NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover drilled into its second rock on Sunday in its first major activity since emerging from a month-long hibernation.

The latest Mars rover bored 2.6 inches into a rock, named Cumberland, to retrieve a powdered sample, which will be delivered to Curiosity’s onboard science instruments for analysis.

The first drilling took place in February on a rock called “John Klein.” The resulting rock sample revealed that ancient Mars may have been able to support microbial life. The finding was groundbreaking, meaning the mission team wants to confirm it.

NASA officials wrote during a mission update on Monday, “The science team expects to use analysis of material from Cumberland to check findings from John Klein.”

The six-wheeled Curiosity rover, the most technologically advanced so far, touched down on the Red Planet in August. Since then, the one-ton robot has put 2,300 feet on its odometer, inching closer and closer to its destination: the base of Mount Sharp. The formation is a mysterious mountain. It rises 3.4 miles into the Martian sky from the center of the Gale Crater.

Curiosity is slated to head off to Mount Sharp’s base after it analyzes the sample from Cumberland and wraps up a few other science operations in the area. The mysterious land formation is believed to be a key to scientists in understanding Mars’ history. The mountain’s foothills show signs of past exposure to water.

Second rock target drilling complete! Looks a lot like the first use. (Well, you know the drill.) twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/…

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) May 20, 2013

Scientists also hope that Curiosity will be able to read into Mars’ environmental history as it climbs the layers the mountain’s lower reaches are made from. The rover’s five-mile trip to Mount Sharp will likely take months, as Curiosity’s top speed on a flat surface is about 0.09 miles per hour.

NASA’s Curiosity rover mission will take two years and will hopefully provide some keys into the Red Planet’s past. The rock drill of Cumberland may provide some clues as well.

Mars Curiosity Rover Drills Into Second Rock is a post from: The Inquisitr

Russian space lizards, newts, mice, gerbils, and other experimental animals met a tragic fate as a result of their month-long journey into space — meaning that the first Russian mission to launch animals into space after 17 years has proved a disappointing failure.

Multiple sources have said that most of the animals failed to survive the 30-day test of how they would do alone in a weightless environment some 357 miles above the earth.

The Guardian said that Russian state-controlled television showed the capsule and some animals when it landed back on earth Sunday night at a location about 750 miles away from Moscow. At that point, the Russian space agency was only prepared to acknowledge that some of the animals didn’t live through the test.

However, The Space Reporter made a stronger statement late Sunday night, saying that all of the Russian experimental space travelers are now dead.

The failure could be bad news for the Russian space program. A rumored manned mission to Mars could be at risk if even small, tough animals can’t survive the proposed conditions.

The original month-long experiment was highly anticipated. The April 19 launch was intended to allow the lizards, mice, and other animals to return alive and in good health.

NASA collaborated with the joint effort. “There has been a long history of this kind of biological research over the past 40 years, and NASA and the Russian side have been collaborating for that entire time, which is pretty remarkable,” NASA project manager Nicole Rayl told Fox News on the day of the launch. She added:

“The unique nature of this mission is that it’s a 30-day mission, so it’s longer than a lot of the other animal and biological missions we’ve flown.”

The disappointing news is definitely a setback to the program. Now the teams must find out what happened to the Russian space lizards, mice, and other animals.

[caiman lizard photo by Malcolm via Flickr and Wikimedia Commons]

Russian Space Lizards, Mice, Gerbils Tragic Return From Month-Long Trip Into Space is a post from: The Inquisitr

Did you see the moon explosion this weekend? A meteor hit the lunar surface last night and the incredible explosion could be seen with the naked eye from earth.

According to NASA, the spectacular sight only lasted for about a second.

Bill Cook of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office said that a 40 kilogram meteor struck the surface of the moon at a speed of 56,000 mph and lit up the moon like a 4th magnitude star.

Cooke said: “On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium … It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we’ve ever seen before … Anyone looking at the moon at the moment of impact could have seen the explosion, no telescope required.”

CNN reports that NASA has been monitoring the moon for meteor explosions for the last 8 years. Cooke said that the meteor hit the moon with the force of 5 tons of TNT and created the brightest explosion seen to date.

Cooke said that astronomers will be monitoring the moon closely when it passes back through that region of space.

Cook said: “We’ll be keeping an eye out for signs of a repeat performance next year when the Earth-moon system passes through the same region of space.”

NASA notes that several meteors were flying in earth’s direction this weekend but due to our planet’s protective atmosphere the meteors burned up before they made impact. The moon doesn’t have that luxury and is frequently pelted with meteors.

Moon Explosion Visible From Earth With Naked Eye [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Crazy ants are becoming a serious problem in the southern part of the United States.

Researchers at the University of Texas believe this species could eventually upset the ecological balance in the region. The South American ants, known officially as “Tawny crazy ants,” are capable of wiping out entire colonies of fire ants.

Ed LeBrun, a research associate for the College of Natural Sciences, believes the biggest problem crazy ants pose is the displacement of the fire ants. LeBrun said the entire ecosystem change after the arrival of the fire ants. Problems could arise if the species is wiped out of the area.

“Things that can’t tolerate fire ants are gone. Many that can have flourished. New things have come in. Now we are going to go through and whack the fire ants and put something in its place that has a very different biology. There are going to be a lot of changes that come from that,” he explained.

Crazy ants are classified as omnivores. Whatever the insects fail to kill generally tend to starve to death. In some areas where crazy ants have already set up shop, the fire ants are practically non-existent.

“Fire ants are in many ways very polite. They live in your yard. They form mounds and stay there, and they only interact with you if you step on their mound,” LeBrun explained.

Crazy ants, which get their name from their quick and random movements, go wherever they please. They tend to nest in walls, house plants, or crawl spaces. They’re also fond of infesting whatever objects you might have lying around your yard. While they don’t sting like fire ants, getting rid of these pesky invaders can be a very expensive process.

Researchers believe it will take time for the crazy ants to completely take over. Since they don’t spread like fire ants, these pests can be contained. LeBrun said it’s very important that people do not accidentally transport the ants to another location.

Have you encountered any crazy ants where you live?

[Image via Shutterstock]

Crazy Ants Becoming A Problem In Southern US is a post from: The Inquisitr

A boulder slammed into the moon on March 17, causing the biggest explosion on the celestial body NASA scientists have seen so far. The meteorite collided with the lunar surface at an incredible 56,000 mph.

In doing so, it created a new crater measuring 65 feet wide. The crash also sparked a bright flash of light that would have been visible to anyone looking at the moon with the naked eye at the time of the incident.

The collision was confirmed by NASA scientists on Friday. Bill Cooke of the agency’s Meteoroid Environment Office, stated:

“On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium. It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we’ve ever seen before.”

NASA didn’t view the moon explosion in real time. Rather, it wasn’t until an analyst at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, reviewed a video of the meteorite impact recorded by one of the moon monitoring program’s 14-inch telescopes.

The analyst, Ron Suggs, recalled, “It jumped right out at me, it was so bright.” The rock is believed to have been about one foot wide and weighed about 88 pounds. The explosion is caused on the moon’s surface was about as powerful as five tons of TNT.

And the massive explosion on the moon may have not been the only incident that day. Cooke explained:

“On the night of March 17, NASA and University of Western Ontario all-sky cameras picked up an unusual number of deep-penetrating meteors right here on Earth. These fireballs were traveling along nearly identical orbits between Earth and the asteroid belt.”

Earth’s atmosphere protected it’s surface from being hit by the meteors. Unfortunately, the moon didn’t have the same kind of luck. Without an atmosphere, the moon is more susceptible to all incoming space rocks. The NASA monitoring program has reported more than 300 meteor strikes on the lunar surface since 2005.

Scientists hope to use NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to photograph the moon explosion site and learn more about how the meteorite crash happened.

[Image via ShutterStock]

NASA Detects Explosion On Moon From Meteorite Collision is a post from: The Inquisitr

A massive asteroid is set to fly by Earth at the end of May. While it poses no threat to our planet, astronomers are still keeping a close eye on it.

The 1.7-mile-long asteroid will be about 3.6 million miles away from Earth when it passes by on May 31. That distance is about 15 times the distance that separates the Earth and the moon.

The close approach will allow astronomers to get a good look at the giant rock, named 1998 QE2. They will observe through two radar telescopes, NASA’s 230-foot Goldstone dish in California and Puerto Rico’s 1,000 foot Arecibo Observatory.

The massive asteroid was discovered by astronomers working with MIT’s Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program in August 1998. The name isn’t an homage to England’s Queen Elizabeth II, or even to the famous 12-deck ocean liner retired from service in 2008.

Rather, it’s the moniker assigned by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The center names each newly discovered asteroid according to an already-established alphanumeric scheme.

Astronomers will study the asteroid 1998 QE2 intensively from May 30 until June 9. They hope to learn as much as possible about the asteroid before it flies off into the depths of space.

This month’s fly by will be the asteroid’s closest approach to Earth for the next 200 years or so. Scientists also hope to figure out where exactly the large space rock came from. The asteroid has a mysterious sooty substance covering it. The substance could indicate it broke off of a comet that flew too close to the sun. However, it could also have leaked from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Despite the giant asteroid’s close approach to Earth, there is no danger, though the rock’s size gives it a potential for mass destruction. Amy Mainzer, who tracks near-Earth objects at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, explained, “This is a really big asteroid, similar in size to the one that killed off the dinosaurs, and it’s getting very close to us.”

But, Mainzer added, “We don’t need to panic.” There is no word on whether the giant asteroids fly by Earth will be livestreamed online.

[Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech]

Massive Asteroid QE2 Flies By Earth This Month is a post from: The Inquisitr

Mount Everest’s glaciers are melting and scientists are pointing to climate change as the culprit. The news was announced on Tuesday at the Meeting of the Americas in Cancun, Mexico.

Glaciers on and near Mount Everest have shrunk by 13 percent in the past 50 years, while the snowline of the world’s tallest peak has shifted upward by 590 feet.

Sudeep Thakuri, a graduate student at the University of Milan in Italy, and his colleagues released the information. They tracked changes the glaciers made, as well as temperatures and precipitation at Everest and the surrounding Sagarmatha National Park.

The world’s tallest peak is located in the Himalaya Mountains between China and Nepal. It reaches an impressive 29,029 feet above sea level.

Glaciers in Sagarmatha National Park have retreated about 1,300 feet since 1962. Precipitation has also dropped by 3.9 inches and temperatures have risen by one degree Fahrenheit since 1992. The researchers added that glaciers smaller than one square kilometer are disappearing faster than other ice structures. Thakuri added:

“The Himalayan glaciers and ice caps are considered a water tower for Asia since they store and supply water downstream during the dry season. Downstream populations are dependent on the melt water for agriculture, drinking, and power production.”

In their statement, Thakuri and his colleagues explained that they believe the glaciers on Mount Everest are melting due to “human-generated greenhouse gases altering global climate.” However, they cautioned that they have yet to establish “a firm connection between the mountains’ changes and climate change.”

Climate change has been considered as the culprit for several cases like the one on Mount Everest. The Arctic ice sheet has melted to near-record low levels, while the Antarctic sheet has also seen some ice loss. But despite the ice on Mount Everest melting, The Karakoram Mountains glaciers, located on the China-India-Pakistan border, have not seen much loss. Rather, they appear to be growing.

[Image via Luca Galuzzi]

Mount Everest’s Glaciers Melting, Scientists Point To Climate Change is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Kepler space observatory suffered a major failure on Wednesday, putting into questions the future of NASA’s planet-hunting space observatory.

