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Small Asteroid 2012 TC4 to Whiz Safely by Earth This Week

2012 TC4 appears as a dot at the center of this composite image of 37 individual 50-second exposures obtained with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in 2012. The asteroid is marked with a circle for a better identification. Image credit: ESO / ESA NEOCC / Olivier Hainaut, ESO / Marco Micheli, ESA / Detlef Koschny, ESA.
Oct 11, 2017 by News Staff

Back in October 2012, a small (45-100 feet, or 15-30 m) asteroid known as 2012 TC4 had a close encounter with Earth. It passed our planet at a distance only a quarter of that between the Earth and the Moon. On October 12, 2017, this asteroid will make another close flyby of Earth. This encounter will be used by asteroid trackers around the world to test their ability to operate as a coordinated International Asteroid Warning Network. 2012 TC4 appears...

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A smoking volcano. Image credit: Bela Marie.

Catastrophic Volcanic Eruption Occurred in Pacific Northwest 16.5 Million Years Ago, Geologists Say

Oct 11, 2017 by News Staff

The Pacific Northwest, a geographic region in western North America, was home to one of the planet’s most powerful known volcanic eruptions, according...

Dry age-related macular degeneration is one of the most common causes of vision loss in people over the age of 50. Image credit: Pexels.

New Drug Slows Progression of Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Oct 11, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of researchers has found a way to slow the progression of an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause...

A final image from ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft, shortly before it made a controlled impact onto Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on September 30, 2016, was reconstructed from residual telemetry. The image measures about 1 m across. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA.

ESA’s Rosetta Team Reconstructs Probe’s Final Image

Oct 10, 2017 by News Staff

Rosetta’s final image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by the probe shortly before its controlled impact into the comet’s surface on September...

According to Henning et al, black tea may promote weight loss and other health benefits by changing bacteria in the gut. Image credit: Mathias Megerle.

Black Tea May Promote Weight Loss, Study Finds

Oct 10, 2017 by News Staff

In a study in mice, a team of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, has found that black tea alters energy metabolism in the liver...

Artist’s impression of Planet Nine. Image credit: Tom Ruen / ESO.

Astronomers Say Evidence is Growing for Existence of Planet Nine

Oct 10, 2017 by News Staff

There are now five different lines of observational evidence pointing to the existence of Planet Nine, a super-Earth-sized world about 20 times farther...

Brain of the sweat bee Megalopta genalis (body length: 1-2 cm). Highlight/inset shows compass regions. Abbreviations: CBL - lower division of the central body, CBU - upper division of the central body, LBU - lateral bulb, MBU - medial bulb, NO – noduli, PB - protocerebral bridge. Scale bars - 200 μm. Image credit: A. Narendra / Stone et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.08.052.

New Study Shows How Bee’s Brain Functions to Guide It Home

Oct 10, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study led by Lund University scientist Stanley Heinze, a network of compass and speed neurons in the bee brain integrates every detail...

Durian (Durio zibethinus). Image credit: Amon Heijne / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Tropical Fruit Durian

Oct 10, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia has sequenced the genome of durian (Durio zibethinus), a Southeast Asian tropical...

Mars’ Eridania Basin Once Held Vast Sea

Oct 9, 2017 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has identified what appear to be ancient hydrothermal deposits in the Eridania region in the southern highlands...

This image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the blue compact dwarf galaxy LEDA 17302. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Displays Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxy

Oct 9, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a galaxy known as LEDA 17302. It is a galaxy type known as a blue compact dwarf galaxy. This image, taken...

This illustration depicts a hypothetical uneven ring of dust orbiting KIC 8462852. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Mysterious Long-Term Dimming of KIC 8462852 May Be Caused by Dust, Astronomers Say

Oct 9, 2017 by News Staff

University of Arizona astronomer Huan Meng and co-authors have found the long-term dimming of KIC 8462852 — a main-sequence F-type star located in...

