Featured News | Sci.News

Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) on February 22, 2015. An international team of scientists has found more than twenty molecules in the comet, including ethyl alcohol and a simple sugar. Image credit: Fabrice Noel.

Astronomers Detect Ethyl Alcohol, Sugar in Atmosphere of Comet Lovejoy

Oct 26, 2015 by Natali Anderson

In a paper in the journal Science Advances, astronomers report the detection of 21 different organic molecules in gas from Comet Lovejoy, including the...

Archaea were first found in extreme environments, such as volcanic hot springs; pictured here is Grand Prismatic Spring of Yellowstone National Park. Image credit: Jim Peaco / National Park Service.

Bathyarchaeota: New Deep-Sea Methane-Consuming Microorganisms Discovered

Oct 26, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of biologists from Australia and the United States has discovered two new species of methane-metabolizing archaea. Archaea were first...

New Horizons Captures Images of Pluto’s Small Moon Kerberos

Oct 23, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has sent back four low-resolution images of Kerberos, Pluto’s tiny moon. This image of Kerberos completes the family...

ASASSN-14li: X-Ray Telescopes Catch Supermassive Black Hole Shredding Star to Pieces

Oct 22, 2015 by News Staff

Using a trio of X-ray telescopes, astronomers have observed material being blown away from a supermassive black hole after it tore a star apart. The event...

Eastern Santa Cruz Tortoise: New Subspecies of Galapagos Giant Tortoise Discovered

Oct 21, 2015 by News Staff

There are two subspecies of the Galapagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra) – not just one, as had been long believed – living on the island...

Arvinachelys goldeni had a weird pig-like snout and lived in the shadows of Cretaceous dinosaurs. Image credit: Victor Leshyk.

Arvinachelys goldeni: Fossil Shows Pig-Snouted Turtles Lived among Dinosaurs

Oct 21, 2015 by News Staff

A discovery of ancient turtle bones in southern Utah has led a University of Texas paleontologist to identify a new species of long-extinct, pig-snouted...

Life may have begun shortly after Earth formed 4.54 billion years ago. Image credit: Hadeano.

4.1 Billion Year Old Australian Zircon Contains Graphite of Biological Origin, Study Claims

Oct 20, 2015 by News Staff

A new study claims to have found evidence that life existed on our planet at least 4.1 billion years ago – about 300 million years earlier than prior...

Musa nanensis: male inflorescence. Image credit: P. Srisanga.

Musa nanensis: New Species of Wild Banana Discovered in Thailand

Oct 18, 2015 by News Staff

A team of Thai botanists has announced the discovery of what they say is a new species of wild banana. Musa nanensis: male inflorescence. Image credit:...

This Pluto mosaic was made from New Horizons LORRI images taken on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 49,700 miles (80,000 km). This view is projected from a point 1,118 miles (1,800 km) above Pluto’s equator, looking northeast over the dark, cratered Cthulhu Regio toward the bright, smooth expanse of icy plains called Sputnik Planum. Pluto’s North Pole is off the image to the left. This mosaic was produced with panchromatic images from the New Horizons LORRI camera, with color overlaid from the Ralph color mapper onboard New Horizons. Image credit: S.A. Stern et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aad1815.

New Horizons Team Releases First Scientific Results from Flyby of Pluto System

Oct 16, 2015 by News Staff

The dwarf planet Pluto displays a wide variety of geological landforms, including those resulting from glaciological and surface-atmosphere interactions...

A group of Neanderthals in a cave. Image credit: Tyler B. Tretsven.

Anatomically Modern Homo sapiens Arrived in Southern Asia at least 80,000 Years Ago

Oct 15, 2015 by News Staff

A discovery of 47 human teeth from the Fuyan Cave in the Chinese province of Hunan indicates that anatomically modern Homo sapiens were present in southern...

Life reconstruction of Spinolestes xenarthrosus. Image credit: Oscar Sanisidro.

Spinolestes xenarthrosus: Cretaceous Fossil Reveals Early Evolution of Hair

Oct 14, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has discovered a 125-million-year-old ancient mammal fossil, which has been named a new species, in Spain. According...

This global map of Jupiter was made during the Hubble OPAL Program. The map was observed on 19 January 2015, from 2:00 UTC to 12:30 UTC. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, GSFC / M. Wong, University of California, Berkeley / G. Orton, JPL-Caltech.

New Global Maps of Jupiter Unveiled

Oct 14, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the University of California, Berkeley,...

The Montagne d’Ambre dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus andysabini) in its natural habitat. The population of this new species is found in and just outside the boundaries of Montagne d’Ambre National Park, Madagascar. Image credit: Edward E. Louis, Jr.

Montagne d’Ambre Dwarf Lemur: New Species Found

Oct 12, 2015 by News Staff

In northern Madagascar’s Montagne d’Ambre National Park, Dr Runhua Lei of the Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and his colleagues from Australia,...

New Horizons finds water ice on Pluto: the scene is approximately 280 miles (450 km) across. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Finds Red-Colored Water Ice on Pluto

Oct 12, 2015 by News Staff

Using data from the Ralph spectral composition mapper that flew aboard NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, planetary researchers have detected water ice...

Gale crater is 155 km in diameter and now holds a layered mountain rising about 5 km above the crater floor. This illustration depicts a lake of water partially filling the crater. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / UA / Sci-News.com.

Curiosity Finds Geological Evidence of Ancient Lakes, Streams on Mars

Oct 9, 2015 by News Staff

A paper published today in the journal Science, and based on data from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, describes an ancient system of lakes and streams...

According to NASA scientists, complex chemical compounds called tholins give Pluto a distinctive blue haze. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Latest New Horizons Image Shows Pluto’s ‘Blue Skies’

Oct 9, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has beamed back the first color image of Pluto’s atmosphere. New Horizons looks toward the night side of Pluto and sees...

This image of part of an edge-on disk around AU Microscopii reveals wave-like features. Image credit: NASA / ESA / ESO / A. Boccaletti, Paris Observatory.

Strange, Fast-Moving Structures Spotted around Nearby Star AU Microscopii

Oct 8, 2015 by News Staff

Using images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has discovered unique structures...

The Sulawesi snouter (Hyorhinomys stuempkei). Image credit: Jake Esselstyn / Louisiana State University.

Hyorhinomys stuempkei: New Genus, Species of Shrew Rat Discovered in Indonesia

Oct 6, 2015 by News Staff

Dr Jake Esselstyn of Louisiana State University and his colleagues from Indonesia and Australia have discovered a new genus and species of shrew rat in...

A family of moose roams free in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Image credit: Valeriy Yurko / Polesie State Radioecological Reserve.

Researchers Discover Abundant Populations of Wildlife in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Oct 6, 2015 by News Staff

In 1986, after a catastrophic nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union released radioactive particles into the environment,...