oumuamua Turns Out to Be Interstellar Comet After All

Jun 28, 2018 by News Staff

1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua — the first known object of extrasolar origin discovered within the Solar System — has been the subject of intense scrutiny...

One of the four images of an Australasian cockatoo gifted to Frederick II of Sicily by the Kurdish al-Malik Muhammad al-Kamil, the ‘Sultan of Babylon.’ Codex Ms. Pal. Lat 1071, folio 20r. Image credit: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.

Images of Australasian Cockatoo on 13th-Century Sicilian Manuscript Spark Rethink on Medieval Trade Routes

Jun 27, 2018 by News Staff

Four sketches and a written description of a white cockatoo survive in a mid 13th-century manuscript from Sicily, now held in the Vatican Library, according...

Modern turacos, like these Knysna turacos (Tauraco corythaix), are tree-dwelling and live exclusively in sub-Saharan Africa. Image credit: Anton Frolich / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Enigmatic Fossil Shows Turacos Once Lived in North America

Jun 26, 2018 by News Staff

New research reveals that a well-preserved 52-million-year-old bird fossil specimen from the early Eocene of Wyoming, the United States, is from a previously...

The East Antarctic Plateau is a windswept desolate expanse the size off Australia with few bases or instruments. Image credit: Ted Scambos, National Snow and Ice Data Center / University of Colorado Boulder.

Coldest Place on Earth: Study Explains East Antarctica’s Ultra-Low Surface Temperatures

Jun 26, 2018 by News Staff

When Dr. Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, and co-authors first...

Exoplanet Biosignatures: Will We Be Able to Recognize Extraterrestrial Life If We See It?

Jun 26, 2018 by News Staff

A team of leading astronomers, biologists and geologists have come together under the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS), a NASA research coordination...

Early Devonian Fish Had Platypus-Like Snout

Jun 25, 2018 by News Staff

Brindabellaspis stensioi, a remarkable placoderm fish that swam about 400 million years ago (Early Devonian period), had a long snout, reminiscent of a...

An artist’s impression of HD 73344b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

NASA’s Kepler K2 Mission Discovers 78 New Exoplanet Candidates

Jun 22, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA Kepler spacecraft’s reborn K2 mission announced this week the discovery of 78 new potential exoplanets: 30 high-quality planet candidates and...

An electron micrograph of human herpesvirus-6 particles. Image credit: Bernard Kramarsky / Laboratory Of Tumor Cell Biology, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Scientists Find High Levels of Two Herpesvirus Strains in Brains of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients

Jun 21, 2018 by News Staff

Herpesviruses 6A and 7 (HHV-6A and HHV-7) — two of the nine known members of the Herpesviridae family that infect humans — are found in the...

Artist’s impression of the exoplanet Wolf 503b and its host star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Wolf 503b: Large Exoplanet Found 145 Light-Years Away

Jun 20, 2018 by Sergio Prostak

An extrasolar planet larger than the Earth has been discovered orbiting a nearby cool star, thanks to data gathered by NASA’s Kepler/K2 mission. Artist’s...

An artist’s impression of a starburst galaxy. This kind of galaxy is typically forming stars at such a high rate; they can form up to 1,000 times more stars per year, compared to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Astronomers Find Too Many Massive Stars in Nearby and Distant Star-Forming Galaxies

Jun 19, 2018 by News Staff

Two independent teams of astronomers have discovered that both starburst galaxies in the early Universe and a star-forming region in a nearby galaxy called...

An artist’s impression of an ancient ecosystem. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna.

Bite Marks on East Coast Dinosaur Bones Illuminate Ancient Coastal Ecosystem

Jun 18, 2018 by News Staff

One might expect a dig site in some far-off desert when thinking of a paleontological discovery. Nevertheless, new finds are often made in museum collections. An...

Artist’s impression of a potentially habitable exomoon orbiting a giant planet. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers Identify 121 Gas Giants that May Have Habitable Moons

Jun 15, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers from the United States, Australia, and Brazil has identified 121 giant exoplanets in the habitable zones of their...

Burmese Amber Preserves 99-Million-Year-Old Tropical Frogs

Jun 15, 2018 by News Staff

In a paper published this week in the journal Scientific Reports, paleontologists have described an extinct genus and species of frog, Electrorana limoae,...

Colony of Chroococcidiopsis thermalis cells where the different colors represent photosynthesis driven by chlorophyll-a (magenta) and chlorophyll-f (yellow). Image credit: Dennis Nuernberg.

Scientists Discover New Type of Photosynthesis

Jun 15, 2018 by News Staff

The vast majority of life on our planet uses red light (680 to 700 nm) in the process of photosynthesis, but the new type uses near-infrared light (750...