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This composite image shows the central region of the Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESA / CXC / STScI.

Hubble Discovers Origin of Mysterious Gas Cloud Heading toward Milky Way

Mar 23, 2018 by News Staff

In a cosmic tug-of-war between Large and Small Magellanic Clouds — two dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way — only the NASA/ESA Hubble Space...

Scholz’s star flew through the Oort Cloud 70,000 years ago. Image credit: José A. Peñas / SINC.

Scholz’s Star Disturbed Oort Cloud Objects 70,000 Years Ago

Mar 21, 2018 by Natali Anderson

About 70,000 years ago, a binary stellar system called ‘Scholz’s star’ passed within only 52,000 astronomical units (AU) of the Sun, i.e., within...

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

Interstellar Asteroid Oumuamua Likely Came from Double Star System

Mar 20, 2018 by News Staff

1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua, the first asteroid of extrasolar origin identified in the Solar System, likely came from a binary star system, according to new...

The Waorani dog-faced bat (Cynomops tonkigui) in Ecuador. Image credit: Diego Tirira.

Two New Dog-Faced Bat Species Discovered

Mar 19, 2018 by News Staff

Two new species of dog-faced bats have been discovered in the tropical forests of Central and South America. Both new species are described in the March...

Solenodon Genome Sequenced

Mar 19, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of scientists has sequenced and assembled the genome of a venomous shrew-like insectivore called the Hispaniolan solenodon. The Hispaniolan...

Hunter-gatherers. Image credit: T.P.S. Dave.

Humans Interbred with Denisovans Twice in History, Researchers Discover

Mar 16, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Washington and Princeton University has found that the genomes of two groups of modern humans with Denisovan...

On October 19, 2014, Comet Siding Spring made a remarkably close encounter with Mars, buzzing the planet at just one third of the Earth-Moon distance. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Physicists Solve Mystery of Why Comets Emit X-Rays

Mar 15, 2018 by News Staff

The long-standing mystery of why comets give off X-ray emission has been solved by a group of experimental physicists led by the University of Oxford,...

This image of the Great Red Spot was taken on July 10, 2017, as Juno performed its seventh close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 8,648 miles (13,917 km) from the tops of the clouds of the planet. Image credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS.

Great Red Spot Getting Taller as It Shrinks, Planetary Scientists Say

Mar 15, 2018 by News Staff

Planetary scientists have noticed that Jupiter’s most distinctive feature — the Great Red Spot (GRS) — has been getting smaller in area over...

According to Meurer et al, galaxies behave as clocks, rotating once a billion years at the very outskirts of their discs. This Hubble image shows the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101. Image credit: NASA / ESA / K. Kuntz, JHU / F. Bresolin, University of Hawaii / J. Trauger, JPL / J. Mould, NOAO / Y.-H. Chu, UIUC / STScI.

Cosmic Clocks: Galaxies Behave Like Clocks, Rotating Once Every Billion Years

Mar 15, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers from Australia, China and the United States has discovered that all galaxies rotate once every billion years, no matter...

This view shows the entire sky at energies greater than 1 GeV based on five years of data from the LAT instrument on NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope; the most prominent feature is the bright band of diffuse glow along the map’s center, which marks the central plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: NASA / DOE / Fermi LAT Collaboration.

Mysterious Gamma-Ray Signal Comes from Ancient Stars at Milky Way’s Center

Mar 14, 2018 by News Staff

An international group of researchers has discovered that an anomalous gamma-ray signal from Milky Way’s center comes from 10 billion-year-old stars,...

An artist’s impression of what Archaeopteryx lithographica, one of the earliest known birds, would have looked like in flight. Image credit: Carl Buell / Nicholas Longrich.

Archaeopteryx Was Active Flyer, Paleontologists Say

Mar 14, 2018 by News Staff

Archaeopteryx is an iconic fossil species with feathered wings from the Late Jurassic of Germany. The question of whether this dino-bird was an elaborately...

Astronomers Find ‘Relic Galaxy’ in Milky Way’s Backyard

Mar 14, 2018 by News Staff

NGC 1277, a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Perseus, about 220 million light-years from us, has remained essentially unchanged for the past ten...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Neanderthal Healthcare Was Widespread and Effective, Research Reveals

Mar 13, 2018 by News Staff

Our ancient cousins, Neanderthals have an unwarranted image as brutish and uncaring, but new research has revealed just how knowledgeable and effective...

The hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus). Image credit: Brian Gratwicke / CC BY 2.0.

Hogfish Can ‘See’ with Its Skin

Mar 13, 2018 by News Staff

Researchers have long suspected that color-changing animals like hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus) don’t just rely on their eyes to tune their appearance...

In this Hubble image, we see NGC 1015 face-on, with its beautifully symmetrical swirling arms and bright central bulge. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Riess, STScl & JHU.

Hubble Space Telescope Looks at Stunning Spiral Galaxy: NGC 1015

Mar 12, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this beautiful image of the spiral galaxy NGC 1015, also known as LEDA 9988, UGC 2124 and SDSS J023811.55-011907.5. In...

Enterococcus gallinarum (orange dots) in liver tissue. Image credit: Vieira et al.

Study: Gut Bacteria Trigger Autoimmune Disease

Mar 12, 2018 by News Staff

Enterococcus gallinarum, a species of bacterium found in the small intestines of humans and mice, can travel to other organs and trigger an autoimmune...

JunoCam took this image during its eleventh close flyby of Jupiter on February 7, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / David Marriott.

Juno Mission Team Reports New Results from Jupiter

Mar 8, 2018 by News Staff

New data gathered by NASA’s Juno orbiter indicate that Jupiter’s winds run deep into its atmosphere and last longer than similar atmospheric processes...

This composite image, derived from data collected by the JIRAM instrument aboard NASA’s Juno orbiter, shows the central cyclone at Jupiter’s north pole and the eight cyclones that encircle it. JIRAM collects data in infrared, and the colors in this composite represent radiant heat: the yellow (thinner) clouds are about 9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 13 degrees Celsius) in brightness temperature and the dark red (thickest) are around minus 181 degrees Fahrenheit (83 degrees Celsius). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / ASI / INAF / JIRAM.

Juno Finds Clusters of Cyclones on Jupiter’s Poles

Mar 8, 2018 by News Staff

Jupiter has no tilt as it moves, so its poles have never been visible from our planet. But in the past two years, with NASA’s Juno spacecraft, researchers...

Paleontologists Find ‘Bubbles of Oxygen’ in 1.6-Billion-Year-Old Stromatolites

Mar 6, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international research team led by Swedish Museum of Natural History scientists has found that stromatolites (solid, laminar structures of biological...