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Early Iron Age Knossos Was Much Larger Than Originally Thought

Knossos was the capital city of Minoan Crete and the center of Minoan civilization which flourished from 2000 BC until at least 1380 BC. Image credit: Bernard Gagnon / CC BY-SA 3.0.
Jan 11, 2016 by News Staff

Recent excavations at the archaeological site of the ancient city of Knossos find that during the early Iron Age, the city was rich in imports and was around 3 times larger than what was believed from earlier excavations. Knossos was the capital city of Minoan Crete and the center of Minoan civilization which flourished from 2000 BC until at least 1380 BC. Image credit: Bernard Gagnon / CC BY-SA 3.0. “Knossos, renowned as a glorious site of the...

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This Hubble image shows the young merging galaxy NGC 3597. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

NGC 3597: Hubble Captures Young Merging Galaxy

Jan 11, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

Astronomers have released an absolutely beautiful photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 3597. This Hubble image shows the young merging...

Eta Carinae’s great eruption in the 1840s created the billowing Homunculus Nebula, imaged here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble SM4 ERO Team.

Astronomers Find Five Supergiant Stars Far Beyond Milky Way Galaxy

Jan 11, 2016 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble and NASA’s Spitzer space telescopes, astronomers have discovered five very luminous and massive stellar systems in the star-forming...

Messier 51 (M51) system of galaxies: the main panel shows M51 in visible light data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, and blue); the box at the top outlines the field of view by Chandra in the latest study, which focuses on the smaller component of M51, NGC 5195; the inset to the right shows the details of the Chandra data (blue) of this region. Dr Schlegel and co-authors found a pair of arcs in X-ray emission close to the center of NGC 5195, which they interpret as two outbursts from the galaxy’s supermassive black. They estimate that it took about one to three million years for the inner arc to reach its current position, and three to six million years for the outer arc. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / University of Texas / E.Schlegel et al; optical – NASA / STScI.

Chandra Spots Very Active Supermassive Black Hole 26 Million Light-Years Away

Jan 8, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

One of the nearest supermassive black holes to Earth with active powerful outbursts has been discovered by a team of astronomers using NASA’s Chandra...

Neanderthal. Image credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

Neanderthal DNA Gave Humans Allergies, Immunity Boost

Jan 8, 2016 by News Staff

Interbreeding of anatomically modern Homo sapiens with Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) around 40,000 years ago may have left humans with gene variants...

Geologic map of Alaska. Image credit: U.S. Geological Survey / U.S. Department of the Interior.

USGS Researchers Reveal First-Ever Digital Geologic Map of Alaska

Jan 8, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have released a new geologic map of Alaska. Geologic map of Alaska, part 1: generalized geologic map...

This composite image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory shows the galaxy SDSS J112659.54+294442.8. The arrow points to the black hole that lost most of its stars due to gravitational stripping processes. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Team / Chandra Team / Julia M. Comerford et al.

Astronomers Find Unusual Pair of Black Holes in Distant Galaxy

Jan 6, 2016 by News Staff

A team of astronomers led by Dr Julia Comerford of the University of Colorado, Boulder, has spotted a rare pair of black holes in a distant galaxy known...

Periodic table of the elements. Image credit: International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry / Sci-News.com.

Periodic Table’s 7th Period is Finally Complete, IUPAC-IUPAP Officials Say

Jan 5, 2016 by News Staff

The 7th period of the periodic table now has four new elements: element 113 (temporarily named as Ununtrium, or Uut), element 115 (Ununpentium, or Uup),...

The Sichuan bush warbler (Locustella chengi), Laojun Shan, China. Image credit: Per Alström et al.

Top New Bird Discoveries of 2015

Jan 5, 2016 by Natali Anderson

A small warbler from China, a cryptic species of owl from the Middle East, and a tiny tapaculo from South America are just three of the incredible bird...

The rosette-nosed chameleon Rhampholeon spinosus - a small (up to 50–55 mm snout-vent length, 3 - 3.5 g), tree-dwelling chameleon - can stick out its tongue with a peak acceleration 264 times greater than the acceleration due to gravity. Image credit: Philip L. Shirk et al., doi: 10.1111/ddi.12239.

