New research reveals how hundreds of species influence Earth’s surface processes, from vast termite mounds visible from space to hippos carving drainage systems and beavers creating entire wetlands. Termite mounds in the Bungle Bungle Range in Western Australia. Image credit: Ouderkraal / CC BY-SA 3.0. “This research shows that the role of animals in shaping…
A giant elliptical galaxy called NGC 3640 has engulfed several smaller galaxies in the past, according to an analysis of data from ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at Paranal Observatory in Chile. This VST image shows two elliptical galaxies: NGC 3640 and NGC 3641. Image credit: ESO / INAF / Mirabile et al. / Ragusa…
Ultrahot Jupiters, an extreme class of planets not found in our Solar System, provide a unique window into atmospheric processes. Using four telescope units of ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have now probed deep inside the atmosphere of the ultrahot-Jupiter exoplanet WASP-121b and revealed distinct powerful winds in separate layers, forming a map of the…
Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of small-sized dinocephalosaurid archosauromorph from the fossilized skeleton found in the Chinese province of Yunnan. Holotype of Austronaga minuta discovered from Luoping, Yunnan, China, with the skull, anterior cervical vertebrae, and most of the caudal vertebrae preserved on a block. Image credit: Wang et al., doi: 10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.231013….
Using the Gemini South telescope, astronomers from NSF’s NOIRLab have imaged a beautiful nebula around the young open cluster NGC 2040. The nebula encasing NGC 2040 resembles a vibrant rose in this image captured by the Gemini South telescope. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. Miller & M….
Paleontologists from the American University in Cairo and elsewhere say they have found an almost complete skull of the hyaenodont Bastetodon syrtos in the lower Oligocene layers of the Jebel Qatrani Formation, Egypt. Bastetodon syrtos. Image credit: Ahmad Morsi. Bastetodon syrtos lived during the Oligocene epoch, some 30 million years ago, in the lush forest…
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced an outstanding image of the spiral galaxy UGC 5460. This Hubble image shows UGC 5460, a spiral galaxy some 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / W. Jacobson-Galán / A. Filippenko / J. Mauerhan. UGC…
Paleontologists have described a new specimen of the genus Archaeopteryx from the Mörnsheim Formation in the Franconian Alb of Bavaria, Germany. The Karlsruhe specimen: (A) original condition of the slabs prior to preparation; (B) slabs containing remains of the left arm and fragments of the right one after the first preparation. Image credit: Foth et…
Researchers from Guangdong Academy of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University and their colleagues have assembled chromosome-scale genomes for two critically endangered pangolin species: the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) and the Malayan pangolin (Manis javanica). The distribution area and sampling sites of the Chinese and Malayan pangolins. Image credit: Lan et al., doi: 10.1093/gigascience/giaf003. The pangolin is…
White dwarfs may present amenable environments for life on planets formed within or migrated to their habitable zones, generating warmer surface environments than those of planets with main-sequence host stars, according to new research from the University of California, Irvine. Exoplanets orbiting in the habitable zones of white dwarfs may harbor more clement conditions for…
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