Solar calendar. Place of worship. UFO Landing site. Many uses have been theorized for Stonehenge. Researchers have now added another: monument to unity, they propose in an Archaeology International article.Because the stones making up different aspects of the mysterious structure were moved from many parts of the British Isles, there must have been a reason for it. After all, it’s not the only henge in town. Hundreds of other stone circles have been found in Britain. But almost all of them hav ...read more

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has now marked itself safe from its closest-ever encounter with the sun.The probe sent a signal just before midnight on Dec. 26, saying it was “alive” and doing fine. This should come as a relief to NASA scientists since communication with the probe “went dark” Christmas Eve when it made its record-breaking closest ever pass — a mere 3.8 million miles from the sun’s surface, according to a NASA blog. That might seem like a big distance, but in the universe ...read more

The enigmatic idea of dark energy has consistently been referenced to explain the universe’s expansion, but new research may upend years of cosmological beliefs with a shocking claim made by scientists: dark energy doesn’t actually exist.This revelation backpedals on a theory that astrophysicists have commonly followed in the hunt for answers to one of the universe’s most mystifying questions: how its perpetual expansion is possible. The endeavor to understand this concept may need to chan ...read more

Centaurs — celestial bodies that combine asteroids’ rockiness and comets’ gaseousness — are relatively rare and short-lived components of our solar system. A team of astronomers has in one of these hybrid objects called Chiron now characterized what could be considered a unicorn among centaurs.Learning About CentaursChiron contains signs that it has emitted both carbon dioxide and methane — the first time the two gasses were found released from a Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO), a team of ...read more

In the United States alone, there were almost 417,000 COVID-19 deaths in 2021. A year afterward, in 2022, there were around 187,000, and a year after that, in 2023, there were about 50,000.The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a massive surge in mortality in the U.S., resulting in reduced life expectancy. But today, life expectancy is recovering, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). After dropping to 76.4 years in 2021, it increased by 1.1 years in 2022 (the CDC reported ...read more

Right on time for the surge of holiday travel, a new iteration of the World Magnetic Model (WMM) has just been released, forecasting the future of Earth’s magnetic field. The updated model shows the latest location of the magnetic north pole, which has been gradually shifting toward Siberia over the past decades. What is the World Magnetic Model?The WMM, required to update every five years, follows changes in Earth’s magnetic field. The model provides crucial information for the airline and ...read more

2024 was a busy year for dinosaur discoveries. New research from around the world revealed dozens of new-to-science identifications of prehistoric animals, including dinosaurs, prehistoric reptiles, and flying reptiles. Some were giant, some were small, and some lived in burrows. Find out which ones we thought were the most unique. 1. T. rex’s Cousin: Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis In early 2024, paleontologists announced the discovery of a new tyrannosaur species that may be the closest cousin to ...read more

As daylight hours shorten and temperatures plummet, feelings of sadness and fatigue can begin. Depression is a major health concern that impacted 28 million people worldwide in 2019. In that same year, an estimated 10 million Americans experienced a specific type of depression disorder during the winter. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that is correlated to specific seasons like fall and winter, according to a study in Nutrients. Chronic sadness, social withdrawal and d ...read more

Despite all appearances, the moon is a world with water. Strewn throughout the soil, water molecules are scattered all around the moon’s surface. Where they originated has long stumped scientists, but a new paper published in PNAS has looked into the origins of the moon’s hydration, suggesting that it may have come from a complex combination of sources.“This is a major step forward in unraveling where lunar water comes from,” said Maxwell Thiemens, a study author and a researcher at Vrij ...read more

Each year, researchers discover an estimated 18,000 new species across the globe. These new species include small mammals, birds, insects, fish, reptiles, flowers, and fungi. And this year, the new species identified in 2024 did not disappoint. Check out our selection of the most interesting new species.1. Mussel of the Alabama Undersea ForestA researcher from Northeastern University’s Marine Science Center discovered a new species of mussel that dwells in an ancient underwater cypress grove i ...read more