The surgical glue MeTro is applied directly to the wound and activated with light. Image credit: University of Sydney.

New Human Protein-Based Surgical Glue Seals Wounds in 60 Seconds

Oct 9, 2017 by News Staff

A biocompatible and highly elastic hydrogel sealant can effectively seal wounds in shape-shifting tissues without the need for common staples or sutures,...

This image of Jupiter, Io and Europa was taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on September 1, 2017 at 6:14 p.m. EDT (3:14 p.m. PDT), and then processed by citizen scientist Roman Tkachenko. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Roman Tkachenko.

NASA’s Juno Orbiter Observes Jupiter and Two Galilean Moons

Oct 8, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

Juno captured this color portrait of the edge of Jupiter and two of the gas giant’s largest moons — Io and Europa — as it performed its eighth...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Two Ancient DNA Studies Provide New Insights into Lives of Neanderthals and Paleolithic Humans

Oct 7, 2017 by News Staff

Two separate teams of researchers have used advanced DNA sequencing methods to analyze the 52,000-year-old remains of a Neanderthal woman from Vindija...

Ieldraan melkshamensis -- nicknamed the Melksham Monster after the town where it was unearthed -- closely resembled the species shown in this artist’s impression (Plesiosuchus manselii), which also belongs to the Geosaurini group. Image credit: Fabio Manucci.

Paleontologists Identify New Species of Prehistoric Marine Crocodile: Ieldraan melkshamensis

Oct 6, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of marine reptile that lived about 163 million years ago (Middle Jurassic epoch) has been identified from a fossil found near Melksham, Wiltshire,...

Freon-40 discovered by ALMA around the infant stars in the IRAS 16293-2422 system. Image credit: B. Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF / NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA.

Freon-40 Detected around Protostars and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Oct 6, 2017 by News Staff

Using data gathered by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA)...

For the first time, researchers have used mutations detected in circulating tumor DNA drawn from patient blood to predict responses to immunotherapy, supporting the usage of this non-invasive diagnostic approach in the clinic. Image credit: National Human Genome Research Institute.

DNA Shed into Blood by Tumors Can Predict Cancer Patients’ Response to Immunotherapy, Says Study

Oct 6, 2017 by Zvi Cramer

Scientists have shown that mutations present in circulating tumor DNA isolated from the blood predicts the likelihood a patient will respond to checkpoint...

Raccoon (Procyon lotor). Image credit: StockSnap.

Raccoons Solve Aesop’s ‘Crow and Pitcher’ Puzzle

Oct 6, 2017 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Animal Cognition demonstrates that raccoons (Procyon lotor) are able to learn to solve complex problems and that they...

This image combines two products from the first pointing at Phobos by Mars Odyssey’s THEMIS camera. Surface-temperature information from observation in thermal-infrared wavelengths is overlaid on a more detailed image from a visible-light observation. The left edge of the small moon was in darkness, and the right edge in morning sunlight. The distance to Phobos from Mars Odyssey during the observation was about 3,424 miles (5,511 km). Researchers will analyze the surface-temperature information from this observation and possible future THEMIS observations to learn how quickly the surface warms after sunup or cools after sundown. That could provide information about surface materials, because larger rocks heat or cool more slowly than smaller particles do. The thermal information in this image is from merging observations made in four thermal-infrared wavelength bands, centered from 11.04 microns to 14.88 microns. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Arizona State University.

Mars Odyssey Captures Phobos in Infrared Light

Oct 5, 2017 by News Staff

The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera on NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft observed Phobos — the larger and inner of the two natural...

Small flying foxes (Pteropus hypomelanus). Image credit: Zoo Leipzig.

Flying Foxes Play Important Role in Pollination of Durian

Oct 5, 2017 by News Staff

Using camera traps, University of Nottingham researcher Sheema Abdul Aziz and colleagues collected video evidence showing the small flying fox (Pteropus...

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