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Researchers Find What Causes Jupiter’s X-ray Aurora

Jupiter’s aurora. Image credit: JAXA.
Mar 23, 2016 by Natali Anderson

According to a study led by University College London researcher William Dunn, the solar wind is causing intense X-ray bursts over Jupiter’s polar regions. Solar storms are triggering X-ray auroras on Jupiter that are about 8 times brighter than normal over a large area of the planet. These Jovian auroras are hundreds of times more energetic than Earth’s aurora borealis. This composite image with data from NASA’s Chandra and Hubble shows Jupiter...

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The bright spots near the center of Occator crater are shown in enhanced color in this view from NASA’s Dawn robotic spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / PSI / LPI.

New Images of Ceres Show Its Mysterious Bright Spots in Unprecedented Detail

Mar 22, 2016 by News Staff

Planetary researchers from NASA’s Dawn mission have released new images of the dwarf planet Ceres, including anticipated views of its intriguing ‘bright...

This view of the Martian gravity map shows the Tharsis volcanoes and surrounding flexure: the white areas in the center are higher-gravity regions produced by the massive Tharsis volcanoes, and the surrounding blue areas are lower-gravity regions that may be cracks in the crust. Image credit: MIT / UMBC-CRESST / GSFC.

NASA Scientists Release Map of Mars’ Gravity

Mar 22, 2016 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Dr. Antonio Genova of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has released a detailed new map of Mars’ gravity. This view of...

HD 20782b. Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

HD 20782b: Astronomers Discover Exoplanet with Highly Eccentric Orbit

Mar 21, 2016 by News Staff

HD 20782b’s orbit closely resembles that of a comet, making it the most eccentric planet ever known. This artist’s rendering shows HD 20782b, the most...

A pair of Boreonykus certekorum. Image credit: University of New England.

Boreonykus certekorum: Paleontologists Discover New Dinosaur Species in Canada

Mar 19, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

A new species of dromaeosaurid (raptor) dinosaur — Boreonykus certekorum — that thrived in the cold has been discovered in a remote part of...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

Denisovan DNA Found in Modern-Day Melanesians

Mar 18, 2016 by News Staff

Residents of the Pacific islands of Melanesia share fragments of genetic code with two early human species: Denisovans, whose remains were found in Siberia,...

This high-resolution image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons on July 14. Pluto’s surface sports a remarkable range of subtle colors, enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have their own distinct colors, telling a complex geological and climatological story that scientists have only just begun to decode. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Science Papers Provide New Data from Pluto System Flyby

Mar 18, 2016 by News Staff

Researchers on the New Horizons team have released a set of five scientific papers describing results from the July 2015 flyby of the Pluto system. This...

In this image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the brilliance of R136, a young star cluster in 30 Doradus. The image is composed of observations from both Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Paul Crowther, University of Sheffield.

Hubble Discovers Nine Extremely Massive Stars in R136

Mar 17, 2016 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have identified nine extremely massive stars in the young star cluster R136. In this image, the...

Paleontologists Solve Mystery of ‘Tully Monster’

Mar 17, 2016 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from the United States has determined that Tullimonstrum gregarium (popularly known as the Tully monster) — a large soft-bodied...

This artist’s impression shows the very bright patches of material in the crater Occator and elsewhere. Image credit: ESO / L.Calçada / NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / Steve Albers / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org.

HARPS Discovers Surprising Changes of Ceres’ Bright Spots

Mar 16, 2016 by News Staff

New observations using the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph – a high-precision instrument on the 3.6-m telescope at...

Reconstruction of Timurlengia euotica. Image credit: Todd Marshall.

Timurlengia euotica: New Species of Tyrannosaur Discovered in Uzbekistan

Mar 15, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new dinosaur cousin of T. rex – named Timurlengia euotica — has been found in the Kyzylkum Desert, northern Uzbekistan. A reconstruction of Timurlengia...

Artist’s impression visualizing the ExoMars 2016 TGO, with its thrusters firing, beginning its entry into Mars orbit. Image credit: ESA / ATG medialab.

ExoMars 2016 Blasts Off from Baikonur

Mar 14, 2016 by News Staff

The ExoMars 2016 mission blasted off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Proton-M rocket at 02:31 a.m. PDT (05:31 a.m. EDT, 09:31 a.m. GMT,...

New Species of Shieldtail Snake Discovered in India

Mar 12, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of snake, named the Khaire’s black shieldtail (Melanophidium khairei), has been discovered in India. The Khaire’s black shieldtail (Melanophidium...

An artist’s rendition of Teyujagua paradoxa. Image credit: Voltaire Neto.

Ancient Crocodile-Like Reptile Unearthed in Brazil: Teyujagua paradoxa

Mar 11, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Fossil remains of a previously unknown species of reptile that lived about 250 million years ago (Triassic period) have been found in the Brazilian state...

Ideonella sakaiensis. Image credit: Shosuke Yoshida et al.

Ideonella sakaiensis: Newly-Discovered Bacterium Can Break Down, Metabolize Plastic

Mar 11, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

According to a group of biologists in Japan, the newfound species — named Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 — breaks down the plastic by using two...

An artist’s rendition of an early human habitat in Tanzania 1.8 million years ago. Image credit: M. Lopez-Herrera / Enrique Baquedano / Olduvai Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Project.

Researchers Reconstruct African Landscape Where Early Humans Lived 1.8M Years Ago

Mar 10, 2016 by News Staff

Life in what is now Tanzania was difficult and dangerous 1.8 million years ago, according to a team of scientists from the United States, Switzerland and...

Mercury. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Planetary Researchers Explain Why Mercury’s Surface is So Dark

Mar 8, 2016 by News Staff

According to a team of planetary scientists led by Dr. Patrick Peplowski of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, planet Mercury’s...

Image credit: Anthony Parenti et al.

Scientists Discover New Kind of Stem Cell: iXEN

Mar 4, 2016 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Michigan State University biochemist and molecular biologist Amy Ralston has discovered a new kind of stem cell — induced...

GN-z11. Image credit: NASA / ESA / P. Oesch, Yale University / G. Brammer, STScI / P. van Dokkum, Yale University / G. Illingworth, University of California, Santa Cruz.

GN-z11: Astronomers Discover Farthest Galaxy Yet

Mar 3, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have found a surprisingly bright, infant galaxy 13.4 billion light-years from us, making it the...

Astronomers Detect Repeating Fast Radio Burst

Mar 2, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

For the first time, astronomers have detected repeating short bursts of radio waves — so-called fast radio bursts — coming from an extremely...

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