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Categories: Paleontology: Fossils, Space: Structures and Features

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Who are we? Why are we here? We are stardust, the result of chemistry occurring throughout vast clouds of interstellar gas and dust. To better understand how that chemistry could create prebiotic molecules, researchers investigated the role of low-energy electrons created as cosmic radiation traverses through ice particles. Their findings may also inform medical and environmental applications on our home planet.

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Scientists studying the tracks of particles streaming from six billion collisions of atomic nuclei at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) -- an 'atom smasher' that recreates the conditions of the early universe -- have discovered a new kind of antimatter nucleus, the heaviest ever detected. Composed of four antimatter particles -- an antiproton, two antineutrons, and one antihyperon -- these exotic antinuclei are known as antihyperhydrogen-4.

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High-resolution images show large spots on the surface of Polaris.

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Researchers have succeeded in something that has been pursued since the 1970s: explaining the X-ray radiation from the black hole surroundings. The radiation originates from the combined effect of the chaotic movements of magnetic fields and turbulent plasma gas.

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A new study shows how the mismatch between where fossils are preserved and where humans likely lived may influence our understanding of early human evolution.

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The dramatic dimming of a light source ~ 870 million light years away from Earth confirms the accuracy of a detailed model.

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A new study has found galaxies with more neighbors tend to be larger than their counterparts that have a similar shape and mass, but reside in less dense environments. The team, which used a machine-learning algorithm to analyze millions of galaxies, reports that galaxies found in denser regions of the universe are as much as 25% larger than isolated galaxies. The findings resolve a long-standing debate among astrophysicists over the relationship between a galaxy's size and its environment, but also raise new questions about how galaxies form and evolve over billions of years.

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Scientists have sequenced the largest genome of all animals, the lungfish genome. Their data help to explain how the fish-ancestors of today's land vertebrates were able to conquer land.

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Ancient fossil beans about the size of modern limes, and among the largest seeds in the fossil record, may provide new insight into the evolution of today's diverse Southeast Asian and Australian rainforests, according to researchers who identified the plants.

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Using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have confirmed hydroxyl molecules on the surface of the metallic asteroid Psyche. The presence of hydrated minerals suggests a complex history for Psyche, important context for the NASA spacecraft en route to this interesting asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

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What distinguishes the growth and development patterns of early mammals of the Jurassic period? Paleontologists have been able to gauge the lifespan and growth rates of these ancient animals, and even when they reached maturity, by studying growth rings in fossilized tooth roots.

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Markings on a stone pillar at a 12,000 year-old archaeological site in Turkey likely represent the world's oldest solar calendar, created as a memorial to a devastating comet strike, experts suggest.

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A new study reports the discovery of extremely rare early human fossils from the Indonesian island of Flores, including an astonishingly small adult limb bone. Dated to about 700,000 years old, the new findings shed light on the evolution of Homo floresiensis, the so-called 'Hobbits' of Flores whose remains were uncovered in 2003 at Liang Bua cave in the island's west.

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A groundbreaking study has revealed that red dwarf stars can produce stellar flares that carry far-ultraviolet (far-UV) radiation levels much higher than previously believed.

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Why does the universe contain matter and (virtually) no antimatter? Scientists have achieved an experimental breakthrough in this context. It can contribute to measuring the mass and magnetic moment of antiprotons more precisely than ever before -- and thus identify possible matter-antimatter asymmetries. They have developed a trap, which can cool individual antiprotons much more rapidly than in the past.

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A tiny fossil penguin plays a huge role in the evolutionary history of the bird, an international study shows.

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Shifts in the Earth's continental plates that drove long-term changes in sea level set the stage for the evolution of the earliest animals on Earth, a study suggests.

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Exceptional fossils with preserved soft parts reveal that the earliest mollusks were flat, armored slugs without shells. The new species, Shishania aculeata, was covered with hollow, organic, cone-shaped spines. The fossils preserve exceptionally rare detailed features which reveal that these spines were produced using a sophisticated secretion system that is shared with annelids (earthworms and relatives).

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Researchers have developed a new model to explain the formation of giant planets such as Jupiter, which furnishes deeper insights into the processes of planet formation and could expand our understanding of planetary systems.

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Astronomers have found that the rotational profile of a nearby star, V889 Herculis, differs considerably from that of the Sun. The observation provides insights into the fundamental stellar astrophysics and helps us understand the activity of the Sun, its spot structures and eruptions.