To find out how migratory birds find their way, sparrows were translocated from autumn stopovers along the Dutch North Sea coast to Switzerland (red, 1948–1957) and Spain (blue, 1959–1962). Source: Biology Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0217 Young, naive starlings search for their wintering areas independently of experienced conspecifics. Starlings are very social birds all year round, … Read more
Orbital configuration of Mars Express (red) and trace gas orbiter (blue) during a typical mutual radio occultation observation, with a black and white arrow indicating the direction of radio communication between the two spacecraft. Credit: Radio science (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2023RS007873 Using the repurposed equipment, a team including researchers from Imperial College London measured parts of … Read more
Map of the line emission from hydrogen (in red and blue) and oxygen (in green) in the PJ308-21 system, shown after masking the light from the central quasar (“QSO”). The different colors of the quasar’s host galaxy and companion galaxies in this map reveal the physical properties of the gas within it. Credit: Decarli/INAF/A&A 2024 … Read more
A group of whales off the east coast of Australia. Photo: Jake Linsky. Research led by the University of Queensland has found that migrating humpback whales off the east coast of Australia became less stressed in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research paper was published in Research into the marine environment. Dr … Read more
A small image of a galaxy that has been distorted into a faint ring by gravitational lensing. At the top of the ring are three very bright spots with diffraction spikes coming off them, right next to each other: these are copies of a single quasar in the borrowed galaxy, duplicated by the gravitational lens. … Read more
Grotta di Castelcivita. Above: The location of the cave (indicated by a white arrow) at the foot of the Alburni massif in the Campania region, southern Italy. Below: The excavation trench of the Upper Paleolithic layers. Credit: University of Tübingen An international team of researchers from the universities of Tübingen (Dr. Armando Falcucci), Siena and … Read more
These images show the two shock regions of the remnant SNR 1181. The bright white in the center is the white dwarf. Credit: 2024 T. Ko, H. Suzuki, K. Kashiyama et al./ The Astrophysical Journal A mysterious remnant of a rare type of supernova recorded in 1181 has been explained for the first time. Two … Read more
Source: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Microbes used for health, agriculture, or other applications must be able to withstand extreme conditions, and ideally, the manufacturing processes used to make tablets for long-term storage. MIT researchers have now developed a new way to make microbes strong enough to withstand these extreme conditions. Their method involves mixing bacteria with … Read more
Science and discovery 05/07/2024 1081 views 12 I like this ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter, the first spacecraft to image an object orbiting another planet, has reached a major milestone by returning the first Martian samples to Earth. Today, the critical design review for the spacecraft platform was completed with the cooperation of European industry and … Read more
Negev Petroglyphs of Animals. Credit: Laura Rabbachin, INTK, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna The Negev Desert in southern Israel is known for its unique rock art. Since at least the third millennium BCE, hunters, herders, and traders roaming the Negev have left thousands of engravings (petroglyphs) on the rocks. These figures are usually carved into … Read more