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Composite image showing Io in radio (ALMA) and optical light (Voyager 1 and Galileo); the ALMA images show plumes of sulfur dioxide (in yellow); Jupiter is visible in the background (Hubble). Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / I. de Pater et al. / NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello / NASA / ESA.

ALMA Spots Volcanic Plumes on Jupiter’s Moon Io

Oct 22, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have spotted airborne plumes of sulfur dioxide (SO2), sulfur monoxide (SO), and...

This illustration shows the location of the newly-identified tubarial glands. Image credit: Netherlands Cancer Institute.

Tubarial Glands: New Organ Discovered in Human Body

Oct 21, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Our body contains a pair of previously overlooked and clinically relevant nasopharyngeal salivary glands, according to new research led by the Netherlands...

This image shows the figure of a feline on a hillside in the Nazca Desert, southern Peru. Image credit: La Oficina de Comunicación e Imagen, Ministerio De Cultura, Gobierno del Perú.

Archaeologists Discover Cat Geoglyph at Nazca Lines Site

Oct 21, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists with the Nazca-Palpa Management Plan of Peru’s Ministry of Culture have discovered a 2,100-year-old figure of a relaxing feline in the...

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft readies itself to touch the surface of the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona.

OSIRIS-REx Attempts to Collect Sample of Near-Earth Asteroid Bennu

Oct 21, 2020 by News Staff

On October 20, 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) spacecraft briefly touched...

During its zenith, the Hittite empire rivaled and threatened ancient Egypt.

Ancient Hittite Farmers Paid Taxes in Barley and Wheat

Oct 20, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of archaeologists from the United Kingdom and Germany has carried out an archaeobotanical analysis of plant remains recovered from the 3,500-year-old...

An illustration depicting the onset of the end-Permian mass extinction. Image credit: Dawid Adam Iurino / PaleoFactory, Sapienza University of Rome / Jurikova et al, doi: 10.1038/s41561-020-00646-4.

New Research Provides Comprehensive Reconstruction of End-Permian Mass Extinction

Oct 20, 2020 by News Staff

The end-Permian mass extinction, also known as the Permian-Triassic extinction event and the Great Dying, is the largest mass extinction event in Earth’s...

An artist’s impression of Kalaallitkigun jenkinsi. Image credit: Marta Szubert.

215-Million-Year-Old Fossil from Greenland Sheds Light on Origin of Mammals

Oct 19, 2020 by News Staff

A new genus and species of mammaliaform that lived during the Triassic period has been identified from a partial jaw with teeth found on the eastern coast...

Researchers Sequence Genome of Extinct Scimitar-Toothed Cat

Oct 19, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has sequenced and analyzed the entire nuclear genome of the scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium latidens. Their results...

This image from ALMA shows the M2 spectral-type supergiant star Betelgeuse. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / E. O’Gorman / P. Kervella.

Betelgeuse is Smaller and Closer to Earth than Previously Thought

Oct 16, 2020 by News Staff

Using new observational data from the space-based Solar Mass Ejection Imager and three different modeling techniques, astronomers have found that Betelgeuse,...

The globular cluster RBC EXT8. Image credit: ESASky / CFHT.

Astronomers Find Extremely Metal-Deficient Globular Cluster in Andromeda Galaxy

Oct 16, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the High-Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) on the Keck I telescope at W. M. Keck Observatory and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope...

12,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Found in New Mexico

Oct 15, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has discovered a long prehistoric human trackway at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, the United States. The...

This image shows the sample chamber inside of a diamond anvil cell, looking axially through the top diamond. The sample originally exists of carbon and sulfur, shown as a black powder, sitting inside a hydrogen-rich environment. The sample is at 4 GPa and is illuminated by 10 mW of 532 nm of laser light to initiate and take to completion the photochemical reaction to produce a Van der Waals solid. Image credit: Snider et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2801-z.

Scientists Create First Room-Temperature Superconductor

Oct 15, 2020 by News Staff

A team of physicists and materials scientists from the University of Rochester, the University of Nevada Las Vegas and Intel Corporation has created material...

Small Pterosaur from Mid-Cretaceous Period Had Adaptations for Sediment Probing

Oct 15, 2020 by News Staff

Paleontologists in Morocco have discovered the fossilized remains that belonged to a unique small, long-beaked pterosaur. An artist’s impression of Leptostomia...

Pluto’s Mountains are Capped with Methane Frost: Study

Oct 14, 2020 by News Staff

The bright frosts observed in 2015 in the equatorial region of Cthulhu on Pluto are mostly made of methane-rich ice, according to new research. This image,...

The Muisca antpitta (Grallaria rufula). Image credit: Nigel Voaden / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Six New Bird Species Discovered in South America

Oct 13, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

A team of ornithologists from the United States, Colombia and Denmark has described six new cryptic species in the rufous antpitta (Grallaria rufula) complex...

Astronomers Monitor Flare from Nearby, Fast-Evolving Tidal Disruption Event

Oct 13, 2020 by News Staff

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and New Technology Telescope (NTT), the Las Cumbres Observatory global telescope network, and NASA’s Neil Gehrel...

This oblique color view from the HiRISE instrument onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a lithified field of sand dunes within Melas Chasma, Valles Marineris. The large degree of preserved morphology for many of these paleodunes reveals important information regarding the acting wind regime and climate prior to their cementation. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.

One-Billion-Year-Old Sand Dunes Spotted on Mars

Oct 12, 2020 by News Staff

Planetary researchers have mapped and characterized ancient sand dune fields in the canyons of Valles Marineris on Mars. Their discovery offers new insights...

An artist’s illustration of Colomys lumumbai. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski, Field Museum.

Two New Species of Semi-Aquatic Mice Discovered in Africa

Oct 12, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has discovered two new species of the murine genus Colomys living in Africa: one in Liberia and Guinea and one in...

Lucas et al. find that the prevalence of the persistent median artery in postnatal life approximately tripled over the last 125 years. Image credit: C.M. Da Silva.

Humans are Evolving Extra Artery in Forearm: Median Artery

Oct 12, 2020 by News Staff

The median artery of the human forearm is an example of microevolutionary changes in the internal anatomy of the human body, according to new research...