New_Extreme_Dwarf_Planet-_2015_TG387_solar_system_perspective_1-650x366
New extremely distant Solar System object found during hunt for Planet X
Carnegie’s Scott Sheppard and his colleagues—Northern Arizona University’s Chad Trujillo, and the University of Hawaii’s David Tholen—are once again redefining our Solar System’s edge. They discovered a new extremely distant object far beyond Pluto with an orbit that supports the presence of an even-fa...
Read More
FB_IMG_1536773623540
Hurricane Florence -Currently moving across the Atlantic Ocean and toward the east coast of the United States
Hurricane Florence is currently a powerful Category 4 hurricane over the Atlantic Ocean, threatening the Southeastern United States and the U.S. Mid-Atlantic states. The sixth named storm, third hurricane and the first major hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, Florence originated from a...
Read More
preview
What makes diamonds blue ?
Blue diamonds—like the world-famous Hope Diamond at the National Museum of Natural History—formed up to four times deeper in the Earth’s mantle than most other diamonds, according to new work published on the cover of Nature. These so-called type IIb diamonds are tremendously valuable, making them h...
Read More
180902234047-03-brazil-museum-fire-exlarge-169
Brazil's National Museum Engulfed by a massive Fire !
Brazil’s oldest and most important historical and scientific museum, Brazil’s National Museum has been consumed by a massive fire destroying much of its 20 million archived artifacts – losses were too great to be calculated The museum, which is located in Rio de Janeiro, is a former a roy...
Read More
Visitors to the Museum’s Spitzer Hall of Human Origins can see how modern humans differ from early humans and primate relatives, including in our ability to walk upright. D. Finnin/© AMNH
When Did Human Feet Become “Made for Walking”?
How and when did early humans start walking upright? For clues, researchers have been looking at feet—and, more specifically, at toes. Bipedalism was a critical step in human evolution, and one that affected so many subsequent evolutionary changes in our lineage, from social behavior to the development o...
Read More
alps-2548486_960_720
Mountains in Motion !
The Alps are on the go: The mountain range drifts northwards an average of one-half millimeter every year and rises 1.8 millimeters. However, there are strong regional variances. In order to follow these movements, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have evaluated measurements made...
Read More
eorhynchochelys22018.8
228 Million years old Fossil Turtle didn’t have a shell yet, but had the first Toothless Turtle Beak !
There are a couple of key features that make a turtle a turtle: its shell, for one, but also its toothless beak. A newly-discovered fossil turtle that lived 228 million years ago is shedding light on how modern turtles developed these traits. It had a beak, but while its body was Frisbee-shaped, its...
Read More
Geologists uncover new clues about largest Mass Extinction ever
Geologists uncover new clues about largest Mass Extinction ever
A new study could help explain the driving force behind the largest mass extinction in the history of earth, known as the End-Permian Extinction. The event, also known as the Great Dying, occurred around 250 million years ago when a massive volcanic eruption in what is today the Russian province of Siberia...
Read More
Image : Prehistoric Sea Life by Jim Trottier
A timescale for the origin and evolution of all of life on Earth
A new study led by scientists from the University of Bristol has used a combination of genomic and fossil data to explain the history of life on Earth, from its origin to the present day. Palaeontologists have long sought to understand ancient life and the shared evolutionary history of life as a whole. However,...
Read More
image: baselinecaribbean
Old Species Learn New Tricks Very Slowly
A quick look at the fossil record shows that no species lasts forever. On average, most species exist for around a million years, although some species persist for much longer. A new study published in Scientific Reports from paleontologists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama s...
Read More
25670879843_6e06b0e6aa_o
Diving Robots find that Antarctic seas release surprising amounts of Carbon Dioxide in Winter
The Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica is regarded by scientists as a large and crucial absorber of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. New findings from autonomous floats deployed in the Southern Ocean, however, provide the first comprehensive data to suggest that, in winter, the open water nearest...
Read More
coral_figure_2
Corals and Algae go back further than previously thought, all the way to Jurassic Period
Algae and corals have been leaning on each other since dinosaurs roamed the earth, much longer than had been previously thought, according to new research led by scientists at Oregon State University and Penn State. The findings, published today in Current Biology, are a key advance toward a better understanding...
Read More
nwa_11119_hand_sample
Oldest-ever Igneous Meteorite Contains Clues to Planet Building Blocks
Scientists believe the solar system was formed some 4.6 billion years ago when a cloud of gas and dust collapsed under gravity, possibly triggered by a cataclysmic explosion from a nearby massive star or supernova. As this cloud collapsed, it formed a spinning disk with the sun in the center. Piece by...
Read More
yosemitenati
Yosemite granite “tells a different story” story about Earth's geologic history
A team of scientists including Carnegie’s Michael Ackerson and Bjørn Mysen revealed that granites from Yosemite National Park contain minerals that crystallized at much lower temperatures than previously thought possible. This finding upends scientific understanding of how granites form and what they ca...
Read More
Jupiter_Moons_Orbits-800x500
A dozen new moons of Jupiter discovered, including one “oddball”
Twelve new moons orbiting Jupiter have been found—11 “normal” outer moons, and one that they’re calling an “oddball.”  This brings Jupiter’s total number of known moons to a whopping 79—the most of any planet in our Solar System. A team led by Carnegie’s Scott S. Sheppard first spotted the moons in the spr...
Read More
3-Drilling-Rock-Hole-with-Foam
Foam could offer greener option for petroleum drillers
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, provides critical energy for society, but also uses large amounts of fresh water while producing corresponding amounts of wastewater. Water-based foams, which use about 90 percent less water than fracking fluids, provide an alternative, but the mechanism for foam-driven...
Read More
Scientists-warn-we-may-be-headed-for-“hothouse-Earth”-conditions-850x500
Planet at risk of heading towards irreversible “Hothouse Earth” state
Keeping global warming to within 1.5-2°C may be more difficult than previously assessed. An international team of scientists, with the participation of Center from Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, University of Copenhagen, shows that even if the carbon emission reductions called for in the Paris...
Read More
sampling_cereals_large
Archaeologists discover bread that predates agriculture by 4,000 years
At an archaeological site in northeastern Jordan, researchers have discovered the charred remains of a flatbread baked by hunter-gatherers 14,400 years ago. It is the oldest direct evidence of bread found to date, predating the advent of agriculture by at least 4,000 years. The findings suggest that...
Read More
NASA-NLC-8-small
CLIMATE CHANGE IS MAKING NIGHT-SHINING CLOUDS MORE VISIBLE
Increased water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere due to human activities is making shimmering high-altitude clouds more visible, a new study finds. The results suggest these strange but increasingly common clouds seen only on summer nights are an indicator of human-caused climate change, according to the s...
Read More
6298580197_9e657e6857_b
Previously unsuspected volcanic activity under WAIS
Tracing a chemical signature of helium in seawater, an international team of scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United Kingdom’s (U.K.) Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has discovered a previously unknown volcanic hotspot beneath the massive West Antarctic...
Read More
1 2