In the News

At www.astronomy.com/news/2017/12/oldest-fossil-ever-found# ... complex microbes found in rocks dated as early as 3.5 billion years ago imply life on earth began and evolved more quickly

The first full moon of 2018 is a supermoon. The extra brightness on January 1st and 2nd is expected to cause side effects - such

At https://phys.org/print433492885.html ... we have a somewhat long story about a State re-widening project in California that unearthed a lot of fossil animals - but

At http://spaceweather.com  24th December we have news of a sprawling coronal hole that has sent us a nice Christmas present - an auroral display. It

At https://phys.org/print433068635.html ... reports on the discovery from aerial photography and satellite images of the discovery of more than a thousand sites across eastern Syria

   This is an image of Habelia optata, a marine predator which feeded on trilobites (see https://phys.org/print433048787.html ). Geologists as well as palaeontologists have long

Robert sent in the link to https://expertsvar.se/en/pressmeddelanden/electrical-and-chemical-coupli... ... electrical and chemical coupling between Saturn and its rings - Swedish research results published in the journal

The former head of a secret US government programme set up to investigate UFO sightings has told the media that extraterrestrial life may exist -

At www.sciencenews.org/article/sun-corona-outer-atmosphere-complex ... newly analysed images could help solve mysteries about solar wind and the superhot corona. The outer corona may appear smooth and calm

Worlds in Collision is making a dramatic comeback. What with collisions on Earth creating the Moon, and variously theories regarding Venus and Jupiter we now

Some people, it would seem, are seriously looking at the possibility the Oumuamua asteroid may be an alien spacecraft. It has exhibited some peculiar features

At https://phys.org/print432456033.html ... excavations at a Viking site in Trondheim in Norway has uncovered a decorative fitting from a book pilfered from Ireland (or the

At https://phys.org/print432463395.html ... geologists exploring volcanic rocks on the Isle of Skye have exposed a meteorite impact zone - containing rare minerals with an origin

At https://phys.org/print432547128.html ... on the 'things are getting interesting' cavalcade this one is worth looking at. The Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) has been operative

Jovan has sent in a lot of links this week. Here are two of them. At http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2017/12/08/speed-of-gravity-li... .... why does gravity travel at the speed

Robert sent in a number of links on the same subject - geology on Mars. More specifically, a so called fault line. See for example

At https://phys.org/print432201867.html ... the Southern Surveyor research vessal has been looking at the continental shelf system off New South Wales and they have discovered huge

Why iron meteorites reach the surface of the Earth but chondrites and conglomerate meteors tend to explode in the atmosphere - breaking into many pieces

Robert sent in the link https://crev.info/2017/12/is-this-duck-a-dinosaur/ ... a dinosaur that looks like a duck ...    a bird like dinosaur fossil from Mongolia - but

Jovan sent in the links below - www.missionjuno.swri.edu/news/juno-probes-depths-of-great-red-spot ... and www.space.com/39066-jupiter-great-red-spot-depth-juno-spacecraft.html ... data collected by NASAs Juno spacecraft indicates that the great red spot penetrates