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NASA’s Chandra Observatory Detects X-Rays from Pluto

The first detection of Pluto in X-rays has been made using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The main panel in this graphic is an optical image taken from New Horizons on its approach to Pluto, while the inset shows an image of Pluto in X-rays from Chandra. There is a significant difference in scale between the optical and X-ray images. New Horizons made a close flyby of Pluto but Chandra is located near the Earth, so the level of detail visible in the two images is very different. The Chandra image is 180,000 miles across at the distance of Pluto, but the planet is only 1,500 miles across. Pluto is detected in the X-ray image as a point source, showing the sharpest level of detail available for Chandra or any other X-ray observatory. This means that details over scales that are smaller than the X-ray source cannot be seen here. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / JHUAPL / R.McNutt et al; optical – NASA / JHUAPL.
Sep 14, 2016 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have made the first detections of X-rays from Pluto. This X-ray emission comes from interaction between the dwarf planet’s atmosphere and the solar wind. The first detection of Pluto in X-rays has been made using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The main panel in this graphic is an optical image taken from New Horizons on its approach to Pluto, while the inset shows an image of Pluto in X-rays...

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Artist’s impression of the dust disk and a forming Neptune-like planet around TW Hydrae. Image credit: NAOJ.

Astronomers Spot Formation Site of Neptune-Like Exoplanet

Sep 14, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found signs of a growing Neptune-like planet in the protoplanetary disk...

This view from Curiosity’s Mast Camera shows a sloping hillside within the ‘Murray Buttes’ region on lower Mount Sharp. The rim of Gale Crater, where the rover has been active since landing in 2012, is visible in the distance, through the dusty haze. The image was taken on September 8, 2016, during the 1454th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s work on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Finds Spectacular Rock Formations on Mars

Sep 14, 2016 by News Staff

A set of new photos taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover reveals signs of past geologic activity. This view from Curiosity’s Mast Camera shows a sloping...

This image of the Stingray Nebula was taken with Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in 1998. In the center of the nebula the fast evolving star SAO 244567 is located. Observations made within the last 45 years showed that the surface temperature of the star increased by almost 40,000 degree Celsius. Now new observations of the spectra of the star have revealed that SAO 244567 has started to cool again. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Observes Rapidly Evolving Central Star of Stingray Nebula

Sep 13, 2016 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have been able to study stellar evolution in real time. This image of the Stingray Nebula was taken...

Top and side views of 136-atom (upper row) and 374-atom (lower row) silver nanoclusters: the metal cores of these clusters have a diameter of 2 and 3 nm, respectively; silver atoms in the metal core are denoted by large orange sphere; the core is protected by a silver-thiol layer (green: silver; yellow: sulfur; carbon: gray. Image credit: Huayan Yang et al.

Researchers Create Record-Breaking Silver Nanoparticles

Sep 13, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has synthesized and characterized two diamond-shaped nanoclusters of 136 and 374 silver atoms. Top and side views...

Group work can harm memory, researchers say.

Study Shows Group Work Can Harm Memory

Sep 13, 2016 by News Staff

A new study published in the Psychological Bulletin reveals that collaborating in a group to remember information is harmful. Group work can harm memory,...

Geographic distribution of the 6,452 word lists analyzed in this study. Colors distinguish different linguistic macroareas, regions with relatively little or no contact between them (but with much internal contact between their populations). These are North America (orange), South America (dark green), Eurasia (blue), Africa (green), Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands (red), and Australia (fuchsia). Image credit: Damián E. Blasi et al.

Unrelated Languages Often Use Same Sounds for Common Objects and Ideas, Research Finds

Sep 13, 2016 by News Staff

A careful statistical examination of words from 6,000+ languages shows that humans tend to use the same sounds for common objects and ideas, no matter...

Prof. Parker, sitting far right, and students examine a statue of Aphrodite, discovered during a 2016 excavation in Petra, Jordan. Image credit: Tom Parker.

