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New NASA Video Shows Dwarf Planet Ceres at Opposition from Sun

With a diameter of 57 miles (92 km), Occator crater is larger than Tycho crater on the Moon. Its steep walls stand tall at over 1.4 miles (2 km), higher than the North face of the Eiger in the Bernese Alps. The origin and nature of the bright spots in its interior is still not clear. Image credit: DLR.
May 17, 2017 by News Staff

This video is made of images taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, from a position exactly between the Sun and the surface of Ceres. Dawn successfully observed the dwarf planet Ceres at opposition on April 29, 2017. Mission specialists had carefully maneuvered the spacecraft into a special orbit so that its framing cameras could view Occator Crater, which contains Ceres’ brightest spots, from this new perspective. The new movie shows these opposition...

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Light and color would look different on a planet orbiting a tiny red star, like this artist’s impression of Proxima b. The Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone is the nearest exoplanet to our Sun. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Proxima b: Researchers Take First Steps to Explore Climate of Nearby Exoplanet

May 17, 2017 by News Staff

A team of astrophysicists and meteorology experts from the University of Exeter and the UK’s Met Office have embarked on the first, tentative steps to...

The young Mars would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer about 140 m deep, but it is more likely that the liquid would have pooled to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’s northern hemisphere, and in some regions reaching depths greater than 1.6 km. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org.

Research Reveals How Changes in Rainfall Shaped Early Mars

May 16, 2017 by News Staff

Heavy rain on Mars reshaped impact craters and carved out river-like channels in the planet’s surface billions of years ago, according to a study by...

Cars, trucks and buses worldwide emit 4.6 million tons more harmful NOx than standards allow, according to the new study. Image credit: Arsi Warrior.

Study: Diesel Vehicles Produce 50% More Nitrogen Oxide than Originally Thought

May 16, 2017 by News Staff

Lab tests of harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from diesel vehicles underestimate the real-world emissions by as much as 50%, a new study led by researchers...

This is an artist’s rendering of the styrofoam-density exoplanet KELT-11b. Image credit: Walter Robinson, Lehigh University.

KELT-11b: ‘Puffy’ Gas Giant Found 320 Light-Years Away

May 16, 2017 by News Staff

A multinational team of astronomers led by Lehigh University researcher Joshua Pepper has discovered a ‘styrofoam’-density exoplanet orbiting the bright...

Phenotypes of osteoarthritis: evidence suggests that patients with osteoarthritis fall into multiple phenotypic subgroups defined on the basis of the main driver of disease, one of which is a distinct metabolic phenotype, although all osteoarthritis phenotypes probably involve metabolic alterations; cartilage, bone and synovium are all affected by external and internal drivers of disease such as inflammation, injury or biomechanical alterations, metabolic reprogramming and immunomodulation, but different synovial joint tissues dominate the disease in different patients with osteoarthritis. Image credit: Mobasheri et al / Nature Reviews Rheumatology, doi: 10.1038/nrrheum.2017.50.

Osteoarthritis Could Be Prevented with Regular Exercise, Good Diet

May 16, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of researchers, led by the University of Surrey, UK, has identified a crucial link between metabolism and osteoarthritis. Phenotypes...

Hubble view of the galaxy cluster Abell 1689. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / J. Blakeslee, Dominion Astrophysical Observatory / H. Ford, JHU.

Space-Time is Constantly Moving, Physicists Say

May 15, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia, Canada, has tackled the question ‘what causes...

Megatherium sloths. Image credit: Robert Bruce Horsfall.

Extinct Giant Sloths Had Vegetarian Diet, Study Shows

May 15, 2017 by News Staff

Giant sloths, massive animals that lived in the Americas during the Ice Age, subsisted on an exclusively plant-based diet, according to an isotopic analysis...

Quantitative measurements of the C═O***H–C bond: (A) schematic drawing of the hydrogen bonding measurement on trifluorantheno[3.3.3]propellane with a CO-functionalized tip; right shows the AFM image. Scale bar - 300 pm; (B) 2D frequency shift map; (C) calculated force and (D) potentials. Inset shows the same area with a wider contrast. The z origin was set at the position of the hydrogen atom. Measurement parameters: A = 60 pm and V = 0 mV. Image credit: Kawai et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1603258.

