Cosmic objects with strange orbits discovered beyond Neptune

Cosmic objects with strange orbits discovered beyond Neptune | In Hurricane Ida's wake, satellite images show oil slicks in Gulf of Mexico | What is the oldest-known archaeological site in the world? Created for {EMAIL} | [Web Version]( September 13, 2021 CONNECT WITH LIVESCIENCE  [Facebook]( [Twitter](  [LIVESCIENCE]( [LIVESCIENCE]( Amazing science every day [SIGN UP]( ⋅ [WEBSITE](  [] Top Science News [] [Cosmic objects with strange orbits discovered beyond Neptune]( [Cosmic objects with strange orbits discovered beyond Neptune]( (MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images) A six-year search of space beyond the orbit of Neptune has netted 461 newly discovered objects. These objects include four that are more than 230 astronomical units (AU) from the sun. (An astronomical unit is the distance from the Earth to the sun, about 93 million miles or 149.6 million kilometers). These extraordinarily distant objects might shed light on Planet Nine, a theoretical, never-observed body that might be hiding in deep space, its gravity affecting the orbits of some of the rocky objects at the solar system's edge. The new observations come courtesy of the Dark Energy Survey, an effort to map the universe's galactic structure and dark matter that began in 2013. Six years of observation from the Blanco Telescope in Cerro Tololo in Chile yielded a total of 817 confirmed new objects, 461 of which are now being described for the first time in a paper posted on the preprint server arXiv. The paper has been submitted to a journal for peer review, according to ScienceAlert. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/13) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Natural Disasters [] [In Hurricane Ida's wake, satellite images show oil slicks in Gulf of Mexico]( [In Hurricane Ida's wake, satellite images show oil slicks in Gulf of Mexico]( (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies) Satellite images have captured aerial views of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a week after Hurricane Ida pummeled the region. Hurricane Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, as a Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 29, bringing sustained winds of around 150 mph (240 kph), torrential rainfall and a powerful storm surge, causing flooding along much of the coast. The hurricane also appears to have caused a sizable oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is visible from space in Sept. 4 images captured by a Maxar Technologies satellite. Divers identified a ruptured pipeline, located about 2 miles (3 kilometers) south of Port Fourchon, as the underwater source of the spill. The pipeline, measuring 1 foot (30 centimeters) in diameter, was displaced from a trench on the ocean floor during the storm, causing it to burst open, the Associated Press reported. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/11) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Life’s Little Mysteries [] [What is the oldest-known archaeological site in the world?]( [What is the oldest-known archaeological site in the world?]( (Martin Harvey/Getty Images) Our human ancestors were roaming Earth as far back as 6 million years ago, but what is the earliest site containing archaeological evidence of their existence? It turns out, there are two spots — one in Kenya and the other in Ethiopia — that are considered the top candidates for world's oldest archaeological sites, according to about a dozen scholars, all with expertise in prehistoric archaeology and anthropology, who spoke with Live Science. The question of what is the oldest archaeological site in the world is "a topic that has since recently divided the archaeological community," Yonatan Sahle, a senior lecturer of archaeology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, told Live Science in an email. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/13) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [Why did the Maya civilization collapse?]( [Why did the Maya civilization collapse?]( (Shutterstock) The Maya have lived in Central America and the Yucatán Peninsula since at least 1800 B.C. and flourished in the region for thousands of years. According to countless studies, the Maya civilization collapsed between A.D. 800 and 1000. But though the term "Maya collapse" brings up images of ruins overgrown with forests and of an ancient civilization whose cities fell and were abandoned, the reality is far more complex. So, why did the Maya civilization collapse, and can you even call it a "collapse"? For starters, the Maya are still here today. "It was the Maya political system that collapsed, not [their] society," Lisa Lucero, professor of anthropology and medieval studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told Live Science in an email. "The over 7 million Maya living today in Central America and beyond attest to this fact." Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/12) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Space Exploration [] [Archivist's vintage 'Images of Apollo' photo prints land on auction]( [Archivist's vintage 'Images of Apollo' photo prints land on auction]( (Heritage Auctions/collectSPACE.com) A private archivist known for unearthing rare images from the early years of human spaceflight is now selling a treasure trove of NASA prints representing some of the most iconic photos ever taken. J.L. Pickering has dedicated the past 50 years to researching the visual history of space exploration and, in the process, has amassed a collection of more than 150,000 photo prints. Heritage Auctions on Tuesday (Sept. 7) began accepting bids on a few hundred of Pickering's pieces, focusing on the "Images of Apollo." Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/12) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Astronomy & Astrophysics [] [The 'megacomet' Bernardinelli-Bernstein is the find of a decade. Here's the discovery explained.]( [The 'megacomet' Bernardinelli-Bernstein is the find of a decade. Here's the discovery explained.]( (Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Bernardinelli & G. Bernstein (UPenn)/DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys. Acknowledgments: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab)/M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab)/J. Miller (NSF’s NOIRLab))) Even Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein admit they're an unlikely pair of scientists to end up with a record-breaking comet named in their honor. Scientists briefly estimated that Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein, as it's now known, was the largest such icy body identified to date, perhaps more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) across. Additional observations have cast that into doubt, but given the "megacomet" a new distinction: it sprouted a tail remarkably far from the sun, suggesting more revelations to come. All told, the object offers astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to watch the antics of a comet. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/12) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [Our Milky Way galaxy isn't very well mixed, study suggests]( [Our Milky Way galaxy isn't very well mixed, study suggests]( (UNIGE/Dr. Mark A. Garlick) Our galaxy isn't as thoroughly mixed as scientists sometimes assume, according to a new study. In particular, that new research focuses on the distribution of what astronomers regard as metals — which is really just every element besides hydrogen and helium, even when these elements are gases. In the new work, scientists used the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope in Chile to map the metal in dust across the Milky Way in hopes of improving models describing the galaxy's history. "Initially, when the Milky Way was formed, more than 10 billion years ago, it had no metals," Annalisa De Cia, an astronomer at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and lead author on the new research, said in a statement. "The stars gradually enriched the environment with the metals they produced." Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/12) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Curious Creatures [] [The weirdest creatures to wash ashore]( [The weirdest creatures to wash ashore]( (Enrique Talledo, www.enriquetalledo.com) A glimpse below the waves can be like watching a scene from a science-fiction movie, filled with bizarre creatures that would look at home in an alien world. Most of the time these strange animals stick to the murky ocean depths, but occasionally they wash up on land and bewilder beachgoers around the world. Here are some of the weirdest creatures that have washed ashore in the last decade. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/13) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [Milkweed butterflies tear open caterpillars and drink them alive]( [Milkweed butterflies tear open caterpillars and drink them alive]( (Yi-Kai Tea) Not all caterpillars grow up to be beautiful butterflies. Some become living milkshakes for their dads, who guzzle caterpillar body fluids to attract the ladies. Recently, scientists reported the first evidence of butterflies sipping from the bodies of caterpillars — dead and alive. They observed adult milkweed butterflies in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, using tiny claws on their feet to scratch wounds in caterpillars' bodies so they could lap the liquid that oozed out. Male butterflies seek certain compounds produced by milkweed (flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae), which repel predators and help the butterflies produce pheromones that attract females. Since caterpillars are stuffed with juices from chewed-up plants, they make an easy target for butterflies looking to chemically boost their attractiveness to females. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (9/11) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Daily Quiz [] POLL QUESTION: Does the moon rotate? 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