Category archives: Weekly Selection

Diagram shows newly-found giant magma reservoir underneath Yellowstone A huge reservoir of mostly solid hot rock has been found underneath a magma chamber beneath Yellowstone National Park, part of the vast volcanic plumbing of the area diagrammed in a study published in Science. This system has been there for about 17 million years, and scientists […]

Capitanian event a mass extinction A group of paleontologists would like to add a sixth mass extinction event that occurred at the end of the Capitanian age to the five generally accepted in science. Researchers have linked mass extinctions in China during that time period 260 million years ago with a major die-off in what […]

Magnetic bands around sun may help predict solar flares Tracking the movements of traveling magnetic bands in the sun’s atmosphere may help predict solar flares, which can cause damaging power problems on Earth and wreak havoc on satellites, according to a study published in Nature Communications. Solar flares are at their worst when formed by […]

Young galaxy clusters discovered More than 200 young galaxy clusters have been documented by astronomers using data gathered by the Planck and Herschel space telescopes. The researchers have released photos of the clusters, which will be studied further in the hope answers can be found to many cosmic questions like how galaxies grow and the […]

Dark matter detected as it coasts through galaxy collisions Dark matter appears to drift straight through galactic collisions, barely interacting with anything, including other dark matter, according to scientists who detected the mysterious stuff by the way it bends nearby light paths. Researchers used visible light spied by the Hubble Space Telescope and X-rays by […]

Deep aurora in Mars seen by Maven spacecraft NASA’s Maven spacecraft spotted a strange aurora that lasted for five days and stretched deep into Mars’ northern atmosphere. Auroras on Mars have been observed previously, but scientists were intrigued by the depth of this one. In addition, Maven detected an unexpected high-altitude dust cloud. BBC Young […]

Star ring at edge of Milky Way may actually be part of galaxy A ring of stars surrounding the Milky Way may, in reality, be part of it, increasing the galaxy’s size by 50%. Discovery Ideas about hibernation challenged by warm dormant bats Two species of bats have been found hibernating in caves considered too […]

Multiple views of a supernova seen by astronomers Astronomers have been able to witness the same supernova multiple times at different spots because of the gravitational lense effect of a galaxy cluster. The New York Times Snowflakes aren’t symmetrical, according to cutting-edge camera Snowflakes are even more complex than previously thought, according to high-speed 3D […]

Why racism is not backed by science As we gather more information about the genomes of more people a conclusion seems more and more evident: there is not such thing as race. The Guardian Bright spots seen on Ceres Bright spots seen on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres in photos taken by the approaching […]

Neanderthals interbred with ancient Asians at 2 points in history Neanderthals interbred with the ancestors of Asians twice in ancient history, according to a pair of studies published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The studies approached the same question from different directions, but came to the same conclusion, looking at why Asians have […]