Hygiea is the 10th asteroid discovered in the Asteroid Belt and the fourth-largest asteroid by mass. While one of the largest asteroids, its dark surface made it difficult to distinguish from Earth using telescopes of the day. Ceres was discovered in 1801, but Hygiea (formal designation: 10 Hygiea) wasn’t located …

In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, University of Lyon’s Dr. Jean Vannier and colleagues described several fossilized clusters of Ampyx priscus, a species of trilobite that lived 480 million years ago (Ordovician period); the paleontologists interpreted the fossils as a collective behavior related to seasonal reproduction or …

The earliest ancestors of anatomically modern Homo sapiens emerged in a region south of the Zambezi River in Botswana, Africa, according to a new analysis of modern human’s mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA or mitogenome) from the L0 lineage, the oldest known mtDNA lineage on Earth. Ancient humans. Image credit: sjs.org / …

Click to enlarge. Google parent company Alphabet reported advertising revenues of $33.9 billion for the third quarter, a 17% increase from $29 billion a year ago. Overall, the company reported revenues of $40.5 billion for the quarter on Monday, an increase of 20% year-over-year, but below the $40.3 billion analysts …

Tell people you’re thinking of getting off the grid and they might look at you like that’s the wildest idea they’d ever heard. As a culture, we tend to forget that a lot of the world isn’t even on it. In North America, millions of people are living off grid …

  The big four US carriers rarely cooperate on anything, but they have joined forces to “transform messaging” on your phone. ATT, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint have formed a joint venture called the “Cross-Carrier Messaging Initiative” (CCMI). Its goal is to deploy a complete RCS-based messaging system for all carriers …

  The wearable business is apparently a tough nut to crack for any company not called Apple. Rumors began percolating several weeks back that Fitbit was putting itself up for sale, and now we know who its suitor might be. According to Reuters, Google parent company Alphabet is in talks …

  Intel announced its Q3 earnings results with very strong numbers and an acknowledgment that the company is still facing constraints on its 14nm business. Intel smashed guidance in Q3 2019, beating Q3 revenue expectations by $1.2B, with $19.2B in revenue. According to CEO Bob Swan, Intel has made significant …

  It’s been nearly eight years since Curiosity launched from Cape Canaveral, and the aging rover should soon have company on the Red Planet. The Mars 2020 rover, currently being assembled at JPL, has met a major launch milestone and is now standing on its own six wheels. NASA celebrated …

  NASA’s InSight lander doesn’t get as much attention as the Curiosity rover, but it has been on Mars and making history for almost a year. It’s sent back weather reports from the red planet, recorded the ghostly sounds of the Martian wind, and deployed the first-ever seismometer on another …