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Were Neanderthals, Denisovans and Other Archaic Humans Victims of Sixth Mass Extinction?

Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.
Dec 1, 2019 by The Conversation

Nine human species walked the Earth 300,000 years ago. Now there is just one. A reconstruction of a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum. Neanderthals were stocky hunters adapted to Europe’s cold steppes, their enigmatic cousins Denisovans inhabited Asia, while the more primitive Homo erectus lived in Indonesia, and Homo rhodesiensis in central Africa. Several short, small-brained species survived alongside them: Homo naledi in South...

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Astronomers Find ‘Impossible’ Stellar Black Hole in Milky Way

Nov 29, 2019 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers has discovered an exceptionally massive black hole of stellar origin with a mass 68 times that of the Sun. An artist’s...

Two individuals of Majungasaurus chasing Rapetosaurus, with Masiakasaurus in the foreground. Image credit: ABelov2014, abelov2014.deviantart.com / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Majungasaurus Replaced All Its Teeth Every Two Months: Study

Nov 29, 2019 by News Staff

Majungasaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur that lived approximately 70 million years ago (Cretaceous period) in what is now Madagascar, grew new teeth roughly...

The yellow-white cloud in the bottom-center of this image, taken on November 30, 2010 by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, is a ‘dust tower’ -- a concentrated cloud of dust that can be lofted dozens of miles above the surface. The blue-white plumes are water vapor clouds. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

‘Dust Towers’ Spotted on Mars

Nov 28, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter observed a high number of ‘dust towers’ — concentrated clouds of dust that warm in sunlight and rise high...

Astronomers Capture New Image of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

Nov 27, 2019 by News Staff

A group of Yale University astronomers has captured a stunning new image of 2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet to travel through our Solar...

SEM image of the Acfer 094 polished section. CAI - Ca-Al-rich inclusion. Image credit: Matsumoto et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aax5078.

Scientists Find Fossil Asteroidal Ice in Meteorite

Nov 26, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from the UK and Japan has found ‘fossilized asteroidal ice’ and pristine dust materials in a 4.6-billion-year-old...

An artist’s impression of planets orbiting a supermassive black hole. Image credit: Kagoshima University.

Planets May Form and Orbit around Supermassive Black Holes

Nov 25, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Protoplanetary disks around stars may not be the only site for planet formation in the Universe, according to a team of theoretical astrophysicists from...

A geoglyph of a human. Image credit: Yamagata University.

Archaeologists Discover 143 New Nazca Geoglyphs

Nov 25, 2019 by News Staff

A team of Japanese archaeologists has identified 143 new geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert, southern Peru. A geoglyph of a human. Image credit: Yamagata University. The...

NGC 6240 harbors three supermassive black holes at its core: the northern black hole (N) is active and was known before; the zoomed-in new high-spatial resolution image shows that the southern component consists of two supermassive black holes (S1 and S2); the green color indicates the distribution of gas ionized by radiation surrounding the black holes; the red lines show the contours of the starlight from the galaxy and the length of the white bar corresponds to 1,000 light years. Image credit: P. Weilbacher, Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam / NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage / STScI / AURA / Hubble Collaboration / A. Evans, University of Virginia, Charlottesville / NRAO / Stony Brook University.

Astronomers Find Three Supermassive Black Holes in NGC 6240

Nov 22, 2019 by News Staff

NGC 6240, a well-studied nearby galaxy system in the process of merging, contains three supermassive black holes at its core, two of which are active and...

Wing of Mars insect caught on the rover; inset: enlarged portion of wing. Image credit: William Romoser, doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.12363.95520.

NASA Photos Show Insect- and Reptile-Like Life Forms on Mars, Entomologist Says

Nov 21, 2019 by News Staff

Ohio University Emeritus Professor William Romoser has analyzed photos from NASA’s various Mars rovers, mostly from the rover Curiosity, and found insect/arthropod-...

Najash rionegrina. Image credit: Raúl O. Gómez, Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Cretaceous Legged Snake Fossils Shed New Light on Evolution of Modern Snake Body Plan

Nov 21, 2019 by News Staff

An analysis of the first three-dimensionally preserved skulls and skeletons of the extinct legged snake Najash rionegrina shows that nearly 100 million...

Astronomers Observe Host Galaxy of Extremely Bright and Long Gamma-Ray Burst

Nov 21, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers have investigated the nature of a very bright and long-duration gamma-ray burst, GRB 190114C, by studying its environment. Hubble’s observations...

A model of the molecular structure of ribose and an image of the Murchison meteorite. Image credit: Yoshihiro Furukawa.

Researchers Find Extraterrestrial Sugars in Meteorites

Nov 20, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from Japan and the United States has found ribose and other bioessential sugars in two primitive meteorites, NWA 801...

An artist’s rendering of two brown dwarfs. Image credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa & Sergio Dieterich, Carnegie Institution for Science.

Two Co-Moving Brown Dwarfs Spotted 79 Light-Years Away

Nov 20, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

Professional and amateur astronomers from the NASA-funded ‘Backyard Worlds: Planet 9’ project have spotted a co-moving pair of low-mass brown dwarfs...

Artist’s concept of ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Directly Detect Water Vapor on Europa for First Time

Nov 19, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers have for the first time managed to detect water vapor above the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Artist’s concept of ocean on Jupiter’s...

The global geologic map of Titan. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU.

Researchers Create Global Geologic Map of Saturn’s Moon Titan

Nov 19, 2019 by News Staff

Using radar and infrared data from NASA’s Cassini orbiter spacecraft, a team of planetary geologists has identified and mapped the major geological units...

The odd orbits of Neptune’s inner moons Naiad and Thalassa enable them to avoid each other as they race around the giant planet. Image credit: Brozović et al, doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2019.113462.

Neptune’s Moons Naiad and Thalassa Perform ‘Dance of Avoidance’

Nov 18, 2019 by News Staff

A new study, published in the journal Icarus, shows that Naiad and Thalassa, two innermost moons of Neptune, are locked in an unusual type of orbital resonance. The...

Life restoration of Fukuipteryx prima, a primitive bird that lived in what is now Japan about 120 million years ago. Image credit: Masanori Yoshida.

New Dinosaur-Era Bird Discovered in Japan: Fukuipteryx prima

Nov 15, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of non-ornithothoracine bird has been identified from bones collected in Japan. Life restoration of Fukuipteryx prima, a primitive...

Gigantopithecus is Related to Modern-Day Orangutans, New Study Shows

Nov 14, 2019 by News Staff

Orangutans (genus Pongo) are the closest living relatives of Gigantopithecus blacki, the biggest primate that ever walked the Earth, according to new research...

An artist’s impression of Ferrisaurus sustutensis. Image credit: Raven Amos / Royal BC Museum.

New Species of Herbivorous Dinosaur Identified in Canada

Nov 14, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Canada have found the fossil fragments from a new species of leptoceratopsid dinosaur that walked the Earth during the Cretaceous period. An...

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