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Webb Captures New Images of Uranus, Its Enigmatic Rings and Moons

This Webb image exquisitely captures the seasonal north polar cap of Uranus, including the bright, white, inner cap and the dark lane in the bottom of the polar cap. Uranus’ dim inner and outer rings are also visible in this image, including the elusive Zeta ring -- the extremely faint and diffuse ring closest to the planet. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI.
Dec 18, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

New images from the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows Uranus, its ring system and some of its 27 moons. This Webb image exquisitely captures the seasonal north polar cap of Uranus, including the bright, white, inner cap and the dark lane in the bottom of the polar cap. Uranus’ dim inner and outer rings are also visible in this image, including the elusive Zeta ring — the extremely...

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The human genome contains approximately half a million copies of LINE-1. Image credit: Baldwin et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06947-z.

Scientists Reveal Structure of Ancient Virus-Like Genetic Element

Dec 18, 2023 by News Staff

The Long Interspersed Element-1 (LINE-1) retrotransposon is an ‘ancient genetic parasite’ that has written around one third of the human genome through...

Potteromyces asteroxylicola, holotype in white light: (a) location of the fungus (asterisks) along the aerial axis and enations of the plant Asteroxylon mackiei; arrowhead showing animal remains; (b) plant reaction induced by the fungal attack; (c, d) higher magnifications of the framed zone from (b) showing the plant cell proliferation in response to the fungal attack; arrowheads showing hyphae; (e) conidiophores in tuft; (f) higher magnification of (e); (g) conidiophores in high magnification, slightly shrunken at their distal end, and conidia. Scale bars - 900 µm in (a); 400 µm in (b); 120 µm in (c), 45 µm in (d), 85 µm in (e), 35 µm in (f, g). Image credit: Strullu-Derrien et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-43276-1.

407-Million-Years-Old Microfossils Reveal Earliest-Known Disease-Causing Fungus

Dec 12, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Potteromyces asteroxylicola parasitized on an extinct species of lycopsid plant called Asteroxylon mackiei, according to a paper published in the journal...

A bilaterally gynandromorphic green honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza) near Manizales, Colombia, May 20, 2022. Image credit: John Murillo.

Extremely Rare ‘Half Female, Half Male’ Honeycreeper Snapped in Colombia

Dec 12, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Ornithologists in Colombia have photographed a wild green honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza) with distinct half green, or female, and half blue, male, plumage. A...

Talpa hakkariensis, holotype. Image credit: Gündüz et al., doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad049.

Cryptic New Species of Mole Discovered in Turkiye

Dec 11, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of the mole genus Talpa has been identified in eastern Türkiye (Turkey) by a team of reseachers from Ondokuz Mayıs University, Indiana...

A juvenile of Gorgosaurus libratus feeding on Citipes elegans. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi / Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology / University of Calgary.

Fossilized Stomach Contents Reveal What Young Tyrannosaurs Ate

Dec 10, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Canada have found a 75-million-year-old skeleton of a juvenile of the tyrannosaurid dinosaur Gorgosaurus libratus with the remains of...

Mesechinus orientalis in Xuancheng, Anhui, China. Image credit: Shi et al., doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1185.111615.

New Species of Forest Hedgehog Discovered in China

Dec 5, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Scientists from Anhui Normal University and elsewhere have identified a new species of the hedgehog genus Mesechinus living the scrubland and subtropical...

Libanoculex intermedius. Image credit: Azar et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.10.047.

Earliest-Known Fossil Mosquito Found in Lebanese Amber

Dec 4, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Female mosquitoes are among the most notorious hematophagous (blood-feeding) insects, sometimes causing severe allergic responses. Hematophagy in insects...

This image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on August 30, 2006, shows the dwarf planet Eris (center) and its moon Dysnomia. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Brown, California Institute of Technology.

New Research Sheds Light on Internal Structure of Dwarf Planet Eris

Dec 4, 2023 by Natali Anderson

The trans-Neptunian dwarf planet Eris is tidally locked to its small moon Dysnomia. Recently obtained bounds on the mass of Dysnomia demonstrate that Eris...

