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This image shows OSIRIS-REx’s collector head hovering over the Sample Return Capsule after the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism arm moved it into the proper position for capture. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona / Lockheed Martin.

OSIRIS-REx Stows Sample of Asteroid Bennu’s Regolith

Oct 30, 2020 by News Staff

On October 28, 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully stowed its Sample Return Capsule (SRC) with a sample of surface material from the near-Earth...

Elejalde-Cadena et al. present a detailed structural and morphological analysis of different dinosaur eggshells such as Spheroolithus, lambeosaurinae, Prismatoolithus, and one unidentified eggshell performed by high-resolution scanning electron microscopy. Image credit: Elejalde-Cadena et al., doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c03334.

Researchers Unlocking Secrets of Dinosaur Eggshells

Oct 30, 2020 by News Staff

Scientists have studied the morphology and structure of Cretaceous-period dinosaur eggshells collected from the El Gallo Formation of Baja California,...

Juno Observes Sprites and Elves in Upper Atmosphere of Jupiter

Oct 30, 2020 by News Staff

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been in orbit around Jupiter since 2016. One of its instruments is the ultraviolet spectrograph (UVS), which is primarily...

An artist’s impression of a gravitational microlensing event by a free-floating exoplanet. Image credit: Jan Skowron / Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw.

Astronomers Discover Smallest Free-Floating Exoplanet Yet

Oct 30, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers from the OGLE (Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment) project have discovered a Mars- to Earth-mass free-floating, or rogue, planet through...

Morrison et al. suggest that mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) show weak territoriality and that, as in humans, this territoriality is sensitive to differences in social relationships. Image credit: Veronica Vecellio.

Mountain Gorillas are Friendly to Familiar Neighbors, New Study Finds

Oct 29, 2020 by News Staff

Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) live in tight-knit groups, foraging, resting and sleeping together around a core home range and a wider peripheral...

An artist’s reconstruction of Brevicaudosaurus jiyangshanensis. Image credit: Tyler Stone, tylerstoneart.wordpress.com.

Middle Triassic Nothosaur Had Built-In Float

Oct 29, 2020 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found two nearly complete skeletons from a new genus and species of nothosauroid marine reptile that lived during the Middle Triassic...

An engraving of a bison in the A panel of Aitzbitarte III cave in Spain. Image credit: Garate et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240481.

Paleolithic Animal Engravings Found in Three Spanish Caves

Oct 29, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have discovered figures of animals, mainly bison, engraved in a Gravettian style in three caves in northern Spain. Engravings in the A panel...

This image, taken by the Large Monolithic Imager on the 4.3-m Lowell Discovery Telescope on October 14, 2020, shows C/2014 OG392 (PANSTARRS) and its extensive coma; the dashed lines are star trails caused by the long exposure. Image credit: Northern Arizona University.

Cometary Activity Spotted on Distant Centaur

Oct 29, 2020 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Northern Arizona University and Lowell Observatory has discovered cometary activity on 2014 OG392, a distant centaur object...

A reconstruction of the giant pterosaur Hatzegopteryx launching into the air, just after the forelimbs have left the ground. Image credit: Mark Witton.

Pterosaurs Evolved Their Flight Ability over Millions of Years: Study

Oct 29, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study published this week in the journal Nature, a team of researchers from the United Kingdom combined fossil records with a new model of flight...

A false-color view of Titan, a moon of Saturn surrounded by a thick orange haze. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / University of Idaho.

Cyclopropenylidene Detected in Atmosphere of Titan

Oct 28, 2020 by News Staff

Using high sensitivity spectroscopic observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected a small cyclic...

The 2,700-year-old two-shekalim weight found in Jerusalem, Israel. Image credit: Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Israeli Archaeologists Find 2,700-Year-Old Limestone Weight

Oct 28, 2020 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have found a two-shekalim limestone weight dating from the First Temple period in Jerusalem,...

A fragment of the Hamburg meteorite found on Strawberry Lake near Hamburg, Michigan, the United States. Image credit: Heck et al., doi: 10.1111/maps.13584.

Scientists Find Organic Compounds in Hamburg Meteorite

Oct 28, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has found extraterrestrial hydrocarbons, sulfurized and nitrogen-containing compounds in the Hamburg meteorite, which...

An artist’s depiction of ancient albatrosses harassing a pelagornithid as penguins frolic in the oceans around Antarctica 50 million years ago. Image credit: Brian Choo.

New Fossils of Giant Bony-Toothed Birds Found in Antarctica

Oct 28, 2020 by News Staff

Paleontologists have described new fossils of pelagornithid birds from the middle Eocene Submeseta Formation on Seymour Island, Antarctica. An artist’s...

Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast radiation and ultra-fast winds outward, as illustrated in this artist’s conception. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole is Spinning Slowly, Astronomers Say

Oct 28, 2020 by News Staff

Supermassive black holes are characterized by just two numbers: mass and spin, but have a critical influence on the formation and evolution of galaxies....

An artist’s impression of a dusty, rotating distant galaxy in the early Universe: red color represents gas, and blue/brown represents dust as seen in radio waves with ALMA; many other galaxies are visible in the background, based on optical data from ESO’s Very Large Telescope and NAOJ’s Subaru Telescope. Image credit: B. Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF / ESO / NASA / STScI / NAOJ / Subaru.

Massive Galaxies in Early Universe were More Mature than Previously Thought

Oct 27, 2020 by News Staff

When the Universe was only 10% of its current age, most of the early galaxies experienced a so-called ‘growth spur.’ During this time, the galaxies...

Devonian world. Image credit: Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

Large Tides Played Important Role in Evolution of Bony Fish and Early Tetrapods, Study Suggests

Oct 27, 2020 by News Staff

Large tidal ranges from the Late Silurian to the Late Devonian epoch (420 to 380 million years ago) could have fostered both the evolution of air-breathing...

Hubble Detects Iron and Iron Oxide on Asteroid Psyche

Oct 27, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed the main-belt asteroid (16) Psyche, the...

An artist’s impression of the LTT 9779 system. Image credit: Ethen Schmidt, Kansas University.

Astronomers Analyze Atmosphere of Ultrahot Neptune

Oct 27, 2020 by News Staff

Using data collected by the InfraRed Array Camera aboard NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers...

This ALMA image shows young planet-forming dust rings around IRS 63. Image credit: D. Segura-Cox, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.

Ring-Like Structures Spotted around Protostar IRS 63

Oct 27, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) have observed the emission from dust grains in the protoplanetary disk around...