Using an imaging spectrometer on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet.
These dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks called ‘recurring slope lineae’ (RSL) flowing downhill are inferred to have been formed by contemporary flowing water. Recently, planetary scientists detected hydrated salts on these slopes at Hale crater, corroborating their original hypothesis that the streaks are indeed formed by liquid water. [source]
The blue color seen upslope of the dark streaks are thought not to be related to their formation, but instead are from the presence of the mineral pyroxene. The image is produced by draping an orthorectified (Infrared-Red-Blue/Green(IRB)) false color image on a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of the same site produced by High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment. [source]
“It took multiple spacecraft over several years to solve this mystery, and now we know there is liquid water on the surface of this cold, desert planet,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “It seems that the more we study Mars, the more we learn how life could be supported and where there are resources to support life in the future.”
To learn more about this remarkable research visit Nasa.gov
Lead researcher Dr Steve Brusatte says it’s, “the single most beautiful fossil I have had the privilege to work on”.
Artist Rendering by Zhao Chuang
A historic discovery in north-east China has uncovered a perfectly preserved dinosaur with wings. The 125 million-year-old creature is an imposing 2 meters (6 ft, 6in) big. It was perfectly preserved in limestone thanks to a volcanic eruption.
The project was a joint collaboration between The University of Edinburgh and the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. The findings were recently published in the journal Scientific Reports. The research was led by Dr Steve Brusatte and Junchang Lü.
According to the BBC the dinosaur has been named Zhenyuanlong, meaning “Zhenyuan’s dragon”—in honour of the man who procured the fossil for the museum in Jinzhou, China.
Lead researcher Dr Steve Brusatte tells the BBC that it’s, “the single most beautiful fossil I have had the privilege to work on”.
The winged-dinosaur, which looks like a more menacing version of a modern-day turkey or vulture, is a close relative of the velociraptor. Although it has wings, Dr. Brusatte posits that its large body makes it unlikely that ‘Zhenyuanlong’ could actually fly.
For more information you can read the official research paper at nature.com.
Scientists want to name this tiny octopus with big eyes and gelatinous skin, ‘Opisthoteuthis Adorabilis’, and we couldn’t agree more!
What do you call a tiny octopus with big eyes, gelatinous skin and is cute as a button? Stephanie Bush of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute aims to classify and name this presently undescribed deep-sea cephalopod using preserved specimens and a clutch of eggs hatch housed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Learn more about Opisthoteuthis Adorabilis in the informative video below by Science Friday.
“I don’t see any obvious reason why it would be inappropriate … it’s easy to pronounce and popular with the public.”
Stephanie Bush tells the AFP. She says only 12 individuals have been studied so far and they have all been female. The unnamed octopus is a form of Flapjack octopus and wouldn’t be the first species named ‘adorabilis’. For example there is a White-crested Coquette hummingbird called Lophornis adorabilis.
Bush is currently trying to incubate a batch of octopus eggs in her laboratory, but they develop very slowly due to the cold temperature of the deep ocean and may not hatch for two or three years! Bush also states that the Opisthoteuthis eggs depicted in the above video are preserved specimens, not the eggs laid at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (which are still being incubated at MBARI’s Cold Storage Facility).
Wildlife researcher Brian Kubicki of the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center has discovered a new species of glass frog that looks strikingly similar to the famous muppet, Kermit the Frog.
In a recently published paper, Kubicki details the new species, officially known as Hyalinobatrachium dianae. It is the first glass frog discovered in Costa Rica since 1973. According to the Tico Times, six specimens of the new frog were found in the western provinces of Limón and Heredia in the Talamanca mountain range.
A CT scan has recently revealed that a Buddha statue is actually a tomb, containing the mummified remains of what scholars believe is the body of Buddhist master Liuquan, a monk who lived in the 1100’s. The statue is currently on display at Drents Museum in Assen, Netherlands (exhibit info here). The exhibit marks the first time the ‘Buddha Mummy’ has even been seen outside of China.
The CT scan was performed at the Meander Medical Centre in Amersfoort where doctors took samples of yet unidentified material and examined the thoracic and abdominal cavities as well as bone samples for DNA testing [source]. For more information visit Drents Museum.
