Showing 20 articles starting at article 341
< Previous 20 articles Next 20 articles >
Categories: Archaeology: General, Space: Cosmology
Published Ancient climate change solves mystery of vanished South African lakes



New evidence for the presence of ancient lakes in some of the most arid regions of South Africa suggests that Stone Age humans may have been more widespread across the continent than previously thought.
Published Oldest architectural plans detail mysterious desert mega structures



Researchers have identified engravings in Jordan and Saudi Arabia as the oldest known scaled building plans in human history.
Published Humanity's earliest recorded kiss occurred in Mesopotamia 4,500 years ago



Written sources from Mesopotamia suggest that kissing in relation to sex was practiced by the peoples of the ancient Middle East 4,500 years ago.
Published Radio signal reveals supernova origin



Astronomers reveal the origin of a thermonuclear supernova explosion. Strong emission lines of helium and the first detection of such a supernova in radio waves show that the exploding white dwarf star had a helium-rich companion.
Published South Africa's desert-like interior may have been more inviting to our human ancestors



Lining the Cape of South Africa and its southern coast are long chains of caves that nearly 200,000 years ago were surrounded by a lush landscape and plentiful food.
Published Astronomers reveal the largest cosmic explosion ever seen



Astronomers have uncovered the largest cosmic explosion ever witnessed. The explosion is more than ten times brighter than any known supernova and three times brighter than the brightest tidal disruption event, where a star falls into a supermassive black hole.
Published Researchers find new approach to explore earliest universe dynamics with gravitational waves



Researchers have discovered a new generic production mechanism of gravitational waves generated by a phenomenon known as oscillons.
Published Hidden supermassive black holes brought to life by galaxies on collision course



Astronomers have found that supermassive black holes obscured by dust are more likely to grow and release tremendous amounts of energy when they are inside galaxies that are expected to collide with a neighbouring galaxy.
Published Celestial monsters at the origin of globular clusters



Globular clusters are the most massive and oldest star clusters in the Universe. They can contain up to 1 million of them. The chemical composition of these stars, born at the same time, shows anomalies that are not found in any other population of stars. Explaining this specificity is one of the great challenges of astronomy. After having imagined that supermassive stars could be at the origin, a team believes it has discovered the first chemical trace attesting to their presence in globular proto-clusters, born about 440 million years after the Big Bang.
Published Measurement of the Universe's expansion rate weighs in on a longstanding debate in physics and astronomy



A team used a first-of-its-kind technique to measure the expansion rate of the Universe, providing insight that could help more accurately determine the Universe's age and help physicists and astronomers better understand the cosmos.
Published Tooth enamel provides clues to hunter-gatherer lifestyle of Neanderthals



A study has given an intriguing glimpse of the hunting habits and diets of Neanderthals and other humans living in western Europe.
Published Evidence of Ice Age human migrations from China to the Americas and Japan



Scientists have used mitochondrial DNA to trace a female lineage from northern coastal China to the Americas. By integrating contemporary and ancient mitochondrial DNA, the team found evidence of at least two migrations: one during the last ice age, and one during the subsequent melting period. Around the same time as the second migration, another branch of the same lineage migrated to Japan, which could explain Paleolithic archeological similarities between the Americas, China, and Japan.
Published Archaeologists map hidden NT landscape where first Australians lived more than 60,000 years ago



Scientists have used sub-surface imaging and aerial surveys to see through floodplains in the Red Lily Lagoon area of West Arnhem Land in Australia. These ground-breaking methods showed how this important landscape in the Northern Territory was altered as sea levels rose about 8,000 years ago.
Published Neutron star's X-rays reveal 'photon metamorphosis'



A 'beautiful effect' predicted by quantum electrodynamics (QED) can explain the puzzling first observations of polarized X-rays emitted by a magnetar -- a neutron star featuring a powerful magnetic field, according to an astrophysicist.
Published Scientists recover an ancient woman's DNA from a 20,000-year-old pendant



An international research team has for the first time successfully isolated ancient human DNA from a Paleolithic artefact: a pierced deer tooth discovered in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. To preserve the integrity of the artefact, they developed a new, nondestructive method for isolating DNA from ancient bones and teeth. From the DNA retrieved they were able to reconstruct a precise genetic profile of the woman who used or wore the pendant, as well as of the deer from which the tooth was taken. Genetic dates obtained for the DNA from both the woman and the deer show that the pendant was made between 19,000 and 25,000 years ago. The tooth remains fully intact after analysis, providing testimony to a new era in ancient DNA research, in which it may become possible to directly identify the users of ornaments and tools produced in the deep past.
Published Astronomers find distant gas clouds with leftovers of the first stars



Using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), researchers have found for the first time the fingerprints left by the explosion of the first stars in the Universe. They detected three distant gas clouds whose chemical composition matches what we expect from the first stellar explosions. These findings bring us one step closer to understanding the nature of the first stars that formed after the Big Bang.
Published Most massive touching stars ever found will eventually collide as black holes



A new study looked at a known binary star (two stars orbiting around a mutual center of gravity), analyzing starlight obtained from a range of ground- and space-based telescopes. The researchers found that the stars, located in a neighboring dwarf galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud, are in partial contact and swapping material with each other, with one star currently 'feeding' off the other. They orbit each other every three days and are the most massive touching stars (known as contact binaries) yet observed.
Published Prolonged droughts likely spelled the end for Indus megacities



New research has found evidence -- locked into an ancient stalagmite from a cave in the Himalayas -- of a series of severe and lengthy droughts which may have upturned the Bronze Age Indus Civilization.
Published Astronomers solve the 60-year mystery of quasars -- the most powerful objects in the Universe



Scientists have unlocked one of the biggest mysteries of quasars -- the brightest, most powerful objects in the Universe -- by discovering that they are ignited by galaxies colliding.
Published Searching for ancient bears in an Alaskan cave led to an important human discovery



Genetic analysis links 3,000-year-old bone found in cave to modern Alaska Natives.