In the News

William sent in the link https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasa-predicts-large-asteroid-impact-191317759.html ... NASA scientists even name the guilty asteroid. It is Bennu. It was discovered in 1999 and has an

At https://www.rferl.org/a/dog-wolves-wooly-rhinos-beasts-russia-permafrost-melting/30318303.html ... the Russian permafrost deposits harbour the well preserved remains of prehistoric animals - in remote, icy , locations. Large patches of earth

Gary sent in the link https://scitechdaily.com/moons-mystery-moisture-electrons-from-earth-may-be-forming-lunar-water/ ... high energy electrons in earth's plasma sheet, or sheaf, are conributing to weathering processes on the surface of

TeHEP newsletter 15th and 16th September 2023. Interesting interview published with Steve Collins on 16 years excavations at Tall el-Hammam in Jordan. It seems he

At https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-discover-more-than-100-ancient-drawings-in-a-spanish-cave-180982898/ ... At Millares, near Valencia, down south, we now have Palaeolithic cave art. Most of the known cave art is located in northern

At https://phys.org/news/2023-09-solar-orbiter-solution-year-old-mystery.html ... which has an image of the Sun's corona as seen by a beamed down product of Solar Orbiter's Metis instrument. There is

Gary sent in a story from the New York Times but it is paywalled. A fireball seen crashing into Jupiter. However, it is nothing new

Staying on the subject of North Africa, this post concerns the Sahel. Previously known as the Sudan, which is now the name of a country

At https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-really-turned-sahara-desert-green-oasis-wasteland-180962668/ ... this article is about the disappearance of the green Sahara, rather abruptly, around 4500 years ago. Most scientists have linked it either

A new study claims humans nearly went extinct 900,000 years ago. This apparently happened on four other occasions - it is estimated. Gary sent in

At https://www.netzerowatch.com/pyrenean-caves-reveal-a-warmer-past/ ... which is by David Whitehouse, who used to work for the BBC - a long while ago. The mountains of the world

At https://phys.org/news/2023-09-venusian-atmosphere-meteors-lightning.html ... planetary scientists are suggesting that  periodic flashes of light in the atmosphere of Venus, picked by  spacecraft and probes, may not come

At https://phys.org/news/2023-09-webb-accuracy-universe-expansion-deepens.html ... apparently, the James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed the rate at which the universe is expanding. Not a suprise as the Hubble

Scientific Reports from the journal Nature - see https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-14684-y ... tells us the Holocene, beginning around 11,700 years ago, has been punctuated by large scale

Ther 8.2 ky event, or 6200 to 6000BC - another way of saying the same thing. If you want to find out about it, and

The hearths of Palaeolithic hunter gatherers have been used to look at the environment in which they lived. Changing vegetation at the end of the

It seems disappointment may loom for the climate cheerleaders as the Hunga Tonga volcano, which threw a huge amount of water vapour into the upper

At https://phys.org/news/2023-09-tonga-volcano-unleashed-fastest-undersea.html ... the Hunga Tonga volcano, in 2022, unleashed the fastest underwater currents ever recorded, according to a new study. Fastest ever should come

At https://www.quantamagazine.org/standard-model-of-cosmology-survives-jwsts-surprising-finds-20230120/ ... and https://dnyuz.com/2023/09/02/the-story-of-our-universe-may-be-starting-to-unravel/ ... which has the title - the story of our universe may be starting to unravel. It's all down to

In the same issue of Current Archaeology, 403, on the very next page, 13, we have news of the discovery of 25 Mesolithic pits at