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Saturn’s Northern Storms Cause Disturbances in Its ‘Heartbeat’

Saturn’s Great Northern Storm churning through the atmosphere in the planet’s northern hemisphere overtakes itself as it encircles the planet in this true-color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This picture, captured on February 25, 2011, was taken about 12 weeks after the storm began, and the clouds by this time had formed a tail that wrapped around the gas giant. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.
Dec 31, 2017 by News Staff

Giant storms in Saturn’s northern hemisphere can disturb atmospheric patterns at the ringed giant’s equator, according to new research published in the journal Nature Astronomy. Saturn’s Great Northern Storm churning through the atmosphere in the planet’s northern hemisphere overtakes itself as it encircles the planet in this true-color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This picture, captured on February 25, 2011, was taken about 12 weeks...

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2014 MU69, the next flyby target of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, might have a moon. Image credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI.

Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 Might Have a Small Moon

Dec 29, 2017 by News Staff

The upcoming encounter of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft with 2014 MU69 will be an important and rare opportunity for close-up study of a Kuiper Belt...

This colorful image shows the sky around the bright pair of stars π1 Gruis (center-right, very red) and π2 Gruis (center-left, bluish-white). Just right of center the bright spiral galaxy IC 5201 is also visible and many other fainter galaxies are scattered across this wide-field image from the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Image credit: ESO / Digitized Sky Survey 2 / Davide De Martin.

Astronomers Observe Huge ‘Granules’ on Surface of Red Giant Star

Dec 29, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by ESO astronomer Claudia Paladini has directly observed granules — patterns of convection currents in the...

The golden-collared manakin (Manacus vitellinus). Image credit: Sebastian Moreno / CC BY-ND 2.0.

Amazon’s First Hybrid Bird Species Found: Golden-Crowned Manakin

Dec 27, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of ornithologists has revealed that a rare Amazonian bird called the golden-crowned manakin (Lepidothrix vilasboasi) — first...

This image shows an enormous, balloon-like bubble (center) being blown into space by a super-hot, massive Wolf-Rayet star. Image credit: NASA / ESA / F. Summers, G. Bacon, Z. Levay, and L. Frattare (Viz 3D Team, STScI).

Solar System May Have Been Born in Wolf-Rayet Bubble

Dec 26, 2017 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the University of Chicago and Clemson University has laid out a theory for how our Solar System could have formed in the dense...

Artistic reconstruction of Habelia optata. This creature and its relatives were active predators of the Cambrian sea floors, hunting for small shelly sea creatures, such as small trilobites -- arthropods with hard, mineralized exoskeletons that were already very diverse and abundant during Cambrian times. Image credit: Joanna Liang, Royal Ontario Museum.

Cambrian Sea Predator Had ‘Jackknife’ Head

Dec 25, 2017 by News Staff

Habelia optata, a close relative of the ancestor of modern-day spiders, scorpions and horseshoe crabs, evolved an extremely complex head to hunt and eat...

This transmission electron microscopic image depicts the ultrastructural details of an influenza virus particle. Image credit: Erskine L. Palmer & M.L. Martin / CDC.

New Diagnostic Test Could Help Detect Respiratory Viral Infection Faster

Dec 25, 2017 by News Staff

According to a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, a new test that measures mRNAs or proteins in human nasal epithelial cells could...

This artist’s concept depicts the dry environment seen at Mars today versus the early Martian environment. Image credit: Simon Fraser University.

Study: Martian Surface Water Was Absorbed by Planet’s Crust

Dec 24, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Nature, the Sun may not have evaporated away all of the Martian surface water after all; instead, Mars’...

Iberian ribbed newts (Pleurodeles waltl). Image credit: Peter Halasz / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists Sequence Salamander Genome

Dec 22, 2017 by Natali Anderson

An international team of researchers led by Karolinska Institutet scientists has successfully sequenced and analyzed the genome of a species of salamander...

This illustration shows a ‘disrupted planet’ broken up into a cloud of gas and dust as it orbits RZ Piscium. Image credit: NASA.

Young Star RZ Piscium is ‘Eating’ Its Own Planets, Astronomers Say

Dec 22, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers studying RZ Piscium, a variable Sun-like star located approximately 555 light-years away in the constellation Pisces, have found evidence suggesting...

Research conducted in laboratories has previously shown that bacteria can stay alive at extremely cold temperatures, but the new study by Redeker et al is the first time that bacteria have been observed altering the polar snow environment in situ. Image credit: Robyn M.

Researchers Directly Observe Microbial Activity in Polar Snow for First Time

Dec 21, 2017 by News Staff

An international team led by University of York researchers has directly observed microbial activity in Antarctic and Arctic snow — an environment...

Mysterious X-Ray Signal from Perseus Galaxy Cluster Points to Dark Matter

Dec 21, 2017 by News Staff

In 2014, a team of astrophysicists reported the detection of an unusual emission line in X-ray light from the Perseus cluster, a cluster of galaxies 240...

This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Breakthrough Listen: No Artificial Signals Found Emanating from Interstellar Asteroid Oumuamua

Dec 19, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers from the Breakthrough Listen initiative are reporting preliminary results and making initial data available from its observations of 1I/2017...

3.465-billion-year-old fossil microbes indicate that life in the Universe is common. Image credit: Reimund Bertrams.

Study: Simple Life Forms are Common throughout Universe

Dec 19, 2017 by News Staff

A detailed analysis of 3.465-billion-year-old microbial microfossils provides evidence to support an increasingly widespread understanding that life in...

This artist’s impression shows ‘Oumuamua. Image credit: Joy Pollard / Gemini Observatory / AURA / NSF.

Interstellar Asteroid Oumuamua Has Grayish-Red Organic-Rich Surface Layer, Astronomers Say

Dec 19, 2017 by News Staff

In October 2017, astronomers made a surprising discovery with the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawai’i — 1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua, the first asteroid...

Viruses Can Transfer Genes Across Domains of Life, Research Shows

Dec 19, 2017 by News Staff

Viruses can transfer genes to organisms they are not known to infect, including organisms in different domains (superkingdoms) of life, according to a...

Reconstruction of Protarctos abstrusus in the Beaver Pond site area during the late summer. An extinct beaver, Dipoides, is shown carrying a tree branch in water. Plants include black crowberry (Empetrum nigrum) with ripened berries along the path of the bear, dwarf birch (Betula nana) in foreground; sweet gale (Myrica gale) carried by the beaver, sedges in water margins, flowering buckbeans along the mounds behind the beaver, and larch trees in distant background. Image credit: Mauricio Antón / Alice Telka.

Protarctos abstrusus: Ancient Primitive Bear Had a Sweet Tooth

Dec 18, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of paleontologists has found the remains of an unusual prehistoric bear that lived 3.5 million years ago (Pliocene epoch) in Canada’s...

Cordillera Azul Antbird: New Bird Species Discovered in Peru

Dec 15, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

A distinctive new species of antbird has been discovered in the humid montane forests of the San Martin region in north-central Peru. The Cordillera Azul...

Eight Exoplanets Orbit Sun-Like Star Kepler-90

Dec 15, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers reports the discovery of an eighth planet orbiting Kepler-90, a Sun-like star approximately 2,545 light-years from Earth in the constellation...

Andatu, the first Sumatran rhino to be born at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, and his mother, Ratu. Image credit: S. Ellis / International Rhino Foundation / CC BY 2.0.

Sumatran Rhinoceros Genome Sequenced

Dec 15, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has produced the first whole-genome sequence for the endangered Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), the...

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