Most luminous galaxy in universe discovered

A remote galaxy shining brightly with infrared light equal to more than 300 trillion suns has been discovered using data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The galaxy, which belongs to a new class of objects recently discovered by WISE -- nicknamed extremely luminous infrared galaxies, or ELIRGs -- is the most luminous galaxy found to date.

New insights into global ocean microbe-virus interactions, drivers of Earth's ecosystems

Hidden among Earth's vast oceans are some of the tiniest and most vital organisms to the health of delicate ecosystems. Ocean microbes produce half of the oxygen we breathe, and are important drivers in chemical reactions and energy transfers that fuel critical ecological processes.

Sudden onset of ice loss in Antarctica so large it affects Earth's gravity field

Using measurements of the elevation of the Antarctic ice sheet made by a suite of satellites, the researchers found that the Southern Antarctic Peninsula showed no signs of change up to 2009. Around 2009, multiple glaciers along a vast coastal expanse, measuring some 750km in length,

Savannahs slow climate change, experts say

Tropical rainforests have long been considered Earth's lungs, sequestering large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and thereby slowing down the increasing greenhouse effect and associated human made climate change. Scientists in a global research project now show that the vast extensions of semi-arid landscapes occupying the transition zone between rainforest and desert dominate the ongoing increase in carbon sequestration by ecosystems globally, as well as large fluctuations between wet and dry years.