Kepler’s controllers found on Tuesday that the observatory had gone into a “safe mode.” They also found that one of the reaction wheels needed to orient the spacecraft wasn’t spinning.

Associate NASA Administrator John Grunsfeld added that NASA engineers are trying to figure out if they can get the part back into service or regain control another way. Grunsfeld added:

“We’re not ready to call the mission over. Kepler is not in a place where I can go up and rescue it.”

The Kepler mission’s spacecraft orbits the sun rather than the Earth. Because of this, the craft is currently about 40 million miles from us. So far, the mission has identified 132 planets out of our solar system since it launched in 2009. Because of this, scientists believe most stars in our galaxy have planets circling them.

The Kepler probe was built with four reaction wheels, though three of them are needed to aim its telescope precisely at a far away star. Deputy project manager Charlie Sobeck added that the probe has already had one reaction wheel fail in July 2012. That means that the spacecraft is left with two reaction wheels.

Kepler shut itself down after it was pointing in the wrong direction. Its solar panels are facing back at the sun, giving controllers intermittent communication with Kepler as it spins far above the Earth. Sobeck stated it was “reasonable to suspect” the shutdown was from the reaction wheel’s failure, though scientists have not yet confirmed it.

Kepler was designed to operate for between three and a half to six years. Even if controllers are unable to fix the craft’s issues, NASA stated that the mission has provided enough data to keep mission scientists busy for the next two years.

The $600 million Kepler spacecraft has spotted exoplanets by searching for brightness dips caused when they pass between us and their parent stars. The main goal for the mission has been to learn how common Earth-like alien planets are throughout our galaxy. Before its failure, Kepler’s reaction wheel showed signs of elevated friction for five months.

[Image via NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech]

Kepler Spacecraft Suffers Major Failure, Mission’s Future In Jeopardy is a post from: The Inquisitr

Is Charles Darwin wrong about the tree of life and coral reef formation?

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, researchers of coral reef formation find Charles Darwin wrong overall but his 19th century hypothesis was actually fairly close.

Coral reef used to be thought to be a thin veneer, but Charles Darwin hypothesized that coral reefs might be thousands of feet deep. Charles Darwin was right in this regard, but new research finds Charles Darwin wrong when it comes to how the coral reefs grow. Charles Darwin thought coral reef on sinking islands grew as they stretched toward the slowly dimming sunlight.

Taylor Perron, the study’s co-author and a geologist at MIT, explains how Charles Darwin got it wrong, if only a little:

“Darwin actually got it mostly right, which is pretty amazing. He didn’t know about these glacially induced sea-level cycles. You can explain a lot of the variety you see just by combining these various processes — the sinking of islands, the growth of reefs, and the last few million years of sea level going up and down rather dramatically.”

Charles Darwin was also wrong in many other ways. Charles Darwin did not even know about genetic information, and now we know DNA storage can hold all the information in the all computers in the world in one cell. Darwin thought even single celled organisms were simple, which explains his failed pangenesis theory which hypothesized that huge changes sprang out at random from cells.

The tree of life is finding Charles Darwin wrong about a more important matter integral to modern evolutionary theory. The tree of life intends to demonstrate how species are interlinked by evolutionary processes from a single common ancestor.

Dr Eric Bapteste, an evolutionary biologist at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, explains why Charles Darwin is wrong: “For a long time the holy grail was to build a tree of life. We have no evidence at all that the tree of life is a reality.”

Charles Darwin was also wrong about how information in the form of DNA was passed on, so Darwin envisioned a simple tree of life. In the past several years scientists have been finding the tree of life resembles an extremely complex thicket, not a tree with easy to follow branches.

The Human Genome Project was only just completed about 10 years ago, so many of these ideas are relatively new. What Charles Darwin did not know about was horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or lateral gene transfer, gene duplication, recombination, gene loss or gene transfers from multiple sources. HGT was originally thought to be only primarily relevant to “lower” species like bacteria, which swap genetic information back and forth. This is how anti-bacterial resistance comes about, with pre-existing genetic information being recombined to find a target via selective pressure.

Some scientists hypothesize that HGT may play a role in higher creatures, perhaps even humans. Charles Darwin is wrong at the very least about the tree, er, bush of life since it’s getting very complicated. Kevin Peterson came up with a method that uses short molecules called microRNAs to work out evolutionary branchings.

After realizing that humans share more genetic information with elephants than mice, Peterson said, “I’ve looked at thousands of microRNA genes, and I can’t find a single example that would support the traditional tree. [The technique] just changes everything about our understanding of mammal evolution.”

Some scientists are even more critical in discussing how Charles Darwin’s tree of life is wrong. Douglas Axe says these old ideas are encumbering the progress of science:

“It’s amazing how thinking on evolution has shifted since I started following the subject in the 1980s. Today’s biologists clearly have realized that evolutionary theory must be revised to avoid conflict with genomic data, and yet they are very reluctant to say that the problems forcing the change are deep problems. … Although the belief that all species are related was then as sacrosanct as it is now, there was at least a general recognition then that trees are only as believable as the evidence supporting them. … Indeed, it becomes so easy to construct utterly fictitious evolutionary histories when we drop the expectation of consistency that such a move ought to be viewed as undermining the whole exercise of phylogenetic reconstruction. Whisky, kerosene and milk have no common pedigree, but that wouldn’t stop us from concocting one if we were to lower the standard in that way. The only prospect of elevating tree-building to something more than a game, then, is that it might uncover a strikingly consistent pattern of relationship between species. And the sobering truth is—it doesn’t.”

What do you think about these scientists claiming Charles Darwin is wrong?

Charles Darwin Wrong About Tree Of Life, Coral Reef Formation is a post from: The Inquisitr

Charles Darwin might be wrong about a major theory — just not evolution.

The famous researcher theorized that coral atolls, like one he saw near Tahiti, were created as they stretched toward sunlight while islands below sank into the sea. This view was controversial at the time and went against the established theory that atolls were actually a thin veneer of coral, not thousands of feet thick as Darwin claimed.

Though drilling would eventually prove Charles Darwin right about the thickness of coral atolls, his ideas about their origins are now being questioned. The May 9 issue of the journal Geology found that cycles in sea level connected to glacial cycles are the main force causing the coral patterns.

“Darwin actually got it mostly right, which is pretty amazing,” said Taylor Perron, the study’s co-author and a geologist at MIT.

Perron added that where Charles Darwin got it wrong was in thinking that the sun and sinking islands were responsible for atolls rather than sea-level cycles.

Researchers already found that Darwin may have been wrong about the means of evolution. They found in 2009 that he likely miscalculated exactly how species evolved over time.

Darwin described evolution as a “tree of life” in which species change like branches on the imaginary tree. Modern genetics show that the tree may not be the best analogy, that it was not nearly as linear or as simple as Darwin made it appear.

Instead, the origins of species looks like an “impenetrable thicket,” with much more crossbreeding between different species than Darwin originally thought. This means a more tangled “web of life” than Darwin sketched out with his tree analogy.

Charles Darwin May Be Wrong On Major Theory is a post from: The Inquisitr

The condition, adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), is a type of scoliosis afflicting patients between 10 and 18 years of age, and is the most common type of pediatric skeletal disease in which the specific cause is not known. Therefore it is termed “idiopathic,” meaning is arises spontaneously from an obscure or unknown cause.

However, many clinical and genetic studies suggest a contribution of genetic factors as approximately 30 percent of AIS patients have some family history of scoliosis. AIS affects about two percent of school-age children, and primarily in those of Asian or Caucasian decent.

Scoliosis is a medical condition in which a person’s spine is curved from side to side in a complex three-dimensional deformity, which exceeds more than 10 degrees when viewed from the coronal plane or sagittal plane. On isolated imaging the spine of a scoliosis patient may look like an “S” or a “C”, rather than a straight line.

Scoliosis is classified as either congenital – caused by vertebral anomalies present at birth, idiopathic – cause unknown, or is secondary to another primary condition. Secondary scoliosis may be the result of any number of neuromuscular conditions like spina bifida, cerebral palsy, or physical trauma.

An estimated 65 percent of scoliosis cases are idiopathic, about 15 percent are congenital, and about 10 percent are secondary to a neuromuscular disease.

The onset of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis generally does not result in immediate discomfort or neurologic symptoms. The curve of the spine does not put pressure on organs nor is there a noticeable shortness of breath seen with AIS, according to the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS).

When scoliosis begins in adolescent patients, often there is some lower back pain. However, lower back pain is not uncommon as  many teens participate in a large number of activities without having good core abdominal and back strength or flexibility. Therefore, the condition is diagnosed by a doctor using tactile and imaging tests.

To correct the curvature, treatments include physical therapy, casting, bracing, and surgery – anterior and posterior fusion.

Research has been ongoing to identify the cause of AIS, including genetic factors. Thus far there are no identifiable causes for this condition, but researchers from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences in Japan believes they’ve isolated the first gene to be associated with AIS.

In the study, published in the journal Nature Genetics, doctors Ikuyo Kou and Shiro Ikegawa, and their team wanted to identify the genes associated with a susceptibility of acquiring the condition, in hopes of understanding the causes and development of scoliosis.

The genome of 1,819 Japanese individuals afflicted with scoliosis were compared it to 25,939 other Japanese individuals. This process allowed the team to identify a gene associated with a susceptibility to develop scoliosis on chromosome 6, GPR126. The association was replicated in Han Chinese and Caucasian populations.

Probable G-protein coupled receptor 126 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the GPR126 gene. This gene encodes a member of the adhesion-GPCR receptor family, characterized by an extended extracellular region with a variable number of N-terminal protein modules coupled to a TM7 region via a domain known as the GPCR-Autoproteolysis INducing (GAIN) domain. It is involved in the process of myelination.

It has also been found that variations in this gene can affect a person’s stature as the gene is involved in the growth and development of the spine during childhood. GPR126 is highly expressed in cartilage and that suppression of this gene leads to delayed growth and bone tissue formation in the developing spine. GPR126 is also plays a role in human height and trunk length.

The researchers concluded, further studies will be necessary to properly elucidate how alterations in the GPR126 amplifies the risk of AIS.

[Image via Shutterstock]

Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Gene Identified is a post from: The Inquisitr

Canadian astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield covered David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” from the International Space Station, and the performance — posted by the frequently tweeting spaceman on Twitter — quickly began making the internet rounds.

Hadfield’s Bowie cover also was posted by the astronaut himself over on Reddit, where he started a thread in the subreddit r/music to announce that he’d fulfilled the request.

In his post, Hadfield said:

“A few months ago, you requested I record Space Oddity. From my last full day on board the International Space Station – I hope you enjoy it.”

The astronaut also cross-posted the pic to r/videos, where it received nearly 3,000 comments and more than 66,000 “upvotes” since it was uploaded 16 hours ago.

Since the clip of Hadfield’s “Space Oddity” cover hit, reaction on social media has been overwhelming — and within an hour, David Bowie himself had actually retweeted the astronaut’s original tweet.

In the thread, redditor Vithar commented poignantly on the impact of Hadfield’s Bowie cover, saying:

“For those of us interested in space, the imagery and music choice was spot on. The thing though, that really does it is that you know its real. Its not special affects. The floating guitar is really floating, its not some computer animation or trickery. The earth turning behind him in the windows is the real deal. Thats us, thats our blue dot, not some stock image, or animation, there she really is our home. The space suites behind him, they have taken people into the void. The video has none of the hollywood fakery we are used to. Its power comes from this authenticity.”

