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Using colorized topography, Mercury’s ‘great valley’ (dark blue) and Rembrandt impact basin (purple, upper right) are revealed in this high-resolution digital elevation model merged with an image mosaic obtained by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington / DLR / Smithsonian Institution.

Planetary Researchers Spot ‘Great Valley’ on Mercury

Nov 17, 2016 by News Staff

Using images from NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft, planetary researchers have discovered a...

This cutaway image of Pluto shows a section through the area of Sputnik Planitia, with dark blue representing a subsurface ocean and light blue for the frozen crust. Image credit: Pam Engebretson.

New Horizons Data Suggest Viscous Ocean Lies beneath Pluto’s Heart-Shaped Region

Nov 17, 2016 by News Staff

A cold, slushy ocean lying deep beneath Pluto’s bright, heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio is the best explanation for features revealed by NASA’s New Horizons...

Scanning electron micrograph of HIV particles infecting a human T cell. Image credit: National Institutes of Health.

Newly Identified Antibody Neutralizes 98% of HIV Strains

Nov 16, 2016 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Dr. Mark Connors of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has identified an antibody from an HIV-infected...

Sampling of a pine trunk with a hand-powered saw; the tree protrudes from the organic-rich sediment ridge seen to the left and is partly covered by sand. Image credit: Arne Sjöström.

Swedish Researchers Find Submerged Mesolithic Settlement

Nov 15, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of researchers headed by Lund University’s Professor Dan Hammarlund has uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved Mesolithic site off the Baltic...

The Hellas depression. Image credit: Joseph S. Levy et al.

Concentrically-Fractured Depression on Mars Could Be Place to Look for Signs of Microbial Life

Nov 14, 2016 by News Staff

An unusual depression in the northern Hellas basin on Mars could be a new place to look for life on the planet, says a team of planetary researchers. The...

Transmission electron micrograph of Zika virus. Virus particles are 40 nm in diameter, with an outer envelope, and an inner dense core. Image credit: Cynthia Goldsmith / CDC.

Newly Discovered Antibody ‘Neutralizes’ Zika Virus, Shows Mouse Study

Nov 11, 2016 by News Staff

A research team led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center scientist Prof. James Crowe, Jr., has isolated a human monoclonal antibody that in a mouse...

An artistic reconstruction, showing the last-ditch struggle of Tongtianlong limosus as it was mired in mud. Image credit: Zhao Chuang.

Tongtianlong limosus: New Species of Feathered Dinosaur Discovered in China

Nov 10, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of oviraptorid dinosaur has been discovered in southern China dating back approximately 69 million years to the latest Cretaceous period,...

The brain-spine interface developed for this study uses a brain implant like this one to detect spiking activity in the brain’s motor cortex. Seen here, a microelectrode array and a silicon model of a primate’s brain, as well as a pulse generator used to stimulate electrodes implanted on the spinal cord. Image credit: Alain Herzog / EPFL.

Neuroscientists Restore Leg Movement in Nonhuman Primates

Nov 10, 2016 by News Staff

A collaboration of neuroscientists from the United States, China and Europe has used a wireless ‘brain-spine interface’ to bypass spinal cord injuries...

Inner wall with preserved section of vault and remnants of the brick packing in situ on the exterior. Image credit: Josef Wegner.

Archaeologists Find Pharaonic Boat Burial at Abydos

Nov 9, 2016 by News Staff

Archaeological excavations at Abydos, Egypt, have revealed the remains of a subterranean boat burial dating to the reign of the pharaoh Senwosret III (c....

CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia. Image credit: Shaun Amy.

Breakthrough Listen: Parkes Radio Telescope Turns to Proxima b

Nov 8, 2016 by News Staff

Breakthrough Listen, the largest ever research program aimed at finding evidence of advanced civilizations beyond Earth, today announced its first observations...

Stiphrornis erythothorax, until now the only species in the genus Stiphrornis, by Joseph Smit, 1883, in the Catalogue of the birds in the British Museum, vol. 7.

Three New Species of Forest Robin Discovered in Africa

Nov 7, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers have described three new species in the previously monotypic bird genus Stiphrornis: two from West Africa and one from the Congo. Stiphrornis...

The mound of ruins at Bassetki, Iraq, with the broad area of the lower town where sheep now graze. Image credit: Peter Pfälzner.

Archaeologists Unearth Bronze Age City in Iraq

Nov 6, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists has uncovered the remains of a large Bronze Age settlement not far from the town of Dohuk in northern Iraq. The...

On November 1, HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter observed the impact site of Schiaparelli lander, gaining the first color view of the site since the lander’s Oct. 19 arrival. These cutouts from the observation cover three locations where parts of Schiaparelli reached the ground: the lander module itself in the upper portion, the parachute and back shell at lower left, and the heat shield at lower right. The heat shield location was outside of the area covered in color. The scale bar of 32.8 feet (10 m) applies to all three cutouts. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

New HiRISE Image Shows Schiaparelli Crash Site in Color

Nov 4, 2016 by News Staff

The latest image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows parts of ESA’s ExoMars...

Amur leopard cub at Tallinn Zoo, Estonia. Image credit: Sini Merikallio / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Amur Leopard Genome Sequence Completed

Nov 3, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has sequenced the complete genome of the Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis), one of the most critically endangered...

This image is a view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope taken on March 22, 2004. Camera exposures in four filters (blue, blue-green, green and red) were combined to form the Hubble image and render colors similar to what the eye would see through a telescope focused on Saturn. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Erich Karkoschka, University of Arizona.

Saturn’s Rings Could Have Formed when Dinosaurs Walked the Earth

Nov 2, 2016 by James Romero

Saturn’s rings are billions of years younger than we thought, say Cornell University researchers analyzing an almost forgotten set of data, collected...

Prof. Gordon Cates and Dr. Wilson Miller with the unique imaging apparatus the team built in their lab. Image credit: Dan Addison / University of Virginia.

Polarized Nuclear Imaging: New Technique Has Potential for High-Resolution Medical Diagnostics

Nov 2, 2016 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Virginia has devised a new imaging approach that combines powerful aspects of both magnetic resonance imaging...

This is an artist's depiction of a catastrophic collision between two celestial bodies; such an impact between the proto-Earth and Theia likely formed the Moon. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Novel Theory Explains Moon’s Weird Orbit

Nov 1, 2016 by News Staff

Earth’s Moon is among the strangest planetary bodies in our Solar System. Its orbit lies unusually far away from our planet, with a surprisingly large...

Astronomers Snap Picture of Giant Exoplanet 1,200 Light-Years Away

Oct 31, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of astronomers has discovered a giant extrasolar planet orbiting a young star called CVSO 30. Not only have the scientists detected...

This artist’s impression shows a view of the surface of Proxima b orbiting Proxima Centauri. Alpha Centauri AB also appears in the image to the upper-right of Proxima itself. Proxima b is a little more massive than the Earth and orbits in the habitable zone around its star, where the temperature is suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Proxima b Could Be Habitable, Astrophysicists Say

Oct 28, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of astrophysicists from France and the United States has determined that the surface properties of Proxima Centauri b — an...