Shackleton and the crew of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition landed on the mountainous, ice-covered island today known as Elephant Island. Some say Elephant Island got its name from the sighting of elephant seals along its shores; others suggest it comes from its appearance as an elephant head. But Shackleton’s captain claimed it was a nickname given by the crew: “Hell-of-an-Island.” The image above shows a rare, cloud-free view of the remote island on December 13, 2020, as captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8....

Black holes are extremely powerful and efficient engines that not only swallow up matter, but also return a lot of energy to the Universe in exchange for the mass they eat. When black holes attract mass they also trigger the release of intense X-ray radiation and power strong jets. But not all black holes do this the same way. This has long baffled astronomers. By studying two active black holes researchers at the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research have now gathered evidence that suggests that each black hole can change between two different regimes, like changing the gears of an engine....

The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is slated to launch into space on September 27, 2021. The approximately $4 million spacecraft, a smaller-than-usual type of satellite known as a “CubeSat,” is about as large as a “family-sized box of Cheerios,” said LASP researcher Kevin France, principal investigator for the mission. But it has mighty goals: Over the course of about 7 months, the mission will track the volatile physics around a class of extremely hot planets orbiting stars far away from Earth....

Also known as the Tri-border region, the Triple Frontier is a geographical area in South America where the borders of three countries meet: Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. The region is located at the intersection of the Iguazu and Parana rivers, and covers an area of approximately 1,200 square miles (3,100 square kilometers). This multitemporal composite was created by combining three different images, acquired in March, July, and November 2022 using the mission’s infrared channel....

The atmosphere of Earth is not a uniform envelope. Instead, it consists of distinct layers that each have characteristic properties. The lowest layer that spans from sea level beyond the highest mountain peaks, for example – the troposphere – contains most of the water vapor and is thus the layer in which most weather phenomena occur. The layer above it – the stratosphere – is the one that contains the famous ozone layer that shields us from the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation....

Visible matter constitutes only 16% of the Universe’s total mass. Little is known about the nature of the rest of that mass, which referred to as dark matter. Even more surprising is the fact that the Universe’s total mass accounts for only 30% of its energy. The rest is dark energy, which is totally unknown but is responsible for the Universe’s accelerated expansion. To find out more about dark matter and dark energy, astrophysicists use large-scale surveys of the Universe or detailed studies of the properties of galaxies....

More than 28,000 essays were submitted after the contest began on August 28 last year. A diverse panel of nearly 4,700 judge volunteers, composed of educators, professionals and space enthusiasts from all around the country, narrowed the pool down to 155 deserving semifinalists from every state and territory in the country. “Thousands of students have shared their ideas for a name that will do our rover and the team proud,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division in Washington....

On the first Artemis mission, a combined total of 55 engines and motors between the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft propelled Orion from the launch pad, around the Moon, and back to Earth. A motor is generally defined as a device that produces motion, and an engine is considered a type of motor that produces motion with the use of moving parts. In rocket science, these terms are typically used to differentiate between rocket motors with solid fuel, that do not employ moving parts to generate thrust, and engines that use moving parts such as pumps and valves to direct liquid fuel through the system....

The extraordinary properties in quantum materials often require special, hardly achievable conditions such as low temperatures, extremely strong magnetic fields, or high pressure. Scientists are therefore looking for materials that exhibit their exotic properties even at room temperature, without external magnetic fields, and under normal atmospheric pressure. Especially promising are the so-called magnetic topological insulators (MTI). They are considered a source of novel quasiparticles and unprecedented quantum phenomena, but their experimental implementation is very challenging....

The first molecular electronics chip has been developed, realizing a 50-year-old goal of integrating single molecules into circuits to achieve the ultimate scaling limits of Moore’s Law. Developed by Roswell Biotechnologies and a multi-disciplinary team of leading academic scientists, the chip uses single molecules as universal sensor elements in a circuit to create a programmable biosensor with real-time, single-molecule sensitivity and unlimited scalability in sensor pixel density. This innovation, appearing this week in a peer-reviewed article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), will power advances in diverse fields that are fundamentally based on observing molecular interactions, including drug discovery, diagnostics, DNA sequencing, and proteomics....