Bowie himself tweeted:

CHRIS HADFIELD SINGS SPACE ODDITY IN SPACE!“Hallo Spaceboy…”Commander Chris Hadfield, currently on… fb.me/24sZNW5ly

— David Bowie Official (@DavidBowieReal) May 12, 2013

Hadfield’s tweet and video:

With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here’s Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World. youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9d…

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) May 12, 2013

What did you think of Chris Hadfield’s David Bowie cover in space?

Astronaut Chris Hadfield Covers Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’, Internet Thrilled is a post from: The Inquisitr

The plague may have contributed to the Roman Empire’s demise, according to researchers. Plague is a fatal disease linked with one of the first known examples of biological warfare, when Mongols catapulted the bodies of plague victims into enemy cities.

Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, has been linked with at least two of the world’s most devastating pandemics. The first was the Great Plague, which started in the 14th century and ended in the 17th.

The Great Plague also included the infamous epidemic called the Black Death, which is thought to have caused the deaths of nearly two-thirds of Europe in the mid-1300s. The second is the Modern Plague, which struck worldwide in the 19th and 20th centuries. It started in China in the mid-1800s before spreading to Africa, the Americas, Australia, Europe, and other parts of Asia.

Past studies have confirmed Y. pestis was linked with both plague catastrophes. However, much controversy existed over whether it caused the Justianic Plague of the sixth to eighth centuries as well. The pandemic was named for the Byzantine emperor Justinian I and killed over 100 million people.

Some historians have attributed this plague to the Roman Empire’s demise. Scientists analyzed ancient DNA from the teeth of 19 sixth-century skeletons from a medieval graveyard in Bavaria, Germany. The skeletons were of people who apparently died from the Justianic Plague.

Researcher Barbara Bramanti, an archaeogeneticist at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, stated that they discovered the plague bacterium. She added, ”It is always very exciting when we can find out the actual cause of the pestilences of the past.”

Researchers say their findings confirm that the Justianic Plague crossed the Alps and killed people in the region now known as Bavaria. DNA analysis also suggests that this pandemic, much like the later two, originated in Asia.

Despite being widely eradicated, the World Health Organization still reports thousands of cases of plague each year. However, docters are able to treat the deadly disease with modern antibiotics.

[Image via ShutterStock]

Plague Contributed To Roman Empire’s Demise [Report] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Astronauts fixed an ammonia coolant leak in the International Space Station on Saturday during an emergency spacewalk. The event was broadcast live on NASA Television and live-streamed on several websites.

The hastily planned spacewalk was undertaken by Christopher Cassidy and Thomas Marshburn, who replaced a pump outside the orbiting lab in the hopes of plugging the leak.

After the pump was replaced, the prospects of success grew as no frozen flecks of ammonia appeared. Mission Control reported that the leak was likely plugged, though it plans additional monitoring over the coming days, and possible weeks, before declaring victory over the problem.

Mission Control reported, “No evidence of any ammonia leakage whatsoever. We have an airtight system — at the moment.” Marshburn and Cassidy installed the new pump after removing the old one, which was suspected of spewing out the vital coolant into space.

During the spacewalk outside the International Space Station, the astronauts didn’t uncover any “smoking guns” responsible for the leak. While significant, NASA assured that the leak never jeopardized the safety of the crew. Despite this, managers wanted to fix the issue as soon as possible, before Marshburn returns to Earth in just a few days.

The spacewalk was the quickest, most impromptu spacewalk staged for a station crew. Even in the days of NASA shuttles, unplanned spacewalks were very uncommon. But flight controllers in Houston worked tirelessly to get ready for Saturday’s operation. They completed all the required preparation in under 48 hours.

Ammonia coolant coursing through the International Space Station’s plumbing is used to cool the structure’s electronic equipment, including its massive solar panels that power the station. There are eight power channels in all and seven of them have operated normally.

While the loss of one power channel doesn’t affect astronauts very much, the loss of two power channels could both threaten science experiments and backup equipment. Cassidy added, “We may not have found exactly the smoking gun … but to pull off what this team did yesterday and today, working practically 48 straight hours, it was a remarkable effort on everybody’s behalf.”

It’s still a mystery why the ammonia leak began on the International Space Station. While ammonia was already seeping somewhat from the location, the flow dramatically increased on Thursday. NASA’s space station program manager Mike Suffredini stated that possibilities include a micrometeorite strike of a flawed seal in the pump.

[Image via NASA]

Astronauts Fix International Space Station Leak During Emergency Spacewalk is a post from: The Inquisitr

Federal scientists disclosed Friday that worldwide levels of the chief greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), has reached an atmospheric saturation level never encountered before.

Carbon dioxide is said to be responsible for global warning, influencing an incremental but perpetual rise in the average temperature of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, as the gas traps heat like a greenhouse.

When first measured in 1958, carbon dioxide was recorded at 315.71 parts per million (ppm). Pre-industrial levels were thought to have been at around 280 ppm – whereas during the Ice Age, levels were estimated at 200.

The rate is especially concerning to climate researchers as a steady increase by an average of two parts per million per year has been seen in the last decade.

The global benchmark was recorded Thursday slightly above 400 ppm in one of the oldest monitoring stations, at the Mauna Loa Observatory located in Hawaii, according to an MSN report. Dr. Pieter Tans, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), states the last time carbon levels were nearly that high were about two million years ago, during the Pleistocene Era. Others suggest as far back as 10 million.

Regardless of what some overly exaggerative environmental advocates will tell you, there are natural up and down cycles with carbon levels – triggered by natural sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide include volcanic outgassing, the combustion of organic matter, wildfires, and the respiration processes of living aerobic organisms. Generally carbon levels peak in May then fall slightly. Therefore, the yearly average is usually a few parts per million lower than May levels. They are usually lowest for the year around October.

Plant and animals are capable of adapting to these gradual fluctuations, but based on the current projections of increase will be unable to adjust after a critical point.

However, the aforementioned causes are not what have driven the unsettling spike in CO2, and surprisingly, according to Tans, the numbers should have been higher. The oceans seem to be absorbing more of the gas, and the 400 ppm was registered based on air saturation.

Tans states the cause is, “100 percent due to human activity,” as just about everything we do renders a consequential carbon footprint.  The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal for electricity and oil for gasoline, has caused the overwhelming volume of the man-made increase in carbon-dense air.

There are several ways to reduce independent carbon emissions: buying local products, being mindful of packaging, energy-proofed housing, ditching bottled water, unplug items when not in use, bike or walk in lieu of driving when possible, and reduce, reuse, and recycle.

[Image via Shutterstock]

Carbon Dioxide Levels Have Reached An All-Time High is a post from: The Inquisitr

The annular solar eclipse of 2013 has started, though the event is only viewable in person to those living in parts of Australia and the Southern Pacific Ocean.

Those in range of the eclipse who have good weather will be treated to an event that will turn the sun into a “ring of fire.” Those in Western Australia should catch their glimpse of the eclipse just as the sun rises above the horizon.

For those who don’t live in that part of the world, the Slooh Space Camera and the Coca-Cola Space Science Center have been live-streaming the 2013 solar eclipse.

Slooh president Patrick Paolucci stated of the event, “We have multiple feeds set-up, so weather permitting, we should have some nice looks. We will be on air for at least a few hours.”

Slooh’s webcast is featuring views from an observatory in Australia, along with expert commentary on the annular eclipse from Paolucci, Slooh outreach coordinator Paul Coxx, Prescott Observatory manager Matt Francis, and Astronomy Magazine contributing editor and writer Bob Berman.

Prescott Observatory in Arizona should also provide some live shots of the sun. The Coca-Cola Space Science Center’s webcast of the 2013 solar eclipse also features live views from Australia. Skywatchers interested in the show and more information can email their questions to webcast@ccssc.org.

The annular solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, casting a shadow on our planet. The moon appears smaller than the sun in the sky, making it appear like a ring of fire. During the eclipse’s peak, 95 percent of the sun is covered by the moon.

Despite the eclipse, the sun will not be noticeably darker. For this reason, observers who can watch the 2013 solar eclipse live are urged to use special protective eyewear to  avoid damage to the eye. The path of the eclipse will be through Australia and into Papua New Guinea. The Solomon Islands, Gilbert Islands, and other parts of the Pacific Ocean will also get to peak at the event.

The annular “ring of fire” solar eclipse is the first of 2013, but it will not be the last. A rare hybrid solar eclipse where an annular eclipse transitions into a total eclipse, will be seen in the northern Atlantic Ocean and into ecuatorial Africa on November 3.

[Image via NASA]

Annular Solar Eclipse Of 2013 Turns Sun Into ‘Ring Of Fire’ [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

The International Space Station is leaking ammonia coolant, according to NASA officials, who assured it poses no immediate danger to the orbiting lab’s crew.

The space station uses chilled liquid ammonia to cool down its massive power systems on its eight solar array panels. A minor leak of the liquid was first seen in 2007.

Since then, NASA has been studying the issue. Two astronauts took a space walk to fix the ammonia leak in November 2012. They repaired some coolant lines and installed a spare radiator over fears that the original radiator may have been damaged from a micrometeorite impact.

At the time, the ISS’s ammonia coolant leak appeared to be solved. However, astronauts on the massive space station noticed a steady stream of frozen ammonia leaking from the area of the suspect coolant loop on Thursday. The loop is located in the Photovoltaic Thermal Control System (PVTCS).

NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries of the Johnson Space Center in Houston explained, “It is in the same area, but we don’t know whether it’s the same leak.” Humphries added that NASA is taking the ammonia leak seriously, because the liquid is vital to the International Space Station’s operation.

Should the station lose its ability to cool that solar array, it will not be able to generate power for the station. The leak is bad enough that Mission Control expects that particular loop to be shut down in the next 24 hours. Despite this, Humphries stressed that “the crew is in no danger.” It is also too soon to speculate whether a spacewalk or other measure will be taken to deal with the issue.

Astronaut Doug Wheelock from Mission Control radioed to space station commander Chris Hadfield, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut on Thursday afternoon, saying, “What you guys have provided in the way of imagery and video has been just like gold to us on the ground. We are fairly confident that it’s coming from the vicinity of the TCS.”

NASA engineers are considering using the International Space Station’s robotic arm to get a closer look at the ammonia coolant leak on Friday.

[Image via NASA]

International Space Station Leaking Ammonia Coolant is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Mars One colony project is seeking astronaut settlers and 78,000 have already applied.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the Mars One colony project will be partially funded as a reality TV show. Garey Busey has already auditioned for Mars One, which makes sense since he’s out of this world anyway.

Mars One is already planning a group of cargo missions in 2016 to set up base camp. The first four colonist are expected to arrive in 2023 at a cost of $6 billion and more settlers will arrive after that. Mars One does not have any plans to bring the Mars Colonist back to earth. In an effort to find the right candidates, the organization has will start accepting video applications for an upcoming reality show.

The Mars One application process, which costs between $5 and $75 depending on where you live, officially opened up on April 22 and officials announced today they have received 78,000 Mars One applications already. Mars One CEO and co-founder Bas Lansdorp said, ”With 78,000 applications in two weeks, this is turning out to be the most desired job in history. These numbers put us right on track for our goal of half a million applicants.”

The Mars One reality TV show will whittle down the first 50 to 100 chosen candidates down to 28 to 40 candidates by 2015. These people will be split into groups of four to compete for the hearts of the audience, who will then vote who gets to be on the first Mars One colony.

Buzz Aldrins believes the goals of Mars One should be matched by NASA and the US:

“The US needs to begin homesteading and settlement of Mars. It is within reach. There is really very little new research that is required. Once humans have reached Mars, establishing a permanent settlement on the planet should be the goal, said the former astronaut. We are talking about multiple missions to eventually settle and colonize Mars.”

