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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, Galapagos Tortoise in ESF’s Top 10 New Species 2015

May 23, 2016 by News Staff

Taxonomy experts at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) selected the top 10 from among the estimated 18,000 new species named...

Hubble photo of Mars taken when the planet was 50 million miles (80 million km) from Earth on May 12. The photo reveals details as small as 20 - 30 miles (32.2 - 48.3 km) across. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / J. Bell, ASU / M. Wolff, Space Science Institute.

Hubble Team Releases Stunning New Image of Mars

May 20, 2016 by News Staff

On May 12, 2016, the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured this incredible photo of Mars, when the planet...

An artist’s rendering of Spiclypeus shipporum. Image credit: Mike Skrepnick.

Spiclypeus shipporum: New Dinosaur Species Identified in Montana

May 19, 2016 by Natali Anderson

A new species of ceratopsid (horned) dinosaur has been identified from bones discovered a decade ago in the Judith River Formation in Montana. An artist’s...

A Masai giraffe in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Image credit: Sajjad F. / CC BY 3.0.

Genome Reveals Clues to Giraffe’s Unique Characteristics

May 18, 2016 by Natali Anderson

An international team of researchers has sequenced the genomes of the giraffe and its closest living relative, the okapi, and — through comparative...

The four MMS spacecraft -- shown here in an artist’s concept -- have made more than 4,000 trips through the boundaries of Earth’s magnetic field. Image credit: NASA / Goddard / Conceptual Image Lab.

NASA’s MMS Spacecraft Capture Magnetic Reconnection in Action

May 16, 2016 by News Staff

The four spacecraft of NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) have flown through the heart of a magnetic process that controls Earth’s space...

Paleo-Indians hunting a glyptodont, a relative of the armadillo that lived during the Pleistocene epoch. By Heinrich Harder, 1920.

Evidence of Pre-Clovis Occupation in Southeastern US Discovered

May 16, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Stone tools and butchered (or scavenged) mastodon bones found at the Page-Ladson site, Florida, show ancient humans lived in the southeastern United States...

Astronomers Report Most Metal-Poor Galaxy Ever Observed: Leoncino Dwarf

May 13, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers report that they have observed the most metal-poor galaxy ever seen in the Local Universe, a region of space within about one billion light-years...

Ancient Earth. Image credit: Imperial College London.

Archean Earth’s Upper Atmosphere Was Oxygen-Rich, Scientists Discover

May 12, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from Australia and the United Kingdom has made a surprising discovery about the chemistry of Earth’s upper atmosphere...

Australian Archaeologists Find Fragment of World’s Oldest-Known Axe

May 11, 2016 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists from the University of Sydney, the Australian National University and the University of Western Australia has unearthed a small...

This artist’s concept depicts select exoplanetary discoveries made to date by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA / W. Stenzel.

Astronomers Confirm 1,284 New Kepler Exoplanets

May 11, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

A team of astronomers from NASA and Princeton University has confirmed that 1,284 extrasolar objects by NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft are indeed...

Topographic map of Mercury with labeled features. Image credit: NASA / U.S. Geological Survey / Arizona State University / Carnegie Institution of Washington / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

Scientists Create Global Topographic Map of Mercury

May 9, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists from NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, Arizona State University, Carnegie Institute of Washington and Johns Hopkins University Applied...

Life restoration of Atopodentatus unicus. Image credit: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.

Atopodentatus unicus: Earth’s Earliest Herbivorous Marine Reptile

May 9, 2016 by News Staff

Nearly two years ago, an international team of paleontologists discovered a bizarre fossil — Atopodentatus unicus, a 10 feet (3 m) long marine reptile...

This image shows NGC 1332, a giant elliptical galaxy with a black hole at its center whose mass has been measured at high precision by ALMA. Image credit: Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey.

Scientists Determine Mass of NGC 1332’s Supermassive Black Hole

May 6, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of astronomers led by Dr. Aaron Barth of the University of California, Irvine, has derived a precise measurement of the mass of a...

A leopard (Panthera pardus) in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa. Image credit: Rebecca Schoonover.

Research: Leopards Have Lost 75% of Historic Range

May 5, 2016 by News Staff

According to a new research, leopards have lost as much as 75% of their historic range. A leopard (Panthera pardus). Image credit: Joseph Lemeris. The...

Ancient DNA Study Sheds New Light on Genetic History of Europeans

May 3, 2016 by News Staff

Analyses of genome-wide data from 51 Eurasians from 7,000 – 45,000 years ago reveal two big changes in prehistoric human populations that are closely...

This artist’s impression shows an imagined view of the three planets orbiting the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org / ESO.

Three Earth-Sized Exoplanets Found around Ultracool Dwarf TRAPPIST-1

May 2, 2016 by Natali Anderson

A team of astronomers led by Dr. Michaël Gillon from the University of Liège has discovered three Earth-sized exoplanets around a nearby ultracool dwarf...

Artist’s impression of C/2014 S3 (PanSTARRS). The comet’s current long orbital period (approximately 860 years) suggests that its source is in the Oort Cloud -- a large region surrounding the Sun like a giant, thick soap bubble -- and it was nudged comparatively recently into an orbit that brings it closer to the Sun. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Unique Rocky Comet from Oort Cloud May Provide Clues about Origin of Solar System

Apr 29, 2016 by News Staff

Observations of a tailless comet called C/2014 S3 (PanSTARRS), made with ESO’s Very Large Telescope and the Canada France Hawaii Telescope, show that...

Cassini caught the sunlight glinting off Titan's seas and lakes filled with liquid methane or ethane. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona / University of Idaho.

NASA’s Cassini Orbiter Explores Titan’s Ligeia Mare

Apr 28, 2016 by News Staff

Ligeia Mare, one of the largest seas on Saturn’s moon Titan, consists of pure methane and likely has a seabed covered by a sludge of organic-rich material,...

This artist’s concept shows Makemake and its moon, MK 2. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Alex Parker, Southwest Research Institute.

MK 2: Astronomers Discover Tiny Moon Orbiting Makemake

Apr 27, 2016 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered a tiny, dark moon orbiting the dwarf planet Makemake, one of several dwarf planets...