The galaxy NGC 4536 is churning out new stars at a prodigious rate, as evidenced by new images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
The images, shared online Friday, showcase what astronomers refer to as a starburst galaxy -- a galaxy turning gas into newborn stars faster than it can replenish its gas supply.
NGC 4536 is found within the Virgo constellation, 50 million light-years from...
Researchers in Utah have discovered a new type of sauropod dinosaur. They named the plant-eating dino Moabosaurus utahensis after the place that yielded its bones, Utah's Moab desert.
The 125-million-year-old skeleton was excavated from Dalton Wells Quarry, just outside Arches National Park. As researchers uncovered the dinosaur's bones, it became clear the skeleton was distinct from known...
Researchers in Germany have recovered remains of a saber-toothed cat at an archaeological site in Schöningen. The fossil skull is nearly complete.
The fossil remains represent the European saber-toothed cat, Homotherium latidens. It is the third time remains of the species have been found among the relatively young sediment layers at Schöningen.
Until the first cat fossils were discovered...
A new study shows that a common antiparasitic medication could be effective at treating certain brain cancers including low-grade glioma.
Low-grade glioma is a tumor that originates from cells that protect and support the brain's nervous system. Treatments include surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, however, chemotherapy can be difficult because most drugs cannot break through the...
Jupiter's Great Red Spot has a sibling -- or a rivalry. Astronomers at the University of Leicester have discovered a second "great spot." Scientists dubbed the feature the Great Cold Spot.
The new great spot is located in Jupiter's thermosphere, the gas giant's thin, upper atmosphere. The region is colder and more dynamic than lower layers of the atmosphere.
"The Great Cold Spot is much...
German researchers have developed a transgenic mouse that could be used to help scientists predict which new flu virus strains could cause a global pandemic.
Influenza A viruses are capable of causing global pandemics by being transmitted from pigs, birds and other animals to humans, acquiring mutations along the way that allow them to evade elements of the human immune system.
A big factor...
Scientists have long theorized comets delivered key ingredients for life on Earth. Scientists in Germany are currently testing the theory.
Researchers at Ruhr-University Bochum are replicating the conditions of outer space to test whether cometary chemical reactions could have yielded complex molecules like amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.
The average comet hosts all of the...
Unprecedented coral bleaching in consecutive years has damaged two-thirds of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, aerial surveys have shown.
The bleaching - or loss of algae - affects a 1,500km (932 miles) area of the reef, according to scientists.
The latest damage is concentrated in the middle section, whereas last year's bleaching hit mainly the north.
Experts fear the proximity of the two...
Scientists have already successfully developed pluripotent stem cells in the lab, cells which can form any type of tissue. Totipotent stem cells are the pinnacle for stem cell scientists, however. And for the first time, researchers have found a way to engineer them.
Unlike pluripotent stem cells, totipotent stem cells can form tissues that provide embryonic support, or extra-embryonic...
New research suggests Neptune's transition from the inner to the outer solar system was relatively slow and steady. The clues to the nature of Neptune's ancient move were discovered in the Kuiper belt, a massive ring of space debris -- mostly icy fragments -- lying beyond Neptune's orbit.
Most of the millions of objects in the Kuiper belt are red in color, but a minority of objects are blue....