Do you think a Mars One colony reality TV show is a good idea, or should space exploration be left to professionals like NASA?

Mars One Colony Reality TV Project Has 78k Astronaut Settler Applicants is a post from: The Inquisitr

What do you get when you mix Google, NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, a bunch of Landsat satellites and TIME Magazine? You get some pretty awesome Google earth timelapse videos.

The internet giant has been working for years to capture geographical changes around the globe. The timelapse videos, which now date back to 1984, show glaciers melting, forests disappearing, and roads being built.

Google writes on its blog: “Today, we’re making it possible for you to go back in time and get a stunning historical perspective on the changes to the Earth’s surface over time. Working with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and TIME, we’re releasing more than a quarter-century of images of Earth taken from space, compiled for the first time into an interactive time-lapse experience. We believe this is the most comprehensive picture of our changing planet ever made available to the public.”

The Google Earth timelapse videos were created from millions of satellite images. You can zoom in on certain parts of the earth or scroll back to see the entire planet change over the last three decades.

The videos show incredible events like the retreat of Alaska’s Columbia Glacier, the artificial Palm Islands in Dubai, the urban growth around Las Vegas and the deforestation of the Amazon in Brazil.

NASA and the USGS joined forces in the 1970s to create Landsat. The satellites have been continuously taking photographs as they orbit around the earth and Google has sifted through millions of them to create the timelapse videos.

A message on the Google blog reads: “Using Google Earth Engine technology, we sifted through 2,068,467 images—a total of 909 terabytes of data—to find the highest-quality pixels (e.g., those without clouds), for every year since 1984 and for every spot on Earth. We then compiled these into enormous planetary images, 1.78 terapixels each, one for each year.”

Here’s a video about the Google Earth Timelapse videos.

Google Earth Timelapse Videos Show Incredible Global Changes [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Scientists have uncovered what they are calling the “Brazilian Atlantis,” a reference to the sunken island thought to lay between Africa and South America.

Discovering Atlantis has been the subject of numerous studies, books, and movies throughout the years, though no sign of the mythical island was found — until now.

Geologists in Brazil, working with scientists from Japan, have now added their claims to speculation over the precise location of the sunken island, first mentioned by Plato around 360 BC.

Experts announced the discovery of granite, a rock formed on dry land, 900 miles off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The Geology Service of Brazil (CPRM) announced the find. CPRM geology director Roberto Ventura Santos added, ”This could be Brazil’s Atlantis. We are almost certain, but we need to strengthen this hypothesis.”

The granite material was apparently found more than 8,000 feet under the sea in a region called the Rio Grande Elevation. The rock was discovered last year when geologists dredged the seabed in the area. Underwater observations from Japan’s Shinkai 6500, a multi-million dollar manned mini-sub, showed more granite formations last month.

Santos added of the discovery, “It is unusual because it is granite rock. And you don’t find granite on the seabed. It is more usual to find it on the mainland.”

When they first found the granite rock, geologists thought they were mistaken. However, the manned sub mission last month bolstered their case. Santos added, “We will have final recognition this year when we conduct drilling in the area to retrieve more samples of these rocks.”

The current thinking on the geologists’ findings is that the land in the Rio Grande Elevation is continental crust. However, further confirmation is needed. Santos added, “We speak of Atlantis more in terms of symbolism. Obviously, we don’t expect to find a lost city in the middle of the Atlantic.”

But if they do, the so-called Brazilian Atlantis could become the mythical lost city.

[Image via ShutterStock]

Scientists Uncover Possible Brazilian Atlantis is a post from: The Inquisitr

Chris Hadfield, International Space Station Commander and William Shatner Twitter buddy, led a worldwide singalong on Monday… from space.

In his final live link from the space station before his return to Earth on May 13, Hadfield took part in a high-tech concert that saw students and musicians from across the globe singing ‘ISS – Is Somebody Singing?’

The song, you may recall, was the first to ever be written and recorded in space, and is a collaboration between Hadfield and Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson.

Hadfield’s space concert was staged to celebrate Music Monday, an annual celebration organized by Canada’s Coalition for Music Education.

While Hadfield strummed his guitar from miles above the earth’s surface, youngsters from countries as far apart as Canada, Australia, and Singapore sang and played intruments.

‘ISS – Is Somebody Singing?’ was commissioned by the Coalition for Music Education and CBCMusic.ca, and revealed much about Hadfield’s creative side. Singer Robertson recalls the song’s creation thus:

“[Chris] created a really poetic, laced-with-technical-info second verse. I was like: ‘Dude, you’re the astronaut. I’m supposed to be the songwriter.’ But it was an awesome surprise.”

The Coalition for Music Education is a non-profit organization that promotes the benefits of music education for young people. The body says it created Music Monday to “celebrate the galvanizing power of music and demonstrate how that power is rooted in school music programs.”

You can watch Chris Hadfield‘s unique space concert below:

Astronaut Chris Hadfield Leads Worldwide Singalong From Space [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Neil Armstrong’s EKG reading from his historic moonwalk in July, 1969 will be sold in an online auction that runs May 16 though May 23.

The Apollo 11 Commander was the first human being to walk on the moon in an event that was televised live despite the primitive communications systems of the late 1960s.

If he experienced any nerves, you sure can’t tell from Neil Armstrong’s EKG strip. Apparently, the low-key astronaut, who avoided fame and lived quietly for the rest of his life after the mission, maintained a relatively low blood pressure — even though he reportedly had less than 20 seconds left of fuel when he landed.

Buzz Aldrin was the second crew member aboard the flight.  He joined Armstrong on the moon’s surface shortly after the historic “giant leap for mankind.”  They spent roughly two and a half hours outside the landing craft.

Armstrong passed away last year at age 82.  Aldrin is retired but occasionally turns up in pop culture.  For example, he played himself in the 2011 film Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon.

According to RR Auctions, which is selling the EKG and some other memorabilia from the lunar mission, the EKG report was saved by the manager of the medical administration for the Johnson Space Center and cut into five pieces to distribute to medical staff who worked on the 1969 trip. This portion represents a six inch strip of the medical reading. The minimum bid is $200 but the price will almost certainly soar far higher.

The Space Reporter said that the item could sell for over $10,000.

The auction house is also selling a number of other Apollo moon mission related items, such as postcards that went to the lunar surface.  There are Aldrin items being offered as well, including a series of transparencies and worksheets that he used to give a presentation in 1984 at Johnson Space Center.

I’m guessing the bidding will be too rich for my blood.  What would you pay for Neil Armstrong’s EKG?

[Neil Armstrong on the moon photo courtesy NASA]

Neil Armstrong EKG Heartbeat Reading To Be Auctioned is a post from: The Inquisitr

A frontier fort was found in Georgia by archaeologists, who say it dates back to the Revolutionary War. The location of Carr’s Fort, where patriot militiamen scored an impressive victory, was unveiled this week.

The militiamen won at Farr’s Fort during a short but violent gun battle, which forced British loyalists to abandon the compound, which was build on a frontiersman’s cattle farm.

More than 234 years after it was abandoned, archaeologists discovered the frontier fort’s remains in northeastern Georgia. They uncovered the location after searching with metal detectors over a four square mile area. Their search turned up horse shoes, rifle parts, musket balls, and old frying pans.

The shootout at Carr’s Fort in February 1779 was a prelude to the more prominent battle of Kettle Creek. The short battle forced men sent to Wilkes County to recruit colonists loyal to the British to turn back. Later on, the same patriot fighters won at Kettle Creek by ambushing and decimating a British force of about 800 men.

Dan Elliott, a Georgia-based archaeologist who worked with a team from the LAMAR Institute to find the frontier fort, explained:

“The war was going badly up north for the British, so they decided to have a southern campaign and shipped a huge amount of troops down here and started recruiting loyal followers. Kettle Creek was probably the best victory that the Georgians ever had in the Revolutionary War.”

Carr’s Fort was built halfway between Athens and Augusta. It was just one of several small outposts on the colonial frontier aimed at defending the settlers against enemy soldiers and hostile Indians. The cattle farm’s owner, Robert Carr, served as captain of a militia company of about 100 men. The company build Carr’s Fort to hold about 300 people.

But the British marched into the frontier fort and took control. Patriots quickly responded, sending 200 men from Georgia and South Carolina to take back control. Surviving records from the Revolution gave archaeologists a general area of where the frontier fort was located, but not its precise coordinates.

While it is not clear if any stockade walls remain, the frontier fort was found through the process of elimination, as no other remnants of fighting were found in the surrounding 2,700 acres searched by Elliott’s team. The artifacts discovered at Carr’s Fort are being cleaned. They will eventually be released to the University of Georgia.

[Image via ShutterStock]

Frontier Fort Found In Georgia From Revolutionary War is a post from: The Inquisitr

All painted turtles might be hatched female by 2100, making it impossible for the species to reproduce. That’s the chilling projection from a team of researchers at Iowa State University based on 25 years of painted turtle hatchlings sexed by Fredric Janzen, who has demonstrated that the sex ratio of the baby turtles is determined by the temperature when the mother lays the eggs.

The beautiful painted turtle, Chrysemys picta, is currently believed to be North America’s most abundant turtle. However, if the team’s mathematical projections are right, it could be doomed.

Lead author Rory Telemeco and colleagues already knew that eggs laid at warmer temperatures are more likely to be females, while eggs laid during cool weather are more likely to be males.

Many other reptiles also have temperature dependent sex ratios, although warm doesn’t always mean female. In American alligators, males are hatched at temperatures greater than 93 degrees Fahrenheit, while females are hatched at temperatures lower than 86 degrees.

To a certain extent, the mother can adjust when and where she lays the eggs to make sure that there are equal numbers of males and females produced. For instance, in the alligator, she might lay in a darker, cooler marsh instead of on a hot, bright levee to make sure that she produced enough females.

In the painted turtle, all female hatches can be avoided if the mother starts laying earlier, when it is still cool enough to allow her to produce some males.

However, the Iowa State University team said that the painted turtle can only shift her egg-laying dates by about 10 days — and they believe that it isn’t enough. Based on current rates of global warming, they predict that every baby painted turtle will be hatched female by the end of this century.

[Western painted turtle photo by RexxS via Wikipedia Commons]

All Painted Turtles Will Be Hatched Female By 2100, Study Says is a post from: The Inquisitr

A so-called carnivore death cave is believed to have lured thousands of animals to their death.

Scientists believe that the creatures became trapped inside the cavern with no means to escape. Researchers have discovered the ancient fossils of thousands of animals who found their way into the cave millions of years ago.

Although scientists tend to discover more herbivores than carnivores in places such as the Cerro de los Batallones cave system, the numbers of bones belonging to meat-eaters greatly outweighed their vegetarian counterparts.

According to a new study, nearly 98 percent of all the fossils found inside the carnivore death cave belonged to meat-eaters. Included among the bones were red pandas, saber-toothed cats, and “bear dogs.”

Researchers also found fossils from animals that are related to modern elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses, and horses.

University of Michigan paleontologist and study co-author M. Soledad Domingo offered an explanation as to why only carnivores were discovered inside the cave system.

“Only the carnivores were daring enough to enter. But they were unable to make their way out,” the author explained.

While the study about the cave was recently released, the area was actually discovered quite a few years ago. Miners reportedly stumbled across the system while digging outside of Madrid back in 1991. When they realized the cave contained a large number of fossils, they called in paleontologists to have a look.

