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Computer model of the Antikythera Mechanism’s display: in the center, the dome of the Earth, the phase of the Moon and its position in the Zodiac -- then rings for Mercury, Venus, true Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Date, with ‘little sphere’ markers and smaller markers for oppositions. Scale marks and index letters for the synodic cycles of the planets are inscribed on the planet rings. Surrounding these, the Zodiac and the Egyptian Calendar. The true Sun ring has a ‘little golden sphere’ with ‘pointer.’ When the Moon and Sun pointers coincide, the Moon sphere shows black for New Moon; when the pointers are on opposite sides, the Moon sphere shows white for Full Moon. The Head of the Dragon Hand shows the ascending lunar node; the Tail the descending node. Small triangles on the true Sun ring, near the pointer, show wider and narrower eclipse limits. Eclipses are possible if the Dragon Hand is within these limits. When the Moon pointer is before the Head of the Dragon, the Moon is South of the node; after, it is North of the node -- conversely for the descending node. A Date pointer is attached to a narrow date ring, showing the date in the Egyptian Calendar. Image credit: Freeth et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-84310-w.

Scientists Step Closer to Understanding Full Capabilities of Antikythera Mechanism

Mar 15, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers from University College London and the Cyprus Institute’s Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center has...

A visualization of the Glashow resonance event detected by IceCube. Image credit: IceCube Collaboration.

High-Energy Antineutrino Detection Supports 60-Year-Old Theory

Mar 11, 2021 by News Staff

On December 6, 2016, a high-energy particle called an electron antineutrino hurtled to Earth from outer space at close to the speed of light carrying 6.3...

An attentive oviraptorid theropod dinosaur broods its nest of blue-green eggs while its mate looks on in what is now Jiangxi Province of southern China some 70 million years ago. Image credit: Zhao Chuang.

Paleontologists Find Remains of Oviraptorid Dinosaur and Embryo-Bearing Egg Clutch

Mar 10, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists in China have discovered what they say is the first non-avialan dinosaur fossil known to preserve an adult skeleton atop an egg clutch...

Astronomers Discover Sixth Planet in K2-138 Planetary System

Mar 9, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Five sub-Neptunes and one super-Earth exoplanet orbit a moderately bright K-type star called K2-138. An artist’s impression of the six-planet system...

This image shows the head and the body of Elysia marginata, a day after autotomy; the shed body is much heavier (over 80% of the total weight) than the head. Image credit: Sayaka Mitoh.

Sacoglossan Sea Slugs Can Shed, Then Regenerate Their Main Body

Mar 9, 2021 by News Staff

A biological phenomenon called autotomy is the voluntary shedding of a body part. It is common to distantly-related animals such as arthropods, gastropods,...

Massive Exoplanet Candidate Spotted around Vega

Mar 9, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered evidence for a giant planet orbiting Vega, a young star located 25 light-years away in the constellation of Lyra. An artist’s...

This artist’s impression shows how the distant quasar PSO J172.3556+18.7734 and its radio jets may have looked. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Astronomers Discover Most Distant Known Cosmic Jet

Mar 8, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using several ground-based telescopes have spotted the most distant cosmic jet discovered so far. Its source is PSO J172.3556+18.7734, a radio-loud...

Life reconstruction of Tamarro insperatus (adults were 1.5-2 m in length and had a mass of 20 kg). Image credit: Oscar Sanisidro / Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont / Museu de la Conca Dellà.

New Bird-Like Dinosaur Identified in Spain

Mar 8, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of troodontid dinosaur that lived 66 million years ago at the very end of the Cretaceous period has been identified from an isolated...

This Hubble image shows the huge nebula of material cast off by VY Canis Majoris. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Humphreys, University of Minnesota / J. Olmsted, STScI.

VY Canis Majoris is Enshrouded in Giant Dust Clouds, Astronomers Say

Mar 5, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered the reason for the dimming of a red hypergiant star called VY Canis Majoris. This...

The S-type asteroid Itokawa. Image credit: JAXA.

Researchers Find Organic Matter and Water in Sample from Asteroid Itokawa

Mar 5, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has studied both the water and organic contents from a dust particle recovered from the surface of the near-Earth S-type...

Hot Super-Earth Discovered 26 Light-Years Away

Mar 5, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers from the CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exoearths with Near-infrared and optical Échelle Spectrographs) consortium...

Nightside of Hot Super-Earth LHS 3844b is Tectonically Active: Study

Mar 4, 2021 by News Staff

LHS 3844b’s hemispheric tectonics is the direct consequence of a significant temperature contrast between its day- and nightside and is absent in the...

The common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). Image credit: Roger Hanlon.

Cuttlefish Pass Fishy Version of ‘Marshmallow Test’

Mar 4, 2021 by News Staff

New research led by the University of Cambridge and the Marine Biological Laboratory demonstrates that common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) can tolerate...

A male superb lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae). Image credit: Alex Maisey, University of Wollongong.

Male Superb Lyrebirds Imitate Alarm Calls of Mobbing Flocks to Lure Potential Mates

Mar 3, 2021 by News Staff

During their song and dance displays, male superb lyrebirds (Menura novaehollandiae) create an elaborate acoustic illusion of a mixed-species flock of...

Researchers Observe ‘Space Hurricane’ in Earth’s Ionosphere

Mar 2, 2021 by News Staff

Hurricanes in the Earth’s low atmosphere are well known; however, disturbances resembling hurricanes had never before been detected in the upper atmosphere. An...

Life reconstruction of Dzharatitanis kingi. Image credit: Alexander Averianov.

New Sauropod Dinosaur Discovered in Uzbekistan

Mar 2, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of rebbachisaurid dinosaur from a fossil uncovered in Uzbekistan. Life reconstruction of Dzharatitanis...

Shortly after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, the earliest known primates, such as Purgatorius mckeeveri shown in the foreground, quickly set themselves apart from their competition -- like the archaic ungulate mammal on the forest floor -- by specializing in an omnivorous diet including fruit found up in the trees. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

65-Million-Year-Old Primate Fossils Uncovered in Montana

Mar 1, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists in the United States have discovered and analyzed the fossilized remains from two species of Purgatorius, the oldest genus in a group of...

Ninjatitan zapatai. Image credit: Jorge González.

Paleontologists Discover Oldest Known Titanosaur

Mar 1, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Ninjatitan zapatai lived approximately 140 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch) in what is now Patagonia, Argentina. Ninjatitan zapatai. Image credit:...

Reconstruction of the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus). Image credit: Sergio de la Larosa / CC BY-SA 3.0.

360,000-Year-Old DNA Sheds New Light on Evolutionary History of Cave Bears

Feb 25, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has extracted and sequenced DNA from a 360,000-year-old petrous bone of the extinct cave bear Ursus kudarensis found...