'Cannibal' coronal mass ejection from 'dark plasma plume' will slam into Earth today (Aug. 18)

Wrinkly 'sac' with no anus probably isn't humans' earliest ancestor. (Thank goodness!) | 'Magical' rock crystals found at Stone Age ceremonial site in England | 'Fast-moving' E. coli outbreak prompts CDC investigation Created for {EMAIL} | [Web Version]( August 18, 2022 CONNECT WITH LIVESCIENCE  [Facebook]( [Twitter](  [LIVESCIENCE]( Amazing science every day [SIGN UP]( ⋅ [WEBSITE](  [] Top Science News [] [Wrinkly 'sac' with no anus probably isn't humans' earliest ancestor. (Thank goodness!)]( [Wrinkly 'sac' with no anus probably isn't humans' earliest ancestor. (Thank goodness!)]( (Philip Donoghue et al) An ancient creature that looks like an "angry Minion" with no anus is more closely related to penis worms and mud dragons than to humans, a new study suggests. The 500 million-year-old Saccorhytus coronarius was previously tied to a group of animals called deuterostomes that produced vertebrates and humans, suggesting it was our earliest known ancestor. But a new research team has decided it's an ecdysozoan, a group that includes insects and marine invertebrates such as penis worms (priapulids) and mud dragons (Kinorhyncha), and which diverged from a common ancestor to humans much further back in evolutionary history. Full Story: [Live Science]( (8/18) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( Just the Facts, Ma'am "I stopped watching TV news a year ago, so sick of the bias everywhere. But in doing so, I was out of the loop. I decided to give 1440 a try & I've not been disappointed. Finally, Walter Cronkite style reporting! Just the facts. I also love that I can click a link to see more on many stories. Keep up the good work!" [Join for free now](. ADVERTISEMENT: [] History & Archaeology [] ['Magical' rock crystals found at Stone Age ceremonial site in England]( ['Magical' rock crystals found at Stone Age ceremonial site in England]( (Nick Overton) Hundreds of fragments of a rare transparent type of quartz called "rock crystal" suggest Neolithic people used the mineral to decorate graves and other structures at a ceremonial site in western England, archaeologists say. The rock crystals were likely brought to the site from a source more than 80 miles (130 kilometers) away, over mountainous terrain, and the crystals appear to have been carefully broken into much smaller pieces, possibly during a community gathering to watch the working of what must have seemed like a magical material. Full Story: [Live Science]( (8/17) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Your Health [] ['Fast-moving' E. coli outbreak prompts CDC investigation]( ['Fast-moving' E. coli outbreak prompts CDC investigation]( (Shutterstock) Public health officials are investigating a "fast-moving" outbreak of Escherichia coli, or E. coli, that has sickened at least 15 people in Michigan and 14 in Ohio, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Wednesday (Aug. 17). So far, nine people out of the 29 infected have required hospitalization but no one has died. Full Story: [Live Science]( (8/18) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Astronomy & Astrophysics [] ['Cannibal' coronal mass ejection from 'dark plasma plume' will slam into Earth today (Aug. 18)]( ['Cannibal' coronal mass ejection from 'dark plasma plume' will slam into Earth today (Aug. 18)]( (NASA) A plume of "dark plasma" hurled from the sun will be engulfed to form a "cannibal" coronal mass ejection which will sideswipe the Earth on Thursday (Aug. 18), causing a strong G3 geomagnetic storm. The "dark plasma explosion" was first spotted by solar observers on Sunday (Aug. 14) as it erupted from a sunspot on the sun's surface at a speed of roughly 1.3 million mph (2.1 million km/h), tearing "through the sun's atmosphere, creating a coronal mass ejection (CME)," or explosive jets of solar material, spaceweather.com wrote in an update. Then, on Monday (Aug. 15), another CME, created by the collapse of a gigantic magnetic filament, was launched from the sun. Full Story: [Live Science]( (8/17) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [Did a second killer asteroid finish the dinosaurs off? Crater in West Africa hints yes.]( [Did a second killer asteroid finish the dinosaurs off? Crater in West Africa hints yes.]( (Data courtesy of the Republic of Guinea, TGS and WesternGeco) A likely asteroid impact crater from the latter days of the dinosaurs has been discovered off the coast of West Africa, raising questions about whether the asteroid that wiped out the dinos may have had a smaller sibling that struck around the same time. The crater, hidden under about 3,000 feet (900 meters) of water and 1,300 feet (400 m) of sediment, hasn't been directly studied yet; it's only been detected in reconstructions of the ocean bed made using seismic waves. To prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the crater is indeed from an asteroid, scientists will need to drill into the structure and find minerals shocked by extreme heat and pressure. 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