Looking Back in Time to Watch Massive Black Hole Formation
Black holes form when stars die, allowing the matter in them to collapse into an extremely dense object from which not even light can escape….
Scientists Demonstrate New Method to Control the Behavior of Light
Yale scientists have demonstrated a new method to control the behavior of light on a silicon chip — specifically, its direction — by using sound…
Hubble Detects Never-Before-Seen Features Around a Neutron Star
An unusual infrared light emission from a nearby neutron star detected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope could indicate new features never before seen. One possibility…
Large and Small Magellanic Clouds May Have Had a Third Companion
Astronomers believe two of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way—the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds—may have had a third companion. Research published today describes…
Scientists Provide New Insights Into the Origins of Genetic Diseases
A three-dimensional map showing an actin filament (blue) bound to a fragment of the cross-linking protein, filamin A (green). For human cells to form and…
First Tess Images in Hunt to Find Planets Beyond Our Solar System
NASA’s newest planet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), is now providing valuable data to help scientists discover and study exciting new exoplanets, or…
Hubble Image of the Week – The Impressive Coma Cluster
In the northern constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair) lies the impressive Coma Cluster — a structure of over a thousand galaxies bound together by gravity….
Scientists Reveal How Phytoplankton Survive in Nutrient Deficient Ocean Gyres
Subtropical gyres are huge, sustained currents spanning thousands of kilometers across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, where very little grows. With nutrients in short supply,…
Fossils Reveal New Insight on Mesozoic Pollinating Insects
Insect pollination played an important role in the evolution of angiosperms. Little is known, however, about ancient pollination insects and their niche diversity during the…
Chandra Detects Diskless Young Stars in Serpens South Cluster
Stars frequently form in crowded environments. By combining the resources of multi-wavelength missions like Chandra in the X-ray and Spitzer in the infrared, astronomers are…
Astronomers Reveal Some of the Earliest Galaxies in the Universe
Astronomers from Durham University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have found evidence that the faintest satellite galaxies orbiting our own Milky Way galaxy…
New Blood-Red Species of Octocoral Discovered in Panama
A study in the journal Bulletin of Marine Science describes a new, blood-red species of octocoral found in Panama. The species in the genus Thesea…
ELFIN CubeSats to Study How Electrons Escape the Van Allen Belts
Three hundred and ten miles above our planet’s surface, near-Earth space is abuzz with action. Here begin the Van Allen Belts, a pair of concentric…
Juno Views Elusive ‘Brown Barge’ in Jupiter’s South Equatorial Belt
A long, brown oval known as a “brown barge” in Jupiter’s South Equatorial Belt is captured in this color-enhanced image from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Brown…
New Hubble Project Provides Improved View of the Galaxy Cluster Abell 370
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has started a new mission to shed light on the evolution of the earliest galaxies in the Universe. The BUFFALO…
Size of Nucleolus Plays Important Role Protecting Cells Against Infection
All cells in the body have the basic ability to protect themselves from infection, called the innate immune response. But how cells do this is…
Very Long Baseline Array Measures Asteroid’s Occultation
In an unusual observation, astronomers used the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) to study the effects on radio waves coming from a…
Scientists Discover Tiny Protein Has Big Impact in Times of Stress
Ribosomes churn out proteins that carry out all of life’s functions, but when missing a key and previously overlooked factor, they can break down in…