Page 511 | Sci.News: Breaking Science News

An example of the uniformity illusion with blurriness. Image credit: Marte Otten et al, doi: 10.1177/0956797616672270.

Illusion Reveals that Human Brain Fills in Peripheral Vision

Dec 14, 2016 by News Staff

According to a new study, what we see in the periphery, just outside the direct focus of the eye, may sometimes be a visual illusion. Four examples of...

This low-angle self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity rover shows the vehicle at the site from which it reached down to drill into a rock target called ‘Buckskin’ on lower Mount Sharp. The selfie combines several component images taken by Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on Aug. 5, 2015, during 1065 Sol (Martian day) of the rover’s work on Mars. For scale, the rover’s wheels are 20 inches (50 cm) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 cm) wide. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Boron on Martian Surface

Dec 14, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Boron, a metalloid chemical element with properties intermediate between those of carbon and aluminum, has been identified for the first time on the Martian...

ALMA image of the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star HD 163296 as seen in dust. New observations suggested that two planets are in orbit around the star. These planets, which are not yet fully formed, revealed themselves by the dual imprint they left in both the dust and the gas portions of the star’s protoplanetary disk. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / AUI / NSF / A. Isella / B. Saxton.

Evidence of Forming Giant Planets Discovered 400 Light-Years from Earth

Dec 13, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found compelling evidence that two infant planets — each about the...

The city’s acropolis is barely visible during a cloudy day on the Thessalian plains. Image credit: Swedish Institute at Athens / Ephorate of Antiquities of Karditsa / Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports.

Archaeologists Find Previously Unknown Ancient City in Greece

Dec 13, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists from Sweden, Greece and the United Kingdom is exploring the ruins of a previously unknown ancient city at the village...

Sofia Soares et al investigated midbrain dopamine neurons during timing behavior in mice; when measuring and manipulating mouse activity, the team observed that dopamine neurons controlled temporal judgments on a time scale of seconds. Image credit: Geralt.

Neuroscientists Identify Neurons that Control Judgment of Time

Dec 13, 2016 by News Staff

A new study in mice shows that dopamine neuron activity plays a key role in judgment of time, slowing down the internal clock. Sofia Soares et al investigated...

Lechuguilla Cave, New Mexico. Image credit: Max Wisshak.

Multi-Drug Resistant Bacteria Found Deep in New Mexico’s Lechuguilla Cave

Dec 13, 2016 by News Staff

According to a team of researchers led by Gerald Wright, a professor of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at McMaster University, Lechuguilla Cave —...

This artist’s impression depicts a Kerr (rapidly spinning) black hole, surrounded by an accretion disc: this thin disc of rotating material consists of the leftovers of a Sun-like star which was ripped apart by the tidal forces of the black hole; shocks in the colliding debris as well as heat generated in accretion led to a burst of light, resembling a supernova explosion. Image credit: ESO / ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.

Kerr Black Hole Eating Sun-like Star Explains Superluminous Explosion ASASSN-15lh

Dec 12, 2016 by News Staff

ASASSN-15lh, an extremely bright explosion in a massive galaxy 3.82 billion light-years away, was thought to be the most luminous supernova ever seen....

In this artist’s illustration, HAT-P-7b closely orbits a star that’s 1,044 light-years from Earth. A companion star (top right) and a candidate planet (foreground) lie in the distance. Image credit: NAOJ.

Scientists Find Evidence of Weather Change on Jupiter-Like Exoplanet HAT-P-7b

Dec 12, 2016 by News Staff

Signs of powerful changing winds have been detected on an extrasolar gaseous planet called HAT-P-7b, which is 40% larger than Jupiter and orbits a star...

According to Hyldahl et al, running may slow the process that leads to osteoarthritis. Image credit: Skeeze.

Running Lowers Inflammation in Knee Joints, Researchers Say

Dec 12, 2016 by News Staff

Pro-inflammatory molecules actually go down in the knee joint after running, according to a team of researchers at Brigham Young University. According...

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy IC 5201, which lies in constellation of Grus, approximately 35.5 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Observes Barred Spiral Galaxy IC 5201

Dec 12, 2016 by Natali Anderson

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an incredibly detailed image of IC 5201, a galaxy in the southern constellation of Grus. This Hubble image...

