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Hubble Space Telescope Spots Martian Moon Phobos

Jul 21, 2017 by News Staff

When the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observed Mars near opposition on May 12, 2016, Phobos — the larger and inner of the two natural satellites...

Photograph of the Madjedbebe rockshelter during the 2015 excavation. Image credit: Clarkson et al, doi: 10.1038/nature22968.

New Evidence Pushes Back Aboriginal Occupation of Australia to 65,000 Years Ago

Jul 20, 2017 by News Staff

New evidence from a rockshelter in northern Australia shows human occupation of the continent for at least 65,000 years — much longer than other...

Artist’s conception of the dust and gas surrounding a newly formed planetary system. Image credit: NASA.

Earth’s Water Explained by Gas Giant Gluttony

Jul 19, 2017 by James Romero

Water on Earth, Mars and everywhere within the inner Solar System can be traced back to the rapid waist-expanding growth of Jupiter and Saturn, which knocked...

Albertavenator curriei. Image credit: Oliver Demuth.

Albertavenator curriei: New Species of Bird-Like Dinosaur Identified in Canada

Jul 17, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of paleontologists from the Philip J Currie Dinosaur Museum, the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum has added another species of...

This scanning electron microscope image shows a tardigrade. Image credit: Diane Nelson, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Earth’s Most Indestructible Creature Identified: Tardigrade

Jul 14, 2017 by News Staff

Water-dwelling, eight-legged, segmented micro-animals called tardigrades will survive the risk of extinction from all astrophysical catastrophes, and be...

The battery-free phone can sense speech, actuate the earphones, and switch between uplink and downlink communications, all in real time. It is powered by either ambient radio signals or light. Image credit: Mark Stone, University of Washington.

First Battery-Free Cellphone Harvests Power from Ambient Radio Signals, Light

Jul 14, 2017 by News Staff

A team of computer scientists and electrical engineers at the University of Washington has invented a cellphone that requires no batteries and harvests...

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.

Juno Captures Close-Up Views of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

Jul 13, 2017 by News Staff

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has provided planetary researchers the first close-up views of Jupiter’s mysterious, roiling storm called the Great Red Spot. This...

Artist’s concepts of Saturn, Jupiter, EBLM J0555-57Ab and the star TRAPPIST-1. EBLM J0555-57Ab has a mass comparable to the current estimate for TRAPPIST-1, but has a radius that is nearly 30% smaller. Image credit: Amanda Smith.

Newly-Discovered Saturn-Size Star is Smallest Yet

Jul 12, 2017 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, has announced the discovery of a low-mass star, called EBLM J0555-57Ab, roughly...

Sea Spiders Move Oxygen with Pumping Guts, Marine Biologists Say

Jul 11, 2017 by News Staff

Marine arthropods called sea spiders use gut peristalsis to move hemolymph and oxygen throughout most of their bodies, according to a team of researchers...

Amaya et al created 78% cubic ice crystals. Image credit: Ohio State University.

Physical Chemists Create 78% Cubic Ice Crystals

Jul 10, 2017 by News Staff

Physical chemists from Ohio State University and elsewhere have set a new record for creating ice crystals that have a near-perfect cubic arrangement of...

The photo of the super-Jupiter HIP 65426b. Image credit: ESO / SPHERE Consortium / G. Chauvin et al.

Astronomers Directly Image Super-Jupiter around HIP 65426

Jul 9, 2017 by Sergio Prostak

Using an adaptive optics system and coronagraphic facility at ESO’s Very Large Telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered and directly...

The doubly charmed baryon Ξcc++ contains two charm quarks and one up quark. Image credit: Daniel Dominguez, CERN.

CERN Physicists Confirm Existence of Doubly Charmed Baryons

Jul 6, 2017 by News Staff

The LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty) collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland has reported the observation of a doubly charmed...

Razanandrongobe sakalavae scavenging on a sauropod carcass. Unlike extant crocodilians, this animal walked on erect limbs. Image credit: Fabio Manucci.

