Planet Nine could be lurking in the outer solar system, or it could join the ranks of other discredited planets. (Credit: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)
In 2016, astronomers announced there was a new planet in the outer solar system. Planet Nine, supposedly larger than Neptune and located far beyond the orbits of the planets known so far, is a particular mystery since no one has yet observed it. Scientists have merely tracked its supposed orbit by watching the gravitational pull th ...read more
Insight’s first image of Mars. NASA.
NASA’s InSight lander reached Mars yesterday. It’s the seventh successful landed mission, and it’s the latest in our continuous presence on the red planet since 1997. Yup, we’ve had a rover or a lander doing science on Mars non stop for over 20 years! But landers like InSight don’t get enough love. They seem less exciting than their roving cousins, but these stationary missions have done some really incredible science. Reg ...read more
(Credit: Daniel Eskridge/Shutterstock)
One day, about 11,000 years ago, a lone bull mastodon plodded through the shallows of a lake in what today is Michigan. Some time later, three females and a gamboling calf passed the same way. Luckily for paleontologists, clay-rich mud filled the animals’ footprints, preserving the tracks and giving scientists insights into the mastodons’ social structure. The long-extinct creatures likely lived in matriarchal herds, while mature males roamed ...read more
In December 2014, a handful of Disneyland tourists left the California theme park with more than just memories of Mickey Mouse and Space Mountain. They also left with the measles.
Within weeks, 125 cases were confirmed in the United States. Of the adults and kids infected, 110 lived in California — and nearly half had not been inoculated with the vaccine for mumps, measles and rubella (MMR), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ultimately, the outbreak resulted in 1 ...read more
Experts have known for a while that gas and dark matter — the theoretical counterpart to regular matter — sprawl through the cosmos. These so-called cosmic webs account for the bulk of the matter in the great unknown. Generally, where there’s plenty of gas, there are also plenty of galaxies, which give off ultraviolet (UV) light). Today, that UV light keeps most of that gas transparent, and galaxies shine through. But in our universe’s youth — around 12.5 billion ye ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
