News

Vesta rocks on Bennu

NASA's OSIRIS-REx to Asteroid Bennu: 'You've Got a Little Vesta on You...'

Sept. 21, 2020

Bits of the asteroid Vesta have been found on the mission's target asteroid Bennu, highlighting the variety of asteroids in the solar system and what it says about its evolution.

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The Giant Magellan Telescope mirrors

NSF Grant Accelerates Development for One of World's Most Powerful Telescopes; Test Bed Being Built at UArizona

Sept. 17, 2020

UArizona researchers have been busy building a testbed that essentially consists of a miniature-sized active stand-in for the Giant Magellan Telescope's seven-piece primary mirror.

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A dragonfly

Just Add Water: Biodiversity Resurgence in Effluent-Fed Desert Riverbeds

Sept. 16, 2020

Dragonflies, mayflies and caddisflies may be small, but their appearance could signal a big comeback for the beleaguered rivers of the American Southwest.

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model of the coronavirus

Arizona COVID-19 Genomics Union Tracks Virus Strains in State

Sept. 15, 2020

Molecular clock analysis showed no widespread community distribution of the highly contagious coronavirus in Arizona until mid-February.

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Four moons of Jupiter

Jupiter's Moons Could be Warming Each Other

Sept. 10, 2020

The gravitational push and pull by Jupiter's moons could account for more warming than the gas giant Jupiter alone, through a process called tidal heating.

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coronavirus spike protein

How Coronavirus Took Hold in North America and Europe

Sept. 10, 2020

Early interventions were effective at stamping out infections, but subsequent travel allowed the virus to ignite major outbreaks in Europe and North America, a new study finds.

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Asteroid Bennu ejecting particles

Where Rocks Come Alive: OSIRIS-REx Observes an Asteroid in Action

Sept. 9, 2020

While studying the asteroid Bennu up close, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft witnessed periodic outbursts of material being kicked up from the surface. Scientists detail the observations in a new collection of research papers.

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a tarantula hawk wasp on a flower

They're Big, but They're Not Murder Hornets

Sept. 8, 2020

Buzz surrounding the arrival of the Asian giant hornet in the Pacific Northwest has many Arizonans mistaking native, beneficial bugs for the potentially invasive wasp. 

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bighorn fire on pusch ridge

New Arizona Institutes for Resilience Will Tackle Environmental Challenges

Sept. 3, 2020

The new institutes will help people prepare for a low-carbon, environmentally sustainable and socially just world through research, education and real-world implementation.

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a copper superconductor

UArizona Collaborates on $115M Effort to Build Quantum Computer

Sept. 2, 2020

Three College of Engineering researchers are involved in the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center, which is part of a $625 million federal program to foster quantum innovation in the United States.

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Reed frog sitting on a leaf

Do Big Tadpoles Turn into Big Frogs? It's Complicated, Study Finds

Sept. 2, 2020

Researchers studied the evolution of frog and tadpole body sizes. They found that the two life stages do not evolve completely independently of each other, as previously thought.

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World temperature map of the ice age in relation to preindustrial times.

How Cold Was the Ice Age? Researchers Now Know

Aug. 26, 2020

Researchers combined past data on temperature and carbon dioxide levels to reconstruct the temperature of the last ice age. Their resulting "hindcast" may shed light on future climate.

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