Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. CNN — About half a billion years ago, a volcanic eruption near a shallow sea in what is now Morocco produced some of the most complete specimens ever found of trilobites, insect-like marine creatures, revealing … Read more
When NASAThe Juno orbiter flew close by a Jupiter moonsaw a few volcanic plumes spewing material into the air roomsomething the robotic spacecraft had not previously captured. The plumes rise high above Jupiter’s planet Io. third largest moon. It is the most volcanically active world in our solar system, with astronomers believing hundreds of volcanoes … Read more
Grotta di Castelcivita. Above: The location of the cave (indicated by a white arrow) at the foot of the Alburni massif in the Campania region, southern Italy. Below: The excavation trench of the Upper Paleolithic layers. Credit: University of Tübingen An international team of researchers from the universities of Tübingen (Dr. Armando Falcucci), Siena and … Read more
Hundreds of millions of years ago, trilobites were everywhere on Earth. Clad in tough exoskeletons, the animals left behind countless fossils that can be studied by paleontologists today. Despite all these preserved shells, scientists have not been able to understand certain aspects of trilobite anatomy after centuries of research, especially the soft internal structures of … Read more
Using a telescope on a mountain in Arizona, scientists have managed to capture snapshots of Jupiter’s active moon Io – and these images are so detailed they rival images of the world from space. To capture these images, the team used a camera called SHARK-VIS, recently installed on the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mount … Read more
The UArizona-operated Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham is the only one of its kind, with two … [+] 27 foot mirrors mounted side by side. A powerful adaptive optics system compensates for the blur caused by atmospheric turbulence, making it one of the most powerful terrestrial observatories in the world. NASA The Large Binocular … Read more
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (Hunga Tonga for short) erupted on January 15, 2022 in the Pacific kingdom of Tonga. It caused a tsunami that triggered warnings throughout the Pacific basin and sent sound waves around the world several times. A new study published in the Journal of climate examines the climate effects of this eruption. Our … Read more
An unexpected tool gives us new insight into the fine structure of Mars’ outer layers. Using meteorites that broke off from the red planet way back about 11 million years ago and were flung into space to eventually land on Earth, scientists have been able to study the way volcanism shaped Mars’ crust and mantle … Read more