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Planetary Scientists Solve Mystery of Jupiter’s X-Ray Auroral Flares

Jupiter’s X-ray aurorae. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Zhonghua Yao / William Dunn.
Jul 12, 2021 by News Staff

The rapidly rotating, strong magnetic field of Jupiter provides a natural lab that is key to understanding the dynamics of high-energy plasmas. Spectacular auroral X-ray flares are diagnostic of the most energetic processes governing magnetospheres but seemingly unique to Jupiter. Since their discovery 40 years ago, the processes that produce these flares have remained unknown until now. In a new study, planetary researchers from the UK, the US, China...

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A special feature in the feeding behavior of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), related to eating bamboo, is the habit to skim the outer green skin of the hard bamboo culm; although the feeding preferences have a seasonal shift, the culm is consumed and skinned during all the year; while eating culm, the outer skin is removed for reasons which until now have remained poorly understood. This image shows a male giant panda named Xiao Liwu at San Diego Zoo. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

New Research Sheds Light on Giant Panda’s Adaptation to Bamboo Diet

Jul 12, 2021 by News Staff

The evolutionary adaptation of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) to bamboo diet has taken place by adaptations in its masticatory (chewing) system,...

This Hubble image shows NGC 6380, a globular cluster some 35,500 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius. The very bright star at the top of the image is HD 159073, which is only around 4,000 light-years from Earth. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Three filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / E. Noyola.

Hubble Space Telescope Focuses on NGC 6380

Jul 12, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released a beautiful close-up shot snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the globular cluster NGC 6380. This Hubble image shows NGC...

The western yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava), a small passerine bird in the family Motacillidae. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Songbirds Can Taste Sugar, Ornithologists Say

Jul 9, 2021 by News Staff

Seeing a bird eat nectar from a flower is a common sight in our world. The ability to detect sugars, however, is not ancestral in the bird lineage, where...

Hubble captured this view of comet 46P/Wirtanen on December 13, 2018. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Bodewits, Auburn University / J.-Y. Li, Planetary Science Institute.

Astronomers Detect Unusual Amount of Methanol in Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Jul 9, 2021 by News Staff

Using the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSPEC) instrument at the Keck II telescope, astronomers conducted near-infrared spectroscopic observations of the...

An artist’s impression of the Hadean Earth: huge, impact-generated lava lakes coexisted with surface liquid water, under a thick greenhouse atmosphere sustained by lava outgassing. Image credit: Simone Marchi & Dan Durda, Southwest Research Institute.

Earth’s Early Bombardment May Have Been Heavier than Previously Thought

Jul 9, 2021 by News Staff

Once the Earth was fully formed about 4.5 billion years ago, its subsequent evolution was governed by complex geophysical processes. The planet, however,...

Kennedy et al. found that fetal gut colonization of healthy term infants does not occur before birth. Image credit: Darryl Leja, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health.

Most Bacteria in Gut Microbiome are Heritable, New Study Suggests

Jul 9, 2021 by News Staff

Commensal bacteria are found throughout an organism, but it is not known whether associations between gut bacteria and their host are heritable. In a new...

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured this stunning mosaic of Enceladus on October 5, 2008 as the spacecraft sped away from this geologically active moon of Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Tidal Stress May Be Causing Constant Icequakes along Enceladus’ Tiger Stripes

Jul 8, 2021 by News Staff

Saturn’s 500-km- (300-mile) diameter moon Enceladus is covered in ice which contains many long fractures or rifts, including fractures called tiger stripes....

An artist’s impression of the Gliese 414 system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Modestly Tilted Planets More Capable of Evolving Complex Life, Study Suggests

Jul 8, 2021 by News Staff

Earth’s sphere tilts on its axis at an angle of 23.5 degrees; this gives us our seasons, with parts of the planet receiving more direct sunlight in summer...

