Was Earth’s Water Always Here? Unexpected Meteorite Composition Provides Origin Evidence
The Earth is the only planet known to have liquid water on its surface, a fundamental characteristic when it comes to explaining the emergence of…
CNRS
“Mushballs”: Exotic Ammonia-Rich Hailstones Shed New Light on Jupiter’s Weather
Water is a key substance in the meteorology of planets and is believed to play a key role in their formation. Terrestrial storms are driven…
Mini-Neptunes Could Be Irradiated Ocean Planets
Many exoplanets known today are ‘super-Earths,’ with a radius 1.3 times that of Earth, and ‘mini-Neptunes,’ with 2.4 Earth radii. Mini-Neptunes, which are less dense,…
Unprecedented Ground-Based Discovery of Unusual Planetary System, WASP-148
Several interacting exoplanets have already been spotted by satellites. But a new breakthrough has been achieved with, for the first time, the detection directly from…
International Astrophysics Collaboration Discovers Quasar Jets Are Particle Accelerators Thousands of Light-Years Long
An international collaboration bringing together over 200 scientists from 13 countries has shown that the very high-energy gamma-ray emission from quasars, galaxies with a highly…
Terrestrial Species Outpaced by Marine Species in the Race Against Global Warming
Global warming is causing species to search for more temperate environments in which to migrate to, but it is marine species – according to the…
Only 0.23% of the Mediterranean Basin – A Global Biodiversity Hotspot – Has Effective Levels of Conservation Protection
Through the assessment of the 1062 marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Mediterranean Sea, covering 6% of the Mediterranean Basin, a research team led by…
Contrary to Popular Belief, Neanderthals Were as Technologically Advanced as Homo Sapiens
Contrary to popular belief, Neanderthals were no less technologically advanced than Homo sapiens. An international team, including researchers from the CNRS, have discovered the first…
Asian Hornets Are Invading Europe – Here’s What It’s Going to Cost
Since its accidental introduction in 2003 in France, the yellow-legged Asian hornet (Vespa velutina nigrithorax) is rapidly spreading through Europe. Both experts and citizen scientists…
Scientists Solve a Mystery That Goes Back to 1848 Involving the First Color Photographs
A palette of colors on a silver plate: that is what the world’s first color photograph looks like. It was taken by French physicist Edmond…
Even Among Wild Mammals, Females Live Longer
In all human populations, average lifespans are longer for women than for men. Moreover, nine out of ten supercentenarians — that is, people 110 years…
Martian Climate Change: Water Could Disappear From Red Planet Faster Than Expected
The small red planet is losing water more quickly than what theory, as well as past observations, would suggest. The gradual disappearance of water (H2O)…
Archaeologists Discover Clues to Early Domestication in Wild Boars
Until now, archaeozoologists have been unable to reconstruct the earliest stages of domestication: the process of placing wild animals in captivity remained beyond their methodological…
Using Albatrosses to Root Out Illegal Fishing
Albatrosses do not only inspire poets and ancient mariners! Scientists at the Centre d’études biologiques de Chizé (CNRS/La Rochelle Université) made use of these majestic…
Scientists Thought They Knew Why Ice Was Slippery, but Researchers Found Surprises
Why is ice so slippery? The answer lies in a film of water that is generated by friction, one that is far thinner than expected…
Ants vs. Humans: Solving the Mystery of How Ants Manage Traffic So Well
Whether they occur on holiday routes or the daily commute, traffic jams affect cars as well as pedestrians. Scientists at the Research Center on Animal…
Storing Secret Messages in Light-Sensitive Polymers
Scientists from the CNRS and Aix-Marseille Université have recently shown how valuable light-sensitive macromolecules are: when exposed to the right wavelength of light, they can…
Inward Migration of Mimas Helped Shape Saturn’s Rings
The Solar System’s second largest planet both in mass and size, Saturn is best known for its rings. These are divided by a wide band,…