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Astronomers Directly Image Habitable-Zone Planet around Alpha Centauri A

This artist’s conception shows a hypothetical rocky exoplanet in the Alpha Centauri system. Image credit: Michael S. Helfenbein.
Feb 11, 2021 by News Staff

Using a newly developed system for mid-infrared exoplanet imaging, astronomers from the Breakthrough Watch Initiative say they can now use ground-based telescopes to directly capture images of exoplanets about three times the size of Earth within the habitable zones of nearby stars. Their initial observations, made with ESO’s Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile as part of the NEAR (New-Earths in the AlphaCen Region) program,...

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Latimeria chalumnae off Pumula on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, South Africa, on November 22, 2019. Image credit: Bruce Henderson, doi: 10.17159/sajs.2020/7806.

Coelacanths Are Not ‘Living Fossils,’ New Study Shows

Feb 10, 2021 by News Staff

The primitive-looking coelacanth has long been regarded as a ‘living fossil,’ with extant specimens looking very similar to fossils dating back to...

Higgs boson candidates decaying to a dilepton pair and a photon. Image credit: ATLAS Collaboration / CERN.

CERN Physicists Find Evidence for Rare Decay of Higgs Boson

Feb 10, 2021 by News Staff

Physicists from the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have found first evidence of the Higgs boson...

This is an artistic impression of a red dwarf star’s magnetic interaction with its exoplanet. Image credit: Danielle Futselaar, Artsource.nl.

Terrestrial-Mass Exoplanet Found Orbiting Red Dwarf Gliese 1151

Feb 9, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Magnetic interactions between the newfound planet, designated Gliese 1151b, and its host star are the likely source of low-frequency radio emission recently...

A trio of anthropomorphic figures from the Amak’hee 4 site in Tanzania. Image credit: Maciej Grzelczyk, Jagiellonian University.

Tanzanian Rock Art Depicts Trios of Bizarre Anthropomorphic Figures

Feb 8, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Motifs featuring trios of anthropomorphic figures with stylized buffalo heads have been discovered at a newly-discovered rock art site in the Swaga Swaga...

A portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps. Image credit: Maayan Harel.

Native Americans Inherited Lip Shape Gene from Denisovans

Feb 8, 2021 by News Staff

In a genome-wide association study of 6,169 Latin American individuals, an international team of scientists identified 32 gene regions (loci) that influenced...

The 120,000-year-old engraved bone with six deliberately produced incisions from the Nesher Ramla site, Israel. Image credit: Prévost et al., doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2021.01.002.

120,000-Year-Old Engraved Aurochs Bone Found in Israel

Feb 5, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The 120,000-year-old animal bone fragment with six incised lines is one of the oldest representations of abstract patterns produced by Middle Paleolithic...

Quartz vial containing 300 micrograms of einsteinium-253. The illumination produced is a result of the intense radiation from einsteinium-253, which alpha decays with a half-life of 20.5 days. Image credit: R.G. Haire, U.S. Department of Energy.

Einsteinium: Scientists Reveal Chemical Secrets of Elusive Transplutonium Element

Feb 4, 2021 by News Staff

Transplutonium elements are a group of metals that lie at the edge of the periodic table. As a result, the patterns and trends used to predict the physics...

Life reconstruction of Megatherium. Image credit: Sebastián Rozadilla.

Paleontologists Find 3.58-Million-Year-Old Ground Sloth Fossil

Feb 3, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Argentina have discovered what they say is one of the oldest-known fossils of the ground sloth Megatherium. Life reconstruction of Megatherium....

An artist’s impression of the Tlingit fort. Image credit: Sitka National Historical Park.

Researchers Locate Elusive Tlingit Fort in Alaska

Feb 2, 2021 by News Staff

Using geophysical imaging techniques and ground-penetrating radar, a team of scientists from Cornell University and the U.S. National Park Service has...

An artist’s impression of the KIC 8462852 binary system. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Milky Way’s ‘Most Mysterious Star’ Has a Companion

Feb 2, 2021 by Sergio Prostak

KIC 8462852, a mysteriously dimming star located about 1,480 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus, is, in fact, a binary stellar system, made...

Brookesia nana, male. Image credit: Glaw et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-80955-1.

World’s Tiniest Reptile Found in Madagascar

Feb 1, 2021 by Natali Anderson

An international team of scientists has discovered a new, extremely miniaturized species of the chameleon genus Brookesia living in a montane rainforest...

The 357,000-year-old abrading tool from Tabun Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel. Image credit: Shimelmitz et al., doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102909.

357,000-Year-Old Abrading Tool Unearthed in Israel

Feb 1, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The 357,000-year-old abrader found in the Lower Paleolithic layers of Tabun Cave in Israel is presently the earliest documented artifact of its kind. The...

An artist’s impression of the five-planet system HD 108236. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Five Giant Planets Orbit Nearby Sun-Like Star

Jan 29, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using ESA’s CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) have discovered a fifth planet around the bright, Sun-like star HD 108236. An artist’s...

The 635-million-year-old fungus-like filamentous microfossils from the Doushantuo Formation in China. Image credit: Andrew Czaja, University of Cincinnati.

Paleontologists Find 635-Million-Year-Old Land Fungus-Like Fossils

Jan 28, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The 635-million-year-old pyritized fungus-like microfossils found in the Ediacaran-period Doushantuo Formation in China provide direct fossil evidence...

Casiraghi et al. show that on nights before a full moon, people sleep less and go to bed later on average. Image credit: Florian Kurz.

Study: Sleep Starts Later and is Shorter on Nights before Full Moon

Jan 28, 2021 by News Staff

Before the availability of artificial light, moonlight was the only source of light sufficient to stimulate nighttime activity; still, evidence for the...

A group of Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus being confronted by a tyrannosaurid in the subtropical forests of New Mexico 75 million years ago. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

Paleontologists Find Well-Preserved Skull of Tube-Crested Dinosaur

Jan 27, 2021 by News Staff

The exquisite preservation of a new, partial skull of Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus, a species of duck-billed dinosaur that lived during the Cretaceous...

Kramadolops maximus, the youngest known species of polydolopid marsupial. Image credit: Gabriel Lío.

Three New Species of Extinct Marsupials Identified

Jan 26, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Dr. Laura Chornogubsky, a paleontologist in the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’ and CONICET, has described one new genus...

An artist’s impression of a juvenile tyrannosaur. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Tyrannosaur Hatchlings Were as Big as Medium-Sized Dog

Jan 26, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has examined the fossilized remains of baby tyrannosaurid dinosaurs found in Alberta, Canada, and Montana, the...

An artist’s impression of the TOI-178 system. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO / Spaceengine.org.

Nearby Orange Dwarf Hosts Unique System of Six Planets

Jan 25, 2021 by News Staff

The TOI-178 planetary system, a 7.1-billion-year-old system of six planets in the super-Earth to mini-Neptune range, five of which are locked in a rare...

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