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NASA’s K2 Mission Discovers 95 New Extrasolar Planets

After detecting the first exoplanets in the 1990s it has become clear that planets around other stars are the rule rather than the exception and there are likely hundreds of billions of exoplanets in the Milky Way alone. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / ESO / M. Kornmesser.
Feb 16, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using data from NASA’s extended Kepler mission, known as K2, have discovered 95 new exoplanets, with sizes ranging from mostly rocky super-Earths and fluffy mini-Neptunes to Jupiter-like gaseous giants. After detecting the first exoplanets in the 1990s it has become clear that planets around other stars are the rule rather than the exception and there are likely hundreds of billions of exoplanets in the Milky Way alone. Image credit:...

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Mars is kept company by two cratered moons -- an inner moon named Phobos and an outer moon named Deimos. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Malin Space Science Systems / Texas A&M University.

Tiny Martian Moons Hint at Red Planet’s Adolescent Rejection

Feb 13, 2018 by James Romero

Like a teenage diary you can’t throw away, Mars might carry a reminder of its difficult formative years in its tiny moons. A paper published by the Royal...

Researchers have demonstrated that cells of naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber) undergo cellular senescence similarly to mouse cells but have distinct features that may explain the species’ low cancer and aging rates, such as being more resistant to DNA damage and undergoing metabolic reprogramming. Image credit: Benny Mazur / CC BY 2.0.

Resistance to DNA Damage and Downregulation of Metabolic Processes May Contribute to Low Cancer Rates in Naked Mole Rats

Feb 13, 2018 by Zvi Cramer

Scientists have revealed that senescent naked mole rat cells downregulate key metabolic processes and are more resistant to DNA damage than their mouse...

This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid -- 1I/2017 U1 (’Oumuamua). Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Interstellar Asteroid Oumuamua Had Violent Past, Say Researchers

Feb 12, 2018 by News Staff

1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua, the first asteroid of extrasolar origin identified in our Solar System, has had a violent past which is causing it to tumble around...

Candelarhynchus padillai. Image credit: Oksana Vernygora.

Candelarhynchus padillai: New Species of Lizardfish, 90 Million Years Old

Feb 9, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered a new species of fossil fish from 90 million-year-old (Cretaceous period) deposits in Colombia. A paper reporting this...

Visualization of molecular dynamics simulations showing the fast diffusion of hydrogen ions (pink trajectories) within the solid lattice of oxygen in superionic ice. Image credit: S. Hamel / M. Millot / J.Wickboldt / LLNL / NIF.

Physicists Create New Form of Water

Feb 8, 2018 by News Staff

After many years of experiments, physicists have observed that under extreme temperatures and pressures, water takes on a new form called superionic ice....

Chimerarachne yingi resembles a spider in having fangs, male pedipalps, four walking legs and silk-producing spinnerets at its rear. However, it also bears a long tail. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

Remarkable Tailed Arachnid Found in Burmese Amber

Feb 7, 2018 by News Staff

A remarkable tailed arachnid found in the mid-Cretaceous (approximately 100 million years ago) Burmese amber of Myanmar documents a key transition stage...

Jedek is spoken by about 280 individuals in northern Peninsular Malaysia. Image credit: Lund University.

Previously Unknown Language Emerges in Malaysia

Feb 7, 2018 by News Staff

A team of linguists from Lund University in Sweden announced this week they have identified an endangered minority language known as Jedek that is spoken...

Hubble Probes Atmospheres of TRAPPIST-1 Habitable-Zone Planets

Feb 6, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have conducted the first spectroscopic survey of exoplanets within the habitable zone around TRAPPIST-1....

This artist’s impression compares TRAPPIST-1 planets to the Earth at the same scale. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

TRAPPIST-1 Planets Are All Rocky, Contain Significant Amounts of Water

Feb 6, 2018 by News Staff

A new study has found that planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, an ultracool dwarf star 38.8 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, are mostly made of...

View of the tunnel where the TOTEM experiment’s proton detectors are located. Image credit: TOTEM Collaboration.

CERN Physicists Find Evidence of Long-Sought Quasiparticle: Odderon

Feb 5, 2018 by News Staff

Physicists from the TOTEM experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider have uncovered evidence of a subatomic quasiparticle dubbed an ‘odderon’ that...

Dual immunotherapy led to shrinkage of distant tumors and long-term survival of the animals, even in a stringent spontaneous tumor model. Image credit: Rilson S. Avelar.

Dual Immunotherapy Eliminates Tumors in Animal Cancer Models

Feb 5, 2018 by News Staff

Injecting amounts of two immune-stimulating agents directly into tumors in multiple types of mouse cancer models can eliminate all traces of cancer, according...

A view from from ridge in Mars’ Gale Crater. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity Sends Home Spectacular Panorama

Feb 1, 2018 by News Staff

A new panoramic image from Curiosity provides a sweeping vista of the interior and rim of Gale Crater, including much of the rover’s route during its...

ALMA detected methanol, dimethyl ether, and methyl formate in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The far-infrared image on the left shows the full galaxy. The zoom-in image shows the star-forming region observed by ALMA. It is a combination of mid-infrared data from Spitzer and visible (H-alpha) data from the Blanco 4-m telescope. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / Herschel / ESA / NASA / JPL-Caltech / NOAO.

ALMA Detects Complex Organic Molecules in Large Magellanic Cloud

Feb 1, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have uncovered chemical ‘fingerprints’ of three complex organic molecules...

The Mexican axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum). Image credit: Bouboulski / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Axolotl Genome Sequenced

Jan 31, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of researchers has successfully sequenced, assembled and analyzed the genome of the Mexican axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum), an enigmatic...

Life reconstruction of Mansourasaurus shahinae. Image credit: Andrew McAfee, Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

New Species of Titanosaur Unearthed in Egypt: Mansourasaurus shahinae

Jan 30, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists in Egypt have found fossil fragments from a new species of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur that walked the Earth around 80 million years...

Artist’s impression of the trio of super-Earth exoplanets. Image credit: ESO.

Found: Three Super-Earths in Orbit around Cool Dwarf Star

Jan 29, 2018 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using data from the NASA Kepler spacecraft’s reborn K2 mission have found a triple system of super-Earth exoplanets around a cool star called...

Horses. Image credit: Toni X. Jesse.

Paleontologists Propose New Theory on Horse Evolution

Jan 26, 2018 by News Staff

Researchers have long wondered how horses evolved from a five-toed ancestor to the single-toed animal we know today. While it is largely believed that...

Oldest Modern-Human Fossil Outside Africa Found in Israel

Jan 26, 2018 by News Staff

An upper jawbone complete with teeth found at a site called Misliya Cave, part of a complex of prehistoric caves along the western slopes of Mount Carmel...

Thin-section electron microscopy of an agar overlay containing plaques of the representative Autolykiviridae virus 1.008.O; virus particles in contact with cell membranes are observed to occasionally possess tail-tube-like structures, whereas those not in contact with cells do not. Image credit: Kauffman et al, doi: 10.1038/nature25474.

Scientists Find New Type of Virus in World’s Oceans: Autolykiviridae

Jan 25, 2018 by News Staff

Non-tailed double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses infect bacteria and dominate water samples from the world’s oceans. They have long escaped analysis because...

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