Image of the accretion disk: A snapshot of the binary star system before the violent supernova explosion blew it to pieces. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the 18 August 2017, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by S. Vennes at Astronomical Institute of Czech Academy of Sciences in Ondrejov, Czech Republic, and colleagues was titled, “An unusual white dwarf star may be a surviving remnant of a subluminous Type Ia supernova.”

Astronomers have identified a white dwarf star in our galaxy that may be the leftover remains of a recently discovered type of supernova. The properties of this unusual white dwarf, known as LP 40-365, may help scientists determine how such unusual supernovae are created, say Stephane Vennes and colleagues.

A common group of exploding star...

This is the GJ832 system.
Credit: Suman Satyal

Astrophysicists at the University of Texas at Arlington team investigated the star system Gliese 832 for additional exoplanets residing between the two currently known alien worlds in this system. Their computations revealed that an additional Earth-like planet with a dynamically stable configuration may be residing at 0.25 to 2.0 astronomical unit (AU) from the star. According to our calculations, this hypothetical alien world would probably have a mass between 1 to 15 Earth’s masses,” said the lead author Suman Satyal, UTA physics researcher, lecturer and laboratory supervisor.

“This is an important breakthrough demonstrating the possible existence of a potential new planet orbiting a star close to our own,” Weiss said. “The fact that Dr...

Playing basketball outside. Credit: © Kar Tr / Fotolia

A father-son research partnership has found that athletic prowess could be related to the length of your fingers.Grant Tomkinson, a professor of kinesiology and public health education department at the University of North Dakota, conducted research with his son Jordan, a junior at Sacred Heart School. They found that the ratio of the length of the second (“pointer”) finger and the length of the fourth (“ring”) finger – called the “digit ratio” – is favorably related to muscular strength in boys.

“Examine the fingers of your hand,” said Grant Tomkinson...

In order to achieve better brain signal transmission quality, the researchers apply contact gel. Credit: Michael Veit

Several groups from the Freiburg excellence cluster BrainLinks-BrainTools led by neuroscientist Dr. Tonio Ball are showing how ideas from computer science could revolutionize brain research. They illustrate how a self-learning algorithm decodes human brain signals that were measured by an electroencephalogram (EEG). It included performed movements, but also hand and foot movements that were merely thought of, or an imaginary rotation of objects...