About twenty-five percent of young stars in our galaxy form in clustered environments, and stars in a cluster are often close enough to each other to affect the way they accrete gas and grow. Astronomers trying to understand ...
A team of scientists from the Faculty of Physics and Sternberg State Astronomical Institute, MSU, leading an international collaboration with members from Europe, Chile, the U.S. and Australia discovered a supermassive black ...
An international team of researchers has detected hydrogen sulfide emission from the dense protoplanetary disk around the star GG Tauri A. It is the first detection of this chemical compound in a protoplanetary disk. The ...
An enigmatic X-ray source revealed as part of a data-mining project for high-school students shows unexplored avenues hidden in the vast archive of ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory.
A team of researchers led by Costanza Argiroffi, an astronomer at the University of Palermo in Italy, has found evidence of a coronal mass ejection (CME) from a star that was not our sun—the first ever observed. They reported ...
Recent observations by NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes of ultrahot Jupiter-like planets have perplexed theorists. The spectra of these planets have suggested they have exotic—and improbable—compositions.
A pair of dwarf galaxies closely circling the Milky Way, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, were in the throes of merging into one when they fell into our galaxy. The duo is thought to hold enough gas to replenish half ...
This image shows data from a massive observing campaign that includes NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. These Chandra data have provided strong evidence for the existence of so-called intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs). ...
The solar system was formed from a protoplanetary disk consisting of gas and dust. Since the cumulative mass of all objects beyond Neptune is much smaller than expected and the bodies there mostly have inclined, eccentric ...
FEFU scientists are developing a methodology to calculate the ratio of dust and gas in comas and tails of comets. This will reveal more about the history of the solar system and its development, as well as to understand the ...
Since they were first detected in 2007, fast radio bursts (FRBs) have been a source of mystery to astronomers. In radio astronomy, this phenomenon refers to transient radio pulses coming from distant sources that typically ...
After nearly 20 years, the record of the most distant radio galaxy ever discovered has been broken. A team led by Ph.D. student Aayush Saxena (Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands) has found a radio galaxy from a time when ...
Cosmic gamma rays can provide us with important insights into high-energy phenomena in our universe. The GRAINE (Gamma-Ray Astro-Imager with Nuclear Emulsion) collaboration aims to record high-energy cosmic gamma rays at ...
European astronomers have discovered a new binary star at the center of the planetary nebula M 3-1. The newly found binary has an extraordinary short orbital period of slightly more than three hours, which makes it one of ...
A glittering host of galaxies populate this rich image taken with ESO's VLT Survey Telescope, a state-of-the-art 2.6-m telescope designed for surveying the sky in visible light. The features of the multitude of galaxies strewn ...
Forty-four planets in solar systems beyond our own have been discovered in one go, dwarfing the usual number of confirmations from extrasolar surveys, which is typically a dozen or less. The findings will improve existing ...
Earlier this year, on a quiet Sunday night, my colleague Jack and I found the fastest-growing supermassive black hole in the known universe. We were fortunate to be part of the team that made one of the greatest discoveries ...
An international team of researchers has discovered what they describe as an inside-out planetary nebula—a planetary nebula with surroundings that are the opposite of what normally occurs. In their paper published in the ...
For almost 10 years, astronomers have been studying a mysterious diffuse radiation coming from the centre of our galaxy. Originally, it was thought that this radiation could originate from the elusive dark matter particles ...
A research team led by astronomers from the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), Chinese Academy of Sciences, have discovered the most lithium-rich giant ever known to date, with lithium abundance 3,000 times ...
Next time you eat a blueberry (or chocolate chip) muffin consider what happened to the blueberries in the batter as it was baked. The blueberries started off all squished together, but as the muffin expanded they started ...
GW170817 is the name given to a gravitational wave signal seen by the LIGO and Virgo detectors on 17 August 2017. Lasting for about 100 seconds, the signal was produced by the merger of two neutron stars. The observation ...
German astronomers have conducted a study of the central bulge of the Andromeda galaxy and analyzed its stellar populations. The research could improve our understanding of the bulge's structure and formation history. Results ...
Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have made the first radio-telescope detection of a planetary-mass object beyond our Solar System. The object, about a dozen times more ...
European astronomers have discovered a new transiting brown dwarf in a dynamical-tide regime as part of the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) survey. The newly found object, designated WASP-128b, orbits its host on a close ...
Thin, red veins of energized gas mark the location of one of the larger supernova remnants in the Milky Way galaxy in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Imagine traveling to the Moon in just 20 seconds! That's how fast material from a 170 year old stellar eruption sped away from the unstable, eruptive, and extremely massive star Eta Carinae.
Are we alone in the universe? This question has been with us for thousands of years, but it is only now that science is on the cusp of providing a real answer. We now know of dozens of rocky planets orbiting stars other than ...
Earthbound detectives rely on fingerprints to solve their cases; now astronomers can do the same, using "light-fingerprints" instead of skin grooves to uncover the mysteries of exoplanets.
This image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) shows a beautiful spiral galaxy called NGC 6744. At first glance, it resembles our Milky Way albeit larger, measuring more than 200,000 ...
Our Sun's beginnings are a mystery. It burst into being 4.6 billion years ago, about 50 million years before the Earth formed. Since the Sun is older than the Earth, it's hard to find physical objects that were around in ...
When two Sun-like stars collide, the result can be a spectacular explosion and the formation of an entirely new star. One such event was seen from Earth in 1670. It appeared to observers as a bright, red "new star." Though ...
