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Did Ancient Martian Volcanism Provide the Sunblock to Get Life Going?

This artist’s concept depicts the early Martian environment (right) -- believed to contain liquid water and a thicker atmosphere -- versus the cold, dry environment seen at Mars today (left). Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Feb 8, 2017 by James Romero

Intense volcanism early in Mars history could have aided the emergence of life on the red planet through filtering out harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation whilst allowing helpful longer wavelength UV to power vital prebiotic chemistry. These are the possibilities raised by a Harvard University study assessing the potential influence of the Martian atmosphere on surface UV exposure billions of years ago. This artist’s concept depicts the early Martian...

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Microphotograph of the diamond anvil cell high-pressure cavity in reflected and transmitted light at 140 GPa after laser heating to > 1,500 degrees Kelvin. The sample, which consists of mixture of tI19 Na and Na2He, is in contact with He medium that is seen as a transparent area near the edge of the gasket. Image credit: Xiao Dong et al, doi: 10.1038/nchem.2716.

Researchers Create Stable Compound of Helium and Sodium

Feb 7, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of researchers has successfully synthesized a thermodynamically stable compound of sodium and the noble gas helium, Na2He, which...

Geckolepis megalepis in life. Image credit: Frank Glaw.

Geckolepis megalepis: New Gecko Species Has Exceptionally Large, Fish-Like Scales

Feb 7, 2017 by News Staff

A bizarre new species of the fish-scale gecko genus Geckolepis has been found living in the ‘tsingy’ karst formations of northern Madagascar. Geckolepis...

The Sheth’s dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus shethi) at Ankarana Special Reserve, Madagascar. Image credit: Richard Randriamampionona.

Cheirogaleus shethi: New Species of Dwarf Lemur Found in Madagascar

Feb 6, 2017 by Natali Anderson

A new dwarf lemur species has been discovered in the dry and transitional forests of northern Madagascar, according to a paper published in the latest...

Ahuna Mons, Ceres’ lonely mountain, is seen in this simulated perspective view. The elevation has been exaggerated by a factor of two. The view was made using enhanced-color images from NASA’s Dawn orbiter. Images taken using blue (440 nm), green (750 nm) and infrared (960 nm) spectral filters were combined to create the view. The spacecraft’s framing camera took the images from Dawn’s low-altitude mapping orbit, from an altitude of 240 miles (385 km) in August 2016. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / PSI.

Ceres May Have Vanishing Cryovolcanoes

Feb 3, 2017 by News Staff

Ahuna Mons, a 2.5-mile- (4 km) tall mountain on Ceres interpreted as a geologically young cryovolcano, may have some hidden older siblings, according to...

A northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens) catches a cricket. Image credit: Candler Hobbs.

Unique Reversible Saliva Keeps Frog Tongues Sticky

Feb 2, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, a frog’s saliva is thick and sticky during prey capture, then turns...

In the heart of an active galaxy, matter falling toward a supermassive black hole creates jets of particles traveling near the speed of light. For active galaxies classified as blazars, one of these jets beams almost directly toward Earth. Image credit: NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.

NASA’s Fermi Spacecraft Finds Five High Redshift Blazars

Feb 1, 2017 by News Staff

NASA’s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope has spotted the five most distant gamma-ray blazars — a type of galaxy whose intense emissions are powered...

Reconstruction of Saccorhytus coronaries. Image credit: Jian Han et al, doi: 10.1038/nature21072.

Meet Saccorhytus coronarius, Humans’ Earliest-Known Ancestor

Jan 31, 2017 by News Staff

A microscopic, bag-like marine creature that lived approximately 540 million years ago (Fortunian stage of the Cambrian period) has been identified from...

This Cassini image features a density wave in Saturn’s A ring (at left) that lies around 83,575 miles (134,500 km) from Saturn. Density waves are accumulations of particles at certain distances from the planet. This feature is filled with clumpy perturbations, which researchers informally refer to as ‘straw.’ The wave itself is created by the gravity of Saturn’s moons Janus and Epimetheus, which share the same orbit around the gas giant. Elsewhere, the scene is dominated by ‘wakes’ from a recent pass of the ring moon Pan. The image was taken in visible light with Cassini’s wide-angle camera on December 18, 2016. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 34,000 miles (56,000 km) from the rings and looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Main Rings Up Close

Jan 31, 2017 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took these stunning photos of Saturn’s rings on December 18, 2016, while it was performing one of its ‘ring-grazing’...

