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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...

Tahitian warrior dugouts from ‘Le Costume Ancien et Moderne’ by Giulio Ferrario, Milan, between 1816 and 1827.

Ancient Polynesians and Native Americans Had Contact Long Before Europeans Arrived

Jul 14, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of genetic researchers has found conclusive evidence for a single contact between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group...

Life reconstruction of Aratasaurus museunacionali. Image credit: Maurilio Oliveira.

New Feathered Carnivorous Dinosaur Found in Brazil

Jul 14, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new genus and species of coelurosaurian dinosaur, Aratasaurus museunacionali, from the Romualdo Formation...

This life-size model of Trierarchuncus prairiensis was sculpted by Boban Filipovic, a paleontologist and artist from Serbia, and is on display at Badlands Dinosaur Museum, Dickinson, ND. Image credit: Boban Filipovic / Badlands Dinosaur Museum.

New Species of Hook-Handed Dinosaur Uncovered in Montana

Jul 13, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of alvarezsaurid dinosaur that lived approximately 66 million years ago (Cretaceous period) has been unearthed in the Hell Creek Formation...

Siraj & Loeb explore the possibility that accretion flares resulting from the tidal disruption of small Oort Cloud bodies by a putative primordial black hole could power an observable optical signal that could be searched for with the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Image credit: Sci-News.com / Zdeněk Bardon / ESO.

Astronomers Develop Method to Detect Tiny Black Holes in Outskirts of Our Solar System

Jul 13, 2020 by News Staff

Amir Siraj and Professor Avi Loeb from the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University have developed a new method to search for primordial black holes...

Large Dolphin from Oligocene Epoch was Fast-Swimming Apex Predator

Jul 10, 2020 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found and described the first nearly complete skeleton of Ankylorhiza tiedemani, an extinct large dolphin that lived about 24 million...

An artist’s impression of the giant dormouse Leithia melitensis (left) and its nearest living relative the garden dormouse (right). Image credit: James Sadler, University of York.

Enormous Dormice Once Roamed Mediterranean Islands

Jul 9, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists from the UK, Italy and Switzerland has created the first digital reconstruction of the skull of Leithia melitensis,...

Two Interacting Gas Giants Orbit Sun-Like Star WASP-148

Jul 9, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the SuperWASP-North telescope on La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain, and the SOPHIE spectrograph at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence,...

Life reconstruction of the Alaskan saurornitholestine dinosaur in its environment. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

Paleontologists Find Fossil of 70-Million-Year-Old Polar Raptor

Jul 8, 2020 by News Staff

Paleontologists have uncovered the fossilized jawbone of a juvenile dromaeosaurid (raptor) dinosaur that lived 70 million years ago in what is now northern...

This is an artist's reconstruction of Homo erectus. Image credit: Yale University.

Homo erectus Had Stocky Body Shape

Jul 8, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has created the first 3D reconstruction of the ribcage of the Turkana Boy, a skeleton of the juvenile Homo erectus...

Life restoration of Kongonaphon kely. Image credit: Alex Boersma.

Tiny Dinosaur Relative Roamed Triassic Madagascar

Jul 7, 2020 by News Staff

A new genus and species of ornithodiran — an early relative of dinosaurs and pterosaurs — that lived around 237 million years ago (Triassic...