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Giant Penguin-Like Seabirds Lived in Northern Hemisphere About 30 Million Years Ago

A group of Copepteryx, plotopterid birds that lived in Japan between 28.4 and 23 million years ago. Image credit: Mark Witton.
Jul 1, 2020 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered striking similarities between the fossilized bones of giant penguins that lived 62 million years ago in what is now New Zealand and those of the plotopterids, a group of flightless seabirds that lived in North America and Japan between 37 and 25 million years ago. A group of Copepteryx, plotopterid birds that lived in Japan between 28.4 and 23 million years ago. Image credit: Mark Witton. Plotopterids (family Plotopteridae)...

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Giant Starspots May Explain Bizarre Dimming of Betelgeuse

Jun 30, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters points to the changes in the photosphere of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse as the source...

This illustration shows what the luminous blue variable star in PHL 293B could have looked like before its mysterious disappearance. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

Massive Variable Star Mysteriously Disappears from Distant Dwarf Galaxy

Jun 30, 2020 by News Staff

Using the X-SHOOTER and the ESPRESSO (Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet- and Stable Spectroscopic Observation) instruments on ESO’s Very Large...

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

Archaeologists Find Toxic Chemicals in Water Reservoirs of Ancient Maya City of Tikal

Jun 30, 2020 by News Staff

New research reveals that two of the largest reservoirs at Tikal, an ancient Maya city in what is now northern Guatemala, were contaminated with high levels...

Humans can smell in stereo. Image credit: Petra Pezibear.

Humans Navigate with Stereo Sense of Smell

Jun 30, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Humans have a stereo sense of smell that subconsciously guides navigation, according to new research from the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy...

SARS-CoV-2 viruses visible on a cell with filopodia. Image credit: Elizabeth Fischer, Miscroscopy Unit NIH / NIAID.

SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus Produces Long Tentacles in Infected Cells

Jun 29, 2020 by News Staff

Cells hijacked by SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease, grow arm-like extensions, or filopodia, which may explain rapid viral...

An artist’s impression of the quasar Pōniuā`ena. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / P. Marenfeld.

Astronomers Find Monster Quasar in Early Universe

Jun 29, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has discovered the second most distant quasar ever found. Named Pōniuā`ena and designated J100758.264+211529.207...

Skulls and life reconstructions of Thylacosmilus atrox (left) and Smilodon fatalis (right). Image credit: Stephan Lautenschlager.

Thylacosmilus Was Not a Saber-Tooth Predator

Jun 29, 2020 by News Staff

Thylacosmilus atrox, an extinct marsupial that roamed South America between 9 and 3 million years ago (Neogene period), was not the ecological analogue...

This Hubble image shows a flocculent spiral galaxy called NGC 2775. The image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible, ultraviolet and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). It is based on data obtained through five filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Lee / PHANGS-HST Team / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Spots Flocculent Spiral Galaxy

Jun 29, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a spectacular image of the spiral galaxy NGC 2775. This Hubble image shows a flocculent...

An artist’s impression of Mukupirna nambensis living in central Australia that was much greener 25 million years ago. Image credit: Peter Schouten.

Giant Wombat-Like Marsupials Roamed Australia 25 Million Years Ago

Jun 26, 2020 by News Staff

Paleontologists have identified a giant wombat-like marsupial that lived 25 million years ago (Oligocene epoch) in what is now Australia. Named Mukupirna...

Compact System of Super-Earths Found around Lacaille 9352

Jun 26, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

A team of astronomers from the RedDots project has discovered two super-Earths and a candidate planet orbiting the nearby 4.57-billion-year-old red dwarf...

An artist’s impression of a four-planet system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Breakthrough Listen Scans Kepler-160 System for Alien Technosignatures

Jun 25, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

The Breakthrough Listen Initiative, the largest ever scientific research program aimed at finding evidence of alien civilizations, has conducted a search...

An artist’s rendition of a mystery compact object in ‘mass gap’ found by LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors. Image credit: LIGO / Caltech / MIT / R. Hurt, IPAC.

GW190814 Sheds Light on Mass Gap between Neutron Stars and Black Holes

Jun 25, 2020 by News Staff

The gravitational-wave signal GW190814, detected on August 14, 2019 by NSF’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo...

Astronomers Find Neptune-Sized Exoplanet within Debris Disk around Nearby Star AU Microscopii

Jun 25, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered a planet about the size of Neptune...

An artist’s impression of the TOI-1266 planetary system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Two Venus-Zone Planets Found Orbiting Nearby Red Dwarf

Jun 24, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers have discovered and validated two small exoplanets orbiting the nearby red dwarf star TOI-1266. An artist’s impression of the TOI-1266 planetary...

Photons emitted near rotating black holes encode quantum information that can be measured by actual quantum information technology. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Physicists Verify Half-Century-Old Theory about Rotating Black Holes

Jun 24, 2020 by News Staff

Physicists from the University of Glasgow and the University of Arizona have experimentally verified a half-century-old theory that began as speculation...

Physicists Create New Isotope of Mendelevium

Jun 24, 2020 by News Staff

In an experiment performed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 88-inch cyclotron, a team of physicists successfully created a new isotope of the...

Tanyrhinichthys mcallisteri was most likely a bottom-cruising predator similar in general ecomorphology to modern sturgeon. Image credit: Nobu Tamura.

Paleontologists Redescribe Enigmatic Carboniferous-Period Fish

Jun 23, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of U.S. paleontologists has redescribed the morphology of a long-snouted ray-finned fish called Tanyrhinichthys mcallisteri and created a more complete...

An artist’s impression of a hot-Jupiter exoplanet. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers Find Youngest Known Hot Jupiter

Jun 23, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered a transiting hot-Jupiter...

View of the wall paintings on the western wall of a house in Chajul, Guatemala. The panel features a possible dwarf with a long stick (individual 1) striding behind the backs of two musicians wearing Spanish costumes (individuals 2 and 3), and approached by a man in Indian-Spanish attire (individual 4). The first musician (individual 2) is shown playing a short wind instrument, probably a flute (xhuli aj) or a chirimía -- instruments still popular in traditional music of the Ixil Maya. The chirimía is a form of a double-reed woodwind instrument (resembling an oboe), which was introduced by the Spaniards. The second musician plays a large drum, beating it with sticks with rounded heads. The same set of instruments (large drum and flute/chirimía) is used today to accompany different feasts and ritual ceremonies. Individuals 1-3 wear typical European costume, comprising a short mantle worn over one shoulder; a kaftan with puffed sleeves and ruff; a broad belt with its loose end dangling to the front, long slim trousers (or perhaps short trousers and stockings); and heeled shoes with long, pointed toes. The individuals wear hats with broad brims adorned with a feather or brush made from animal hair. The only legible fragment of inscription, located above the drummer's head, reads ‘…CADORES’, which probably refers to the word ‘tocadores’, or ‘musicians.’ A figure, possibly a dancer (individual 4), is shown striding towards the musicians, holding a green object resembling a bottle in his extended hand. His costume comprises both European and Indian elements. Image credit: R. Słaboński.

Spectacular Maya Wall Paintings Discovered in Guatemala

Jun 22, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

An unparalleled set of Maya wall paintings, most probably from the 17th to 18th centuries CE, discovered in a local house in the Guatemalan city of San...

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