Tag Archives: mysterious

Around 4.567 billion years ago, our Solar System harbored a gap within the protoplanetary disk, near the location where the main asteroid belt resides today, and likely shaped the composition of the planets, according to a study led by MIT scientists. This is an artist impression of the protoplanetary disk …

Astronomers announced earlier this year that an enormous 62-mile (100-kilometer) object was creeping inward from the fringes of the solar system. We didn’t know what this mysterious visitor was at the time, but a recent development has shed light on the subject. The object, now officially designated C/2014 UN271, began …

The outer solar system is littered with big chunks of rock and ice, but rarely do their orbits bring them close enough to Earth for us to get a good look. And then there’s 2014 UN271, an approaching object that astronomers believe to be a huge comet on a million-year …

  By all accounts, the tumult of 2020 has severely affected Google’s phone launch plans. The Pixel 4a was delayed for months, and the rumored Pixel 5 is shaping up to be less powerful than the Pixel 4. Now, a mysterious device that looks like the Pixel 5 has appeared …

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured these images of Atlas, an inner satellite of Saturn, during a close flyby on April 12, 2017. These are the closest images ever taken of the flying saucer-shaped body — the spacecraft flew by about 7,000 miles (11,000 km) from Atlas to capture its appearance. This …

Astronomers have been puzzling over fast radio bursts (FRB) for the last decade, but there’s not yet any good explanation of these high-energy radio blips. Less that two dozen FRBs have been observed since then, all of which come from outside the Milky Way galaxy. Now that fast radio bursts …

Paleontologists have finally determined what hyoliths — a group of extinct marine creatures — actually are. Reconstruction of the hyolith Haplophrentis on the Cambrian sea floor. Image credit: D. Dufault / Royal Ontario Museum. Hyoliths evolved over 530 million years ago during the Cambrian period and are among the first …

A strange sound in the Mariana Trench notable for its complexity likely represents the discovery of a new minke whale call, says a team of marine researchers from Cornell University and Oregon State University. Minke whale. Image credit: Len Joh / CC BY-ND 2.0. Dubbed the ‘Western Pacific Biotwang,’ this …

Bathochordaeus charon — an extremely rare species of giant larvacean — has been rediscovered, more than a century after the only previous known specimens of the species were found. Bathochordaeus charon and its ‘house’ in Monterey Bay: giant larvaceans use their oikoplastic cells to secrete complex filters or ‘houses’ that …

A study led by University of Adelaide researcher Julien Soubrier has revealed that prehistoric European cave artists recorded a previously unknown hybrid species of bison and cattle on cave walls more than 15,000 years ago. Charcoal drawing of a steppe bison in Chauvet-Pont d’Arc cave, Arde?che, France. Image credit: Carole …