Is Hygiea now the smallest dwarf planet?
New images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope show that asteroid Hygiea is round, meaning that it may now be classified as the smallest-known dwarf planet in our solar system.
Edmond Halleyâs magnificent prediction
Born on today’s date in the year 1656, English astronomer and mathematician Edmond Halley was the first to predict the return of a comet. Today, Halley’s Comet – the most famous of all comets – bears his name.
Photosynthesis seen in a new light by rapid X-ray pulses
(Arizona State University) In a new study, led by Petra Fromme and Nadia Zatsepin at the Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery, the School of Molecular Sciences and the Department of Physics at ASU, researchers investigated the structure of Photosystem I (PSI) with ultrashort X-ray pulses at the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (EuXFEL), located in Hamburg, Germany.
Turbulence creates ice in clouds
(Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS)) Vertical air motions increase ice formation in mixed-phase clouds. This correlation was predicted theoretically for a long time, but could now be observed for the first time in nature. This result was published by a team from TROPOS in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, an Open Access journal published by Nature Research. Using laser and radar equipment, the team measured the vertical air velocity and ice formation in thin mixed-phase clouds.
Fossil suggests apes, old world monkeys moved in opposite directions from shared ancestor
(American Museum of Natural History) In terms of their body plan, Old World monkeys — a group that includes primates like baboons and macaques — are generally considered more similar to ancestral species than apes are. But a new study suggests that as far as locomotion goes, apes and Old World monkeys each evolved a way of moving that was different from the ancestral species as they adapted to different niches in their environments.
Ancient Rome: a 12,000-year history of genetic flux, migrations and diversity
(University of Vienna) Scholars have been all over Rome for hundreds of years, but it still holds some secrets – for instance, relatively little is known about where the city’s denizens actually came from. Now, an international team led by Researchers from the University of Vienna, Stanford University and Sapienza University of Rome, is filling in the gaps with a genetic history that shows just how much the Eternal City’s populace mirrored its sometimes tumultuous history.
Researchers lay out first genetic history of Rome
Despite extensive records of the history of Rome, little is known about the city’s population over time. A new genetic history of the Eternal City reveals a dynamic population shaped in part by political and historical events.
TESS spacecraft is finding hundreds of exoplanets
… and it’s poised to find thousands more. But will we find another Earth?
Pleiades star cluster, aka Seven Sisters
The Pleiades star cluster – aka the Seven Sisters or M45 – is visible from virtually every part of the globe. It looks like a tiny misty dipper of stars.
The genetic imprint of Palaeolithic has been detected in North African populations
(Universitat Pompeu Fabra – Barcelona) Researchers led by David Comas for the first time performed an analysis of the complete genome of the population of North Africa. They have identified a small genetic imprint of the inhabitants of the region in Palaeolithic times, thus ruling out the theory that recent migrations from other regions completely erased the genetic traces of ancient North Africans.
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