Archaeologists Unearth Two Marble Statues of Aphrodite in Petra

Sep 12, 2016 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists from North Carolina State University and East Carolina University has discovered two marble statues of Aphrodite, the Greco-Roman...

A colorized scanning electron micrograph of human hair. Image credit: Scanning Electron Microscopy Laboratory, University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Scientists Develop Forensic Method to Identify Humans Using Hair Proteins

Sep 12, 2016 by News Staff

A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory-led interdisciplinary research team has developed the first-ever biological identification method that exploits...

Moon. Image credit: Gregory H. Revera / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Moon is Proto-Earth’s Mantle, Researchers Say

Sep 12, 2016 by News Staff

Measurements of potassium in lunar and terrestrial rocks have disproved the leading hypotheses for the origin of Earth’s sole natural satellite. Moon....

This image snapped by Hubble’s ACS instrument shows PGC 83677, a lenticular galaxy located 300 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Captures Image of Little-Known Lenticular Galaxy

Sep 12, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this vivid image of lenticular galaxy PGC 83677. This image snapped by Hubble’s ACS instrument shows...

This artist’s conception illustrates what a T-type brown dwarf might look like. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Find 165 Brown Dwarfs in Solar Neighborhood

Sep 11, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has discovered 165 new ultracool brown dwarfs — objects that have a size between that of a gas giant and that...

Reticulated giraffe (G. reticulata) in Samburu NP, Kenya. Image credit: Julian Fennessy / Giraffe Conservation Foundation.

Genetic Analysis Reveals Four Distinct Giraffe Species Instead of One

Sep 9, 2016 by News Staff

Giraffes actually are not one species, but four, according to a new study published in the journal Current Biology. Reticulated giraffe (G. reticulata)...

Experts Debate Our Duty and Ability to Spread Life around the Cosmos

Sep 9, 2016 by James Romero

The technology to ‘seed’ planets well beyond our solar system with basic life forms, skipping billions of years of evolution on Earth and spreading...

This Hubble image shows the globular cluster NGC 6101. Globular clusters are spherical collections of old stars (10-13 billion years old) which orbit around a galactic center. Image credit: NASA / ESA.

NGC 6101: Star Cluster with Hundreds of Black Holes?

Sep 9, 2016 by News Staff

Computer simulations of a globular cluster called NGC 6101 reveal that it contains several hundreds of stellar-mass black holes, until now thought impossible. This...

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid. Image credit: NASA.

OSIRIS-REx Begins Its Journey to Asteroid Bennu

Sep 9, 2016 by News Staff

NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft blasted-off at 7:05 p.m. EDT Thursday...

An artist concept of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / Goddard.

NASA Launching Probe to Asteroid Bennu: Watch Live

Sep 8, 2016 by News Staff

An artist concept of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / Goddard. NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith...

The Relative Citation Ratio is article level and field independent and provides an alternative to the invalid practice of using journal impact factors to identify influential papers. Image credit: Unsplash.

Relative Citation Ratio: New Metric Measures Influence of Scientific Research

Sep 8, 2016 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the National Institute of Health led by George Santangelo has developed a new article-level metric: the Relative Citation Ratio. The...

Rosetta NavCam image taken on 14 March 2015 at 85.7 km from the center of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; it has been cleaned to remove the more obvious bad pixels and cosmic ray artefacts, and intensities have been scaled. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NAVCAM / CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.

Rosetta Finds Solid Organic Matter in Dust Particles from 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Sep 8, 2016 by News Staff

ESA’s Rosetta orbiter has made the first unambiguous detection of solid organic matter in dust grains ejected by comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This...

Proton-proton collisions events in which two high energy electrons and two high energy muons are observed. Image credit: L. Taylor / T. McCauley / CERN.

Madala Boson: Physicists Predict Existence of New Heavy Particle

Sep 7, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of physicists, led by the University of the Witwatersrand (UW) in Johannesburg, South Africa, predicts the existence of a new particle...

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