It’s currently believed the system was formed nearly 10 million years ago. Researchers believed that the cave had a visible opening the ground which lured young-adult carnivores inside. Unfortunately, many of the animals became trapped in the cave.

Nearly 18,000 fossils have been discovered inside the system as of this writing. Many of the bones belong to animals that were previously unknown to scientists before the discovery of the cave.

Researchers are unclear when the carnivore death cave was filled in. However, paleontologist are continuing to investigate the area in hopes of learning more about the system and the animals found inside.

[Image via Shutterstock]

Carnivore Death Cave Contains Thousands Of Animal Fossils is a post from: The Inquisitr

Researchers claim they have definitive proof of how Jamestown settlers survived the “Starving Time” – cannibalism.

Experts at Preservation Virginia, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institute have been working together on a collaborative archaeological and forensic project – called the Jamestown Rediscovery – at the site of James Fort, one of the earliest settled regions of Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.

The initial rediscovery project began in 1994. Although much of the area and its remains were thought to have eroded beneath the wake of the James River, several historically significant artifacts were retained.

The foundation of the James Fort was discovered in 1996, and an assiduous process of excavation has been underway ever since to probe and preserve the historical area. James Fort was first founded in May 1607 and considered the first permanent English settlement.

Recently, it has been determined, as many had already suspected, that permanent settlers of Jamestown in Colonial America ultimately resorted to cannibalism in order to survive the harsh conditions of the 1609-1610 winter – commonly referred to as the Starving Time.

The Starving Time was an especially brutal period of starvation from 1609-1610 where all but 60 of the near 500 colonists perished.

The initial settlers did not plan to grow their own food, but assumed they’d establish trade with the local Native Americans’ Powhatan Confederacy – a Virginia confederation of Indian tribes. They assumed this tactic would adequate supply them between the arrivals of ships from England.

The growing season of 1609 incurred an ill-timed drought, leaving the fields barren. When fleets did arrive from England, often months behind schedule, they would come with new colonists but without a surplus of supplies.

A lack of regular rations, inconsistent access to water limited agricultural production, and a failure to establish trade with the locals eventually led to dire measures.

Archaeologists have found evidence that colonists ate cats, dogs, horses, and rats. In was also suggested, based on some credible evidence, corpses were dug up and human flesh was eaten. Some people have even inferred the survivors went as far as murder and then cannibalized their victims.

Previous written accounts suggested the desperate measures undertaken by the colonists, but no physical evidence had been found until recently. Based on the forensically studied physical findings – a mutilated skull of a teenage girl scattered amongst the debris of a cellar room at the site of James Fort – archaeologists unquestionably believe the first settlers were cannibals.

The 14-year-old – whose skull and additional fragmented remains were deposited among other butchered animal parts within proximity to two cellar ovens – was given a reconstructive likeness as to how she might have appeared. She has been named Jane, Jane of Jamestown.

Tool marks marred along key points of the skull reveal aborted attempts to pry into the vault where the brain would have been as well as multiple cut impressions along the maxilla indicative of cannibalism.

Disturbingly, “the evidence is absolutely consistent with dismemberment and de-fleshing of this body,” according to Doug Owsley, a forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Per the written accounts of the chilling ordeal, both Captain John Smith and colony leader George Percy scribed of a “world of miseries,” detailing the exhumation of corpses which were feasted upon when there was nothing else. Or how in one case a man killed his pregnant wife, “powdered (salted) her,” and ate her. The man was later executed according to Smith’s account.

Archaeologists at Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, and several other experts and historians were somewhat skeptical of the exaggerated cannibalism lore until now.

[Image Jane reconstructed likeness from the Jamestown Rediscovery]

Scientists Find Evidence Of Cannibalism At Jamestown Settlement is a post from: The Inquisitr

A Civil War death moon is being blamed for General Jackson’s demise.

In the spring of 1863, south Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson seemed to be gaining momentum in northern Virginia. But the battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia saw Jackson’s own men inadvertently shooting him during the night at the order of Confederate officer John D. Barry, who was said by family to have died from depression and guilt two years later

General Jackson was wounded in his left arm during the incident. Jackson died from complications from having his left arm amputated. Jackson’s arm was actually buried separately from his body.

Astronomer Don Olson and researcher Laurie E. Jasinski from Texas State University believe a Civil War death moon can be blamed. They claim that when the  18th North Carolina Infantry Regiment fired upon Jackson they did not realize it was their own men because of the glare of the full moon lighting up the background.

The researchers reconstructed the night of Jackson’s shooting using maps and moon phase charts. They also used the writings of a confederate captain, which said, ”The Moon was shining very brightly, rendering all objects in our immediate vicinity distinct… The Moon poured a flood of light upon the wide, open turnpike.”

But if the night was bright then how did the Confederates mistake Jackson and the reconnaissance party for the enemy? The two researchers explain their Civil War death moon hypothesis:

“The 18th North Carolina was looking to the southeast, directly toward the rising moon. The bright moon would’ve silhouetted Jackson and his officers, completely obscuring their identities. Our astronomical analysis partially absolves the 18th North Carolina from blame for the wounding of Jackson.”

What do you think about this Civil War death moon hypothesis about General Jackson?

Civil War Death Moon Blamed For General Jackson’s Demise is a post from: The Inquisitr

A tiny “alien” skeleton measuring only six inches long has 91 percent human DNA according to the Sirius documentary.

Back in 2003, the six inch mummified remains of a tiny “alien” skeleton were found in Chile’s Atacama Desert a decade ago. The ”alien” skeleton was used as evidence that aliens had once visited Earth, but now we’re finding the tiny “alien” skeleton is just as Earthly as the rest of us.

Some of the original explanations for the tiny “alien” skeleton assumed it was of a monkey or human fetus to explain its small size. But now they’re finding this male human child was somewhere between six to eight years old. The small humanoid has become known as the “Atacama Humanoid” and nicknamed Ata.

Physician and Disclosure Project founder Dr. Steven Greer explained how they investigated the tiny “alien”‘ skeleton:

“After six months of research by leading scientists at Stanford University, the Atacama Humanoid remains a profound mystery. We traveled to Barcelona Spain in late September 2012 to obtain detailed X-Rays, CAT scans and take genetic samples for testing at Stanford University. We obtained excellent DNA material by surgically dissecting the distal ends of two right anterior ribs on the humanoid.”

Garry Nolan, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford School of Medicine, has been studying the tiny alien skeleton since fall of 2012 in an attempt to explain the shape of its skull and the 10 ribs when a normal, healthy human has 12.

After seeing the DNA results, Nolan gave his opinion on the tiny “alien” skeleton:

“While the jury is out regarding the mutations that cause the deformity, and there is a real discrepancy in how we account for the apparent age of the bones, every nucleotide I’ve been able to look at is human. I’ve only scratched the surface in the analysis. But there is nothing that jumps out so far as to scream ‘nonhuman.’ ”

Photo: A tiny “alien” skeleton puzzled scientists after research was conducted to learn more about the… tmblr.co/ZvIUovjzAQYZ

— Mario Hemsley (@mariohemsley) May 1, 2013

What do you think about this tiny “alien” skeleton now that we know its human?

Tiny ‘Alien’ Skeleton Atacama Humanoid Contains Human DNA is a post from: The Inquisitr

A no-wash shirt might be the answer for those of you out there who hate doing laundry.

A New York City startup by the name of Wool & Prince has created a shirt that needs very little maintenance. The button-down shirt is made from soft wool that doesn’t need ironing or cleaning. In fact, a person could wear it for 100 days in a row without taking it to the cleaners.

According the company’s founder, the idea came from the fact that guys will wear jeans several days in a row without giving them a good cleansing. Button-down shirts, however, need to be washed after every wear.

The company’s motto is simple: “A wool shirt worn for 100 days straight. No washing. No dry cleaning. No wrinkles. No odor.”

The so-called Better Button-Down shirt had a Kickstarter goal of $30,000. As of this writing, the company has generated an impressive $164,000. The campaign still has 21 days to go.

Wool & Price explains the benefits of its shirts:

“Normal button-downs wrinkle and smell after a wear or two. This requires harsh washing, dry-cleaning, and ironing which slowly wears down the shirt until it is worn out after 2-3 years. Well then … what now? We found that guys love jeans for their versatile, low-maintenance nature, but didn’t have an above-the-waist option that even came close … until now.”

The company claims to have spent six months developing its Cotton-Soft wool fabric, which is reportedly six times softer than cotton. What’s even more impressive is that the no-wash shirt is naturally wrinkle and odor-free.

One of these maintenance-free shirts can be yours at the Kickstarter price of $98. It’s unclear how much Wool & Price tends to charge for the apparel if and when it hits retail racks.

If you’re curious to see more about the no-wash — including a video which digs into the finer details about the product — be sure to stop by the Kickstarter site.

[Images via Wool & Prince]

No-Wash Shirt Won’t Stink Up Your Closet For 100 Days is a post from: The Inquisitr

There aren’t too many options when choosing your flight to the International Space Station. When NASA sends astronauts to the ISS aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, it will have to pay about $70 million per seat.

CBS reports that NASA will pay $424 million in order to get its astronauts to the International Space Station in 2016 and 2017. That works out to about $70 million per seat. But don’t worry, the training for the six astronauts is included in the price.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden criticized congress for putting NASA in its current position. Bolden said that if congress would have granted the agency’s request for more funding it wouldn’t have to shell out millions to hitch a ride to the ISS.

Bolden said: “Because the funding for the President’s plan has been significantly reduced, we now won’t be able to support American launches until 2017. Even this delayed availability will be in question if Congress does not fully support the President’s fiscal year 2014 request for our Commercial Crew Program, forcing us once again to extend our contract with the Russians. Further delays in our Commercial Crew Program and its impact on our human spaceflight program are unacceptable. That’s why we need the full $821 million the President has requested in next year’s budget to keep us on track to meet our 2017 deadline and bring these launches back to the United States.

There are a few companies working on private spacecrafts at the moment but NASA won’t be able to utilize those for at least a few more years.

Bolden continued: “NASA is committed to launching our astronauts on American spacecraft from U.S. soil as soon as possible. Since the end of our Space Shuttle Program in 2011, NASA has relied on the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) for the launch and safe return of astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) aboard its Soyuz spacecraft. While our Russian counterparts have been good partners, it is unacceptable that we don’t currently have an American capability to launch our own astronauts.”

NASA To Pay $70 Million Per Seat On Russian Rocket is a post from: The Inquisitr

A monster hurricane was spotted on Saturn by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Scientists were treated to beautiful high-resolution photos and video, which show the behemoth storm swirling around Saturn’s north pole.

The hurricane’s eye is about 1,250 miles wide, or about 20 times larger than the average hurricane’s eye on Earth. Thin, bright clouds traveling around the hurricane’s edge are moving as fast as 330 miles per hour.

Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, recalled:

“We did a double take when we saw this vortex because it looks so much like a hurricane on Earth. But there it is at Saturn, on a much larger scale, and it is somehow getting by on the small amounts of water vapor in Saturn’s hydrogen atmosphere.”

The monster Saturn hurricane is surprising, not only for its resemblance to the storms on Earth but also for its beauty. At first glance, the monster storm looks like a red rose with green surrounding it. Scientists believe that the storm has been churning for years.

The gas giant’s north pole was dark when Cassini first arrived in 2004 because the planet was in the middle of its north polar winter. While it waited for a glimpse, the NASA probe detected a vortex. However, it was not able to view the northern hemisphere until the passing of the equinox in August 2009.

