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This Hubble image shows a small section of the Veil Nebula. This section of the outer shell of the famous supernova remnant is in a region known as the Witch’s Broom Nebula (NGC 6960). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team.

Astronomers Get Best View Yet of Veil Nebula

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

About 8,000 years ago, Neolithic humans would have witnessed what appeared to be a bright new star blazing in the northern sky. In fact, it was the violent...

Active pits on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Image credit: Jean-Baptiste Vincent et al.

Rosetta Provides Evidence for Daily Water-Ice Cycle on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers using the Visible, InfraRed and Thermal Imaging Spectrometer aboard ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft have identified a region on the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko...

The upper two panels of this graphic represent a possible explanation for a recent increase in X-ray flares from Sagittarius A* seen by three X-ray telescopes. As part of a long monitoring campaign, astronomers observed the black hole as a mysterious object called G2 appeared to pass close to the black hole. The timing of G2’s passage could suggest that material from G2 caused the surge in X-ray activity, but it is also possible that this unrelated behavior of Sagittarius A*. The bottom panel is a view of the region around the black hole where red, green, and blue represent low, medium, and high-energy X-rays detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Sagittarius A* itself is not visible in this image, but is embedded in the white dot at the end of the arrow. Image credit: NASA / CXC / MPE / G.Ponti et al. / M.Weiss.

X-Ray Observations of Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole Reveal Unusual Activity

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

A long monitoring campaign of the Milky Way’s black hole, called Sagittarius A*, has revealed some unusual activity. Typically relatively quiet, the...

Early evolution of enamel. Colored stars indicate first appearance of a tissue. Image credit: Qingming Qu et al.

New Study Sheds Light on Origin of Enamel

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study, published this week in the journal Nature, enamel evolved in the skin and colonized the teeth much later. Early evolution of...

Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis). Image credit: Arturo de Frias Marques / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Australia’s First Humans Coexisted with Giant Lizards, Say Scientists

Sep 23, 2015 by News Staff

Australia’s early human inhabitants had to contend with giant killer lizards, according to a team of paleontologists from the University of Queensland,...

NIST physicists have transferred quantum data carried in light particles over 63 miles of optical fiber.

U.S. Physicists Smash Distance Record for Quantum Teleportation

Sep 23, 2015 by News Staff

A team of physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology has ‘teleported’ quantum data carried in light particles over 63 miles (102...

This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 1313. The very active state of this galaxy is very evident from the image, showing many star formation regions. A great number of supershell nebulae, that is, cocoon of gas inflated and etched by successive bursts of star formation, are visible. The green nebulosities are regions emitting in the ionized oxygen lines and may harbour clusters with very hot stars. This composite image is based on images obtained with the FORS1 instrument on one of the 8.2-m Unit Telescope of ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Astronomers determined that this galaxy harbors a black hole 5,000 times more massive than our Sun. Image credit: ESO.

NGC 1313 X-1: Astronomers Find Intermediate-Mass Black Hole 5,000 Times Mass of Sun

Sep 23, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers has found evidence for an intermediate-mass black hole in the spiral galaxy NGC 1313 (also known as the Topsy Turvy Galaxy). This...

Pseudomegachasma sharks had a large mouth with many small teeth. Image credit: Kenshu Shimada.

Pseudomegachasma: New Genus of Prehistoric, Planktivorous Sharks Discovered

Sep 23, 2015 by News Staff

Paleontologist Prof. Kenshu Shimada of DePaul University and his colleagues have discovered a new genus of extinct planktivorous (plankton-eating) sharks. Pseudomegachasma...

This WFI image shows the spectacular nebula Messier 17, also known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula. This vast region of gas, dust and hot young stars is approximately 5,920 light-years away. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Unveil Detailed View of Messier 17

Sep 23, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers have obtained one of the sharpest views ever of a vast interstellar cloud of dust and gas called Messier 17 (M17). This WFI image shows the...

Two black holes are entwined in a gravitational tango in this artist’s conception. Image credit: NASA.

Binary Supermassive Black Holes May Be Rarer Than Thought

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

There may be fewer supermassive black hole binaries at the cores of galaxies than previously thought, says a team of scientists from Brandeis University...

We each give off millions of bacteria from our human microbiome to the air around us every day, and that cloud of bacteria can be traced back to an individual. Image credit: Viputheshwar Sitaraman / Draw Science.

Study: Humans Have Personalized Microbial Clouds

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published online this week in the journal PeerJ has found that humans emit their own personal microbial cloud (airborne microbes we emit into...

This is an artist's impression of the young exoplanet Beta Pictoris b and its parent star. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org.

Gemini Planet Imager Captures Best View Yet of Exoplanet Moving around its Sun

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

A series of images taken with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) on the Gemini South telescope in Chile shows an extrasolar gas giant called Beta Pictoris...

An artist’s depiction of what paleontologists believe Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis looked like. Image credit: James Havens.

Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis: New Duck-Billed Dinosaur Species Discovered in Alaska

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

A new species of hadrosaurid dinosaur has been identified from bones discovered in the Prince Creek Formation of northern Alaska. An artist’s depiction...

This view of Pluto, based on the latest images to be downlinked from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, shows what you would see if you were approximately 1,100 miles (1,800 km) above Pluto’s equatorial area, looking northeast over the dark, cratered, named Cthulhu Regio toward the bright, smooth, expanse of icy plains called Sputnik Planum. The entire expanse of terrain seen in this image is 1,100 miles (1,800 km) across. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Scientist Creates New Virtual Tour of Pluto

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

Dr Stuart Robbins, a New Horizons team member from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, has produced a new animation/flyover of Pluto...

Serenichthys kowiensis holotype. Image credit: University of Witwatersrand.

Serenichthys kowiensis: Fossils Reveal New Genus and Species of Coelacanth

Sep 21, 2015 by News Staff

A new genus and species of coelacanth has been identified from fossils found in a 360 million year-old fossil estuary near Grahamstown, in the Eastern...

Aerial image of the foundation of a Roman stone building in Gernsheim. Image credit: Dennis Braks.

Roman Settlement Uncovered in Germany

Sep 21, 2015 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists has unearthed the remains of a Roman settlement at the site of a 1,900-year-old fort in Gernsheim, Germany. Aerial image of the...

This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3521. The image was taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on board Hubble. Image credit: NASA/ ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt, Queen’s University Belfast / Robert Gendler.

Hubble Space Telescope Zooms in on Spiral Galaxy NGC 3521

Sep 21, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning new image of a flocculent spiral galaxy called NGC 3521. This Hubble image shows the spiral...

Artist's rendering of Bunostegos (Marc Boulay)

Bunostegos akokanensis is Earliest Known Creature to Walk Upright on All Fours

Sep 21, 2015 by News Staff

Bunostegos akokanensis – a Permian cow-sized, herbivorous reptile with a knobby skull and bony armor down its back – is the oldest known creature...

This family tree of Earth’s lifeforms is considered a first draft of the 3.5-billion-year history of how life evolved and diverged. Colors represent proportion of lineages represented in databases of the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Image credit: Cody E. Hinchliff et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1423041112.

Researchers Create Tree of Life for More Than Two Million Species

Sep 21, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from eleven institutions in the U.S. has produced a first draft of the ‘tree of life’ for 2.34 million species...