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international team of researchers has detected formic acid in the circumstellar disk of the TW Hydrae system. It is the first discovery of the simplest carboxylic ...
There may be more habitable planets in the universe than we previously thought, according to Penn State geoscientists, who suggest that plate tectonics—long assumed to be a requirement for suitable conditions for life—are ...
Two Villanova University astrophysics professors led a research team that has discovered the long hidden physical properties of Polaris, popularly known as "The North Star." Until now, scientists' wide-ranging estimates of ...
In an international collaboration between Japan and Sweden, scientists clarified how gravity affects the shape of matter near the black hole in binary system Cygnus X-1. Their findings, which were published in Nature Astronomy ...
For thousands of years, people have been puzzling over the milky strip that extends across the entire firmament. In the modern era, Galileo Galilei discovered that this Milky Way consists of countless stars. However, it was ...
When you purchase anything from makeup to paint to sunscreen, chances are it contains engineered nanoparticles. These nanoscale materials have properties that are revolutionizing products—from medicine to agriculture to ...
Scientists have found a rapid way of producing magnesite, a mineral which stores carbon dioxide. If this can be developed to an industrial scale, it opens the door to removing CO2 from the atmosphere for long-term storage, ...
Mixing liquids is easy, or at least scientifically understood: a drop of food coloring will eventually mix into a cup of water through diffusion, and a dollop of cream can be mixed into coffee with a spoon through what is ...
Researchers from the University of Minnesota (UMN) have developed a method to screen and identify harmful or antibiotic-resistant bacteria within one hour using a portable luminometer. Traditional diagnostic methods often ...
Lipid droplets: they were long thought of merely as the formless blobs of fat out of which spare tires and muffin tops were made. But these days, they're "a really hot area of research," says Michael Welte, professor and ...
Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles present new research on a curious cosmic phenomenon known as "whistlers"—very low frequency packets of radio waves that race along magnetic field lines. This first-of-its-kind ...
In the first study of its kind, researchers characterized the skin microbiome of a population of free-ranging snakes to begin to understand how the animals' environmental microbial community may promote disease resistance ...
An aquarium fish that senses the Earth's magnetic field as it swims could help unlock how the human brain works and how diseases such as Parkinson's and other neurological disorders function.
Chemotherapy is often used as a follow-up treatment after surgical removal of a cancerous tumor in order to destroy any remaining cancer cells, but intravenous chemo drugs have notorious side effects and are not always effective.
Studies of ancient preserved plant remains from a medieval archaeological site in the Pamir Mountains of Uzbekistan have shown that fruits such as apples, peaches, apricots and melons were cultivated in the foothills of Inner ...
This summer's worldwide heatwave makes 2018 a particularly hot year. And the next few years will be similar, according to a study led by Florian Sévellec, a CNRS researcher at the Laboratory for Ocean Physics and Remote ...
More than 100 oceanic floats are now diving and drifting in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica during the peak of winter. These instruments are gathering data from a place and season that remains very poorly studied, despite ...
Synthetic biologists have the tools to build complex, computer-like DNA circuits that sense or trigger activities in cells, and thanks to scientists at Rice University and the University of Houston they now they have a way ...
Cancer-fighting drugs used on humans can help plants fight disease as well. That discovery, by two Washington State University plant pathologists, could help scientists develop new pathways for plants to battle infection, ...
Scientists have used light patterns to control the swimming speed of bacteria and direct them to form different shapes, according to a new study in the journal eLife.
A new study has found that nearly half of fishers from seven countries had witnessed someone poaching in marine protected areas in the past year and most of them did nothing about it.
A new uncertainty relation, linking the precision with which temperature can be measured and quantum mechanics, has been discovered at the University of Exeter.
An estimated 17 percent of humans worldwide die from cancer, but less than five percent of captive elephants—who also live for about 70 years, and have about 100 times as many potentially cancerous cells as humans—die ...
When plants are in distress or being fed on by insects, they have been known to send out sensory volatile cues that alert organisms in the area—such as birds—that they are in need of help. While research has shown that ...
A kiwi physicist has discovered the energy difference between two quantum states in the helium atom with unprecedented accuracy, a ground-breaking discovery that contributes to our understanding of the universe and space-time ...
A new type of pressure sensor based on light could allow the creation of sensitive artificial skins to give robots a better sense of touch, wearable blood-pressure monitors for humans and optically transparent touch screens ...
Hundreds of polymers that could kill drug-resistant superbugs in novel ways can be produced and tested with light, using a method developed at the University of Warwick. The new methodology may identify antimicrobials for ...
Habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and the loss of genetic diversity are the three main factors driving the extinction of many wild species, and the few eastern massasauga rattlesnakes remaining in Illinois have certainly ...
Technological advances in oil and gas well stimulation over the past decade now allow for the production of natural gas from shale gas trapped in rock formations underground. With the sudden increase in the availability of ...
A team of researchers from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and Washington University has learned more about possible ways to store modern nuclear waste by studying an ancient natural fission reactor. In their paper published ...
Arsenic-contaminated drinking water is a major health hazard, with chronic exposure causing illnesses and cancers. The World Health Organization estimates that in Bangladesh, for example, over 5 million people were exposed ...
Scientists at Tsinghua University and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, have demonstrated the ability to control the states of matter, thus controlling internal resistance, within multilayered, ...
Although much scientific research has been done into the development of the skeleton, the underlying mechanisms that drive the formation and maintenance of bones are still not very well understood, and research into the development ...
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