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The Cinder Cones seep, the Ross Sea, Antarctica: the white microbial mats are telltale signs of areas where methane may be released from underground methane deposits. Image credit: Andrew Thurber, Oregon State University.

Scientists Discover Antarctica’s First Active Methane Seep

Jul 24, 2020 by News Staff

A team of marine ecologists from Oregon State University has described the formation and development of a new methane seep — a location where methane...

An artist’s impression of the Saturn-sized exoplanet TOI 813b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers Discover One of the Coolest Transiting Gas Giants

Jul 23, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS), astronomers have discovered a transiting...

Tongoenas burleyi (right) likely featured the brightly colored plumage of other canopy-dwelling pigeons on the Pacific islands. On the left is the Kanaka pigeon (Caloenas canacorum), another large extinct Tongan species. Image credit: Danielle Byerley.

Meet Tongoenas burleyi, Extinct Giant Pigeon from Tonga

Jul 23, 2020 by News Staff

A new extinct genus and species of pigeon has been identified from fossils found on six islands (Foa, Lifuka, ‘Uiha, Ha‘afeva, Tongatapu, and ‘Eua)...

Team members entering Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico. Image credit: Devlin A. Gandy.

Archaeologists Find 30,000-Year-Old Stone Tools in Mexican Cave

Jul 22, 2020 by News Staff

Archaeologists have uncovered 1,900 stone artifacts in Chiquihuite Cave, a high-altitude site in the Astillero Mountains in northern Mexico. DNA analysis...

This image, captured by the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows TYC 8998-760-1 accompanied by two giant planets, TYC 8998-760-1b and TYC 8998-760-1c. The two planets are visible as two bright dots in the center (TYC 8998-760-1b) and bottom right (TYC 8998-760-1c) of the frame. Other bright dots, which are background stars, are visible in the image as well. Image credit: ESO / Bohn et al.

Astronomers Directly Image Two Giant Exoplanets around Young Sun-Like Star

Jul 22, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have discovered a...

Life reconstruction of Asio ecuadoriensis. Image credit: Sebastián Rozadilla.

Giant Predatory Owls Once Lived in Ecuador

Jul 22, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An extinct species of giant owl that lived 40,000 years ago (Pleistocene epoch) and preyed on smaller owls has been identified from fossils found in the...

An artist’s impression of the Gliese 3470 planetary system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Saturn-Like Exoplanet Found in Habitable Zone of Gliese 3470

Jul 21, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Amateur astronomers from the Habitable Exoplanet Hunting Project, the first international program coordinated by amateur astronomers to search for potentially...

Two New Cryptic Species of Australian Sugar Gliders Discovered

Jul 21, 2020 by News Staff

A research team led by Charles Darwin University biologists has identified and raised two additional species within what is currently designated as the...

Sloan Digital Sky Survey Collaboration Releases New 3D Map of Universe

Jul 20, 2020 by News Staff

Astrophysicists and cosmologists from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) have released the largest 3D map of the Universe ever created, filling in the...

Fossils of New Herbivorous Dinosaur Found in China

Jul 20, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in China have found the fossilized fragments from a new genus and species of non-sauropodan sauropodomorph dinosaur that walked our planet...

This new picture of the Cosmic Microwave Background, the oldest light in the Universe, was taken by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. This covers a swath of the sky 50 times as wide as the Moon, representing a region of space 20 billion light-years across. The light, emitted just 380,000 years after the Big Bang, varies in polarization (represented here by redder or bluer colors). Image credit: ACT Collaboration.

Universe is 13.77 Billion Years Old, Astronomers Say

Jul 17, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using NSF’s Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) have taken a fresh look at the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the oldest light in our Universe....

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (green) infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (purple), isolated from a patient sample. Image credit: NIAID.

Experimental Vaccine Induces Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Immune Responses in All Participants

Jul 17, 2020 by News Staff

Dr. Lisa Jackson of Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle and colleagues conducted a first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial...

A high-resolution image from the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on Solar Orbiter, taken with the HRIEUV telescope on May 30, 2020. The circle in the lower left corner indicates the size of Earth for scale. The arrow points to one of the ubiquitous features of the solar surface, called ‘campfires’ and revealed for the first time by these images. On May 30, Solar Orbiter was roughly halfway between the Earth and the Sun, meaning that it was closer to the Sun than any other solar telescope has ever been before. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Solar Orbiter / EUI Team / CSL / IAS / MPS / PMOD / WRC / ROB / UCL / MSSL.

Solar Orbiter Beams Back Its First Images of the Sun

Jul 17, 2020 by News Staff

Solar Orbiter, a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, made its first close approach to the Sun in mid-June and captured unique...

The afterglow of GRB 181123B (marked with a circle), captured by the Gemini-North telescope. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / K. Paterson & W. Fong, Northwestern University / Travis Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage / Mahdi Zamani / Davide de Martin.

Short Gamma-Ray Burst Localized to Extremely Distant Galaxy

Jul 16, 2020 by News Staff

An international of astronomers has observed an optical afterglow of a short gamma-ray burst, thought to be from the merger of two neutron stars, and localized...

New Species of Plant-Eating Dinosaur Identified in Switzerland

Jul 16, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of long-necked herbivorous dinosaur that lived during the Triassic period has been identified from fossils found in northern Switzerland. Schleitheimia...

Calumma tjiasmantoi. Image credit: Prötzel et al, doi: 10.26049/VZ70-1-2020-3.

Scientists Discover Three New Species of Chameleons

Jul 15, 2020 by Natali Anderson

An international team of herpetologists from Germany and Madagascar has discovered and described three new species of chameleons from the Calumma nasutum...

A telomere is the end of a chromosome that protects the interior of a chromosome from damage during cell division. Image credit: Darryl Leja, NHGRI.

Researchers Produce First ‘Telomere-To-Telomere’ Sequence of Human Chromosome

Jul 15, 2020 by News Staff

A team of U.S. and U.K. scientists has generated the end-to-end gapless DNA sequence of the human X chromosome. A telomere is the end of a chromosome that...

An artist’s impression of a thermonuclear supernova: the material ejected by the supernova will initially expand very rapidly, but then gradually slow down, forming an intricate giant bubble of hot glowing gas; eventually, the charred remains of the white dwarf that exploded will overtake these gaseous layers, and speed out onto its journey across our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: Mark Garlick / University of Warwick.

Thermonuclear Supernova Ejects White Dwarf from Binary System

Jul 15, 2020 by News Staff

A white dwarf star called SDSS J124043.01+671034.68 (SDSS J1240+6710) is traveling at 900,000 km/h (559,234 mph) through our Milky Way Galaxy. It also...

1.4-Million-Year-Old Handaxe Unearthed in Ethiopia

Jul 14, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

Paleoanthropologists working at the Konso research area in Ethiopia have found a 1.4-million-year-old large bone fragment shaped into handaxe-like form. The...