News

Scientists Step Closer to Understanding Full Capabilities of Antikythera Mechanism

Computer model of the Antikythera Mechanism’s display: in the center, the dome of the Earth, the phase of the Moon and its position in the Zodiac -- then rings for Mercury, Venus, true Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Date, with ‘little sphere’ markers and smaller markers for oppositions. Scale marks and index letters for the synodic cycles of the planets are inscribed on the planet rings. Surrounding these, the Zodiac and the Egyptian Calendar. The true Sun ring has a ‘little golden sphere’ with ‘pointer.’ When the Moon and Sun pointers coincide, the Moon sphere shows black for New Moon; when the pointers are on opposite sides, the Moon sphere shows white for Full Moon. The Head of the Dragon Hand shows the ascending lunar node; the Tail the descending node. Small triangles on the true Sun ring, near the pointer, show wider and narrower eclipse limits. Eclipses are possible if the Dragon Hand is within these limits. When the Moon pointer is before the Head of the Dragon, the Moon is South of the node; after, it is North of the node -- conversely for the descending node. A Date pointer is attached to a narrow date ring, showing the date in the Egyptian Calendar. Image credit: Freeth et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-84310-w.
Mar 15, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers from University College London and the Cyprus Institute’s Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center has solved a major piece of the puzzle that makes up an ancient Greek astronomical calculator called the Antikythera Mechanism. Computer model of the Antikythera Mechanism’s display: in the center, the dome of the Earth, the phase of the Moon and its position in the Zodiac — then rings for Mercury,...

read more...
Digital art by Les Bossinas, Cortez III Service Corp., 1998.

Faster-Than-Light Travel is Possible, Theoretical Study Suggests

Mar 15, 2021 by News Staff

A new theoretical paper, published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, reignites the debate about the possibility of superluminal (faster-than-light)...

This composite image by Hubble and Pan-STARRS1 telescopes shows Abell 78, a planetary nebula located 5,000 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Guerrero / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Planetary Nebula Abell 78 Revealed in Amazing New Photo

Mar 15, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS1 telescope have captured a detailed image of the unusual planetary nebula...

This image shows the Sb-type spiral galaxy SDSS J043703.67+245606.8. Image credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Wandering Supermassive Black Hole Detected in Distant Spiral Galaxy

Mar 12, 2021 by News Staff

Using the Arecibo and Gemini observatories, astronomers have detected a mobile supermassive black hole in a galaxy called SDSS J043703.67+245606.8 (hereafter...

This mosaic (upper right) shows a close-up view of the rock target named ‘Yeehgo’ from the SuperCam instrument on NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. The component images were taken by SuperCam’s Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) on March 7, 2021. To be compatible with the rover’s software, ‘Yeehgo’ is an alternative spelling of ‘Yéigo,’ the Navajo word for diligent. The target is 3.325 m (10.9 feet) from the rover. Each of the two images in the mosaic shows a field of view 6.2 cm (2.5 inches) in diameter. Perseverance’s Navigation Cameras (Nav Cam) and Mastcam-Z instrument also took images of that area at the same time to provide multiple views of the rock target. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / LANL / CNES / CNRS / ASU / MSSS.

Perseverance Records Sound of Its Rock-Zapping Laser Instrument

Mar 12, 2021 by News Staff

Early data from the SuperCam instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover — including the first audio of laser zaps on another planet — are...

This reconstruction of the Late Devonian estuarine lake at Waterloo Farm in South Africa captures the life history of an ancient lamprey species called Priscomyzon riniensis. Three individuals representing different ontogenetic stages take a shelter in the meadow of charophyte algae Octochara crassa. Clockwise from right: a yolk-sac-carrying hatchling tucked in the charophyte; a juvenile attached to the substrate in the foreground, and an adult looming over the other individuals and showing its feeding apparatus. In the background, a school of the coelacanth Serenichthys kowiensis swims by. Image credit: Kristen Tietjen.

Devonian Lamprey Hatchling-to-Adult Growth Series Sheds New Light on Vertebrate Origins

Mar 12, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists from Canada, the United States and South Africa have unearthed the fossilized remains of larval and juvenile forms of four lamprey species...

This is an artist's impression of a rocky and water-rich asteroid being torn apart by the strong gravity of the white dwarf star GD 61. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick, Space-art.co.uk / University of Warwick / University of Cambridge.

Relatively Large Near-Earth Asteroid to Fly Safely Past Our Planet on March 21

Mar 12, 2021 by News Staff

2001 FO32, a near-Earth asteroid discovered two decades ago, will fly safely past Earth on March 21, 2021, at a distance of about 2 million (1.25 million...

Angiogenesis is a process by which new blood vessels are formed from pre-existing ones. Image credit: Arek Socha.

