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An artist’s impression of a quasar and neighboring merging galaxy. The galaxies observed by Decarli et al are so distant that no detailed images are possible at present. This combination of images of nearby counterparts gives an impression of how they might look in more detail. Image credit: Max Planck Institute for Astronomy / NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Astronomers Discover New Kind of Galaxy: Rapidly Star-Forming Galaxies from Early Universe

May 25, 2017 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have discovered a new kind of galaxy which, although very old — formed...

Artist’s reconstruction of Luskhan itilensis. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

Paleontologists Identify New Pliosaur Species: Luskhan itilensis

May 25, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of marine reptile from the Cretaceous period has been identified from fossils found on the eroded banks of the Volga River. Artist’s reconstruction...

Graecopithecus freybergi lived 7.2 million years ago in the dust-laden savannah of the Athens Basin. This view from Graecopithecus freybergi’s place of discovery, Pyrgos Vassilissis, to the southeast over the plain of Athens and under a reddish cloud of Sahara dust; in the background: Mount Hymettos and Mount Lykabettos. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski.

Graecopithecus freybergi: Oldest Hominin Lived in Europe, not Africa

May 24, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of paleoanthropologists, led by Professor Madelaine Böhme of the University of Tübingen, Germany, has analyzed 7.2 million-year-old...

Eulophophyllum kirki. Image credit: Peter Kirk.

Leaf-Mimicking Insect, Freshwater Stingray, Omnivorous Rat among ESF’s Top 10 Species of 2016

May 23, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of taxonomists led by experts at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) selected the top 10 from among the...

This Hubble image shows a moon orbiting the dwarf planet 2007 OR10. Image credit: NASA / ESA / C. Kiss, Konkoly Observatory / J. Stansberry, STScI.

Astronomers Discover Moon Orbiting Dwarf Planet 2007 OR10

May 22, 2017 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Kepler and Herschel space observatories, astronomers have discovered a new moon in our Solar System,...

It’s raining on Titan. Image credit: David A. Hardy, AstroArt / NASA.

Planetary Researchers Shed New Light on Origins of Titan’s Topographic Relief

May 19, 2017 by News Staff

Saturn’s hazy moon Titan, Earth and Mars have all hosted rivers at some point in their histories. Planetary researchers from the City University of New...

Barrow Island. Image credit: University of Western Australia.

Barrow Island’s Cave Reveals Earliest Australians Lived on Coast 50,000 years ago

May 19, 2017 by News Staff

Archaeological deposits from a cave on Barrow Island, a large limestone continental island located 60 km off the Pilbara coast of Western Australia, reveal...

Light and color would look different on a planet orbiting a tiny red star, like this artist’s impression of Proxima b. The Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone is the nearest exoplanet to our Sun. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Proxima b: Researchers Take First Steps to Explore Climate of Nearby Exoplanet

May 17, 2017 by News Staff

A team of astrophysicists and meteorology experts from the University of Exeter and the UK’s Met Office have embarked on the first, tentative steps to...

Cars, trucks and buses worldwide emit 4.6 million tons more harmful NOx than standards allow, according to the new study. Image credit: Arsi Warrior.

Study: Diesel Vehicles Produce 50% More Nitrogen Oxide than Originally Thought

May 16, 2017 by News Staff

Lab tests of harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from diesel vehicles underestimate the real-world emissions by as much as 50%, a new study led by researchers...

This is an artist’s rendering of the styrofoam-density exoplanet KELT-11b. Image credit: Walter Robinson, Lehigh University.

KELT-11b: ‘Puffy’ Gas Giant Found 320 Light-Years Away

May 16, 2017 by News Staff

A multinational team of astronomers led by Lehigh University researcher Joshua Pepper has discovered a ‘styrofoam’-density exoplanet orbiting the bright...

Hubble view of the galaxy cluster Abell 1689. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / J. Blakeslee, Dominion Astrophysical Observatory / H. Ford, JHU.

Space-Time is Constantly Moving, Physicists Say

May 15, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia, Canada, has tackled the question ‘what causes...

The atmosphere of the Neptune-mass exoplanet HAT-P-26b is unexpectedly primitive, composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. By combining observations from Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, Wakeford et al determined that, unlike Neptune and Uranus, the exoplanet has relatively low metallicity. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

HAT-P-26b: Unexpectedly Primitive Atmosphere Discovered around Neptune-Mass Exoplanet

May 12, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered that HAT-P-26b — a ‘warm Neptune’ orbiting a dwarf star approximately 437 light-years from Earth — has an atmosphere...

This digitally-colorized scanning electron microscopic image depicts Enterococcus faecalis. Image credit: Pete Wardell / CDC.

First Enterococci Appeared on Earth during Ordovician Period, Says Study

May 11, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published today in the journal Cell, the enterococci — gram-positive aerobic bacteria and a leading cause of hospital-acquired...

This artist’s impression displays TRAPPIST-1 and its planets reflected in a surface. Image credit: NASA / R. Hurt / T. Pyle.

TRAPPIST-1 System’s Planetary Harmonies Save It from Destruction

May 11, 2017 by News Staff

The recently discovered TRAPPIST-1 planetary system has a unique configuration, according to new research from the University of Toronto, Canada. This...

A nesting cassowary-like dinosaur named Beibeilong sinensis in the act of incubating eggs. Image credit: Zhao Chuang.

Beibeilong sinensis: Paleontologists Identify New Species of Cassowary-Like Dinosaur

May 10, 2017 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from Canada, China, the United States and Slovak Republic has identified a partial clutch of large dinosaur eggs with a closely...

Spherical bubbles preserved in 3.48 billion-year-old hot spring deposits in the Dresser Formation provide evidence for early microbial life having lived on land. Image credit: University of New South Wales.

Earliest Signs of Microbial Life on Land Found in 3.48-Billion-Year-Old Hot Spring Deposits

May 10, 2017 by News Staff

Fossil evidence of early microbial life has been found in ancient hot spring deposits in the Dresser Formation in the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia,...

A reconstruction of Homo naledi’s head by paleoartist John Gurche, who spent some 700 hours recreating the head from bone scans. The find was announced by the University of the Witwatersrand, the National Geographic Society and the South African National Research Foundation and published in the journal eLife. Image credit: John Gurche / Mark Thiessen / National Geographic.

Homo naledi Walked Earth More Recently than Thought

May 9, 2017 by News Staff

Dating of Homo naledi fossils from the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star cave system, South Africa, shows that they were deposited between about 335,000...

A Homo naledi skull, ‘Neo.’ Image credit: Hawks et al, doi: 10.7554/eLife.24232.

South African Cave System Yields Yet More Fossils of Homo naledi

May 9, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of paleoanthropologists announced today in the journal eLife the discovery of a second chamber in the Rising Star cave system, located...

Two New Species of Tarsiers Discovered in Indonesia

May 8, 2017 by News Staff

Two new tarsier species have been discovered in the forests of the northern peninsula of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Gursky’s spectral tarsier (Tarsius...