Why are stars forming in the bridge between these colliding galaxies? Usually when galaxies crash, star formation is confined to galaxy disks or tidal tails. In Arp 194, though, there are bright knots of young stars right in a connecting bridge. Analyses of... Continue Reading →
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury has been firing its electric propulsion thrusters since December in the first of 22 ‘thruster burn arcs’ that will steer the spacecraft to its destination. While taking routine images with the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM)’s solar... Continue Reading →
U.S. mathematician Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck has won the 2019 Abel Prize—one of the field’s most prestigious awardscfor her wide-ranging work in analysis, geometry and mathematical physics. Uhlenbeck is the first woman to win the 6-million-kroner (U.S.$702,500) prize, which is given... Continue Reading →
When Craig Crews first managed to make proteins disappear on command with a bizarre new compound, the biochemist says that he considered it a “parlour trick”, a “cute chemical curiosity”. Today, that cute trick is driving billions of US dollars... Continue Reading →
Of all the organelles to be found inside eukaryotic cells, the DNA-sheltering nuclei might be the best-known, but the mitochondria are surely not far behind. Mitochondria are familiar as bean-shaped structures floating in the cytoplasm, and they are almost inevitably... Continue Reading →
On Mar. 6, 2019, SDO observed a long lunar transit - with a twist. The shadow of the Moon in SDO's images first touched the limb of the Sun at 2200 UTC (5pm EST) on Mar. 6, making its way... Continue Reading →
Einstein was born, Hawking passes away and it’s Pi day… What is Pi? Understanding pi is as easy as counting to one, two, 3.1415926535… OK, we'll be here for a while if we keep that up. Here's what's important: Pi... Continue Reading →
Spending time in nature boosts children's academic achievement and healthy development, concludes a new analysis examining hundreds of studies. Ming Kuo, associate professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois and lead author on the Frontiers... Continue Reading →
What can you see in the night sky this season? The featured graphic gives a few highlights for Earth's northern hemisphere. Viewed as a clock face centered at the bottom, early (northern) spring sky events fan out toward the left, while late... Continue Reading →