Pictured above is a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder and a 1956 Maserati A6G 2000. The Ferrari is expected to fetch between $11.7 and $14.8 million while the Maserati A6G 2000 is expected to fetch north of a million. There are some 58 more cars going up for auction on February 4, 2015 at Retromobile Salon at the Porte de Versailles Exhibition Centre in Paris, France.
What’s even more astounding is how this rare collection was discovered, untouched for over 50 years in the French countryside. In the excerpts below, Matthieu Lamoure and Pierre Novikoff of Artcurial Motorcars tell us about their incredible find.
The story begins with Roger Bailon, an inventor and automobile enthusiast who made his fortune manufacturing trucks. After the war, the transport business was booming and Bailon had a monopoly on transporters for dangerous liquid chemicals, thanks to his design of a secure, watertight tank. Between 1955 and 1965, Bailon began to amass a significant collection of cars with the goal of one day opening an automobile museum on one of his properties. Bailon wanted the collection to celebrate the art of automotive engineering. [source]
During the 1970s before Bailon could carry out the necessary restoration work, his dreams were shattered when his business suffered a major setback. He was forced to sell some fifty cars. Since that time the remainder of the collection has remain untouched, subject only to Father time and the forces of nature. [source]
The two most notable finds (the Ferrari and Maserati) were sheltering in a garage, conserved in good condition. The Maserati is one of just three Maserati A6G Gran Sports with coachwork by Frua, dating from 1956. Beneath piles of newspapers, a Ferrari 250GT SWB California Spider, with covered headlights. It had been first bought new by the actor Gérard Blain who then sold it to fellow actor Alain Delon, who was photographed several times at the wheel of this machine, including in 1964 with Jane Fonda during the filming of ‘Les Félins’ and on the Côte d’Azur with Shirley MacLaine. It’s only 1 of 37 in the world. [source]
The Bailon collection will be displayed and sold as they are, just as they were found (less some dust and cobwebs). All the cars are significant for their heritage, and Artcurial hopes that some of them will join big collections in and outside France. Perhaps even museums. Amongst the 60 cars, the estimates vary from $600 to multi-millions. [source]
Delahaye 235 coach Chapron, Delahaye 235 coach Chapron, Delahaye 235 coupé Chapron, Delahaye Type 43 coupé chauffeur, Delahaye GFA 148 L, Delahaye Type 43 camionnette, Delaunay Belleville limousine VL8, Facel Vega Excellence, Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider, Ferrari 308 GTS i, Ferrari 400, Ferrari Mondial 3.2L cabriolet, Hispano Suiza H6B cabriolet Millon-Guiet, Hotchkiss cabriolet, Innocenti S cabriolet, Jaguar type S 3.4 L, La Buire 12 A
Lagonda LG45 cabriolet, Lancia Thema 8.32, Lorraine Dietrich B3/6 plateau, Lorraine Dietrich B3/6 torpédo par Grumman, Lorraine-Dietrich torpédo, Maserati A6G 2000 Gran Sport Frua, Mathis cabriolet, Mathis FOH, Packard cabriolet Super Eight, Panhard-Levassor Dynamic berline X77, Panhard-Levassor Dynamic coupé X76, Panhard-Levassor limousine X72, Porsche 356 SC ex-Sonauto
Renault AX torpédo, Renault Vivastella cabriolet, Sandford cyclecar 3 roues, Singer Cabriolet, Talbot Lago 11/6 cabriolet, Talbot Lago Baby cabriolet, Talbot Lago Baby cabriolet, Talbot Lago, Cadette 11, Talbot Lago coach, Talbot Lago T26 coach, Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport coupé Saoutchik, Talbot Lago T26 Record coupé Saoutchik, Talbot Lago T26 cabriolet Saoutchik ex-Roi Farouk
Three new mosaics were recently discovered in the ancient Greek city of Zeugma, which is located in the present-day province of Gaziantep in southern Turkey. The incredibly well-preserved mosaics date back to 2nd century BC.
Zeugma was considered one of the most important centers of the Eastern Roman Empire and the ancient city has provided a treasure trove of discoveries with 2000-3000 houses in remarkably good condition. Excavations at Zeugma started in 2007 and continue to this day.
Up until 2000 the ancient city was completely submerged underwater until a project to excavate the area received funding from a number of sources. There are still many areas of Zeugma—a city once home to nearly 80,000 inhabitants—left to excavate, including 25 houses still underwater. It’s exciting to think of what other discoveries remain to be found.