Also, unlike the hurricanes on Earth, Saturn’s monster hurricane has not drifted. Instead, the bright red storm remains stuck at the north pole because it is already as far north as it can go. Kunio Sayanagi, a Cassini imaging team associate at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, explained, “The polar hurricane has nowhere else to go, and that’s likely why it’s stuck at the pole.”

The image of the monster hurricane was captured on November 27, 2012 and is one of the first views of Saturn’s sunlit north pole. The image’s colors have been adjusted. While the green colors indicate low clouds, the red indicates high.

[Images via NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI]

Monster Hurricane On Saturn Spotted By Cassini [Photo] is a post from: The Inquisitr

A robot the size of a lawnmower discovered three burial chambers under the ancient Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Mexico.

The temple, an ancient pyramid, is part of the archaeological site of Teotihuacan, a massive complex of temples and pyramids about 31 miles northeast of Mexico City.

The team expected to find just one chamber in the last section of the tunnel, which runs under the Temple of Quetzalcoatl. Instead, they discovered three. The chambers are believed to have been used by Teotihuacan’s rulers about 2,000 years ago for royal ceremonies or burials.

However, they are hidden with mud and rubble, making it so they haven’t been explored in modern times.

Enter Tlaloc II-TC. The three-foot-long robot was designed to drive through tight spaces. It was equipped with a video camera and mechanical arms to clear obstacles from its path.

Team leader Sergio Gomez previously stated that there was a “high possibility that in this place, in the central chamber, we can find the remains of those who ruled Teotihuacan.” The current project follows up an earlier exploration by Tlaloc I, performed in 2010.

The ancient city was once an influential part of the Mesoamerican culture. However, little is known about the city’s rulers as archaeologists have yet to find depictions of a ruler or any tomb of a monarch.

Archaeologists have already uncovered about 250 feet of the Quetzalcoatl tunnel, but 100 feet remains in the final section. The tunnel appears to be similar to the one that runs underneath Teotihuacan’s Pyramid of the Sun. After they complete robotic reconnaissance, archaeologists are expected to clear out the final section for exploration.

At one time, the city of Teotihuacan, built almost 2,000 years ago, had more than 125,000 residents. But what was once one of the largest cities in the world is now in ruin. It was abandoned several centuries later for reasons archaeologists have yet to discover. Archaeologists using radar technology first discovered the tunnel under the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in 2011.

The latest discovery of three burial chambers beneath the temple is not as surprising to scientists as it probably should be. The temple has already yielded several surprising finds including a mass burial pit inside the temple’s core. Discovered in the late 1980s, the pit contained the remains of about 200 warriors and their weapons. Most of the skeletons had their hands tied behind their backs, suggesting that they were sacrificed.

The city, built before the Aztecs rose to power, was called “The Place Where Men Became Gods” by the ancient race. Archaeologists hope that the three burial chambers beneath the ancient temple will yield evidence of a ruler or monarch from the long-abandoned city.

[Image via jschmeling]

Robot Discovers Burial Chambers Under Ancient Temple is a post from: The Inquisitr

Sara Volz is not your everyday high school science student.

The 17-year-old, who memorized the first 80 digits of “pi” in sixth grade, is bidding to develop an alternative fuel. From her bedroom. Which also contains a $100,000 laboratory.

Volz came to the media’s attention earlier this week when President Obama hosted the annual White House Science Fair and namechecked the super-smart high school senior:

“We got Sara Volz, who is breeding new types of algae. Where’s Sara? [Volz stands up to audience applause]. There’s Sara. Sara is breeding new types of algae. She stores them in a lab in her room. So Sara, you have very supportive parents.”

“Supportive” may be an understatement. CBS reports that the teen has a state-of-the-art laboratory beneath her bed in her Colorado Springs home. She’s currently using the high-end equipment to try and convert algae into an alternative fuel source. The young scientist tells CBS:

“For most of my growth experiments, they have to be very closely monitored. Sometimes I’m sampling every day or more than once a day. And so for that I need something a little closer to home.”

But don’t go thinking Sara is pampered. Much of her laboratory was paid for after she won $100,000 in the Intel Science Talent Search. That money will also be used to pay for her tuition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which Volz will attend from next fall.

“I’m thinking I want to go into academia,” says the teenage phenomenon. “So do basically what I’m doing, except with better labs.”

Sarah, who also teaches and writes tests for her high school’s science Olympiad team, adds:

“As human beings, we are scientists, because we’re curious, we question. That’s what science is.”

[Image via Shutterstock]

17-Year-Old Science Prodigy Has $100,000 Lab In Her Bedroom is a post from: The Inquisitr

Earthquakes in Chile have cracked and deformed the Earth, according to a news study on quakes in the South American country. While tremors have been known to wreak havoc on the planet’s surface, more than 100 years of research suggests that the Earth mostly rebounds from them.

Blocks of the world’s crust have been seen springing back to where they were before over the course of months and sometimes years.

This kind of rebounding was first seen during investigations of the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which caused the destruction of more than 80 percent of the city.

The rebound can now be documented through satellite-based GPS systems that monitor how the Earth moved. But structural geologist Richard Allmendinger of Cornell University, along with his colleagues, believe that major earthquakes of magnitude 7 or more have caused the earth’s crust in northern Chile to crack permanently. Allmendinger explained:

“My graduate students and I originally went to northern Chile to study other features. While we were there, our Chilean colleague, Professor Gabriel Gonzalez of the Universidad Catolica del Norte, took us to a region where these cracks were particularly well-exposed.”

Allmendinger recalled being both awe-struck by the features and also curious as to how they formed. The marks and cracks in the Earth gave him and other researchers a unique record of earthquakes going back for millions of years. Allmendinger added that most analyses of ancient earthquakes only probe cycles of two to four of the ancient tremors. However, with Chile “our record of upper plate cracking spans thousands of earthquake cycles.”

The record helped the researchers examine their average behavior over a much longer time period. They discovered during the research that a small but significant 1 to 10 percent of the deformation of the earth caused by 2,000 to 9,000 earthquakes over the past 800,000 to one million years was permanent. Allmendinger explained:

“It is only in a place like the Atacama Desert that these cracks can be observed — in all other places, surface processes erase them within days or weeks of their formation, but in the Atacama, they are preserved for millions of years. We have every reason to believe that our results would be applicable to other areas, but is simply not preserved for study the way that it is in the Atacama Desert.”

The findings were published in the journal Nature Geoscience on April 28.

[Image via ShutterStock]

Earthquakes In Chile Deformed The Earth [Study] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Instead of accusing people of being like sheep or lemmings, perhaps it would be more accurate to compare the willingness to conform to acceptable social norms that people try adhering to as more monkey-like.

Field researchers from the University of St. Andrews and University of Neuchâtel identified similar tendencies to adopt the behavior of others in non-human primates; copying in hopes of fitting in with new groups. The findings could explain the evolution of the human desire to seek out local knowledge when visiting a new place or culture, according to Science Daily.

Dr. Erica van de Waal and Professor Andrew Whiten of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, along with Christèle Borgeaud of the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, noticed the “when in Rome” attitude while observing social learning in South African primates.

Erica van de Waal is a research fellow in the school of psychology and neuroscience at the University of St. Andrews, along with her colleague, an evolutionary psychologist, Professor Andrew Whiten. She regularly conducts field research examining learning among groups of wild vervet monkeys. She holds a PhD from the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.

Vervet monkeys are typically used in comparative scientific models for understanding genetic and social behaviors of humans. Vervets live in small social groups – 10 to 50 individuals – with males shifting among different groups at sexual maturity. When they do, the males will typically conform to the “local social norms” of their new clan.

In the most recent study, hailed as proof of cultural transmission in primates, researchers witnessed a monkey see monkey do willingness to conform among wild male vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) even when the behavior didn’t make sense to them.

The team originally planned to measure how infant monkeys are maternally influenced but instead discovered a powerful influence of cultural bonds beyond familial bonds.

In the initial study, published in the journal Science, the researchers provided two groups of wild monkeys with a box of maize corn dyed pink and another dyed blue. The blue corn was intentionally made to taste repulsive and the monkeys soon learned to only eat pink. Two other groups were trained in this way to eat only blue corn.

New generations of infants were later offered both colors of food, this time neither tasting badly, and the adult monkeys present appeared to remember which color they had previously preferred. Nearly every infant mimicked this dietary color preference.

Additional social discoveries emerged when males began to migrate between groups during the mating season. The researchers found that, of the ten males who moved to groups eating a different colored corn contrary to the one they were used to, all but one switched to the new local norm almost immediately. The one who didn’t switch was considered an alpha and seemed unconcerned with adjusting to new habits.

[Image via Wikicommons, taken in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania by Alexander Landfair]

Like Humans, Monkeys Conform To Social Norms is a post from: The Inquisitr

Saturn will be at its closest point to Earth early on Sunday morning when it reaches opposition. This will place it exactly opposite the sun in our sky.

Opposition has several effects on Saturn, the most important of which marks its arrival in the evening sky. Now, the planet will be visible in our sky all night long.

On Saturday and Sunday night, Saturn will be found in the southeastern sky, provided the weather is cooperating. Along with its arrival in our sky, Saturn’s opposition to the sun also marks its brightest point. This year is particularly special, since the ringed planet will be the brightest it has been in several years.

Astronomers say that Saturn will be at magnitude 0.2, meaning it will outshine the first magnitude star Spica in the constellation Virgo. They measure the brightness of he night sky in terms of magnitude. Lower numbers mean that the star or planet is brighter.

It is easy to spot Saturn in the Earth’s night sky, especially with how bright it will be. If the sky is clear, one can follow the old rule, “Arc to Arcturus, then speed on to Spica.” Meaning you can start by following the arc the Big Dipper’s handle forms. Follow it away from the Dipper’s bowl in a broad arc across the sky.

You will reach Arcturus in the kite-shaped Bootes, then move on to Spica. Saturn can be found in the constellation Virgo. Spica will sparkle in the sky on the right, while Saturn will appear steady on the left. While a star generally appears to be twinkling in the night sky, a planet like Saturn will be more steady, because it appears larger and its light is less affected by atmospheric turbulence.

While a night observer will be able to easily spot Saturn, it is likely you will need a telescope to view the planet’s iconic rings. Some people have claimed to see the rings without a telescope. However, most will need a magnification of about 25 power to spot them. Along with its rings, the planet boasts 62 moons. However, even its brightest moons likely won’t be seen easily.

Are you planning on searching for Saturn at its closest point in Earth’s sky?

[Image via ShutterStock]

Saturn Is Closest To Earth On Sunday is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Earth’s core is as hot as the sun’s surface, according to a new study published in the journal Science. The study took measurements that suggest the planet’s inner core is much higher than prior measurements suggested.

The new research puts the temperature at 6,000 degrees Celsius, or as hot as the surface of the sun. The Earth’s core is solid  crystallized iron, surrounded by liquid. However, the temperature at which the crystal can form has been hotly debated.

Measurements taken of iron’s “melting curves” in the early 1990s suggested that the planet’s core temperature is about 5,000 degrees Celsius. However, experiments outlined in the new study used x-rays to probe tiny samples of iron at massive pressures to examine ho iron crystals can form and melt.

Seismic waves that are captured after earthquakes around the world can also give a lot of information as to what thickness and density each layer of the Earth is. However, they do not give an indication of temperature. The measurement has to be either worked out in computer models simulating the inside of the earth, or in the lab.

Agnes Dewaele of the French research agency CEA and a co-author of the new research, stated of the 1990s measurements:

“It was just the beginning of these kinds of measurements to they made a first estimate … to constrain the temperature inside the Earth. Other people made other measurements and calculations with computers and nothing was in agreement. It was not good for our field that we didn’t agree with each other.”

