Humans have changed a lot over the past few hundred millennia. We evolved from ancient apes, which are believed to have in turn evolved from sea creatures that existed in the distant, distant past, and Homo sapiens have only existed for a paltry 300,000 years. Some animals, however, have remained almost exactly the same for
Scientists have resolved a longstanding mystery about the Great Unconformity, a huge gap in the geological record that shows up across the world and has inspired speculation for more than 150 years, reports a study published on Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The unconformity shows up around the world when sedimentary
For the first time, a much younger version of the Sun has been caught red-handed blowing bubbles in the galaxy, by astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The bubble – called an “astrosphere” – completely surrounds the juvenile star. Winds from the star’s surface are blowing up the bubble and filling it with hot gas
Archaeologists recently unearthed a series of animal skulls in a Neanderthal cave in Spain, sparking new questions about the rituals and symbolic practices of early humans. The skulls, some of which belong to horned animals, weren’t placed there all at once, but accumulated over a long period. This repeated behavior hints at a deeper, structured
Earthquakes are one of many natural phenomena that, despite technological advances, we’ve yet to predict in advance. Researchers in Japan—a country frequently hit by devastating earthquakes—propose we look for an otherworldly source: the Sun. In a recent paper published in the International Journal of Plasma Environmental Science and Technology, the researchers consider the possibility that
Fossil evidence shows that baby long-necked dinosaurs were a major food source for several large meat-eating dinosaurs during the Late Jurassic period. Because these young plant-eaters were so common and easy to catch, predators at the time had an easier food supply than the giant hunters that evolved millions of years later. Dry Mesa evidence
The Kimberley region in the north-west corner of Western Australia is full of rugged ranges and gorges, and long stretches of red soil and rocky ground. The dry seasons are long, and the wet seasons often flood the Martuwarra Fitzroy River – an artery to the Indian Ocean – in the region’s south. But if
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – Grounded until at least April, NASA’s giant Moon rocket is headed back to the hangar this week for more repairs before astronauts climb aboard. The space agency said Sunday it’s targeting Tuesday for the slow, 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) trek across Kennedy Space Center, weather permitting. NASA had barely finished a repeat
NASA has revealed it repurposed the processor the Perseverance rover used to communicate with the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, to help the rolling robot navigate the Red Planet autonomously “for potentially unlimited distances.” The aerospace agency revealed the hack last week in a post that says it used the rover’s Helicopter Base Station (HBS) because its
In just one week, a spectacular display of orbital mechanics will be visible to billions of people across the Americas, Asia, and Oceania, as Earth’s shadow sweeps across the lunar disk, triggering the onset of an awe-inspiring ‘blood moon’ total lunar eclipse. Celestron Inspire 100AZ (Image credit: Jamie Carter) The Celestron Inspire 100AZ is, in