Researchers led by David Nesvorny of Southwest Research Institute and David Kipping of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has inferred an unseen planet, this time orbiting a distant star, marking the first success of this technique outside the solar system.

The post Unseen planet’s gravity allows Kepler Telescope to “see” it appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

More than 70 scientists from 9 institutions including the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, sequenced the entire genome of the butterfly genus Heliconius, a brightly colored favorite of collectors and scientists since the Victorian era.

The post Heliconius butterfly genome explains wing pattern diversity appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The specimen’s skull measures 24 centimeters, roughly the size of a regulation NFL football. The shell which was recovered nearby – and is believed to belong to the same species – measures 172 centimeters, or about 5 feet 7 inches, long.

The post Giant prehistoric turtle from Colombia chomped everything in sight–including crocodiles! appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scientists from the Smithsonian and University of British Columbia have discovered a sensory organ in the chin of rorqual whales that communicates to the brain. It orchestrates the dramatic adjustments needed in jaw position and throat-pouch expansion to make lunge feeding successful

The post Scientists discover sensory organ in baleen whales that choreographs movement of their massive jaws and throat-pouch appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of researchers producing the first complete human genome sequence — the genetic blueprint of the human body — the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, will open a new high-tech, high-intensity exhibition in 2013.

The post 2013 exhibition to celebrate first complete human genome sequence appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Recent geologic mapping of the Medusae Fossae Formation on Mars—an intensely eroded deposit near the northern edge of the cratered highlands—has revealed a wider distribution of its western component than was previously recognized.

The post New mapping of Mars shows Medusae Fossae Formation older than once thought appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The newfound jets may be related to mysterious gamma-ray bubbles that Fermi detected in 2010. Those bubbles also stretch 27,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way.

The post Ghostly gamma-ray beams blast from Milky Way’s center appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scientists have discovered an incredible story of fungal fidelity among certain species of ants.

The post Fungal fidelity: some ants have been eating the same meal for 5 million years! appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

“The Age of Plastic: Ingenuity + Responsibility” a public Smithsonian Symposium that will take an uncommon look at the most common of materials. On Thursday, June […]

The post The Age of Plastic: Symposium June 7 & 8, 2012 appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Astronomers have found strong evidence that a massive black hole is being ejected from its host galaxy at a speed of several million miles per hour.

The post Giant black hole kicked out of home galaxy appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Last summer and this spring Boy Scout Arthur Carlton-Jones (shown here), working in conjunction with researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md., […]

The post Save your local fishing hole appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Their research revealed that the types of waterbirds that inhabit urban estuaries are influenced not only by urban development, but also by a far more natural process―rain.

The post Scientists find that rain may not always be a welcome thing to waterbirds appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new study of Chandra data has revealed two nearby galaxies whose supermassive black holes are growing faster than the galaxies themselves.

The post Black hole growth found to be out of synch appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

New research by a team of astronomers found that planets smaller than Neptune are located around a wide variety of stars, including those with fewer heavy elements than the Sun.

The post Alien Earths may have formed in Universe earlier than expected appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The newly reported reconstruction of Amazonian prehistory by a Smithsonian scientist, Dolores R. Piperno, and her colleagues suggests that large areas of western Amazonia were sparsely inhabited.

The post Report paints a new picture of early human impact on the Amazon River Basin appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The loud love calls of tiny túngara frogs (Physalaemus pustulosus) that reverberate through the nighttime jungles of Panama are bold advertisements for a suitable mate. […]

The post With picky eating, bats avoid poison prey appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new video to help aviators identify the cause of bird strikes has been posted on YouTube by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services Airport Wildlife Hazard Program and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

The post Aircraft bird-strike reports can save lives. New video shows how to report, collect and ship evidence appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Smithsonian herpetologist George Zug answers a few questions about skinks....

The post Speaking of skinks: short limbed, long tailed & prehistoric appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Imagine a gas giant planet spanning three times more sky than the Moon looming over the molten landscape of a lava world. This alien vista exists in the newly discovered two-planet system of Kepler-36.

The post Close encounters between planetary systems of Kepler-36 stun astrophysicists appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Accumulations of drifting snow are the most plausible explanation for the presence of a number of puzzling alluvial fan deposits found inside large impact craters on Mars

The post Melting snow likely created fan deposits inside Martian craters, geologists say appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

This image shows a 3-D scan of the type specimen of Odobenocetops, the walrus whale, in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The skull […]

The post Walrus whale 3-D skull scan appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Coral reefs worldwide are being destroyed by changes in ocean temperature and chemistry faster than at any time since the last reef crisis 55 million years ago, thousands of marine scientists warned from the International Coral Reef Symposium in Cairns, Australia.

The post Coral reef emergency: 2,600 scientists call for worldwide rescue appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The most peculiar feature of this new turtle is its extremely circular shell, about the size and shape of a big car tire.

The post Prehistoric turtle was size and shape of a big car tire appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A July 12 news alert from NASA indicates a X1.4 class solar flare erupted from the center of the Sun, peaking July 12 at 12:52 P.M.

