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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,...

Geologists Find Evidence of Ancient Megatsunami in Cape Verde Islands

Oct 5, 2015 by News Staff

A team of geologists from Japan, the United States and Europe has found evidence that the sudden collapse of Fogo volcano – one of the tallest and...

An artist’s reconstruction of the 410-million-year-old armoured jawless fish Rhegmaspis xiphoidea. Image credit: Zhi-Kun Gai et al. / Dimitris Siskopoulos / Sci-News.com.

Rhegmaspis xiphoidea: New Species of Jawless Fish Unearthed in China

Oct 2, 2015 by News Staff

A new species – and genus – of armored jawless fish has come to light in the Chinese rocks dating to the Pragian stage of Devonian. An artist’s...

This impressive view of Charon was captured on July 14, 2015. Charon’s color palette is not as diverse as Pluto’s; most striking is the reddish north (top) polar region, informally named Mordor Macula. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA’s New Horizons Team Releases High Resolution View of Charon

Oct 1, 2015 by News Staff

This high-resolution ‘extended color’ view of the Pluto-facing hemisphere of Charon – taken by New Horizons’ Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging...

Rosetta NavCam image taken on 14 March 2015 at 85.7 km from the center of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; it has been cleaned to remove the more obvious bad pixels and cosmic ray artefacts, and intensities have been scaled. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NAVCAM / CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.

67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Was Once Two Separate Comets

Sep 30, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new paper in the journal Nature, two comets collided in the early Solar System to give rise to the extraordinary shape of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This...

Life reconstruction of Palaeochiropteryx sp. Image credit: Obsidian Soul / CC BY-SA 3.0 / adapted by Sci-News.com.

Paleontologists Determine Original Color of Extinct Bats

Sep 29, 2015 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from the United States and the United Kingdom has discovered the reddish brown color of extinct bats from fossils dating back...

This image of an impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars was taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on March 30, 2015. The crater is approximately 3,300 feet (1-km) wide and appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta. The steep inner slopes are carved by gullies and include possible recurring slope lineae on the equator-facing slopes. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / Alfred McEwen.

NASA Scientists Find Evidence for Seasonal Water Flows on Mars

Sep 28, 2015 by News Staff

Using an imaging spectrometer on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, agency’s planetary scientists have detected signatures of hydrated minerals on...

Underwater Archaeologists Recover New Artifacts from Antikythera Shipwreck

Sep 28, 2015 by News Staff

Archaeologists excavating the famous 2,050-year-old Roman shipwreck off the remote island of Antikythera, Greece, have uncovered more than fifty new artifacts...

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.

NASA Releases New High Resolution Images of Pluto

Sep 25, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons has beamed back its best color picture of the dwarf planet Pluto, as well as other stunning, close-up images of the planet’s surface...

This Hubble image shows a small section of the Veil Nebula. This section of the outer shell of the famous supernova remnant is in a region known as the Witch’s Broom Nebula (NGC 6960). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team.

Astronomers Get Best View Yet of Veil Nebula

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

About 8,000 years ago, Neolithic humans would have witnessed what appeared to be a bright new star blazing in the northern sky. In fact, it was the violent...

Active pits on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Image credit: Jean-Baptiste Vincent et al.

Rosetta Provides Evidence for Daily Water-Ice Cycle on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers using the Visible, InfraRed and Thermal Imaging Spectrometer aboard ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft have identified a region on the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko...

NIST physicists have transferred quantum data carried in light particles over 63 miles of optical fiber.

U.S. Physicists Smash Distance Record for Quantum Teleportation

Sep 23, 2015 by News Staff

A team of physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology has ‘teleported’ quantum data carried in light particles over 63 miles (102...

An artist’s depiction of what paleontologists believe Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis looked like. Image credit: James Havens.

Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis: New Duck-Billed Dinosaur Species Discovered in Alaska

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

A new species of hadrosaurid dinosaur has been identified from bones discovered in the Prince Creek Formation of northern Alaska. An artist’s depiction...

This family tree of Earth’s lifeforms is considered a first draft of the 3.5-billion-year history of how life evolved and diverged. Colors represent proportion of lineages represented in databases of the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Image credit: Cody E. Hinchliff et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1423041112.

Researchers Create Tree of Life for More Than Two Million Species

Sep 21, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from eleven institutions in the U.S. has produced a first draft of the ‘tree of life’ for 2.34 million species...

This panoramic image of Pluto highlights dwarf planet’s varied terrains and extended atmosphere. The scene measures 780 miles (1,250 km) across. The smooth expanse of Sputnik Planum (right) is flanked to the west (left) by rugged mountains up to 11,000 feet (3.5 km) high, including Norgay Montes in the foreground and Hillary Montes on the skyline. To the right, east of Sputnik, rougher terrain is cut by apparent glaciers. The backlighting highlights over a dozen layers of haze in the atmosphere of Pluto. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 km) to Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Latest Panoramic Image of Pluto Reveals ‘Arctic-Like’ World

Sep 18, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft snapped this remarkable panoramic view of Pluto’s crescent on July 14, 2015. This picture, taken with the spacecraft’s...

This illustration is a speculative representation of the interior of Enceladus with a global ocean between its rocky core and icy crust. The thickness of layers shown here is not to scale. Scientists determined that the slight wobble of the moon as it orbits Saturn is much too large for the moon to be frozen from surface to core. The wobble, technically referred to as a libration, reveals that the crust of Enceladus is disconnected from its rocky interior. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Enceladus Harbors Global Subsurface Ocean

Sep 16, 2015 by News Staff

Planetary researchers with NASA’s Cassini mission have found a large body of water beneath the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. This color view...

The Cosgrove hotspot track. Image credit: Drew Whitehouse / NCI National Facility VizLab.

Cosgrove Track: Scientists Discover World’s Longest Chain of Continental Volcanoes

Sep 14, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has discovered the world’s longest known continental volcanic hotspot track — a 1,245 mile (2,000 km) long...

New Species of Dinosaur Nicknamed Lightning Claw Found in Australia

Sep 14, 2015 by News Staff

A remarkable new species of theropod dinosaur has been unearthed in an underground mine in north-central New South Wales, Australia. Illustration of the...

This view of Pluto, based on the latest images to be downlinked from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, shows what you would see if you were approximately 1,100 miles (1,800 km) above Pluto’s equatorial area, looking northeast over the dark, cratered, named Cthulhu Regio toward the bright, smooth, expanse of icy plains called Sputnik Planum. The entire expanse of terrain seen in this image is 1,100 miles (1,800 km) across. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Sends Back New Close-Up Images of Pluto

Sep 11, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons probe has beamed back new detailed images of Pluto’s surface, revealing icy and mountainous regions. This view of Pluto, based...