Contradicting theories on how planets form, a massive planet (GJ 3512b) found 31 light-years from Earth orbits a tiny red dwarf star (GJ 3512) and according to astronomers “shouldn’t exist.” While the type of star is common, this combination of small star and super-sized plant rarely appears. In fact, many astronomers had queried whether such large planets were able to form around such small stars. …
Beginning with an excavation in 1984, an opal mine in Lightning Ridge (in rural New South Wales, Australia) suddenly became a hotbed for fossilized—and subsequently opalized—dinosaur bones. While the original team assumed the abnormally large and centralized collection of bones came from one body, researchers are now learning they are bones from multiple dinosaurs and an entirely new species—implying that a herd, which is now …
In the low oxygen waters of a deep pit inside a cave known as Hoyo Negro (“Black Hole”), scientists have not only found the 13,000-year-old remains of a female body but also the skeletons of saber-toothed cats, elephant-like animals called gomphotheres, giant sloths, and other wild creatures. The human, referred to as Naia, “is the oldest, most complete human skeleton yet discovered in the Americas,” …
