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A slice of NWA 12774.The green circle is an olivine crystal, a magnesium-rich mineral. (Credit: John Kashuba) In A Nutshell A meteorite recovered from the Sahara contains crystals that could only have formed deep inside a large, now-destroyed ancient planet, giving scientists their first direct physical evidence of its enormous size. Using a newly developed pressure-measuring tool, researchers calculated the parent body was at least 1,000 kilometers in radius, far larger than any asteroid previously linked to this class of meteorite. Textural clues in the crystals suggest the planet may have been Moon-sized or even larger, though that conclusion depends...

WASHINGTON – Water began refilling the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Thursday, President Donald Trump announced from the Oval Office. Trump showed a video during an unrelated event with water bubbling into the freshly painted basin at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. “That's clean, beautiful water,” the president said. Live video showed water accumulating in the center of the basin, with workers and trucks still inside the pool. Trump noted the work to paint the shallow basin a deep shade, which he calls “American flag blue,” was completed Wednesday. The administration said in a court filing that...

California voters frustrated by the routine failures of state and local leadership look set to send Spencer Pratt and Steve Hilton to runoff elections for mayor and governor after the first few ballot drops. In a major rebuke of Democratic rule in both Los Angeles and the state, both Pratt and Hilton held their positions steady Wednesday night. Hilton remained in the lead for the governor’s race with 27.6% of the vote and Xavier Becerra was in second place with 25.6% with 56% of the ballots counted. Pratt remained in second place with 29.91% of the vote behind incumbent Mayor...

Explanation: What is happening inside this unusual nebula? Planetary nebula Tc 1, captured here in exquisite detail by the James Webb Space Telescope, is the celestial site where buckyballs were first identified in 2010. Buckminsterfullerene — as buckyballs are officially called — is a molecule with 60 carbon atoms (C60) arranged in the shape of a soccer ball. The molecule is named for architect Buckminster Fuller because of its resemblance to the geodesic dome he helped popularize. Webb’s new data reveal where the C60 molecules live in this nebula, and the geometry is striking: they populate a thin spherical shell...

The culprit behind all three eruptions from the sun is Earth-facing sunspot region 4455. The unstable region produced an M9.3 solar flare that peaked at 9:36 p.m. EDT June 2 (0136 a.m. GMT on June 3), followed by an M7.9 flare at 3:00 a.m. EDT (0700 GMT) and an X1 at 7:28 a.m. EDT (1128 GMT) — the most powerful category of solar flare. The trio of eruptions triggered radio blackouts across Earth. The M9.3 flare triggered a moderate R2 radio blackout across parts of East Asia and Australia, while the M7.9 eruption caused another R2 blackout affecting portions of...

The term for the political tactic of manipulating boundaries of electoral districts for unfair political advantage derives its name from a prominent 19th-century political figure -- and from a mythological salamander.The term, originally written as "Gerry-mander," first was used on March 26, 1812, in the Boston Gazette -- a reaction to the redrawing of Massachusetts state senate election districts under Gov. Elbridge Gerry.Though the redistricting was done at the behest of his Democratic-Republican Party, it was Gerry who signed the bill in 1812. As a result, he received the dubious honor of attribution, along with its negative connotations.Gerry, in fact,...

The Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Robert McElroy, on Wednesday removed a well-known priest as an exorcist of the archdiocese after he made public comments suggesting that UFO sightings were the work of demons. McElroy said the archdiocese also was cutting ties with the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal, a Washington-based nonprofit headed by the priest, Monsignor Stephen Rossetti. The archbishop said Rossetti’s statements “linking UFOs to demonic presence and the Center’s recent use of social media gravely undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil, demons and exorcism.” “There’s a danger here,” Rossetti said Friday in...

Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, was caught on video calling Homeland Security Sec. Markwayne Mullin a “racist” during a House committee meeting Wednesday focused on department funding. Following the initial outburst, Green proceeded to tell Mullin to “shut up.” The Homeland Security secretary could be seen cocking his head in apparent surprise, as Green continued the verbal attack, repeating “shut up.” “Did you just tell me to shut up,” Mullin asked. As the sound of the gavel rang out, Green shouted back, “It’s my time.” “I’m not going to let anybody call me a racist chairman,” Mullen calmly told Rep. Andrew...

WASHINGTON — The mystery woman Rep. Jimmy Gomez admitted to making “mistakes” with is his best buddy Eric Swalwell’s former chief of staff, The Post can reveal. The married California Democrat had an 11-month-old child at home when he was caught in a moment of passion with Swalwell’s minxy congressional aide Yardena Wolf three years ago. Gomez, the founder of the Dads Caucus in Congress, confessed Tuesday in a statement that he cheated on his wife after The Post’s reporting on the encounter with Wolf, which kicked off a House Ethics Committee investigation, yielding fresh tips on his conduct. Wolf,...

