Credit: CC0 Public Domain Much of the early human fossil record originates from just a few places in Africa, where favorable geological conditions have preserved a trove of fossils used by scientists to reconstruct the story of human evolution. One of these fossil hotspots is the eastern branch of the East African Rift System, home …
Credit: Jaime Bran. A new discovery by a team of paleontologists, led by Dr. Mathieu Boisville (University of Tsukuba, Japan), has uncovered a new species of the extinct genus Ontocetus from the Lower Pleistocene deposits in the North Atlantic. This species, named Ontocetus posti, displays surprising similarities in feeding adaptations to the modern walrus (Odobenus …
The lunar coordinate time system could serve as a foundation for developing a GPS-like navigation system on the moon. This would be a critical piece of infrastructure for future lunar missions, supporting both crewed and robotic operations. Credit: NASA For decades, the moon’s subtle gravitational pull has posed a vexing challenge—atomic clocks on its surface …
In this image of the Serpens Nebula from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers found a grouping of aligned protostellar outflows within one small region (the top left corner). Serpens is a reflection nebula, which means it’s a cloud of gas and dust that does not create its own light, but instead shines by reflecting …
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain An insect bites off another insect’s leg. Is this predatory behavior, aggression, defense, competition or something else? In the case of carpenter ants, it’s for the good of the amputee and to the benefit of the colony. A July 2024 University of Lausanne study found carpenter ants (Camponotus floridanus) carry out …
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Every clear night for the last three weeks, Bob Stephens has pointed his home telescope at the same two stars in hopes of witnessing one of the most violent events in the universe—a nova explosion a hundred thousand times brighter than the sun. The eruption, which scientists say could happen any …
A lunar pit in the Mare Tranquillitatis region. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University Almost 55 years after the launch of Apollo 11—the first mission to land humans on the moon—scientists have found evidence of a large cave system near the landing site of those astronauts. Using radar images taken by Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft in …
The Hunga Tonga volcano, pictured during its eruption on January 14-15, 2022. Credit: Tonga Geological Services / ZUMA Press / Zuma / RÉA, Dr. Mark Schoeberl New research from a collaborative team featuring Texas A&M University atmospheric scientist Dr. Andrew Dessler is exploring the climate impact of the 2022 Hunga Tonga volcano eruption and challenging …
Credit: CC0 Public Domain A Chinese lunar probe found traces of water in samples of the moon’s soil, scientists have said, as the country pushes its ambitious space program into high gear. The Chang’e-5 rover completed its mission in 2020, returning to Earth with rock and soil samples from the moon. The lunar samples “revealed …
An artist’s illustration of an planet — though not LHS 1140 b — outside the Solar System. A planet relatively close to Earth could be the first ever detected with a potentially life-sustaining liquid ocean outside our Solar System, according to scientists using the James Webb space telescope. More than 5,000 planets have been discovered …