But scientists were able to come up with the new conclusion using an experimental setting and x-ray defraction. They saw how iron crystals were able to hold under extreme pressure. They then extrapolated their results to higher temperatures, concluding that the melting point of iron is at 330 gigapascal 00 though to be the same as the temperature of the boundary of the Earth’s inner core.

[Image via ShutterStock]

Earth’s Core As Hot As Sun’s Surface, New Study Says is a post from: The Inquisitr

The lunar eclipse on Thursday night was something of a “blink and you’ll miss it” event — but, for the lucky few who saw the show, the so-called Pink Moon apparently made a great impression.

In this mini event, the moon had just about the teeniest, tiniest bit of earth’s inner shadow cast onto its surface that you can imagine and still call it any kind of eclipse. According to Universe Today, less than a measly 1.5 percent of the moon’s disc was thrown into full shadow.

And the event itself lasted a trifling 27 minutes, instead of the several hours that many lunar eclipses may take.

It wasn’t visible at all in the western hemisphere, but there were viewers in parts of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and even western Australia.

I think we’ve all seen lunar eclipses that are various shades of red and orange over the years. Therefore, most of us were intrigued by the nickname “Pink Moon.”

Alas, the name comes not from any possible chance that the moon would turn pink. Instead, it arises from the fact that the partial eclipse came in April, which links it to the spring flower season.

The pictures are starting to be sorted and posted on various sites.

I can highly recommend Space‘s photo album, which includes a fine shot of the partly eclipsed moon seen through flowering trees.

However, the Universe Today photo page is also a stand-out, particularly the shot that catches an airplane flying across the moon during the eclipse.

One tweet from Italy did a marvelous job of summing up the event:

#Lunar Eclipse #foto Fulvio Crotti Spreafico el 25 de abril 2013 en Bergamo, #Italia twitter.com/Estacion_bcp/s…

— Meteo – Estacion bcp (@Estacion_bcp) April 26, 2013

Even if it wasn’t really pink, I would have enjoyed seeing that lunar eclipse.

[lunar eclipse photo by Anton Croos via Wikipedia Commons]

Lunar Eclipse Wows Lucky Skywatchers is a post from: The Inquisitr

A meteorite crashed into a house in Wolcott, Connecticut on Friday night. The story might sound a little whackadoo, but scientists at the Yale Peabody Museum (YPM) have now examined that destructive baseball-sized rock and confirmed that it came from outer space.

Homeowner Larry Beck heard the sound of what he thought was a joint snapping, but he didn’t enter the attic and discover the real culprit until Saturday morning. That’s when he called the Wolcott Police Department, although I’m not sure what he thought that the long arm of the law was supposed to do about it.

Considering the timing of the event on April 20, the rock that tore through Beck’s roof and kitchen ceiling may have been related to the Lyrid meteor shower that peaked last weekend.

Stefan Nicolescu, a mineralogy expert for YPM, said that the specimen had a black “fusion crust” that came from the skin being burned at high speed as the space rock entered the atmosphere.

Apparently, Connecticut is something of a shooting gallery for meteors. The first meteorite ever found in North America fell in Weston in 1807. Three other important meteorites have hit since, including two others that struck houses.

The Wolcott crash landing makes it a grand total of three homes in Connecticut that have now been hit by meteorites.

Friday night’s meteor shower was reportedly explosive enough to be heard 40 miles away, and there are six known places where meteorites fell, including the Beck home in Wolcott.

Of course, the burning issue for Larry Beck is: “Will my insurance cover this mess?”

After the infamous February meteorite strike in Russia, a lot of people were inspired to take a second look at their homeowner’s policies, which sometimes exclude so-called “acts of God.” CNN Money confirmed at that time that insurers have indeed traditionally paid out for those meteorite hits.

If you’re really worried, you should always check with your own insurance agent. However, if a meteorite crashes through your house, you’re probably covered.

[meteor photo courtesy Brocken Inaglory and Wikipedia Commons]

Meteorite Crashes Into House, Space Origin Of Rock Confirmed is a post from: The Inquisitr

A new Stonehenge theory suggests that the ancient ruins may have been a hunting site. The new theory comes after archaeologists discovered a site with evidence dating roughly 5,000 years before the structure was built.

The site, which was occupied continuously for more than 3,000 years, also had evidence of burning, thousands of flint tool fragments, and the bones of wild aurochs.

Together, the data suggests that the area around Stonehenge could have been an auroch migration route. The site could have been for feasting in ancient times, with the migration route drawing different cultures in the region together for the purpose of hunting the extinct giant cows.

Lead researcher David Jacques of the Open University in the United Kingdom, stated, “We may have found the cradle of Stonehenge, the reason why it is here.”

The mystery surrounding the ancient stone structure has existed for decades and new Stonehenge theories are ruthlessly debated among scholars. The stone structure was erected about 5,000 years ago in the plains of Wiltshire, England. But no one can definitively say why the giant stone structure was built.

Some theories for its existence include a burial ground, a place of worship, a sun calendar, a symbol of unity, or even that Stonehenge was created because of a sound illusion. The structure consists of large megaliths, also called sarsens. They are up to 30 feet tall and weigh upwards of 25 tons.

It also includes smaller bluesones, which weigh up to four tons. Researchers believe the massive boulders came from a quarry near Marlborough Downs, which is 20 miles from the mysterious site. The bluestones likely came from Preseli Hills in Wales. The hills are almost 156 miles from it.

The new Stonehenge theory could also help identify the people who first built the massive structure. Aside from a few giant pine posts that could be totem poles, which were raised between 8,500 and 10,000 years ago, there has been little evidence of occupation predating Stonehenge. The new research also suggests that the ancient boulders could have been raised in honor of the sacred hunting ground.

Do you think Stonehenge is a sacred hunting ground? What about an ancient burial ground?

[Image via ShutterStock]

New Stonehenge Theory Suggests Ancient Hunting Site is a post from: The Inquisitr

A green galaxy has been discovered using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced Tuesday. Once they spotted the faint red galaxy with the infrared camera, they took a deeper look with the Hubble Space Telescope.

If you can see the tiny red dot in the above photo from NASA, you’re looking at a galaxy with a nearly 100 percent efficiency at creating new stars.

That’s right. You’re quick. The green galaxy isn’t green in the optical light spectrum.

Instead, it’s green in the sense that it’s super fuel efficient. NASA explained that the Hubble studies revealed that the most of the starlight in this unusual galaxy is coming from a small region a fraction of the size of our own Milky Way galaxy.

Yet, within that relatively small region, stars are forming at hundreds of times the rate that they form in our own galaxy.

“This is a case of star formation at its most extreme,” JPL said in their statement announcing the discovery.

Jim Geach of Canada’s McGill University and lead author of a study on the galaxy published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters is equally enthusiastic: “This galaxy…[is] converting its gas supply into new stars at the maximum rate thought possible.”

By the way, don’t you love the names of rare and distant galaxies? This one goes by the moniker SDSSJ1506+54.

I like that +54. That’s the kind of galaxy that doesn’t tolerate any nonsense. It’s just fast and efficient, going about the business of making baby stars as fast as it can possibly pump ‘em out.

“We see some gas outflowing from this galaxy at millions of miles per hour, and this gas may have been blown away by the powerful radiation from the newly formed stars,” said Ryan Hickox, a Dartmouth College astrophysicist who is a co-author on the study.

And I thought my dad’s Scion was reasonably fuel efficient. But none of us can keep up with the newly discovered green galaxy.

[green galaxy photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/IRAM]

Green Galaxy Almost 100 Percent Fuel Efficient, NASA Says is a post from: The Inquisitr

Scientists surveying an ancient lake have discovered a mysterious structure in its depths.

The investigators made the discovery while scanning the bottom of the Sea of Galilee in Israel using sonar equipment. Although the discovery was made almost a decade ago, scientists still aren’t quite sure what it is.

Tel Aviv University geophysicist Shmuel Marco explained that the bottom of a lake is generally very smooth. However, the floor of this ancient lake contains a large unidentified mound. Scientists believe the structure was created on dry land before it was submerged.

As for how it was discovered, Marco added that the team kind of “bumped into it.”

The cone-shaped structure is believed to weigh a whopping 60,000 tons. While scientists aren’t quite sure what it was used for prior to being submerged, one theory suggests that it could be some sort of memorial or marker.

Unfortunately for researchers, the location of the structure in the ancient lake has made it difficult to properly determine what it is.

Archaeologist Yitzhak Paz explained:

“If the site was inland, it would be much easier to investigate. By now we would have excavated, but because it’s submerged we haven’t yet been able to. It is a much harder process, both physically and financially. It is very expensive to raise support for such an enterprise.”

University of Haifa archaeologist Dani Nadel believes the mysterious mound could be some sort of ceremonial structure or a ramp. However, Nadel doesn’t think anyone should draw a definitive conclusion until more research it conducted.

The archaeologist added:

“The truth is we don’t know how it was constructed, what its exact age is, how it was used, or how long ago it was used. We have several speculations, but we don’t know much except that it’s there and it’s huge.”

Although very little is currently known about the structure located at the bottom of the ancient lake, scientists believe it was made by human hands.

Ancient Lake Hides Mysterious Structure is a post from: The Inquisitr

After Earth may be just a science fiction story about the changes that will take place on our home planet over the next 1,000 years, but the movie is starting a real discussion on the future of Earth.

In a Google+ Hangout earlier this week followed up Earth Day, the stars of After Earth joined SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, futurist Ray Kurzweil, Alexandra Cousteau, and a group of students to talk about the future of our planet.

After Earth stars Will Smith and his son Jaden and is set 1,000 years after cataclysmic events forced humans to escape from the planet.

That’s been a topic close to the heart of one of the Google + Hangout participants. Kurzweil has been keen to predict the future of our planet including the rise of nanotechnology that will allow us to treat diseases from within our bodies thanks to tiny robots.

“It looks like great entertainment, but it raises some profound issues (about the future of the planet),” Kurzweil said about After Earth.

Will Smith said he was pleased to see After Earth starting a real discussion about Earth and its future.

“With this film it was such a perfect collision of art entertainment, education and a posing of fantastic questions,” Smith said during hangout. “As an artist, this film does exactly what I always dreamed to be able to do with entertain and to also be able to pose interesting questions.”

Elon Musk, who founded the private spaceflight company SpaceX leads the Tesla electric car company, said the film addresses the kind of issues that humans will face sooner than later.

“I think we want to be a space-faring civilization,” Musk said during the event. “Either we’re a space-faring civilization or we’re going to be bound to the Earth until some kind of extinction event (occurs).”

That idea has been a popular theme in science fiction, with movies like the Planet of the Apes series exploring Earth and the decisions humans have made in its care.

After Earth comes out April 26.

‘After Earth’ Sparks Real Discussion On Future Of Our Planet is a post from: The Inquisitr

Looks like the folks at NASA operating the Mars Rovers get bored from time to time, just like everyone else. One Redditor pointed out that a rover had apparently drawn a penis on the planet’s surface, seen in an image that made the official NASA website.

If you really like space stuff and are super interested in the Mars Rover project, you can jog on over to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory website and read about all of the behind-the-scenes fun that makes the Mars Rovers project what it is.

If that’s a little over your head, then your eyes are likely to wander like Redditor aggrazel’s did, to an image of a Mars Rover’s tread marks shaped conspicuously like a giant dong.

Aggrazel put the image on Reddit with the caption “”Mars Rover = $800M, Team to Operate = $1B. Drawing a penis on the surface of another planet = Priceless,” and it has been upvoted into the stratosphere.

