Page 367 | Sci.News: Breaking Science News

Astronomers have monitored the Eta Carinae binary system for more than two decades. It has been prone to violent outbursts, including an episode in the 1840s during which ejected material formed the bipolar bubbles seen here. Now, using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument to probe the nebula in ultraviolet light, they have uncovered the glow of magnesium embedded in warm gas (shown in blue) in places they had not seen it before. The luminous magnesium resides in the space between the dusty bipolar bubbles and the outer shock-heated nitrogen-rich filaments (shown in red). The streaks visible in the blue region outside the lower-left lobe are a striking feature of the image. These streaks are created when the star’s light rays poke through the dust clumps scattered along the bubble’s surface. Wherever the ultraviolet light strikes the dense dust, it leaves a long, thin shadow that extends beyond the lobe into the surrounding gas. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / N. Smith, University of Arizona / J. Morse, BoldlyGo Institute.

Hubble Captures Eta Carinae in Ultraviolet Light

Jul 2, 2019 by News Staff

Eta Carinae is a binary stellar system approximately 7,500 light-years away in the constellation Carina. Also known as HD 93308 and Hen 3-481, the system...

Diet that restricts glucose may help brain function. Image credit: Cattalin.

Atkins-Style Diet May Improve Brain Function and Memory in Older Adults

Jul 2, 2019 by News Staff

A modified Atkins diet (very low carbohydrates and extra fat) may improve brain function and episodic memory, according to a small study of 14 older adults...

This illustration shows NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft-lander approaching a site on Titan. Image credit: NASA / JHU-APL.

NASA Announces Dragonfly Mission to Explore Saturn’s Hazy Moon Titan

Jul 2, 2019 by News Staff

NASA announced last week that it had selected the Dragonfly mission to explore the prebiotic organic chemistry and look for signs of life on Titan, the...

An artist’s conception of the L 98-59 planetary system. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

TESS Discovers Planetary System with Three Terrestrial-Size Exoplanets

Jul 1, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered three small planets orbiting a bright M-dwarf star called L 98-59....

Self-Torque: Physicists Discover New Property of Light

Jul 1, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of physicists has theoretically predicted and experimentally generated light beams with a new property that they call the self-torque...

This Hubble image shows a spiral galaxy called NGC 972. The image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) instrument. Two 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 / L. Ho.

Hubble Sees Dusty Star-Forming Galaxy: NGC 972

Jul 1, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking new photo of the spiral galaxy NGC 972. This Hubble image shows a spiral galaxy called NGC...

Improved cell-phone hygiene may lead to a reduction in infections associated with health care. Image credit: StockSnap.

Researchers Find Pathogenic Bacteria on Medical Students’ Cell Phones

Jul 1, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the University of Western São Paulo, Brazil, has found Staphylococcus aureus bacteria on nearly 40% of university students’...

In virtually all countries citizens were more likely to return wallets that contained more money. Image credit: Steve Buissinne.

Study: People More Likely to Return Lost Wallet with More Money

Jun 28, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from the United States and Switzerland turned 17,303 ‘lost’ wallets containing varying amounts of money into public...

Life reconstructions of extinct crocodyliforms. Differences in tooth shape are related to differences in diets. Image credit: Jorge Gonzalez.

Some Extinct Relatives of Living Crocodylians Were Vegetarians

Jun 28, 2019 by News Staff

A veggie diet arose in extinct crocodyliforms — the distant cousins of living crocodylians (alligators, caimans, crocodiles, and gharials) —...

An artist’s impression of ASKAP finding a fast radio burst and determining its precise location. The Keck, VLT and Gemini South optical telescopes joined ASKAP with follow-up observations to image the host galaxy. Image credit: Andrew Howells / CSIRO.

Astronomers Pinpoint Location of Non-Repeating Fast Radio Burst

Jun 28, 2019 by News Staff

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief radio emissions from distant astronomical sources. Some are known to repeat, but most are single bursts, occurring only...

Pachystruthio dmanisensis. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

Giant Birds Roamed Europe Two Million Years Ago

Jun 28, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A giant ostrich-like bird that lived about two million years ago (Pleistocene epoch) has been identified from a fossilized femur found in the Crimean Peninsula,...

Hospital insects present a potential to contribute to persistence and spread of antimicrobial-resistant pathogenic bacteria in the hospital environment. Image credit: Virvoreanu Laurentiu.

Hospital Insects Harbor Potentially Harmful Bacteria, Finds New Study

Jun 28, 2019 by News Staff

In a new study published this month in the Journal of Medical Entomology, researchers from Aston University collected and analyzed 19,937 flying insects...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

DNA of Early Neanderthals Reveals 80,000 Years of Genetic Continuity in Europe

Jun 27, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has sequenced the nuclear genomes of two Neanderthals who lived in Europe around 120,000 years ago. They found that...

Reconstruction of Eocoracias brachyptera with hypothesized plumage coloration. Image credit: Marta Zaher, University of Bristol.

Paleontologists Uncover New Insights into Non-Iridescent Feather Colors in Prehistoric Birds

Jun 27, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists from the United Kingdom and Germany has shown that blue feather melanosomes are highly distinct from melanosomes...

The occasional use of stone tools as ‘strike-a-lights’ was a technocultural feature shared among Neanderthals in France.

Neanderthals Used Pine Resin as Glue to Haft Stone Tools into Handles

Jun 27, 2019 by News Staff

The hafting of stone tools was an important advance in the technological evolution of Paleolithic humans. Joining a handle to a knife or scraper and attaching...

An artist’s concept depicting the presence of buckyballs in space. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Find Ionized Buckyballs in Interstellar Medium

Jun 27, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed the presence of ionized (electrically-charged) buckminsterfullerene in the interstellar...

This digitally-colorized scanning electron microscopic image depicts Enterococcus faecalis. Image credit: Pete Wardell / CDC.

Gut Bacteria Consume Parkinson’s Drug Levodopa, Often with Harmful Side Effects

Jun 27, 2019 by News Staff

Parkinson’s disease is a debilitating neurological condition affecting more than 1% of the global population aged 60 and above. The primary medication...

A new type quasiparticle discovered in graphene double-layer structure. This so-called composite fermion consists of one electron and two different types of magnetic flux, illustrated as blue and gold colored arrows in the figure. Composite fermions are capable of forming pairs, such unique interaction lead to experimental discovery of unexpected new quantum Hall phenomena. Image credit: Michelle Miller & Jia Li, Brown University.

Physicists Observe Exotic Quantum States in Double-Layer Graphene

Jun 26, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of physicists from the United States and Japan has demonstrated a series of fractional quantum Hall effect states that arise in double-layer...

Soft pretzels have a uniform brown crust color and elicit a characteristic aroma that is clearly different from those of other small types of bread. Image credit: Kerstin Riemer.

Chemists Identify Key Aroma Compounds in Pretzels

Jun 26, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the Technische Universität München in Germany has identified the key compounds that give soft pretzels their distinctive scent. Soft...