Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have spotted a bubble of ultrahot gas at the center of a planetary nebula called IC 4593. This composite image of the planetary nebula IC 4593 contains X-rays (Chandra) from gas that has been heated to over a million degrees. These high temperatures were likely generated by material that blew away from the shrunken core of the star and crashed…

Mars was once a wet planet, but it has lost most of its water through reactions that produce hydrogen. In standard models, molecular hydrogen produced from water in the lower atmosphere diffuses into the upper atmosphere where it is dissociated, producing atomic hydrogen, which is lost. Using NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft, a team of researchers has now found that…

Archaeological excavations at the site of Wilamaya Patjxa in the high Peruvian Andes have revealed a 9,000-year-old female burial associated with a big-game hunting toolkit. Early hunter-gatherer females were big-game hunters. Image credit: Matthew Verdolivo / UC Davis / IET Academic Technology Services. “An archaeological discovery and analysis of early burial practices overturns the long-held…

Living true seals are the most widely dispersed semi-aquatic marine mammals, and comprise geographically separate northern and southern groups. Both are thought to have evolved in the North Atlantic, with only two lineages subsequently crossing the equator. The third and oldest lineage, the monk seals, has been interpreted as exclusively northern and subtropical throughout their entire history. However,…

An international team of biologists and taxonomists has discovered a new species in the langur genus Trachypithecus living in the forests of Myanmar. The Popa langur (Trachypithecus popa). Image credit: Thaung Win. Trachypithecus is a genus of non-human primates widely distributed in Asia with about 20 known species. Commonly known as lutungs, langurs, or leaf monkeys, members of this genus live…

Using a new mass-separator of radioactive isotopes, called the KEK Isotope Separation System (KISS), which is developed and operated by the Wako Nuclear Science Centre in the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization in Japan, an international team of experimental physicists has produced the world’s first purified beams of tantalum-187 (187Ta) — a development that could now allow for…

Regular consumption of walnuts in older adults may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease by reducing the concentration of certain inflammatory biomarkers, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Walnut consumption may be associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk. Image credit: Nicky Pe. Chronic inflammation is a critical factor in the development…

In a study that has implications to advance medicine and biodiversity conservation, a large international consortium of researchers involved in the Zoonomia Project has sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 131 species of placental mammals, bringing the worldwide total to 240. The Zoonomia Project brings the fraction of eutherian mammal families that are represented by at least one assembly to 83%….

A team of researchers in Europe has identified a new high-pressure mineral in a lunar meteorite called Oued Awlitis 001. Fragments of Oued Awlitis 001. Image credit: Ludovic Ferrière, NHM Vienna. Oued Awlitis 001 is a feldspatic lunar meteorite that was found in 2014 in Western Sahara, Africa. The main fragment of the space rock, originally 382 g, was found on January 15, 2014 by a group of eight…

A team of scientists from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University has discovered paleolake basin situated beneath the ice sheet in northwest Greenland; geomorphological analysis and hydrological modeling indicate that the basin once hosted a lake with a surface area of up to 7,100 km2 and a volume of up to 580 km3; it may be hundreds of thousands or millions of years old and contain…