From the comments, it appears as though NASA’s JPL page became so popular from the post that it experienced errors and even periodic blackouts. There’s even talk on one thread of an inadvertent DDOS attack which replaced the entire page with the image of the Mars Rover’s penis drawing, but we were unable to see that for ourselves, beyond the before-and-after link provided.

What do you think of the Mars Rover’s penis drawing? Intentional, accidental, awkward? Sound off below!

Mars Rover Draws Penis In The Red Planet, The Internet Notices is a post from: The Inquisitr

Space debris, often called space junk, is a growing hazard in low-earth orbit. This week’s 6th European Conference on Space Debris is currently being held in Darmstadt, Germany to allow members of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the concerned public to address the problem of space junk leftover from the approximately 4,900 launches that have occurred from the beginning of the Space Age in the late 1950s through 2012.

The ESA said that the bulk of the space junk comes from two sources — 240 explosions in orbiting craft and “fewer than 10 known collisions” between two or more orbiting craft. They said that both American and European estimates agree that there are over 23,000 objects larger than 5 to 10 centimeters spinning around the earth at speeds of around 25,000 kilometers per hour.

Whew. That’s a lot of hazardous debris floating around.

One space technology company, Astrium, is proposing a specialized harpoon that can catch the estimated 6,000 tons of dangerous debris and remove it from low-earth orbit.

Astrium engineer Jaime Reed told CNN that the full proposal will be unveiled on Wednesday. In essence, though, the plan involves a so-called chase satellite that will deploy a tiny barbed harpoon to catch nuisance pieces of space junk so that they can be towed back toward the atmosphere. Small pieces of junk can then be dropped to burn up harmlessly as they fall through the air — similar to the way that small bits of space dust streak through the sky as meteors as they burn up before hitting the earth.

The solution might sound Hollywood, but the problem is very real, and orbiting satellites are already under siege from space debris.

In March, we posted a video based on an Analytical Graphics Inc. (AGI) report which showed how Chinese space junk had knocked a Russian satellite off-track in late January.

As for the harpoon? Well, is it all that different from the so-called lasso that NASA has proposed for a future asteroid retrieval mission?

That extremely ambitious plan would have a NASA robot, with possible help from the Russian space agency, attempt to lasso an asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter and then drag it back into orbit around the moon.

That plan would cut four years off a mission proposed by President Obama and others to send humans to an asteroid.

But if it succeeds and the asteroid is then mined for valuable minerals, it might astronomically increase the amount of space junk up there.

[artist's rendering space debris courtesy European Space Agency]

Space Junk Debris Harpooning Talks Underway At European Space Agency is a post from: The Inquisitr

Farmer’s Almanac readers may know a pink full moon Thursday will jazz up the night sky … but not all people of Earth will be able to see the spectacle live in person.

Eager skywatchers will probably want to catch the pink full moon Thursday, which will coincide with a lunar eclipse. But many of the planet’s residents won’t be in a place where the phenomenon will be viewable due to the timing of the eclipse and the moon’s trajectory.

Space.com explains the timing of the pink full moon Thursday, explaining that Americans and Canadians will be unable to view the sky show, but, in Asia, Africa, and Europe, skyward gazers may catch a very interesting lunar sight if they pay attention:

“Beginning at 2:04 p.m. EDT (1804 GMT), the moon begins to meet the Earth’s shadow; a little over two hours later it arrives under the middle of that shadow. By then the moon will have just risen and will be visible low to the east-southeast horizon as seen from Ireland, and will be setting over south-central Japan in the morning hours of Friday, April 26.”

The pink full moon could also appear as red, and Discovery explained a few years back why the orb’s color is altered during certain conditions:

“The other factor is the state of Earth’s atmosphere along the sunrise-sunset line. If the air is very clear, the eclipse is bright. But if a major volcanic eruption has polluted the stratosphere with thin haze, the eclipse will be dark red, ashen gray, or blood-black.”

‘Pink’ Full Moon Brings Lunar Eclipse Thursday dlvr.it/3Gd2vF

— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) April 22, 2013

While North America won’t be in line to see the pink full moon Thursday, the phenomenon has been visible from US shores in the past, and we may get to see some cool pics out of Europe, Asia, or Africa after the event.

Pink Full Moon Thursday, But Not For Everyone is a post from: The Inquisitr

A temple for human sacrifice was recently found in Mexico.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, modern temples for human sacrifice still exist. Back in February, police found a human skull adorning a backyard altar at a home in California. The owner practiced Santeria and neighbors claim to have seen the bloody remains of animal sacrifices.

Today’s story about temples and human sacrifice is not so recent. The Valley of Oaxaca in Mexico reveals hints of human sacrifices that took place thousands of years ago.

Archaeologists date the 9,150-square-foot temple for human sacrifice back to between 300 BC and 60 BC depending on the method used to estimate. The temple is part of a larger palace complex complete with a plaza.

Uncovering the temple, researchers found the area scattered with artifacts, including shell, mica and alabaster ornaments. They also found ceramic vessels, whistles, and incense braziers.

Obsidian blades and lances suggest that the priests engaged in ritual bloodletting and animal sacrifice. They also found the skeletal remains of turkeys, doves and other animals. The temple hearth, which was used to burn the sacrifices to the gods, contained human tooth and possible human limb bones. Researchers can’t say for certain whether these finds indicate human sacrifice at the temple, but it seems a strong possibility.

Archaeologists were also puzzled by a hastily buried body found in a temple firebox. Researchers say the skeleton was found ”in a cramped position that resulted in the skull resting at the firebox’s southeast corner and a knee poking about its northwest corner.”

Do you think this Mexican temple was used for human sacrifice?

Temple For Human Sacrifice Found In Mexico is a post from: The Inquisitr

Orbital Science’s Antares rocket launched successfully on Sunday afternoon in its debut test flight. The 13-story privately built rocket lifted off at 5 pm EDT from a Virginia launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.

The rocket is part of a project by Orbital to fly unmanned cargo trips to the International Space Station. NASA launch commentator Kyle Herring stated, “Beautiful view,” as live video from the rocket showed the booster riding on top of a bright ball of fire.

Orbital Sciences, along with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), hold contracts with NASA to fly cargo to the ISS. The successful launch was a testament to private space operations and a hopeful sign for Orbital, whose contract is worth $1.3 billion.

The Antares rocket was initially supposed to launch on Wednesday evening. However, the attempt was called off after a vital data cable separated from the rocket earlier than was planned. The Antares rocket launch was rescheduled for Saturday, but was again delayed by bad weather.

But thankfully Mother Nature cooperated for Sunday’s launch. Ten minutes after the rocket launched successfully, it deposited its payload — a 8,380-pound dummy capsule, into orbit 158 miles above the Earth’s surface. The drop off of the rocket’s dummy cargo was the perfect end to Antares’ first test flight.

Another flight is scheduled for late June or early July. At that time, Antares will blast off again — this time with the Cygnus cargo ship aboard. The cargo ship will detach from the rocket and make its inaugural flight to the International Space Station. Orbital Sciences is slightly behind SpaceX on its schedule to deliver cargo to the $100 billion orbiting research facility.

The company was delayed in debuting Antares because of the construction of the rocket’s new launchpad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. While NASA has flown thousands of high-altitude balloons, research aircraft, and surorbital rockets. But the 130-foot-tall 740,000 pound rocket was the largest rocket to launch from Wallops Island.

The Antares rocket’s successful launch paves the way for Orbital to continue working with NASA. The group holds another contract with NASA to launch a moon probe aboard a Minotaur 5 rocket. That launch will also take place at Wallops and is scheduled for August.

[Image via Twitter]

Antares Rocket Launches Successfully In First Test Flight is a post from: The Inquisitr

Dinosaur eggs, at least of one small birdlike genus called Troodon, may have been brooded and hatched just like modern birds. Researchers from Montana State University and the University of Calgary recently published their evidence in Paleobiology.

A lot of reptiles like crocodiles and turtles also lay eggs, but the mother usually just digs a hole, lays the eggs, and buries them in the dirt. After that, the babies are pretty much on their own.

By comparison, most birds sit on their eggs and fuss over them a bit, often turning them to make sure they develop properly. A watchful parent, and often both of them, is almost always on the scene to bring up baby.

The trouble is that both birds and crocodiles are living relatives of dinosaurs, so it has been an open question whether dinosaur eggs were buried or brooded.

The researchers teamed up to study the late Cretaceous era Troodon formosus fossil eggs, which are very roughly 75 million years old. The fast-running meat-eaters had sickle-shaped claws, with very large eyes and also some of the largest known brains relative to body size of any dinosaur. Ever since the link between birds and dinosaurs was established, T. formosus has been singled out as being particularly closely related to primitive birds like Archaeopteryx.

By examining the porosity of the fossil eggshells, the scientists determined that the eggs were brooded, not simply buried and abandoned. Completely buried eggs must be far more porous, to allow the living creature growing inside to breathe properly.

“[T]his dinosaur did not completely bury its eggs in nesting materials like crocodiles do,” said study co-author Darla Zelenitsky.

Lead author David Varrichio agreed, saying that the elongated eggs were only partly buried in mud, laying them almost vertically so that they were poking straight up. An adult dinosaur would then have sat on the eggs to brood them.

The birdlike nesting behavior and the brooding of the dinosaur eggs is more evidence of the evolutionary link between birds and dinosaurs.

[photo Darla Zelenitsky studying Troodon fossil dinosaur eggs by Jay Im (University of Calgary)]

[photo fossil Elangatoolithidae dinosaur eggs by Daderot via Wikipedia Commons]

Dinosaur Eggs Brooded Like Birds is a post from: The Inquisitr

The world’s oldest spacewalker title was quietly claimed yesterday when 59-year-old Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov stepped out of the International Space Station a bit after 10 AM EDT to upgrade some new experiments on the exterior of the orbiting lab.

NASA had live streaming of the six hour outer-space event, but unfortunately a great many people missed the show because of Friday’s tension-filled manhunt for 19-year-old Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

During the history-making spacewalk, the world’s oldest spacewalker was joined by a second-generation spacewalker, 41-year-old Roman Romanenko, also a Russian. It was his first walk in outer space, but he’s the son of retired cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, who logged over 10 hours in space during his career.

Their chores included installing devices to study space weather and the effects of microbes on spacecraft. They also replaced a faulty reflector on a navigational device.

Near the end of the six hour effort, Vinogradov accidentally dropped an experiment panel, which moved out of reach so that it couldn’t be retrieved. NASA said it won’t hit the ISS and that they don’t expect any real problems as a result of the minor mishap.

The excursion was the 167th ISS spacewalk. Vinogradov himself has now spent 38 hours, 25 minutes in space.

The Russian crew had already set another record when they traveled to the ISS on a Soyuz craft in late March. After launching in Karakhstan, they used a new shortcut to reach the ISS in only six hours. The trip had previously taken two days.

Watch the ISS spacewalk live for some respite from the manhunt madness: buff.ly/ZChSy6

— Andy Micone (@AndyMicone) April 20, 2013

Cosmonauts jettison an empty container from ISS. It will burn up on re-entry. Spacewalk going well! twitter.com/Astro_Jeremy/s…

— Jeremy R. Hansen (@Astro_Jeremy) April 19, 2013

Congratulations to Pavel Vinogradov, the new record holder for the world’s oldest spacewalker.

[photo of International Space Station courtesy NASA]

World’s Oldest Spacewalker Record Set During Yesterday’s ISS Excursion is a post from: The Inquisitr