Giant Prehistoric Crocodile Relative from Madagascar Had T. rex Teeth

Jul 5, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

Named Razanandrongobe sakalavae, the ancient predatory crocodile had a deep skull and powerful jaws with enormous serrated teeth that are similar in size...

This composite, false-color infrared image of Jupiter reveals haze particles over a range of altitudes, as seen in reflected sunlight. It was taken using the Gemini North telescope’s Near-InfraRed Imager (NIRI) on May 18, 2017. The multiple filters corresponding to each color used in the image cover wavelengths between 1.69 microns and 2.275 microns. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) appears as the brightest (white) region at these wavelengths, which are primarily sensitive to high-altitude clouds and hazes near and above the top of Jupiter's convective region. The GRS is one of the highest-altitude features in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Narrow spiral streaks that appear to lead into it or out of it from surrounding regions probably represent atmospheric features being stretched by the intense winds within the GRS, such as the hook-like structure on its western edge (left side). Some are being swept off its eastern edge (right side) and into an extensive wave-like flow pattern, and there is even a trace of flow from its northern edge. Other features near the GRS include the dark block and dark oval to the south and the north of the eastern flow pattern, respectively, indicating a lower density of cloud and haze particles in those locations. Both are long-lived cyclonic circulations, rotating clockwise -- in the opposite direction as the counterclockwise rotation of the GRS. A prominent wave pattern is evident north of the equator, along with two bright ovals, which are anticyclones that appeared in January 2017. Both the wave pattern and the ovals may be associated with an impressive upsurge in stormy activity that has been observed in these latitudes this year. Another bright anticyclonic oval is seen further north. High hazes are evident over both polar regions with much spatial structure not previously been seen quite so clearly in ground-based images. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / AURA / NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Infrared Images of Jupiter from Subaru and Gemini Telescopes to Enhance Juno Flyby

Jul 4, 2017 by News Staff

High-resolution imaging of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot by the Subaru Telescope and the Gemini North telescope, both on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea peak, is...

An illustration of an asteroid on its way to ancient Mars. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO / Nathan Owen-Price / Sci.News.

Mars’ Two-Faces and Moons Could Result from an Early Cataclysmic Impact

Jul 4, 2017 by James Romero

Mars experienced a single colossal impact during its first 130 million years, the equivalent to the largest body in the today’s asteroid belt slamming...

A young male of the dry-forest sabrewing (Campylopterus calcirupicola) captured in the Fazenda Corredor, municipality of Bocaiúva, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Image credit: Leonardo Esteves Lopes.

Dry-Forest Sabrewing: New Hummingbird Species Discovered

Jul 3, 2017 by Natali Anderson

A new hummingbird species, called the dry-forest sabrewing, has been discovered in the tropical forests of eastern Brazil. A young male of the dry-forest...

Male palm cockatoo (Probosciger aterrimus) drumming on a hollow tree with a manufactured ‘drumstick.’ Image credit: Christina Zdenek.

Male Palm Cockatoos Play Drums to Attract Mates

Jun 30, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

Palm cockatoos (Probosciger aterrimus) not only play the drums, they craft the sticks too, according to new research from scientists in Australia. Male...

This artist’s conception shows two supermassive black holes, similar to those observed by Bansal et al, orbiting one another more than 750 million light years from Earth. Image credit: Josh Valenzuela, University of New Mexico.

First Detection of Orbital Motion in Supermassive Black Hole Binary

Jun 29, 2017 by News Staff

For the first time ever, astronomers have been able to observe and measure the orbital motion between two supermassive black holes — a discovery...

Monumental round-oval buildings with their characteristic T-shaped monolithic pillars at Göbekli Tepe, Turkey. Image credit: Nico Becker, Göbekli Tepe Archive, German Archaeological Institute.

Modified Skulls from Gobekli Tepe Provide Evidence of Neolithic ‘Skull Cult’

Jun 29, 2017 by News Staff

Three carved skull fragments uncovered at Göbekli Tepe, a Neolithic site in southeast Turkey known for its impressive megalithic architecture with characteristic...