It’s official: Pluto’s “heart” now bears the name of pioneering American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930. And a crater on Pluto is now officially named after Venetia Burney, the British schoolgirl who in 1930 suggested the name “Pluto,” Roman god of the underworld, for Tombaugh’s newly-discovered planet. Tombaugh Regio and Burney crater are among the first set of official Pluto feature names approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the internationally recognized authority for naming celestial bodies and their surface features....

‘Oumuamua is the first macroscopic object of clear interstellar origin to be seen within Earth’s solar system. It is about 900 feet long and had been traveling through space for millions of years prior to entering the solar system. Researchers from the University of Hawaii first discovered ‘Oumuamua on October 19, 2017, more than a month after it passed its closest point to the Sun. They named the object after the Hawaiian word for “scout....

When black holes merge, they release enormous amounts of energy in the form of ripples in the fabric of spacetime. These ripples are constantly washing over the Earth, and it’s only through the use of extremely – and I mean extremely – sensitive detectors that we can spot them. Right now, our gravitational wave detectors are only sensitive to brief, intense pulses, signaling the mergers of relatively small black holes and neutron stars....

But one big question remains: Are these planetary-mass companions actually planets, or are they instead small “failed” stars called brown dwarfs? Brown dwarfs form like stars do—out of collapsing clouds of gas—but they lack the mass to ignite and shine with starlight. They can be found floating on their own in space, or they can be found orbiting with other brown dwarfs or stars. The smallest brown dwarfs are similar in size to Jupiter and would look just like a planet when orbiting a star....

Discovered as the first self-lensing binary star system in 2014 by University of Washington scientists, KOI-3278’s behavior was originally reported as a result of microlensing based on periodic increases in brightness as the potential white dwarf companion passed in front of the G star and dips in brightness as it passed behind the star. “We decided to pursue follow-up spectroscopy of the binary system with the goal of observing the orbital motion of the G star....

A team led by Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom are presenting new images of Jupiter at the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Nottingham. Obtained with the VISIR instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, the new images are part of a focused effort to improve understanding of Jupiter’s atmosphere prior to the arrival of NASA’s Juno spacecraft in July this year. The campaign has involved the use of several telescopes based in Hawaii and Chile, as well as contributions from amateur astronomers around the world....

Atri’s findings are reported in the study Investigating the biological potential of galactic cosmic ray-induced radiation-driven chemical disequilibrium in the Martian subsurface environment in the journal Scientific Reports, Springer Nature. There is growing evidence suggesting the presence of an aqueous environment on ancient Mars, raising the question of the possibility of a life-supporting environment. The erosion of the Martian atmosphere resulted in drastic changes in its climate, surface water disappeared, shrinking habitable spaces on the planet, with only a limited amount of water remaining near the surface in form of brines and water-ice deposits....

A way to observe what could be the second-closest supermassive black hole to Earth has been suggested by two astrophysicists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA). This black hole is a behemoth that is 3 million times the mass of the Sun and hosted by the dwarf galaxy Leo I. The supermassive black hole, labeled Leo I*, was first proposed by an independent team of astronomers in late 2021....

Nearly one in four Arizona teens have used a highly potent form of marijuana known as marijuana concentrate, according to a new study by Arizona State University researchers. Among nearly 50,000 eighth, 10th, and 12th graders from the 2018 Arizona Youth Survey, a biennial survey of Arizona secondary school students, one-third (33%) had tried some form of marijuana, and nearly a quarter (24%) had tried marijuana concentrate. Marijuana concentrates have about three times more THC, the constituent of marijuana that causes the “high,” than a traditional marijuana flower....

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine are able to detect deficits in social attention in infants as young as six months of age who later develop Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Published in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry, the results showed that these infants paid less attention to people and their activities than typically developing babies. Katarzyna Chawarska, associate professor at the Yale Child Study Center, and her colleagues investigated whether six-month-old infants later diagnosed with ASD showed prodromal symptoms — early signs of ASD such as an impaired ability to attend to social overtures and activities of others....