Color composite of Phobos taken with TGO’s CaSSIS camera on November 26, 2016. The observation was made at a distance of 4,785 miles (7,700 km). To create the final color image, two images were taken through each of the four color filters of the camera -- panchromatic, blue-green, red and infrared -- and then stitched together and combined to produce the high-resolution composite. Two of the color filters used by CaSSIS lie outside the wavelength response of the human eye, so this is not a ‘true’ color image. However, showing the data as a color representation can reveal details of the surface mineralogy. Different colors are clearly seen, with the bluest part in the direction of the large crater Stickney, which is out of view over the limb to the left. Although the exact composition of the material is unknown, the color differences are thought to be caused by compositional variations on scales of hundreds of feet to several miles. Image credit: ESA.

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter Snaps Color Image of Phobos

Dec 11, 2016 by News Staff

ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has sent back its first color image of Phobos, the larger and inner of the two natural satellites of Mars. Color...

The distorted galaxy in the simulation (main image) results from a collision and merger between two galaxies. Astronomers think such a merger could be the reason why SPT0346-52 is having such a boom of stellar construction. Once the two galaxies collide, gas near the center of the merged galaxy (shown as the bright region in the center of the simulation) is compressed, producing a burst of new stars. The composite inset shows X-ray data from Chandra (blue), short wavelength infrared data from Hubble (green), infrared light from Spitzer (red) at longer wavelengths, and infrared data from ALMA (magenta) at even longer wavelengths. There is no blue at the center of the image, showing that Chandra did not detect any X-rays that could have signaled the presence of a growing black hole. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / University of Florida / J. Ma et al; optical – NASA / STScI; infrared – NASA / JPL-Caltech; radio – ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / ALMA; simulation - Simons Foundation / Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation / Flatiron Institute / Caltech / C. Hayward & P. Hopkins.

Astronomers Find Hyper-Starburst Galaxy 12.7 Billion Light-Years Away

Dec 9, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers have used CSIRO’s Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to show that a recently-discovered lensed...

This view from Cassini was obtained about half a day before its first close pass by the outer edges of Saturn’s main rings during its penultimate mission phase. The view shows part of the giant, hexagon-shaped jet stream around the planet’s north pole. Each side of the hexagon is about as wide as Earth. A circular storm lies at the center, at the pole. The image was taken with Cassini’s wide-angle camera on Dec. 3, 2016, at a distance of about 240,000 miles (390,000 km) from Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Beams Back Spectacular Images from Its First ‘Ring-Grazing’ Orbit

Dec 9, 2016 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini orbiter has beamed back its first photos of the gas giant Saturn and the planet’s major moons since beginning the so-called ‘ring-grazing’...

The feathered tail of a coelurosaur preserved in mid-Cretaceous amber from Kachin State, Myanmar. Image credit: Lida Xing et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.008.

Feathered Dinosaur Tail Found Encased in Mid-Cretaceous Burmese Amber

Dec 9, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists from China, Canada and the United Kingdom has discovered the tail of a non-avian theropod dinosaur (likely a coelurosaur)...

This transmission electron micrograph depicts a number of variola virions. Image credit: Fred Murphy & Sylvia Whitfield / CDC.

New Genetic Research Rewrites Evolutionary History of Smallpox

Dec 8, 2016 by News Staff

New research suggests that smallpox may not be an ancient disease but a much more modern killer that went on to become the first human disease eradicated...

Artificially grown bismuth crystal illustrating the stairstep structure, with a 1 cm3 cube of bismuth metal. Image credit: Heinrich Pniok / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.

Scientists Observe Superconductivity in Single Crystals of Pure Bismuth

Dec 8, 2016 by News Staff

According to a team of researchers at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India, pure bismuth — a semimetal with a rhombohedral...

Composite view of L2 Puppis in visible light. Image credit: Kervella et al / CNRS / University of Chile / Observatory of Paris / LESIA / ESO / ALMA.

Massive Planet-Like Object Found Circling Nearby Red Giant Star

Dec 8, 2016 by News Staff

A team of astronomers has discovered a giant object — an enormous, Jupiter-like exoplanet or a low-mass brown dwarf — orbiting an ageing red...

According to Alan Scoboria et al, many people are prone to remembering events that never happened. Image credit: Geralt.

Researchers: Half of People Believe Fake Facts

Dec 8, 2016 by News Staff

Around 50% of us are susceptible to believing we’ve experienced fictitious events, according to an international team of researchers led by Dr. Alan...

A giant of a moon appears before a giant of a planet undergoing seasonal changes in this natural color view of Titan and Saturn from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI.

Saturn’s Moons May Be Younger than Previously Thought

Dec 7, 2016 by News Staff

New data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft reveal that Saturn’s moons may be younger than previously thought. A giant of a moon appears before a giant...