The post Coronal mass ejection from July 12 solar flare headed toward Earth; minor geomagnetic storm activity predicted appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The scientists made the spiders exercise by irritating them with a small paint brush and causing them to move around until they became exhausted. Spiders from the group with palps removed were able to travel 300 percent further than spiders with their palps intact.

The post Weight of genitals reduces physical endurance in male orb web spiders, researchers find appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

By attaching tiny radio transmitters to more than 400 seeds, Patrick Jansen, scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Wageningen University, and his colleagues found that 85 percent of the seeds were buried in caches by agoutis, common, house cat-sized rodents in tropical lowlands.

The post Thieving rodents hiding seeds drives continual rejuvination of tropical forests appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new study has unveiled how the tiny hummingbird adapts to flying in heavy rain.

The post Video shows how hummingbirds adjust flight in heavy rain appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Today, astronomers are releasing the highest-resolution images ever taken of the Sun's corona, or million-degree outer atmosphere, in an extreme-ultraviolet wavelength of light.

The post Astronomers release highest-resolution images ever of the Sun’s corona appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Two Cuban crocodiles were born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo on July 6 and 14 and they are among the most genetically valuable in the […]

The post Two rare Cuban crocodiles born at the National Zoo appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Almost half of the tropical forest reserves examined in a new study are ineffective, researchers say.

The post Tropical arks reach tipping point appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scientists determine there is more to the shape and length of bird bills than just how they “get the worm.”

The post New study determines bill size in birds varies according to climate appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have detected X-rays emitted by the debris from the explosion of supernova 1957D.

The post Astronomers discover X-rays from a young supernova remnant appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

They observed that no plugs were ever formed during mating trials, but instead, females exposed to many males produced the amorphous plugs during the egg-laying process.

The post Female spiders produce mating plugs to prevent unwanted sex from males appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A bubbling cauldron of star birth is highlighted in this new image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope of the Cygnus-X star-forming region some 4,600 light-years […]

The post A bubbling cauldron of star birth appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) has released the largest three-dimensional map of massive galaxies and distant black holes ever created.

The post Largest ever 3D map of the sky released by astronomers appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and their colleagues at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies have invented a new computational approach that can accurately follow the birth and evolution of thousands of galaxies over billions of years.

The post Recreating a slice of the universe appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

“Ignition Sequence,” 1968, Vincent Cavallaro, oil on canvas. The power of the ignition and launch sequence of a NASA rocket is portrayed in an abstract […]

The post “Ignition Sequence,” by Vincent Cavallaro appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

JoVonn Hill, a research associate with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station at Mississippi State University, recently borrowed 32,000 grasshoppers from the Smithsonian’s National […]

The post Mississippi State borrows grasshopper collection from Smithsonian appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The discovery of the first transiting circumbinary multi-planet system: two planets orbiting around a pair of stars, is announced by astronomers.

The post Planetary system orbiting two suns discovered by astronomers appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The dying star, which lit the galactic scene, is the most distant stellar explosion of its kind ever studied.

The post Dying star illuminates distant galaxy, lifting veil of interstellar darkness for astronomers appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

One such parasite lurks in Chesapeake Bay: an invasive barnacle that hijacks a mud crab’s reproductive system and impregnates it with parasite larvae—even if the crab is male.

The post Undersea parasite turns male mud crabs female appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Hew research by astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows that planets still can form in the cosmic maelstrom of Milky Way's center.

The post Planets can form in the galactic center appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A rising spike in West Nile virus is taking health officials across the country by surprise as this year more than 2,600 people in 45 states and the District of Columbia, have been stricken with severe symptoms of this mosquito-transmitted disease.

The post As robins disperse, West Nile mosquitoes switch diet to humans: Q&A with Smithsonian ornithologist Peter Marra appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Mei Xiang (may-SHONG), the National Zoo’s female giant panda, gave birth to a cub Sunday, Sept. 16, at 10:46 p.m.

The post Panda cub born at National Zoo to Mei Xiang appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

This copepod Aleutha potter,officially named and described in 2007, is found in Potter Cove, King George Island, Antarctica. Copepod (Kope = Greek for “oar” Podos = […]

The post World of Copepods appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo community mourns the loss of the giant panda cub born Sunday, Sept. 16.

The post New panda cub dies at National Zoo appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

stronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to find evidence our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in an enormous halo of hot gas that extends for hundreds of thousands of light years.

The post Chandra X-ray Observatory shows Milky Way is surrounded by halo of hot gas appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute are recommending that Panama adopt revised traffic patterns and slower speeds for vessels crossing the Gulf of Panama to reduce the risk of collisions between ships and whales.

The post Ships need to slow down for whales in Gulf of Panama, scientists advise appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new study finds that since 1985, half of Australia's Great Barrier Reef coral has died.

The post Smithsonian marine biologist Nancy Knowlton discusses Great Barrier Reef coral dieoff on PBS NewsHour appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

What scientists found was that the domestic turkey that ends up on the dinner table exhibits less genetic variation than its ancestral wild counterparts, which were first domesticated in 800 B.C..

The post Today’s domestic turkeys are genetically distinct from wild ancestors appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.