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Eta Carinae is a binary stellar system approximately 7,500 light-years away in the constellation Carina. Also known as HD 93308 and Hen 3-481, the system was first cataloged by the English astronomer Edmond Halley in 1677, as a star of fourth magnitude. In 1838, Eta Carinae underwent a cataclysmic outburst called the Great Eruption, quickly escalating to become in 1844 the second brightest star in…

NASA announced last week that it had selected the Dragonfly mission to explore the prebiotic organic chemistry and look for signs of life on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn and an intriguing ocean world with a hazy atmosphere and methane seas. This illustration shows NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft-lander approaching a site on Titan. Image credit: NASA / JHU-APL. At 3,200 miles (5,150 km) across,…

An international team of archaeologists from Germany and Kurdistan came upon a surprising discovery as the ruins of a 3,400-year-old palace emerge from the waters of the Tigris River at the site of Kemune in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. An aerial view of the Kemune palace from the west. Image credit: University of Tübingen / Kurdistan Archaeology Organization. “The find is one of the most important…

A veggie diet arose in extinct crocodyliforms — the distant cousins of living crocodylians (alligators, caimans, crocodiles, and gharials) — at least three times, according to new research. Life reconstructions of extinct crocodyliforms. Differences in tooth shape are related to differences in diets. Image credit: Jorge Gonzalez. “The most interesting thing we discovered was how frequently…

In a new study published this month in the Journal of Medical Entomology, researchers from Aston University collected and analyzed 19,937 flying insects — including houseflies, ‘filth flies’ such as bluebottles and greenbottles and a variety of ’drain flies’ — from seven hospital sites in England. They found that nearly nine in 10 of those tested were carrying potentially harmful…

An international team of physicists has theoretically predicted and experimentally generated light beams with a new property that they call the self-torque of light. The discovery, reported in the journal Science, could help us understand physics in binary black holes as well as how to control dynamics in molecules and nanostructures. Two time-delayed infrared vortex laser pulses (upper-left) impinge…

A modified Atkins diet (very low carbohydrates and extra fat) may improve brain function and episodic memory, according to a small study of 14 older adults with mild cognitive problems suggestive of early Alzheimer’s disease. Diet that restricts glucose may help brain function. Image credit: Cattalin. “Typically, the brain uses the sugar glucose — a product of carbohydrate breakdown —…

An international team of scientists has sequenced the nuclear genomes of two Neanderthals who lived in Europe around 120,000 years ago. They found that the individuals were more genetically similar to later Neanderthals from Europe than to a roughly contemporaneous individual from Siberia. The findings reveal a stable, 80,000-year ancestry for European Neanderthals and suggest that this group may…

A 3,300-foot- (1 km) wide asteroid struck our planet 1.2 billion years ago, according to new research published in the Journal of the Geological Society. An artist’s depiction of an asteroid impact. Image credit: Don Davis / NASA. In 2008, a team of researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Aberdeen found evidence for the ancient meteorite strike near Ullapool, Scotland. The thickness and…

A modified Atkins diet (very low carbohydrates and extra fat) may improve brain function and episodic memory, according to a small study of 14 older adults with mild cognitive problems suggestive of early Alzheimer’s disease. Diet that restricts glucose may help brain function. Image credit: Cattalin. “Typically, the brain uses the sugar glucose — a product of carbohydrate breakdown —…