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Six orbiting planets sets record for Sun-like stars say Kepler, Smithsonian astronmers

Last week, the Kepler team and CfA astronomers announced the discovery of a system of six transiting planets around one Sun-like star. The previous record holder for the number of transiting planets was three.

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Smithsonian and MIT to launch online mystery game for middle-shool children

On April 4 the Smithsonian and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will launch VANISHED, an 8-week online/offline environmental disaster mystery game for middle-school children, meant […]

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Mystery of the quiet Sun solved

The Sun has been in the news a lot lately because it's beginning to send out more flares and solar storms. Its recent turmoil is particularly newsworthy because the Sun was very quiet for an unusually long time. New computer simulations imply that the Sun's long quiet spell resulted from changing flows of hot plasma within it.

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Astronomers explore the rich chemistry surrounding an evolved star

Over 170 molecules have been detected in space, from simple diatomic molecules like CO to complex organic molecules with over 70 atoms, such as fullerene. […]

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Artist’s recreation of 7- to 6-million-year-old early human unveiled in Hall of Human Origins

Meet Sahelanthropus tchadensis. This newly unveiled bust by artist John Gurche is now on view in the the Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

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Don’t pick a fight with a eunuch spider. It has nothing to lose

In a recent study of the mating behavior of these Asian spiders, researchers found that 87.5 percent of males had both palps amputated during copulation.

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Astronomers in distant future might still deduce the Big Bang origin of the Universe

Astronomers of the future won't have to take the Big Bang on faith. With careful measurements and clever analysis, they can find the subtle evidence outlining the history of the universe.

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Archaeological evidence confirms mass hunting of gazelles 5,000 years ago

A remarkable 5,000-year-old deposit of bones representing an entire herd of Persian gazelles recently discovered in northeastern Syria is firm evidence, scientists say, of an ancient hunting practice largely responsible for the near extinction of gazelles in this region today.

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Leafsnap, a new mobile app that identifies plants by leaf shape, is launched by Smithsonian and collaborators

In addition to the species name, Leafsnap provides high-resolution photographs and information about the tree's flowers, fruit, seeds and bark—giving the user a comprehensive understanding of the specie

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Stunning high-resolution NASA images available online for public exhibits

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has made available to the public a new online collection of images that capture the excitement of planetary exploration and the journey to understand the origin and evolution of the solar system.

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Mars polar dunes

Image right: A sea of dunes, sculpted by the wind into long lines, surrounds the northern polar cap of Mars, covering an area as big […]

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The Kepler spacecraft’s astounding haul of multiple-planet systems

NASA's Kepler spacecraft is proving itself to be a prolific planet hunter. Within just the first four months of data, astronomers have found evidence for more than 1,200 planetary candidates. Of those, 408 reside in systems containing two or more planets, and most of those look very different than our solar system.

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Astronomers unveil the most complete 3-D map of the local universe

Today, Wednesday, May 25, astronomers unveiled the most complete 3-D map of the local universe (out to a distance of 380 million light-years) ever created. Taking more than 10 years to complete, the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS) also is notable for extending closer to the Galactic plane than previous surveys – a region that’s generally obscured by dust.

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Lofty experiments with gliding ants reveals secrets of their unusual flight

One of the most challenging aspects of this research is simply studying these insects as they are falling, says Yanoviak, a tropical arthropod ecologist at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. Small body size, rapid descent, and the long distances that they can fall, make accurate data taking a challenge.

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Chandra X-Ray Observatory finds massive black holes common in early universe

Using the deepest X-ray image ever taken, astronomers found the first direct evidence that massive black holes were common in the early universe. This discovery from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows that very young black holes grew more aggressively than previously thought, in tandem with the growth of their host galaxies.

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Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and George Mason University expand partnership

Scientists and educators from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and George Mason University broke ground June 29 on a green-design conservation complex that embodies the concept of the living classroom.

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Research on tungara frogs may be applicable to hearing loss/attention deficits in humans

A new study has revealed information about the way tungara frogs in the tropical rain forest hear, sort, and process sounds which is very similar to the way humans do. The knowledge could be applicable to communication disorders associated with hearing loss and attention deficits or difficulties.

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Unlocking the mysteries of Jefferson’s bible with high-tech analysis and microscopic testing

The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, more commonly known as the Jefferson bible, is a volume created by Thomas Jefferson containing passages he […]

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What makes rainforests unique? History, not ecology.

History and geology, not current ecology, are likely what has made tropical forests so variable from site to site.

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New DNA study suggests coral reef biodiversity is seriously underestimated

The first DNA barcoding survey of crustaceans living on samples of dead coral taken from the Indian, Pacific and Caribbean oceans suggests that the diversity of organisms living on the world’s coral reefs—one of the most endangered habitats on Earth—is seriously underestimated.

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Q&A: National Zoo veterinarian Suzan Murray is working to halt pandemic disease in hotspots around the world

Suzan Murray, chief veterinary medical officer at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park, recently returned from Hanoi, where she led a team of scientists training pathologists from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to better sample, recognize and detect wildlife diseases in hopes of preventing emerging pandemic disease.

