Zooming through space Big rocks, small rocks, dust and astronauts — these are just a few things that hurtled through the inky darkness of space over the past year. Sometimes, objects came crashing to Earth, but we couldn’t always tell…
In 2019 astronomers discovered the obliterated core of a heavy metal planet rotting around a dead star because nature is BRUTAL. If a bunch of exploding stars hadn’t forged the universe’s heaviest elements billions of years ago, there would be…
When scientists discover a round, lumpy object that they can’t totally explain, they have a special name for it: A blob. Blobs come in all shapes and sizes. Some are as small as cells, others as big as galaxies. Some…
Dark fur provides great nighttime camouflage, but may impair visual communication between melanistic cats, a new study says. Black cats have long intrigued us, from comic book heroes to symbols of superstition. They’re also more common that you might think:…
Is it climate change, pollution, an unknown disease? A dedicated few are trying to crack the mystery. ABINGDON, VIRGINIA – To an untrained eye, the crystal waters of the Clinch River, which meanders southwest across the Virginia-Tennessee border, look clean…
This may just be the weirdest thing you’ve seen today! Thousands of these marine worms, called fat innkeeper worms—or “penis fish”—washed up on Drake’s Beach after a recent storm. 🌊 But why? pic.twitter.com/vGMpSvGoATDecember 11, 2019 Try not to be…
A newborn panda cub in an incubator at Chongqing Zoo, China on June 23, 2019. Newborn giant pandas are tiny compared to their moms. Giant panda babies are born weirdly tiny and underdeveloped. No one knows why, and the major…
The Cullinan diamond was mined in Premier Mine in South Africa in 1905. The same mine has yielded superdeep diamonds, which could hold secrets to the quakes occurring in the mantle’s transition zone. SAN FRANCISCO — Deep under Earth’s surface,…
Scientists analyzed ancient proteins in fossils from the enormous primate Gigantopithecus to identify its closest living relative. The mythical and elusive “Bigfoot” is a creature of legend, but for millions of years, the original Bigfoot — a shaggy, bipedal ape…
Life restoration of Fukuipteryx prima. Around 120 million years ago, a bird about the size of a pigeon fluttered through Cretaceous forests in what is now Japan. The newly discovered fossil, preserved in three dimensions, is the first primitive Cretaceous…
Narwhal the puppy appears to have a tail protruding out of his face. But what makes up this “tail”? This puppy may not be quite as unique as a unicorn, but he’s close: The pint-sized pup appears to have a…
This wild cow was the first found roaming North Carolina’s outer banks, having likely swam miles to get there. Three cows that were swept out to sea after Hurricane Dorian hit their home on Cedar Island in North Carolina were…