Runologist K. Jonas Nordby has decoded a 900-year-old Viking rune alphabet known as Jötunvillur. The mysterious inscriptions were found on over 80 different objects ranging from sticks to stones.
The discovery was first reported on forskning.no (Norwegian) where Nordby explains:
“It’s like solving a puzzle. Gradually I began to see a pattern in what was apparently meaningless combinations of runes”
So what’s the key? Turns out that you have to replace the rune character with the last letter of the sound it produces. For example, the rune for “f”, which is pronounced like “fe”, represents an “e”. Using this ‘cipher‘ on the inscription above translated it into a sweet little nothing: ‘Kiss Me’.
In the article, Nordby, who is doing his PhD on runes, explains that while many believe the Vikings used cryptography to hide secret messages, he thinks the codes were more likely used as a fun and novel way to learn runes themselves.
The inscription above, which dates back to the 1200s, was one of the objects Nordby used to crack the Jötunvillur code.
Photographic negatives left a century ago in Captain Scott’s last expedition base at Cape Evans have been discovered and conserved by New Zealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust. The negatives were found in expedition photographer Herbert Ponting’s darkroom and have been painstakingly conserved revealing never before seen Antarctic images.
The Trust’s conservation specialists discovered the clumped together cellulose nitrate negatives in a small box as part of the Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project which has seen
more than 10,000 objects conserved at Scott’s Cape Evans hut. The negatives were removed from Antarctica by the Trust earlier this year. Detailed conservation treatment back in New Zealand separating the negatives has revealed twenty-two images. The photographs are from Ernest Shackleton’s 1914-1917 Ross Sea Party, which spent time living in Scott’s hut after being stranded on Ross Island when their ship blew out to sea.
One of the most striking images (shown above) is of Ross Sea Party member Alexander Stevens, Shackleton’s Chief Scientist, standing on-board the Aurora.
The photographs found in Captain Scott’s expedition base at Cape Evans, Antarctica required specialist conservation treatment. The Antarctic Heritage Trust (NZ) engaged Photographic Conservator Mark Strange to undertake the painstaking task of separating, cleaning (including removing mould) and consolidating the cellulose nitrate image layers. Twenty-two separate sheets were revealed and sent to New Zealand Micrographic Services for scanning using a Lanovia pre-press scanner. The digital scans were converted to digital positives.
The photographs found in Captain Scott’s expedition base at Cape Evans, Antarctica required specialist conservation treatment. The Antarctic Heritage Trust (NZ) engaged Photographic Conservator Mark Strange to undertake the painstaking task of separating, cleaning (including removing mould) and consolidating the cellulose nitrate image layers. Twenty-two separate sheets were revealed and sent to New Zealand Micrographic Services for scanning using a Lanovia pre-press scanner. The digital scans were converted to digital positives.
The Antarctic Heritage Trust (NZ) is a not-for-profit organisation responsible for the conservation of five historic sites in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica including Ernest Shackleton’s, Robert Falcon Scott’s and Edmund Hillary’s expedition bases through its Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project. Work is currently centred on conserving artefacts from Scott’s 1911 expedition base and conserving Scott’s 1902 expedition base.
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Before the start of World War II, the owner of this apartment in Paris fled to the south of France. For reasons not entirely known, she never returned and the apartment remained untouched for 70 years.
In 2010 the owner passed away at the age of 91. Her executor discovered the apartment and a team was sent to investigate. What they found was astonishing. Under a thick layer of dust was a trove of turn-of-the-century objects including several paintings that were set aside for further analysis.
One painting in particular, a portrait of a lady in a pink dress, would turn out to be an incredible find.
After analysis, the painting was discovered to be painted by 19th century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini. It turns out the woman in the pink muslin evening dress was his muse, an actress by the name of Marthe de Florian. In addition to Boldini, de Florian had a long list of admirers, including the 72nd Prime Minster of France, George Clemenceau.
The painting, which was completed in 1894, showed de Florian at the age of 24. What’s even more fascinating is that the owner of the apartment was actually the granddaughter of Marthe de Florian! After going to auction, the painting fetched a cool $3.4 million, a record price for the artist.