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Two Earth-sized planets discovered orbiting a distant Sun-like star

Astronomers using NASA's Kepler mission have detected two Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant star. This discovery marks a milestone in the hunt for alien worlds, since it brings scientists one step closer to their ultimate goal of finding a twin Earth.

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First fish App from the Smithsonian free on iTunes. “The Smithsonian Guide to the Shore Fishes of the Tropical Eastern Pacific”

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has released the first completely portable bilingual species identification guide for the shore fishes of the tropical Eastern Pacific as a free iPhone application.

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X-Class flares released by the Sun, March 6, captured by Atmospheric Imaging Assembly

The Sun’s Active Region 1429 has been shooting off flares and coronal mass ejections since it rotated into Earth’s view on March 2, 2012. Two X-class flares have been released overnight, an X1.3 and an X5.4.

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Planet starship: runaway planets zoom at a fraction of light speed

Seven years ago, astronomers boggled when they found the first runaway star flying out of our Galaxy at a speed of 1.5 million miles per hour. Theorists wondered: Could the same thing happen to planets? New research shows that the answer is yes.

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3-D imaging adds remarkable new understanding of North America’s mysterious Clovis people

The only explanation for such symmetry across these vast distances, explains Smithsonian anthropologist Dennis Stanford, is that the method of creating the points was handed down from person to person.

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Unseen planet’s gravity allows Kepler Telescope to “see” it

Researchers led by David Nesvorny of Southwest Research Institute and David Kipping of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has inferred an unseen planet, this time orbiting a distant star, marking the first success of this technique outside the solar system.

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Fungal fidelity: some ants have been eating the same meal for 5 million years!

Scientists have discovered an incredible story of fungal fidelity among certain species of ants.

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Black hole growth found to be out of synch

A new study of Chandra data has revealed two nearby galaxies whose supermassive black holes are growing faster than the galaxies themselves.

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Alien Earths may have formed in Universe earlier than expected

New research by a team of astronomers found that planets smaller than Neptune are located around a wide variety of stars, including those with fewer heavy elements than the Sun.

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Close encounters between planetary systems of Kepler-36 stun astrophysicists

Imagine a gas giant planet spanning three times more sky than the Moon looming over the molten landscape of a lava world. This alien vista exists in the newly discovered two-planet system of Kepler-36.

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Astronomers release highest-resolution images ever of the Sun’s corona

Today, astronomers are releasing the highest-resolution images ever taken of the Sun's corona, or million-degree outer atmosphere, in an extreme-ultraviolet wavelength of light.

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Astronomers discover X-rays from a young supernova remnant

Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have detected X-rays emitted by the debris from the explosion of supernova 1957D.

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Female spiders produce mating plugs to prevent unwanted sex from males

They observed that no plugs were ever formed during mating trials, but instead, females exposed to many males produced the amorphous plugs during the egg-laying process.

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Recreating a slice of the universe

Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and their colleagues at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies have invented a new computational approach that can accurately follow the birth and evolution of thousands of galaxies over billions of years.

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Planetary system orbiting two suns discovered by astronomers

The discovery of the first transiting circumbinary multi-planet system: two planets orbiting around a pair of stars, is announced by astronomers.

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Undersea parasite turns male mud crabs female

One such parasite lurks in Chesapeake Bay: an invasive barnacle that hijacks a mud crab’s reproductive system and impregnates it with parasite larvae—even if the crab is male.

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Chandra X-ray Observatory shows Milky Way is surrounded by halo of hot gas

stronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to find evidence our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in an enormous halo of hot gas that extends for hundreds of thousands of light years.

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Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and George Mason University dedicate new academic facilities in Front Royal, Va.

The Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation, a unique program in terms of its academic offerings and contributions to the field of conservation, celebrated the completion of its expansive new academic facilities today, Oct. 18, at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va.

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Smithsonian launches Global Marine Biodiversity Project with $10 million donation

The goal of the project—the Smithsonian’s Tennenbaum Marine Observatories—is to monitor the ocean’s coastal ecosystems over a long period of time.

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New count reveals scrub-jay on Santa Cruz Island is among rarest bird species in the U.S.

Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists and collaborators have found that the island scrub-jay’s population on Santa Cruz Island—its only habitat—is significantly smaller than previously believed […]

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NASA funds Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory instrument to track North American air pollution

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory has been awarded a NASA project to build the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument. TEMPO will measure North American air pollution, from Mexico City to the Canadian tar/oil sands, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, hourly and at high spatial resolution.

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Panama’s slime molds get attention from Arkansas University grad student

This past summer, Laura Walker became the first scientist to collect slime molds from soils at the Barro Colorado Nature Monument in Panama, a reserve administered by the Smithsonain since 1946.

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Smithsonian scientists launch 100-year project to examine the future of forests

A century from now researchers will gather data from a forest in Maryland to see how, during the previous 100 years, varying levels of species […]

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Biologist Andrew Sellers turns lionfish invasion into research opportunity

Covered in venomous spines the exotic and strikingly banded Indo-Pacific lionfish would be a painful mouthful to any creature that may try to catch and […]

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Young star suggests our sun was a feisty toddler

If you had a time machine that could take you anywhere in the past, what time would you choose? Most people would probably pick the […]

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