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Juno Observes Sprites and Elves in Upper Atmosphere of Jupiter

This illustration shows what a sprite could look like in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI.
Oct 30, 2020 by News Staff

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been in orbit around Jupiter since 2016. One of its instruments is the ultraviolet spectrograph (UVS), which is primarily used to make ultraviolet images of Jupiter’s auroras. During the first four years of the mission, the UVS instrument has observed 11 transient bright flashes. These flashes look similar to lightning, but are located much higher in the atmosphere than the cloudy regions of Jupiter where lightning is...

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An artist’s impression of a gravitational microlensing event by a free-floating exoplanet. Image credit: Jan Skowron / Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw.

Astronomers Discover Smallest Free-Floating Exoplanet Yet

Oct 30, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers from the OGLE (Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment) project have discovered a Mars- to Earth-mass free-floating, or rogue, planet through...

An engraving of a bison in the A panel of Aitzbitarte III cave in Spain. Image credit: Garate et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240481.

Paleolithic Animal Engravings Found in Three Spanish Caves

Oct 29, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have discovered figures of animals, mainly bison, engraved in a Gravettian style in three caves in northern Spain. Engravings in the A panel...

A false-color view of Titan, a moon of Saturn surrounded by a thick orange haze. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / University of Idaho.

Cyclopropenylidene Detected in Atmosphere of Titan

Oct 28, 2020 by News Staff

Using high sensitivity spectroscopic observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected a small cyclic...

An artist’s depiction of ancient albatrosses harassing a pelagornithid as penguins frolic in the oceans around Antarctica 50 million years ago. Image credit: Brian Choo.

New Fossils of Giant Bony-Toothed Birds Found in Antarctica

Oct 28, 2020 by News Staff

Paleontologists have described new fossils of pelagornithid birds from the middle Eocene Submeseta Formation on Seymour Island, Antarctica. An artist’s...

Hubble Detects Iron and Iron Oxide on Asteroid Psyche

Oct 27, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed the main-belt asteroid (16) Psyche, the...

This illustration highlights Clavius Crater on the Moon with an illustration depicting water trapped in the lunar soil there, along with an image of SOFIA. Image credit: NASA.

SOFIA Detects Molecular Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon

Oct 26, 2020 by News Staff

Using data gathered by the Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) onboard the NASA/DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy...

Life restoration of Jucha squalea. Image credit: Fischer et al., doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa103.

Paleontologists Identify New Species of Plesiosaur

Oct 26, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of elasmosaurid plesiosaur has been identified by an international team of paleontologists led by Dr. Valentin Fischer from the...

The ancient Maya city of Tikal in northern Guatemala. Image credit: Gerd Eichmann / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ancient Maya Used Zeolite and Quartz to Filter Drinking Water

Oct 23, 2020 by News Staff

Tikal, an ancient Maya city in what is now northern Guatemala, is one of the largest political, economic and military centers of the pre-Columbian Maya...

An artist concept of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / Goddard.

New Images Show OSIRIS-REx’s Sample Collection on Bennu

Oct 23, 2020 by News Staff

Stunning new images, taken by the SamCam imager onboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on October 20, 2020, show the historic Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample...

Life reconstruction of Ordosipterus planignathus. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.

New Pterosaur Species Unearthed in China

Oct 22, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of dsungaripterid pterosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous epoch has been identified from the incomplete lower jaws found...

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,...

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