The Beginning to the End of the Universe: The cosmic dark ages
For millennia, a hydrogen fog permeated the universe, trapping light. This snapshot from the Illustris cosmological computer simulation shows a massive galaxy cluster at the center, intertwined with…
Stylish and Social, Winter Waxwings Provide a Wonderful ID Challenge
Bohemian and Cedar Waxwings look very similar and are more likely to intermingle in the colder months. Here’s how to tell them apart. When you hear a chorus…
Never-before-seen colorful bird hybrid surprises scientists
The offspring of a scarlet tanager and rose-breasted grosbeak—distantly related birds whose evolutionary paths diverged 10 million years ago—was recently found in Pennsylvania. A birder named Stephen Gosser…
Webb’s First Full-Color Images Released
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope mission today released its first full-color scientific images and spectroscopic data. Webb, a major space observatory often presented as the successor to the very…
Webb Captures Incredible Images of Cartwheel Galaxy
Using two instruments aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have produced detailed images of the Cartwheel Galaxy and its two smaller companions. This image of the Cartwheel…
Archeologists discovered a treasure trove at the bottom of an ancient Roman bathhouse drain near Hadrian’s Wall
Archeologists in Carlisle, England, discovered a treasure trove at the bottom of the drain system of an ancient Roman bathhouse near Hadrian’s Wall. Approximately 30 intricately carved semiprecious…
Microbes could potentially survive on Mars for 280 million years
New research suggests a tough bacteria called D. radiodurans could long withstand harsh martian radiation in a state of stasis under the surface. If and when humans venture to Mars,…
A new place to look for alien life: The photosynthetic habitable zone
In the search for life on other Earths, astrobiologists should look for signs of photosynthesis, say scientists. Exoplanet hunting is evolving from a science searching for exotic new…
Iron Age Comb Made from Human Skull Discovered Near Cambridge
While sorting through some 280,000 artifacts excavated from land reserved for a highway construction project running from Cambridge to the village of Huntingdon in eastern England, archaeologists affiliated…
Seven Roman altars multicolored in the Great Northern Museum
We know that the ancient world is now very colorful. But these colors weren’t just limited to robes and other clothing, statues and buildings also offered an astonishing…
Near-Earth asteroids could supply future meteor showers
Most meteor showers are associated with comets, but asteroid-driven showers might be more common than previously thought. Every day, thousands of small rocks — dust grain- to pebble-sized…
Tunguska explosion in 1908 caused by asteroid grazing Earth
A new theory explains the mysterious explosion in Siberia, scientists say, suggesting Earth barely escaped a far greater catastrophe. In the early morning of June 30, 1908, a…