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The interacting galaxies in Arp-Madore 608-333 were observed as part of an effort by astronomers to compile an archive of interesting targets for more detailed future study with Hubble, ground-based telescopes, and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Researchers scoured existing astronomical catalogs for a list of targets spread throughout the night sky to build up this archive. By so doing, they hoped to include cosmic objects that had already been identified as interesting and that would be easy for Hubble to observe no matter which direction it was pointing....

This Picture of the Week showcases new views of the dual nature of the star AG Carinae, which was the target of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 31st anniversary image in April 2020. This new perspective was developed thanks to Hubble’s observations of the star in 2020 and 2014, along with others captured by the telescope’s WFPC2 instrument in 1994. You can compare these two new versions of AG Carinae on the image above, which animates between the two....

UGC 695 is a low-surface-brightness (LSB) galaxy. These galaxies are so faint that their brightness is less than the background brightness of Earth’s atmosphere, which makes them tricky to observe. This low brightness is the result of the relatively small number of stars within them — most of the normal, or “baryonic,” matter in these galaxies exists in the form of huge clouds of gas and dust. The stars are also distributed over a relatively large area....

In 1983, astrophysicists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) released a cosmic map using 2,400 galaxies. Now, CfA scientists are aiming to map 30 million. In the largest quest yet to map the universe, an international team of researchers is using DESI, or the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, to survey the skies. Observations officially began today, May 17, at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona; the mission will last five years with the goal of mapping 30 million galaxies....

In a recent study from the Piglet Nutrition and Cognition Lab at U of I, scientists worked with piglets to show prebiotics included in infant formula can enhance memory and exploratory behavior. “When we provide prebiotics in formula, our results confirm that we can not only benefit gut health, which is known, but we can also influence brain development,” says Ryan Dilger, associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, Division of Nutritional Sciences, and Neuroscience Program at U of I....

The team of researchers, led by NTU Assistant Professor Christine Cheung, investigated the possible link between COVID-19 and an increased risk of blood clot formation, shedding new light on “long-haul COVID” — the name given to the medium- and long-term health consequences of COVID-19. The findings may help to explain why some people who have recovered from COVID-19 exhibit symptoms of blood clotting complications after their initial recovery. In some cases, they are at increased risk of heart attack, stroke or organ failure when blood clots block major arteries to vital organs....

With a parachute that could not be tested in a way to match the Martian atmosphere, to the late addition of an unwanted rover that would not have looked out of place in a toy store, the Mars Pathfinder mission was a doubter’s dream, taken on by a mostly young group of engineers and scientists, who were guided by a grizzled manager known for his maverick ways. The Pathfinders retraces the journey of this daring mission to Mars that captured the hearts and minds of people around the world with its dramatic landing and its tiny rover — the first wheels ever to roll on Mars....

Cosmic filaments are huge bridges of galaxies and dark matter that connect clusters of galaxies to each other. They funnel galaxies towards and into large clusters that sit at their ends. “By mapping the motion of galaxies in these huge cosmic superhighways using the Sloan Digital Sky survey – a survey of hundreds of thousands of galaxies – we found a remarkable property of these filaments: they spin.” says Peng Wang, first author of the now published study and astronomer at the AIP....

Fireflies belong to a widespread and economically important insect group, with more than 2,000 different species spread out across the globe. To better understand what threats are faced by fireflies, the team led by Sara Lewis, professor of biology at Tufts University, surveyed firefly experts around the world to size up the most prominent threats to survival for their local species. Their perspective piece, published today (February 3, 2020) in Bioscience, sounds a warning bell about the insects’ future, highlighting specific threats and the vulnerability of different species across geographical regions....

On Monday, May 4, 2015 flight controllers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland performed two station keeping burns to change LRO’s orbit. The new orbit allows LRO to pass within 20 km (12 miles) of the South Pole and 165 km (103 miles) over the North Pole. “We’re taking LRO closer to the moon than we’ve ever done before, but the maneuver is similar to all other station keeping maneuvers, so the mission operations team knows exactly what to do,” said Steve Odendahl, LRO mission manager from NASA Goddard....

Major measles outbreaks will likely occur during 2021 as an unexpected consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new academic article. The article, published in The Lancet, calls for urgent international action to prevent potentially devastating measles epidemics in the coming years. Lead author Professor Kim Mulholland, from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Chair of the World Health Organization’s SAGE Working Group on measles and rubella vaccines, said that many children have missed out on measles vaccination this year, making future measles outbreaks inevitable....

“Amphibians are highly threatened and are declining worldwide at an unprecedented rate,” said lead author Pamela González-del-Pliego, a postdoctoral ecologist at Yale. “Unfortunately, it seems that the percentage of threatened amphibians is much higher than we previously knew.” Until this study, less than two-thirds of all amphibian species had been assessed for extinction risk by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — the body that assigns conservation status to species on a scale from “Least Concern” to “Extinct....

This first-in-human, Phase 1 study tested an experimental MARV vaccine candidate, known as cAd3-Marburg, which was developed at NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center (VRC). This vaccine uses a modified chimpanzee adenovirus called cAd3, which can no longer replicate or infect cells, and displays a glycoprotein found on the surface of MARV to induce immune responses against the virus. The cAd3 vaccine platform demonstrated a good safety profile in prior clinical trials when used in investigational Ebola virus and Sudan virus vaccines developed by the VRC....

What’s Up for March? Mars and friends in the evening, and a brilliant pair of planets returns… In the first week or so of March, you’ll find Mars near the Pleiades star cluster high in the west in the few hours after sunset. NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully landed on Mars on February 18th! And in addition to this latest surface explorer, orbiters from two other nations arrived in orbit around the Red Planet last month, making 2021 a truly international year of Mars exploration....

Research into the pathology of vaping-associated lung injury is in its early stages, but a Mayo Clinic study published in The New England Journal of Medicine finds that lung injuries from vaping most likely are caused by direct toxicity or tissue damage from noxious chemical fumes. Researchers reviewed lung biopsies from 17 patients, all of whom had vaped and were suspected to have vaping-associated lung injury. The study was the first to examine a group of biopsies from patients with lung injury due to vaping....

A study on mice shows animal research may need to take into account the connection between genes, behavior and personality. We might refer to someone’s personality as “mousy,” but in truth, mice have a range of personalities nearly as great as our own. Prof. Alon Chen and members of two groups he heads – one in the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Neurobiology and one in the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany – decided to explore personality specifically in mice....

In 1996, a team of scientists led by University of Iowa Professor Don Gurnett noticed that strong plasma waves were observed near Ganymede. These waves are similar to waves observed on the surface of the water. However, unlike water waves, it is electric and magnetic fields which increase and decrease during these oscillations. The particular type of waves that they observed are often referred to as “chorus waves,” as they can be played through a radio and the sound similar to a multi-voiced chorus....

For decades, the enormous disease-curing potential of human stem cells has been thwarted by the inability to produce sufficient quantities of mature human cells in vivo — in a living organism. Now, a team led by University at Buffalo scientists has developed a method that dramatically ramps up production of mature human cells in mouse embryos. Producing human cells in vivo is critical because cells made in a petri dish often do not behave the same way that cells do in the body....

Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have designed and demonstrated a small voltaic cell that is sustained by the acidic fluids in the stomach. The system can generate enough power to run small sensors or drug delivery devices that can reside in the gastrointestinal tract for extended periods of time. This type of power could offer a safer and lower-cost alternative to the traditional batteries now used to power such devices, the researchers say....