Tag Archives: dwarf

  Every asteroid that falls to Earth is a potential window into the origins of the solar system, but scientists have stumbled upon something quite strange when studying a fragment of the Almahata Sitta asteroid. It contains evidence of a huge, previously unknown object in our solar system — perhaps …

High-resolution observations from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft of mysterious bright spots (faculae) in Occator crater on the dwarf planet Ceres suggest the existence of a brine reservoir — which is about 40 km (25 miles) deep and hundreds of km wide — that emerged to the surface through long-lived cryovolcanic activity …

Astronomers Find Two Super-Earths Orbiting Nearby Red Dwarf The hard work of astronomers around the world using instruments like the Kepler Space Telescope has shown there’s no shortage of planets in the cosmos. Most of those exoplanets are far away, but a handful are right next door (on an astronomical …

An international group of primatologists has discovered a new primate, Galagoides kumbirensis (Angolan dwarf galago), with features not been seen by science before. The Angolan dwarf galago (Galagoides kumbirensis) prefers moist, tall forest, primary, and secondary and semiarid baobab savannah-woodland. Image credit: Elena Bersacola. Galagos, also known as bushbabies, are …

A new dwarf lemur species has been discovered in the dry and transitional forests of northern Madagascar, according to a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Primate Conservation. The Sheth’s dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus shethi) at Ankarana Special Reserve, Madagascar. Image credit: Richard Randriamampionona. Dwarf lemurs (genus Cheirogaleus) …

New observations from NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) show that Ceres does not appear to have the carbon-rich surface composition that space- and ground-based telescopes previously indicated. The results were published in the Astronomical Journal on Jan. 16, 2017. Cross section of Ceres showing the surface layers that …

Ceres presented mysteries before the NASA Dawn spacecraft even reached it. Long range images of Ceres taken by the probe revealed unexpected points of light on the surface. There was speculation this could be ice, but now the consensus is leaning toward salt. That doesn’t mean Ceres is lacking in …