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Scientists are finding — so far — that the planet’s magnetic field has no discernible tilt. This surprising observation, which means the true length of Saturn’s day is still unknown, is just one of several early insights from the final phase of Cassini’s mission, known as the Grand Finale. Other recent science highlights include promising hints about the structure and composition of the icy rings, along with high-resolution images of the rings and Saturn’s atmosphere....

The maps show thermal infrared radiation (heat) coming from Titan’s surface at a wavelength of 19 microns, a spectral window at which the moon’s otherwise opaque atmosphere is mostly transparent. Temperatures have been averaged around the globe from east to west (longitudinally) to emphasize the seasonal variation across latitudes (from north to south). Black regions in the maps are areas for which there was no data. Titan’s surface temperature changes slowly over the course of the Saturn system’s long seasons, which each last seven and a half years....

The new research, which was co-led by Dr. Yassine Souilmi, Group Leader at the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, was recently published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. “It was widely believed the genetics of our human ancestors didn’t change due to environmental pressures as much as other animals, due to our enhanced communication skills and ability to make and use tools,” Dr. Souilmi said....

In space, awesome gaseous fountains have been discovered in the centers of galaxy clusters. One such fountain is in the cluster Abell 2597. There, vast amounts of gas fall toward a supermassive black hole, where a combination of gravitational and electromagnetic forces sprays most of the gas away from the black hole in an ongoing cycle lasting tens of millions of years. Scientists used data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to find the first clear evidence for the simultaneous inward and outward flow of gas being driven by a supermassive black hole....

Gamma-ray bursts, or GRBs, are some of the most violent and energetic events in the Universe. Although these events are the most luminous explosions in the universe, a new study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA’s Swift satellite and other telescopes suggests that scientists may be missing a majority of these powerful cosmic detonations. Astronomers think that some GRBs are the product of the collision and merger of two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole....

The ribosome has a surprising capacity to insert the novel building blocks of polymers at the beginning of a protein sequence, the researchers report June 26 in the journal ACS Central Science. “This paper reports that the ribosome can begin protein synthesis with molecules like those found in Kevlar or the precursors to important antibiotics,” said Alanna Schepartz, co-corresponding author of the study, Sterling Professor of Chemistry, and professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology....

In a paper published today in Science, an international team of researchers led by Princeton graduate student Ciro Cabal sheds light on the underground life of plants. Their research used a combination of modeling and a greenhouse experiment to discover whether plants invest differently in root structures when planted alone versus when planted alongside a neighbor. “This study was a lot of fun because it combined several different kinds of mind candy to reconcile seemingly contradictory results in the literature: a clever experiment, a new method for observing root systems in intact soils and simple mathematical theory,” said Stephen Pacala, the Frederick D....

A global coalition of scientists led by William J. Ripple and Christopher Wolf of Oregon State University says “untold human suffering” is unavoidable without deep and lasting shifts in human activities that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and other factors related to climate change. “Despite 40 years of major global negotiations, we have continued to conduct business as usual and have failed to address this crisis,” said Ripple, a distinguished professor of ecology at the OSU College of Forestry....

The complex molecules known as enzymes are responsible for many processes inside our bodies. However, they can be difficult to study with optical approaches because too much light will reduce their activity or even stop it altogether. In The Optical Society (OSA) journal Optics Express, a multidisciplinary group of researchers showed that light controlled at the single-photon, or quantum, level can allow accurate measurements without disrupting enzymatic activity. “Although it might be a few years before practical quantum sensors are achieved, this type of proof-of-principle experiment is important,” said research team leader Ilaria Gianani from Università degli Studi Roma Tre in Italy....

A new study describes how machine learning tools, run on classical computers, can be used to make predictions about quantum systems and therefore help scientists solve some of the trickiest physics and chemistry problems. While this notion has been proposed before, the new report is the first to mathematically prove that the method works in problems that no traditional algorithms could solve. Led by Caltech, the study was published on September 23 in the journal Science....

The event will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Artemis II is the first crewed mission aboard NASA’s foundational human deep space capabilities: the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and the ground systems needed to launch them. The approximately 10-day mission will test and stress the Orion spacecraft’s life-support systems to prove the capabilities and techniques required to live and work in deep space in ways only humans can do....

Are COVID-19-linked arrhythmias caused by viral damage to the heart’s pacemaker cells? The SARS-CoV-2 virus can infect specialized pacemaker cells that maintain the heart’s rhythmic beat, setting off a self-destruction process within the cells, according to a preclinical study co-led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian and NYU Grossman School of Medicine. The findings offer a possible explanation for the heart arrhythmias that are commonly observed in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection....

Children from less affluent backgrounds are likely to have found COVID-19 lockdowns more challenging to their mental health because they experienced a lower connection with nature than their wealthier peers, a new study suggests. A study has found that children who increased their connection to nature during the first COVID-19 lockdown were likely to have lower levels of behavioural and emotional problems, compared to those whose connection to nature stayed the same or decreased – regardless of their socio-economic status....

But early that morning, the team learned that a telecommunications facility near Madrid had suffered an unexpected network outage. Part of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) of global spacecraft communications facilities, the Spanish complex is home to giant radio antennas. One of these was scheduled to ping OSIRIS-REx for a critical data download. The data download would have kicked off a 24-hour marathon process known as a “late update” to predict the spacecraft’s trajectory in time for a flyover of Osprey....

Dawn took these images near its current altitude of 240 miles (385 kilometers) from Ceres, between December 19 and 23, 2015. Kupalo Crater, one of the youngest craters on Ceres, shows off many fascinating attributes at the high image resolution of 120 feet (35 meters) per pixel. The crater has bright material exposed on its rim, which could be salts, and its flat floor likely formed from impact melt and debris....

NGC 5256, also known as Markarian 266, is about 350 million light-years away from Earth, in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). It is composed of two disc galaxies whose nuclei are currently just 13,000 light-years apart. Their constituent gas, dust, and stars are swirling together in a vigorous cosmic blender, igniting newborn stars in bright star formation regions across the galaxy. Interacting galaxies can be found throughout the Universe, producing a variety of intricate structures....

The BALSAC database contains the genealogical relationships linking five million individuals, the vast majority of whom married in Quebec, over the past four centuries. Work on developing this database began in 1972 at Université du Québec à Chicoutimi under the direction of historian Gérard Bouchard. The first author of this study is Tommy Harding, a postdoctoral researcher at Université de Montréal who specializes in DNA sequencing. BALSAC, he said, “is a fabulous database for researchers, because both the quantity and the quality of the data that it contains are truly exceptional....

Drugs can only work if they stick to their target proteins in the body. Assessing that stickiness is a key hurdle in the drug discovery and screening process. New research combining chemistry and machine learning could lower that hurdle. The new technique, dubbed DeepBAR, quickly calculates the binding affinities between drug candidates and their targets. The approach yields precise calculations in a fraction of the time compared to previous state-of-the-art methods....

Since the 1980s, the area has been rapidly deforested owing to a large agricultural development effort where people from the Andean high plains (the Altiplano region) have been relocated to the lowlands of Bolivia. The relatively flat lowlands and abundant rainfall make this region suitable for farming. In fact, the local climate allows farmers to benefit from two growing seasons. The region has been transformed from a dense forest into a patterned expanse of agricultural land....

The world is facing an unprecedented challenge with communities and economies affected by the growing COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, there is no vaccine or effective drugs approved to treat or prevent the disease. A better understanding of antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — will provide fundamental information for developing effective treatments and a preventive vaccine. In the new study, researchers continuously monitored SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody responses in 19 non-severe and seven severe COVID-19 patients for seven weeks from disease onset....