Hubble Frontier Fields view of a distant galaxy cluster. Image credit: NASA / ESA / HST Frontier Fields Team / STScI.

First Observational Evidence of Holographic Universe?

Jan 30, 2017 by News Staff

A ground-breaking study released in the journal Physical Review Letters (arXiv.org version) offers what its authors call ‘the first observational evidence...

Photo of metallic hydrogen at a pressure of 495 GPa; the sample is non-transmitting and is observed in reflected light; the central region is clearly more reflective than the surrounding metallic rhenium gasket; the sample dimensions are approximately 8-10 microns with thickness 1.2 microns. Image credit: Ranga P. Dias & Isaac F. Silvera, doi: 10.1126/science.aal1579.

Physicists Produce World’s First Sample of Metallic Hydrogen

Jan 30, 2017 by News Staff

A duo of physicists at Harvard University has succeeded in creating a metallic modification of hydrogen. The research is published in the journal Science. Photo...

Eggs of the Ordovician trilobite Triarthrus eatoni. Image credit: Thomas A. Hegna et al, doi: 10.1130/G38773.1.

Paleontologists Find 450-Million-Year-Old Fossilized Trilobite Eggs

Jan 27, 2017 by Natali Anderson

A research team led by Western Illinois University scientist Thomas Hegna has announced the discovery of two pyritized, egg-bearing specimens of the Ordovician...

HE0435-1223, located in the centre of this wide-field image, is among the five best lensed quasars discovered to date. The foreground galaxy creates four almost evenly distributed images of the distant quasar around it. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / S.H. Suyu et al.

Astronomers Use Gravitational Lensing to Measure Hubble Constant

Jan 27, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers from the international H0LiCOW (H0 Lenses in COSMOGRAIL’s Wellspring) collaboration have made a new measurement of the Hubble constant —...

Head of Aethiocarenus burmanicus. Image credit: G. Poinar Jr. / A.E. Brown.

Mid-Cretaceous Burmese Amber Preserves Alien-Looking Insect

Jan 26, 2017 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal Cretaceous Research, Oregon State University researchers described a never-before-seen insect species found in a piece...

This composite color full-disk visible image of the Western Hemisphere was captured from NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite on Jan. 15, 2017. Image credit: NOAA / NASA.

NOAA’s GOES-16 Weather Satellite Captures Its First Images of Earth

Jan 25, 2017 by News Staff

NOAA’s GOES-16 (formerly known as GOES-R), the first spacecraft in a new series of NASA-built advanced geostationary weather satellites, has sent the...

This is an artist’s rendering of the space collision 466 million years ago that gave rise to many of the meteorites falling today. Image credit: Don Davis, Southwest Research Institute.

Study: Today’s Rare Meteorites Were Common in Ordovician Period

Jan 25, 2017 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy is the first to look at meteorites from before giant space collision 466 million years ago. This...

At an extremely high magnification of 44,818x, this colorized scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image reveals some of the morphologic details displayed by Escherichia coli. Image credit: Janice Haney Carr / CDC.

Stable Semi-Synthetic Bacterium Created

Jan 25, 2017 by News Staff

Researchers from the United States, China and France have created what they say is the world’s first stable semi-synthetic microorganism. The research...

Two individuals of Siamogale melilutra. Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Siamogale melilutra: Giant Otter Fossils Reveal New Species

Jan 23, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has identified a new species of giant otter that lived in what is now China during the latest Miocene, approximately...

A range of now extinct megafauna that was present when humans first arrived in Australia. Image credit: Peter Trusler, Monash University.

Humans Caused Extinction of Australia’s Prehistoric Giant Animals: New Evidence

Jan 23, 2017 by News Staff

New evidence indicates the primary cause of megafaunal extinction in Australia 45,000 years ago was likely a result of humans, not climate change. A paper...

Astronomers Characterize Wolf 1061 Planetary System

Jan 20, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

A research team led by San Francisco State University astronomer Stephen Kane has obtained new observations of Wolf 1061, known to host at least three...

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