Physicists Directly Observe Hydrogen Bonds in Single Molecule

May 15, 2017 by News Staff

For the first time, physicists have succeeded in observing and studying in detail the hydrogen bonds in a single molecule. Quantitative measurements of...

Layers of the skin. Image credit: M.Komorniczak / Madhero / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Skin Cell Discovery Could Lead to Possible Treatments for Balding, Hair Graying

May 15, 2017 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has identified the cells that directly give rise to hair as well as the mechanism...

The Acentria’s fritillary (Melitaea acentria), female, Mt. Hermon (1,800 m), Israel, May 7, 2016. Image credit: V. Lukhtanov, doi: 10.3897/CompCytogen.v11i2.12370.

New Species of Butterfly Discovered in Israel: Acentria’s Fritillary

May 13, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of the butterfly genus Melitaea has been discovered in northern Israel, according to a paper published in the journal Comparative Cytogenetics. The...

This composite image of the Crab Nebula was assembled by combining data from five telescopes spanning nearly the entire breadth of the electromagnetic spectrum: the VLA (radio) in red; Spitzer (infrared) in yellow; Hubble (visible) in green; XMM-Newton (ultraviolet) in blue; and Chandra (X-ray) in purple. Image credit: NASA / ESA / NRAO / AUI / NSF / G. Dubner, University of Buenos Aires.

Stunning New View of Crab Nebula

May 12, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers created this composite image of the Crab Nebula — a 10-light-year-wide remnant of a supernova explosion — by combining data from...

According to Janecka et al, the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is actually three different subspecies. Image credit: Dingopup / The Cat Survival Trust / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Three Subspecies of Snow Leopard Revealed

May 12, 2017 by Natali Anderson

There are three different subspecies of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia), the world’s most elusive large big cat, according to a new study published...

The atmosphere of the Neptune-mass exoplanet HAT-P-26b is unexpectedly primitive, composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. By combining observations from Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, Wakeford et al determined that, unlike Neptune and Uranus, the exoplanet has relatively low metallicity. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

HAT-P-26b: Unexpectedly Primitive Atmosphere Discovered around Neptune-Mass Exoplanet

May 12, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered that HAT-P-26b — a ‘warm Neptune’ orbiting a dwarf star approximately 437 light-years from Earth — has an atmosphere...

German Shepherd puppy. Image credit: Marilyn Peddle / CC BY 2.0.

Study: Pet Dogs Help Children Feel Less Stressed

May 12, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Social Development, pet dogs provide valuable social support for children when they’re stressed. German...

This global view of Io was obtained by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft on 19 September 1997 at a range of more than 500,000 km (310,000 miles). In this image, deposits of sulfur dioxide frost appear in white and grey hues while yellowish and brownish hues are probably due to other sulfurous materials. Bright red materials and ‘black’ spots with low brightness mark areas of recent volcanic activity and are usually associated with high temperatures and surface changes. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.

Astronomers Create Detailed Map of Loki Patera, Most Active Volcanic Site on Jupiter’s Moon Io

May 11, 2017 by News Staff

Taking advantage of a rare orbital alignment between Jupiter’s moons Io and Europa, a research team led by scientists at the University of California...

Experiencing beauty requires thought, New York University neuroscientists find.

Immanuel Kant was Right: Beauty Requires Thought

May 11, 2017 by News Staff

Experiencing beauty requires thought, neuroscientists have found in a study that confirms a claim by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804),...

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

First Enterococci Appeared on Earth during Ordovician Period, Says Study

May 11, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published today in the journal Cell, the enterococci — gram-positive aerobic bacteria and a leading cause of hospital-acquired...

This artist’s impression displays TRAPPIST-1 and its planets reflected in a surface. Image credit: NASA / R. Hurt / T. Pyle.

TRAPPIST-1 System’s Planetary Harmonies Save It from Destruction

May 11, 2017 by News Staff

The recently discovered TRAPPIST-1 planetary system has a unique configuration, according to new research from the University of Toronto, Canada. This...

This image was taken on May 7, 2017, at a distance of 316,000 miles (508,000 km). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Spots Bright Clouds of Methane in Titan’s Atmosphere

May 10, 2017 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini orbiter watched bright, feathery clouds of methane moving across the northern regions of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, on May 7,...

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