Explanation: Over 1000 years ago, Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi published humanity’s oldest known record of the Andromeda Galaxy in "The Book of Fixed Stars" (Bodleian Library MS. Marsh 144 p. 167). 800 years later, Andromeda became the 31st entry in Charles Messier’s "Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters". From “a small cloud” to “nebula” and now known to be our nearest major galaxy, Andromeda has remained a fundamental astronomical object. Today’s image, taken over 202 hours, shows how far we have come in our ability to observe our neighbor. The diffuse red and blue clouds are mostly foreground ionized...

But the deepest of the Finger Lakes hides secrets down below. Many have heard what can only be described as cannon shots coming out of nowhere. Known as “Seneca guns” or “Seneca drums,” the phenomenon was thought by the local Seneca Tribe to be the bellowing shouts of Manitou, the Great Spirit, when he was angry. Later, European settlers thought they were hearing ghosts of Seneca warriors still fighting for their land as the ground turned red with blood. It also inspired James Fenimore Cooper to write his short story The Lake Gun, in which he observes: “A sound resembling...

A mysterious civilization that ruled Italy long before the Roman Empire. The Etruscans were masters of the sea, legendary traders who dominated the Mediterranean. Yet, for centuries, their maritime secrets remained hidden beneath the waves. In February 1999, a high-tech COMEX robot made a stunning discovery off the French coast: an intact Etruscan shipwreck resting 70 meters deep for over 2,500 years. Loaded with hundreds of amphorae, this "interrupted journey" offers archaeologists a unique window into the trade routes and lives of these forgotten pioneers. Follow the scientific investigation to solve the enigma of the masters of the ancient sea....

Explanation: The explosion is over, but the consequences continue. About twelve thousand years ago, a relatively normal star in the constellation Vela suddenly exploded, creating a strange point of light briefly visible to humans living near the beginning of recorded history. The outer layers of the star crashed into the interstellar medium, driving a shock wave that is still visible today. The featured image, taken piecemeal over 60 hours from the Khomas Region of Namibia, captures some of that filamentary and gigantic shock in visible light, with details highlighted by hydrogen (red) and oxygen (blue) emissions. As gas flies away...

We live in an age of wonders made possible by a combination of free markets and scientific advancement. This weekend a large group of oncologists, doctors who specialize in the treatment of cancer, met to show off their latest breakthroughs at a conference called ASCO26. The news from this conference is so good that it brought standing ovations from the assembled doctors. The big breakthrough that everyone is excited about involves pancreatic cancer which has long been a death sentence for many people. For instance, cartoonist Scott Adams died from metastatic prostrate cancer earlier this year. But a new drug...

The History Guy remembers the heroic service of Rescue Flotilla 1 of the United States Coast Guard during D-Day. It is history that deserves to be remembered. [1st vid in THG's D-Day Playlist] How Rescue Flotilla One saved more than 400 men on D-Day | 10:20 The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered | 1.64M subscribers | 177,873 views | June 2, 2018 THG D-Day search results.

This is a slightly different kind of post — one grounded in science, but powered by hope.It’s about a breakthrough in the treatment of one of the deadliest cancers we know.Instead of blasting cancer with drugs that make people sick and still don’t improve survival rates, we’re talking about a simple, low-dose treatment approach that researchers believe could help push a deadly brain cancer toward healing rather than destructionResveratrol and copper make brain tumors less aggressiveResearchers studied 20 people with glioblastoma. Ten took a low-dose resveratrol-copper tablet four times a day for about 11 days before brain surgery, while 10...

Almost every day now, there is another headline warning about the collapsing birth rate across the developed world, and along with it, another think piece attempting to diagnose why younger generations seem increasingly reluctant to build families. This week, new figures out of England and Wales showed that the number of babies being born has fallen to the lowest level since 1977, with couples delaying parenthood until their thirties or deciding against children altogether. The total fertility rate dropped to 1.39 children per woman, the lowest level ever recorded. The explanations offered for this phenomenon tend to revolve around economics,...

Explanation: Telescopic views of Saturn and its beautiful rings often make it the star of star parties. But this stunning view of the outer gas gaint planet's rings and night side just isn't possible from telescopes in the vicinity of planet Earth. Peering out from the inner Solar System they can only bring Saturn's day side into view. In fact, this image of Saturn's slender sunlit crescent with the planet's night shadow cast across its broad and complex ring system was captured by the robot spacecraft Cassini. After a seven year long journey from planet Earth, Cassini called Saturn orbit...

Gustaf Erikson of Finland owned the last great fleet of sailing ships the world would ever see. We have rare first hand accounts from men who sailed from Europe to Australia to load grain and return to Europe by way of the treacherous Cape Horn. These sailings were known world wide as The Last Grain Gaces. The Last Cape Horners | 1:11:39 garry Kerr | 16K subscribers | 1,697,158 views | May 17, 2023

Just off the southern coast of mainland Greece lies the oldest submerged city in the world. It thrived for 2,000 years during the time that saw the birth of western civilisation. In this documentary, an international team of experts use cutting-edge technology to prise age-old secrets from the complex of streets and stone buildings that lie less than five metres below the surface of the ocean. State-of-the-art CGI helps to raise the city from the seabed, revealing for the first time in 3,500 years how Pavlopetri would once have looked and operated. Archeologists Discover The Oldest Sunken City In The...