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The 2.12-million-year-old stone artifact at the Shangchen site, China. Image credit: Zhaoyu Zhu.

2.1-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools Unearthed in China

Jul 12, 2018 by News Staff

Archaeologists working in the southern Chinese Loess Plateau have unearthed stone tools crafted at least 2.1 million years ago by early humans. The discovery,...

This artist’s impression shows Ross 128b, with the red dwarf star Ross 128 in the background. This system is located in the constellation of Virgo, about 11 light-years away. Ross 128b is 20 times closer to the star than the Earth is to the Sun, and takes just 9.9 days to circle it. The planet’s equilibrium temperature is estimated to be 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius). Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Exoplanet Ross 128b Likely Has Temperate Climate: Study

Jul 11, 2018 by News Staff

Understanding which chemical elements are present in a star in what abundances can help astronomers estimate the makeup of planets that orbit them, which...

Biogeochemist Dr. Janet Hope holds an ampoule with pink colored porphyrins. Image credit: Australian National University.

Bright Pink is Oldest Color in Geological Record

Jul 10, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from Australia, Japan, the United States and Belgium has successfully extracted bright pink biological pigments from...

An artist’s conception of PSO J352.4034-15.3373, with disk of material orbiting the black hole and jet of fast-moving particles ejected into space. Image credit: Robin Dienel / Carnegie Institution for Science.

Radio-Bright Quasar May Provide Clues about Physical Processes in Early Universe’s Galaxies

Jul 10, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using NSF’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) have found a quasar with the brightest radio emission ever observed in the early Universe. An...

Canadian Eskimo dogs. Illustration by John James Audubon and John Bachman (1845-1848).

New World’s First Dogs Came from Siberia: Study

Jul 9, 2018 by News Staff

According to a study published in the journal Science, the earliest New World dogs were not domesticated from North American wolves; instead, they form...

An artist’s impression of the triple star system PSR J0337+1715, which is located about 4,200 light-years from Earth. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

Scientists Test Einstein’s Theory of Gravity on Unique Triple-Star System

Jul 5, 2018 by News Staff

In a new test of Einstein’s theory of gravity, a group of astronomers from the Netherlands, the United States, Australia and Canada has demonstrated...

An impression of the encounter between the Milky Way and the Sausage dwarf galaxy. Image credit: V. Belokurov / Juan Carlos Muñoz / ESO.

‘Sausage’ Galaxy Crashed into Milky Way 8-10 Billion Years Ago

Jul 5, 2018 by News Staff

An unknown dwarf galaxy, dubbed ‘Sausage’ galaxy, smashed into our own Milky Way Galaxy around 8 to 10 billion years ago, a team of astronomers suggests....

Camargo 1102. Image credit: Denilso Camargo, doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/aacc68.

Astronomer Discovers Five New Globular Clusters

Jul 4, 2018 by Sergio Prostak

Using images from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), Dr. Denilso Camargo of the Colégio Militar de Porto Alegre, Brazil, has discovered...

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...