Small Chameleons Have Mighty Tongues, Scientist Says

Jan 4, 2016 by News Staff

According to Brown University researcher Dr Christopher Anderson, small chameleon species project their tongues further than large species, achieving projection...

This image from Hubble’s WFPC2 camera shows the spiral galaxy NGC 4845. The galaxy’s orientation clearly reveals the galaxy’s striking spiral structure: a flat and dust-mottled disc surrounding a bright galactic bulge. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt, Queen's University Belfast.

NGC 4845: Hubble Space Telescope Sees Large Spiral Galaxy

Jan 4, 2016 by Natali Anderson

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has taken an incredible picture of the large spiral galaxy NGC 4845. This image from Hubble’s WFPC2 camera shows the...

The CSU team has successfully produced a completely recyclable, biodegradable polymer. Image credit: Colorado State University.

Chemists Develop Fully Recyclable Polymer

Jan 2, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists at Colorado State University (CSU) has successfully produced a completely recyclable, biodegradable polymer. A graphical illustration...

A new genus Paragallinula is established for the lesser moorhen, which was previously assigned to the genus Gallinula. This photograph illustrates two diagnostic character states differentiating the new genus from Gallinula: the orange coloration on the frontal shield does not cover the entire shield, and the lack of a contrasting reddish band on the legs proximal to the ankle joint. Image credit: Mark Tittley, via George Sangster et al, doi: 10.5852/ejt.2015.153.

Paragallinula: Ornithologists Describe New Bird Genus

Jan 2, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of ornithologists from Sweden and New Zealand has described a new genus for a bird species called the lesser moorhen. A new genus...

Reconstruction of Ballynahatty Neolithic skull by Elizabeth Black. Her genes tell us she had black hair and brown eyes. Image credit: Barrie Hartwell.

Ancient Genomes from Ireland Sequenced for the First Time

Dec 30, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

A large team of researchers reported this week that it had sequenced the whole genomes of four prehistoric Irish individuals: a Neolithic woman (3343 –...

The Ninja Lanternshark (Etmopterus benchleyi), adult female, 45.8 cm long. Image credit: V.E. Vásquez et al.

Ninja Lanternshark: New Species of Bioluminescent Shark Discovered

Dec 29, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of bioluminescent shark has been described from eight specimens collected off the Pacific coast of Central America at depths ranging between...

This image of Ceres, taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on December 10, 2015, shows a crater chain called Gerber Catena. The space probe took the image in its low-altitude mapping orbit (LAMO) from a distance of 240 miles from Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Beams Back Closest Images Ever Seen from Dwarf Planet Ceres

Dec 29, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft took these images of the dwarf planet Ceres on December 10, 2015, at an altitude of around 240 miles (385 km), which is its lowest-ever...

This image from Hubble shows the interacting star-forming galaxy system NGC 6052, which is located 228 million light-years from Earth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

NASA’s Hubble Captures Interacting Star-Forming Galaxy System

Dec 28, 2015 by Sergio Prostak

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a gorgeous photo of the interacting starburst galaxy system NGC 6052. This image from Hubble shows the...

A New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides). Image credit: Jolyon Troscianko.

New Caledonian Crows Caught on Camera Making Hooked Stick Tools

Dec 28, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of scientists from the United Kingdom has captured first video recordings documenting how New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) make ‘hooked...

Saturn’s small moon Phoebe, depicted in this image, seems likely to be a centaur that was captured by the gas giant’s gravity at some time in the past. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Outer Solar System’s Massive Comets Could Pose Hazard to Civilization, Scientists Say

Dec 23, 2015 by News Staff

The discovery of hundreds of huge comets in the outer Solar System over the last 20 years means that these ancient objects pose a real hazard to our civilization,...

Text of Cairo Calendar page rto VIII; inside the superimposed rectangle is the hieratic writing for the word Horus. A passage in this document dates it to the reign of Ramses II in the Nineteenth Dynasty. Image credit: Jetsu L. / Porceddu S., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144140.s001.

3,200-Year-Old Papyrus Contains Astrophysical Information about Variable Star Algol

Dec 23, 2015 by Sergio Prostak

Ancient Egyptians wrote Calendars of Lucky and Unlucky Days that assigned astronomically influenced prognoses for each day of the year. The best preserved...

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