Not just for finding planets: Exoplanet-hunter TESS telescope spots bright gamma-ray burst
NASA has a long tradition of unexpected discoveries, and the space program's TESS mission is no different. SMU astrophysicist and her team have discovered a particularly bright gamma-ray burst using a NASA telescope designed to find exoplanets—thos.....»»
Scientists find evidence of hellish, volcanic moon orbiting a distant exoplanet
Scientists have not yet found direct evidence of a moon outside our solar system -- but they just found a hint of a hellish one......»»
Webb observations confirm 20-year-old galaxy models
New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have confirmed a decades-old galaxy model, originally proposed by a University of Portsmouth Professor in 2005......»»
Genomic study offers hope for endangered Oriental stork
A new genomic study of the endangered Oriental stork reveals that the population's genetic health is still surprisingly strong, with high genetic diversity and low levels of inbreeding. This is an uncommon finding in most endangered species populatio.....»»
Pitch-black shooter Blindfire is a bright idea that’s still finding its way
Blindfire is a new multiplayer shooter with a twist — players are fighting in complete darkness. We jumped into early access to put it to the test......»»
Betelgeuse Betelgeuse? Bright star Betelgeuse likely has a "Betelbuddy" stellar companion
One of the brightest stars in the night sky, Betelgeuse, may not be on the brink of exploding as a supernova, according to a new study of the star's brightening and dimming. Instead, recent research shows that the observed pulsing of the starlight is.....»»
Fungi finding: mushroom hunters seek new species and recognition
You can't walk very far through a forest in this part of the United States without stumbling upon a mushroom, an eruption from a vast fungal kingdom that all life depends on, but about which we know very little......»»
Saturday Citations: Brown dwarf actually brown dwarfs; the adaptability of ice-age humans; archaeologists excited
This week, researchers discovered a near-Earth microquasar that sheds new light on sources of relativistic outflows. Doctors reported finding a triphallic gentleman. And neuroscientists reported on modest cognitive boosts from short (or "acute," in c.....»»
Collecting taxes on Airbnb home rentals could help curb the rise in housing costs
Home-rental platforms like Airbnb are known to drive up housing costs, but a new study shows that doing a better job of collecting the taxes owed by these home rentals appears to slow the rise in home prices. The finding suggests that tax policy can.....»»
Lignin molecular property discovery could help turn trees into affordable, greener industrial chemicals
Trees are the most abundant natural resource living on Earth's land masses, and North Carolina State University scientists and engineers are making headway in finding ways to use them as sustainable, environmentally benign alternatives to producing i.....»»
Hubble captures a new view of galaxy M90
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the striking spiral galaxy Messier 90 (M90, also NGC 4569), located in the constellation Virgo. In 2019, Hubble released an image of M90 created with Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) data t.....»»
Despite massive security spending, 44% of CISOs fail to detect breaches
Despite global information security spending projected to reach $215 billion in 2024, 44% of CISOs surveyed reported they were unable to detect a data breach in the last 12 months using existing security tools, according to Gigamon. Blind spots under.....»»
2024 Head of the Charles Regatta: Race schedule, spectator spots, where to park, how to get around
2024 Head of the Charles Regatta: Race schedule, spectator spots, where to park, how to get around.....»»
Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer helps researchers determine shape of black hole corona
New findings using data from NASA's IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission offer unprecedented insight into the shape and nature of a structure important to black holes called a corona. The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journ.....»»
Catching prey with grappling hooks and cannons: The unusual weapons arsenal of a predatory marine bacterium
Countless bacteria call the vastness of the oceans home, and they all face the same problem: the nutrients they need to grow and multiply are scarce and unevenly distributed in the waters around them. In some spots they are present in abundance, but.....»»
Moonlight may hamper views of the Orionid meteor shower, debris of Halley"s comet
The Orionids—one of two annual meteor showers from Halley's comet—peak early Monday. A bright waning moon may make them difficult to spot......»»
Rare ultra-luminous nova spotted in the Small Magellanic Cloud
A rare, extremely luminous X-ray outburst has been observed in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is a close neighbor of our own Milky Way galaxy. The observations, made by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and other telescopes, were de.....»»
Astronomers detect ancient lonely quasars with murky origins
A quasar is the extremely bright core of a galaxy that hosts an active supermassive black hole at its center. As the black hole draws in surrounding gas and dust, it blasts out an enormous amount of energy, making quasars some of the brightest object.....»»
Second exoplanet detected orbiting an early G-type star
Astronomers report the detection of a second exoplanet orbiting a G-type star known as TIC 393818343, located some 300 light years away. The newfound alien world is about three times less massive than Jupiter. The finding was detailed in a research p.....»»
Hubble captures intricacies of R Aquarii, a symbiotic binary star roughly 700 light-years from Earth
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has provided a dramatic and colorful close-up look at one of the most rambunctious stars in our galaxy, weaving a huge spiral pattern among the stars. Hubble's images capture its details and its evolution is featur.....»»
Fossil unearthed in Brazil is 237-million-year-old sister-group to Dinosauria
Paleontologist Rodrigo Temp Muller with Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, working with colleagues in Brazil, has confirmed the finding of one of the oldest dinosauromorph fossils ever uncovered in South America......»»