The six planets in the HD 110067 system are all smaller than Neptune and revolve around their parent star in a very precise waltz: when the closest planet to the star makes three full revolutions around it, the second one makes exactly two during the same time; this is called a 3:2 resonance; the six planets form a resonant chain in pairs of 3:2, 3:2, 3:2, 4:3, and 4:3, resulting in the closest planet completing six orbits while the outer-most planet does one. Image credit: ESA / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Astronomers Discover Resonant System of Six Sub-Neptune Exoplanets around HD 110067

Nov 30, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The bright nearby star HD 110067 hosts six transiting sub-Neptunes that follow a chain of resonant orbits, according to new research led by University...

Trisauropodiscus. Image credit: M. Abrahams & E.M. Bordy, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0293021.

210-Million-Year-Old Bird-Like Footprints Found in Lesotho

Nov 29, 2023 by Natali Anderson

The bird-like tridactyl (three-toed) footprints found at the site of Maphutseng in Lesotho predate the oldest known bird body fossils by approximately...

Mothra is best described as a binary system with two supergiant stars, a hot one with temperature T ≈ 14,000 K, and a cooler one with T ≈ 5,000 K. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Jose M. Diego, IFCA / Jordan C.J. D’Silva, UWA / Anton M. Koekemoer, STScI / Jake Summers, ASU / Rogier Windhorst, ASU / Haojing Yan, University of Missouri.

Mothra: Astronomers Spot Monster Binary Star in Distant Universe

Nov 28, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Mothra is a system of two supergiant stars in one of the extremely magnified galaxies behind the lensing galaxy cluster MACS J0416.1-2403. Mothra is best...

This Webb image shows a Herbig-Haro object called HH 797. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / T. Ray, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Webb Reveals Herbig-Haro Object in Unprecedented Detail

Nov 28, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured a very detailed image of the Herbig-Haro object 797 (HH 797), which is located in the northern...

The trackmaker of Farlowichnus rapidus lived in what is now Brazil during the Early Cretaceous epoch, around 135 million years ago. Image credit: Guilherme Gehr / Leonardi et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105720.

135-Million-Year-Old Footprints Reveal New Dinosaur Species

Nov 27, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

A previously unknown species of small and rapid carnivorous dinosaur lived among the large and dry sand dunes of the Botucatu paleodesert, a vast desert...

Yaguarasaurus regiomontanus. Image credit: Luis Rey / Museo del Desierto.

New Species of Mosasaur Identified in Mexico

Nov 24, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new species of plioplatecarpine mosasaur from an almost complete skull found in the Agua Nueva Formation, Mexico. Yaguarasaurus...

Ecological restoration of singing katydids from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou Konservat-Lagerstätte of China. Image credit: Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Mesozoic Katydids Evolved Unexpectedly High Acoustic Diversity, New Study Shows

Nov 24, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Acoustic communication has played a key role in the evolution of a wide variety of vertebrates and insects. However, the reconstruction of ancient acoustic...

Xenorophus hunting sea turtles. Image credit: Robert Boessenecker.

30-Million-Year-Old Fossils Shed Light on Origin of Echolocation in Whales and Dolphins

Nov 23, 2023 by News Staff

In a new paper published this month in the journal Diversity, paleontologists described the fossilized skeletons of the dolphin genus Xenorophus from the...

An artist’s illustration of the Amaterasu particle observed by a surface detector array of the Telescope Array experiment. Image credit: Osaka Metropolitan University / L-INSIGHT, Kyoto University / Ryuunosuke Takeshige.

Astrophysicists Detect Second Highest-Energy Cosmic Ray Ever

Nov 23, 2023 by News Staff

Astrophysicists using the Telescope Array experiment in Utah, the United States, have detected the second-highest extreme-energy cosmic ray. An artist’s...

Life reconstruction of Amanasaurus nesbitti. Image credit: Matheus Fernandes.

New Species of Triassic Dinosaur Relative Identified in Brazil

Nov 20, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of silesaur being named Amanasaurus nesbitti has been discovered by a duo of paleontologists at the Federal University of Santa...

Reconstruction of Eomortoniellus handlirschi. Image credit: Charlie Woodrow.

Extinct Insect from Baltic Amber Could Hear Ultrasounds, Bat Echolocation

Nov 17, 2023 by News Staff

Hearing has evolved independently many times in the animal kingdom and is prominent in various insects and vertebrates for communication and predator detection....

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