Khan et al. performed a meta-analysis of 38 randomized controlled trials of omega-3 fatty acids, stratified by EPA monotherapy and EPA+DHA therapy. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Improve Cardiovascular Outcomes, Review Says

Jul 8, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a systematic review and meta-analysis of 38 randomized controlled trials comprising 149,051 participants, omega-3 fatty acids — such as eicosapentaenoic...

The red giant star SMSS J200322.54-114203.3 (center) in the south-eastern corner of the constellation of Aquila, close to the border with Capricornus and Sagittarius. Image credit: Da Costa / SkyMapper.

Ancient Magneto-Rotational Hypernova Fuelled High Levels of Metals in Unique Star

Jul 8, 2021 by News Staff

An explosion of a fast-spinning strongly magnetized star, called a magneto-rotational hypernova, is the most likely explanation for the presence of unusually...

An artist’s impression of a ‘Snowball Earth.’ Image credit: NASA.

Changes in Our Planet’s Orbit May Have Allowed Life to Survive during ‘Snowball Earth’ Glaciations

Jul 8, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Professor Ross Mitchell has studied a succession of rocks laid down when most of Earth’s...

Palaeotheriid mammal Leptolophus cuestai (left) and equoid perissodactyl Pachynolophus zambranen (center and right). Image credit: Ulises Martínez Cabrera.

Several Species of Pseudo-Horses Lived in Spain 37 Million Years Ago

Jul 7, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified two new species of palaeotheriid mammals from fossils found at the Eocene site of Zambrana in Alava, Spain. Palaeotheriid...

Enceladus’ tiger stripes are known to be spewing ice from the moon’s icy interior into space, creating a cloud of fine ice particles over the moon’s south pole and creating Saturn’s mysterious E-ring. Evidence for this has come from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Pictured here, a high resolution image of Enceladus is shown from a close flyby. Tiger stripes are visible in false-color blue. Image credit: NASA / ESA / JPL / SSI / Cassini Imaging Team.

New Modeling Study Points toward Biological Origin of Enceladus’ Methane

Jul 7, 2021 by News Staff

Observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft established that Enceladus, the sixth-largest of Saturn’s moons, has a global subsurface ocean. An analysis...

51,000-Year-Old Engraved Bone is Neanderthal Artwork, Reseachers Say

Jul 7, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have uncovered a 51,000-year-old engraved giant deer phalanx in a cave in the Harz Mountains, Germany. The find, which came from an apparent...

Installation of the CMS beam pipe. Image credit: CERN / CMS Collaboration.

CERN Physicists Observe New Excited Beauty-Strange Baryon

Jul 7, 2021 by News Staff

Using proton-proton collision data collected by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), physicists from the...

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

Kepler Data Reveal Four Earth-Mass Free-Floating Exoplanets

Jul 6, 2021 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Kepler/K2 mission, astronomers have detected four new microlensing events that are consistent with free-floating planets of similar...

Hubble’s image of the Orion Nebula with proplyd highlights. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Robberto, Space Telescope Science Institute & ESA / Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team / L. Ricci, ESO.

Massive Stars near Solar System’s Parent Molecular Cloud Affected Composition of Its Building Blocks

Jul 6, 2021 by News Staff

In 2011, planetary researchers using samples of the solar wind collected by NASA’s Genesis spacecraft found that solar system planetary bodies have a...

CERN Physicists Test ‘Lepton Flavor Universality’

Jul 6, 2021 by News Staff

Physicists from the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have successfully performed measurements of ‘lepton flavor universality,’...

Color-coded map of the distribution of stars emerging from the star cluster Palomar 5 (white blob); the two long tidal tails (orange) contain 1.3 times the mass of the cluster and delineate its orbit around the Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: SDSS.

Palomar 5 Contains More Than 100 Stellar-Mass Black Holes: Study

Jul 6, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Palomar 5 is one of the sparsest star clusters in the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy and is best known for its spectacular tidal tails, spanning over 20...

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