Bactrian camels have sky-high blood glucose levels, a diet loaded with salt, and tend to pack away fat. These evolutionary adaptations help them survive in extremely dry and cold regions of the world. The scientists published their findings in the journal Nature Communications. Chinese and Mongolian researchers have begun to unravel the genomic particularities behind the tricks that allow camels to survive in harsh conditions. Usually, researchers exploring new genomes are interested in the rapidly evolving sections....

An analysis of 18 species of stationary and migratory bats living in Switzerland has discovered that they harbor viruses from 39 different viral families — including some viruses with the potential risk of jumping to other animals, including humans, and causing disease. Isabelle Hardmeier of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and colleagues published these findings on June 16, 2021, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. While there are few known instances of disease-causing viruses jumping directly from bats to humans, some viruses carried by bats may jump to other animals and then become transmitted to humans....

Detecting alien worlds presents a significant challenge since they are small, faint, and close to their stars. The two most prolific techniques for finding exoplanets are radial velocity (looking for wobbling stars) and transits (looking for dimming stars). A team at Tel Aviv University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has just discovered an exoplanet using a new method that relies on Einstein’s special theory of relativity. “We are looking for very subtle effects....

Scientists have identified new substances that have a similar pain-relieving effect to opiates, but without the negative aspects such as respiratory depression and addiction. Instead of activating opioid receptors, they work by stimulating adrenalin receptors. This is the result of research carried out by an international team of researchers led by the Chair of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at FAU. Their findings are a milestone in the development of non-opioid pain relief and have recently been published in the renowned scientific journal Science....

Thanks to antiretrovirals, an AIDS diagnosis hasn’t been a death sentence for nearly two decades. But highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART, is also not a cure. Patients must adhere to a demandingly regular drug regimen that carries plenty of side effects. And while the therapy may be difficult to undergo in the United States, it is nearly impossible to scale to the AIDS crisis in the developing world. The problem with HAART is that it doesn’t address HIV’s so-called proviral reservoirs – dormant forms of the virus that lurk within T-cells and other cell types....

This finding could provide a more affordable and accessible option for the large proportion of people with hearing loss who face barriers to obtaining professional hearing aids. These barriers include the high cost and the need for multiple visits to otolaryngologists and audiologists for tuning. It is estimated that nearly 75% of people with hearing loss in the United States do not use hearing aids. “There’s also a social stigma associated with hearing aids,” says Yen-fu Cheng, the study’s corresponding author and an otolaryngologist at Taipei Veterans General Hospital....

Organic solar cells could serve a key role in the transition towards renewable energies. However, a cheap synthetic route and a high cell efficiency are instrumental in aiding this transition. The discovery of a new material class, known as “non-fullerene acceptors,” provides a cost-efficient synthetic route as compared to the more traditional silicon solar cells, while providing a higher efficiency than the first organic solar cells. The design of these “non-fullerene acceptor” materials with properties tailored for use in solar cells still poses challenges....

Polyketides are natural products with a wide range of therapeutic applications. Among them are dietary supplements, various antibiotics such as erythromycin, and one of the key cannabinoid precursors: Olivetolic acid. It is needed for the synthesis of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The medical use of this psychoactive substance is being intensely researched, and it is already being used to provide relief for patients with neurological diseases and pain, among other things. THC is a natural ingredient in the cannabis plant....

“Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States and increasingly used as an alternative treatment for chronic pain, but there is limited data that shows how it affects patient outcomes after surgery,” said lead author of the study, Elyad Ekrami, M.D. “Our study shows that adults who use cannabis are having more — not less — postoperative pain. Consequently, they have higher opioid consumption after surgery....

“In the grandest tradition of exploration, NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft has once again blazed a trail, showing us new wonders and demonstrating where our curiosity can take us if we dare,” said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. As it dove through the gap, Cassini came within about 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) of Saturn’s cloud tops (where the air pressure is 1 bar — comparable to the atmospheric pressure of Earth at sea level) and within about 200 miles (300 kilometers) of the innermost visible edge of the rings....