Researchers from Boston College, MIT, and UC Santa Barbara reveal an elusive atomic-scale magnetic ‘signal’ in a Mott insulator. Probing the properties of a Mott insulator, a team of researchers from Boston College, MIT, and U.C. Santa Barbara has revealed an elusive atomic-scale magnetic signal in the unique material as it transitions from an insulator to a metal, the team reported recently in the journal Nature Physics. Working with a compound in the class of materials known as Mott insulators, the team used spin-polarizing scanning tunneling microscopy (SP-STM) to detail at the atomic level the underlying physics of one example of these insulators, which can be manipulated into a metallic state through the addition of an electronic charge, a process called doping, said Boston College Assistant Professor of Physics Ilija Zeljkovic, a lead author of the report....

“We are proud that NEID is available to the worldwide astronomical community for exoplanet discovery and characterization,” said Jason Wright, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and NEID project scientist. “I can’t wait to see the results we and our colleagues around the world will produce over the next few years, from discovering new, rocky planets, to measuring the compositions of exoplanetary atmospheres, to measuring the shapes and orientations of planetary orbits, to characterization of the physical processes of these planets’ host stars....

Previous research observed that the “visual” cortex in blind people is recruited for other functions, but it was not known if the new purpose was consistent or varied from person to person. Loiotile et al. used functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare how the auditory and visual cortices of the brain were activated in blind and blindfolded, sighted participants while listening to audio clips from movies. Sixty-five percent of the regions in the visual cortex had similar activation among the blind participants when they listened to the movie clips....

While exploring the tailings left behind by a now-defunct copper mine, Hodgins and her students stumbled across a few fragments of fossils—bits and pieces of what seemed to be teeth alongside pieces of bone. The ancient fragments of teeth were so small and in such bad shape that “most paleontologists may not have picked them up,” said Jaelyn Eberle, a curator of fossil vertebrates at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Museum of Natural History....

In 2008, Gaetan Borgonie from the University of Ghent and Princeton University geoscientist Tullis Onstott discovered the microscopic Devil Worm while investigating subterrestrial bacterial communities in active gold mines in South Africa. Borgonie and his team were stunned to discover the worm, a complex, multi-cellular animal thriving in an environment thought only livable for microbes, with high temperatures, little oxygen, and high amounts of methane. Researchers named the worm Halicephalobus mephisto, in honor of Mephistopheles, a subterranean demon from the medieval German legend Faust....

This study was run in collaboration with the Paris-based Committee for Research and Independent Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN) and also found that the rats developed tumors when their drinking water was spiked with glyphosate, the herbicide used in the GM maize. The study has had a profound impact in Europe, allowing those opposed to GM foods to voice their frustrations and leading some politicians to call for tighter regulations or outright bans of the maize....

The fossil was discovered by Princeton resident Beverley Burlingame and made available to the researchers through the town’s museum. Researchers say it is the first Canadian specimen of the extinct ant Titanomyrma, whose biggest species was surprisingly gigantic, with the body mass of a wren and a wingspan of half a foot. SFU paleontologists Bruce Archibald and Rolf Mathewes, together with Arvid Aase of Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming, have published their research on the fossil in the current edition of the scientific journal The Canadian Entomologist....

People are less motivated to take action if its outcome is uncertain, and this could be true for climate-related issues. The uncertainty in climate response to the increase in greenhouse gas concentration, which is often believed to be substantially large, makes it difficult to believe the benefit of reducing emissions or the effectiveness of making society more resilient to climate-related hazards. This could be one of the reasons for inaction even though urgent action is called for....

“There’s something about growing old that leads to fewer stressors,” said Almeida. “This could be the types of social roles that we fill as we age. As younger people, we may be juggling more, including jobs, families, and homes, all of which create instances of daily stress. But as we age, our social roles and motivations change. Older people talk about wanting to maximize and enjoy the time they have....

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly shares an image of Earth from the International Space Station. Earth’s thin atmosphere stands out against the blackness of space in this photo shared on August 31, 2015, by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly on board the International Space Station. The station’s solar panels can be seen in darkness at the right of the image. Kelly, in the midst of a year-long stay on the orbital outpost, shared the photo in a tweet: “Day 157....