Electric Stimulation Could Help Speed Up Wound Healing

Mar 11, 2021 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the Ohio State University has found that steady electrical stimulation generates increased permeability across blood vessels, an...

An artist’s impression of Gliese 1132b. Image credit: NASA / ESA / R. Hurt, IPAC & Caltech.

Volcanic Activity Changed Atmosphere of Earth-Sized Planet Gliese 1132b: Study

Mar 11, 2021 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have found evidence of volcanic activity reforming the atmosphere of Gliese 1132b, a rocky exoplanet...

A visualization of the Glashow resonance event detected by IceCube. Image credit: IceCube Collaboration.

High-Energy Antineutrino Detection Supports 60-Year-Old Theory

Mar 11, 2021 by News Staff

On December 6, 2016, a high-energy particle called an electron antineutrino hurtled to Earth from outer space at close to the speed of light carrying 6.3...

Gold Scythian pectoral from a royal kurgan in Towsta Mohila, Pokrov, dated to the 2nd half of the 4th century BCE. The central lower tier shows three horses, each being torn apart by two griffins. Image credit: D. Kolosov.

Scythians Led More Complex Lives Than Previously Assumed

Mar 11, 2021 by News Staff

Scythian-era populations in ancient Ukraine were less mobile than previously thought and were engaged in agro-pastoralism focused primarily on millet agriculture,...

Photograph of the torsion pendulum and the mounted source mass. Image credit: Westphal et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03250-7.

Physicists Measure Smallest Gravitational Field Yet

Mar 11, 2021 by News Staff

A team of physicists in Austria has measured the gravitational force between two gold spheres of 1.07 millimeter radius. Photograph of the torsion pendulum...

Reconstruction of the aerial parts of Paratingia wuhaia from the early Permian of China. Image credit: Yugao Ren / Sijia Tang.

Permian Tree Fossil Sheds Light on Ancient Evolutionary Race

Mar 10, 2021 by News Staff

Noeggerathiales are enigmatic plants that existed during Carboniferous and Permian times, 323 to 252 million years ago. Although their diversity and distribution...

An artist’s illustration of a close-up view of a quasar and its jet, like the one in PJ352-52. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss.

Chandra Spots Extremely Long Cosmic Jet in Early Universe

Mar 10, 2021 by News Staff

The source of the 160,000-light-year-long jet of particles is PSO J352.4034-15.3373 (PJ352-15 for short), a rapidly growing supermassive black hole, or...

This photo shows the zodiacal light as it appeared on March 1, 2021, in Skull Valley, Utah, the United States; the Pleiades star cluster is visible near the top of the light column; Mars is just below that. Image credit: Bill Dunford / NASA.

Martian Storms May Be Responsible for Interplanetary Dust behind Zodiacal Light

Mar 10, 2021 by News Staff

The zodiacal light is sunlight reflected by interplanetary dust in the inner Solar System. Variations in the zodiacal light with ecliptic latitude reveal...

An attentive oviraptorid theropod dinosaur broods its nest of blue-green eggs while its mate looks on in what is now Jiangxi Province of southern China some 70 million years ago. Image credit: Zhao Chuang.

Paleontologists Find Remains of Oviraptorid Dinosaur and Embryo-Bearing Egg Clutch

Mar 10, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists in China have discovered what they say is the first non-avialan dinosaur fossil known to preserve an adult skeleton atop an egg clutch...

An activation of the vascular and neuronal KCNQ5 potassium channel contributes significantly to vasodilation by both green and black tea; the tea polyphenols ECG and EGCG are major contributors to this effect, via hyperpolarization of the voltage dependence of KCNQ5 activation; ECG and EGCG or optimized derivatives of these compounds are candidates for future anti-hypertensive drug development. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Two Tea Compounds Found to Relax Blood Vessels

Mar 10, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of California, Irvine and the University of Copenhagen has found that two polyphenol compounds found in green...

A fragment of the Winchcombe meteorite. Image credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

Rare Type of Meteorite Found in United Kingdom

Mar 9, 2021 by News Staff

Almost 300 g of the so-called Winchcombe meteorite, a space rock that fell from the fireball that lit up the sky over the United Kingdom and Northern Europe...

Astronomers Discover Sixth Planet in K2-138 Planetary System

Mar 9, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Five sub-Neptunes and one super-Earth exoplanet orbit a moderately bright K-type star called K2-138. An artist’s impression of the six-planet system...

This image shows the head and the body of Elysia marginata, a day after autotomy; the shed body is much heavier (over 80% of the total weight) than the head. Image credit: Sayaka Mitoh.

Sacoglossan Sea Slugs Can Shed, Then Regenerate Their Main Body

Mar 9, 2021 by News Staff

A biological phenomenon called autotomy is the voluntary shedding of a body part. It is common to distantly-related animals such as arthropods, gastropods,...

© 2011-2026. Sci.News. All Rights Reserved. | Back to top