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Ever feel like there’s just not enough time in the day? Turns out, you might be onto something. Earth is rotating faster than it has in the last half-century, resulting in our days being ever-so-slightly shorter than we’re used to. And while it’s an infinitesimally small difference, it’s become a big headache for physicists, computer programmers and even stockbrokers. Why Earth rotates Our solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago, when a dense cloud of interstellar dust and gas collapsed in on itself and began to spin. There are vestiges of this original movement in our planet’s current rotation, thanks…

1,000-year-old brick tomb discovered in China is decorated with lions, sea anemones and ‘guardian spirits’ The inner chamber of the ornate tomb is made of bricks shaped to look like carved wood. A stunning brick tomb thought to be more than 800 years old has been discovered in northern China by workers renovating stormwater drains. The tomb contained three bodies — two adults and one child — as well as several pottery items. One of these, a “land coupon” inscribed with writing, indicates that the tomb was built between A.D. 1190 and 1196, when the region was ruled by the…

Ducks perhaps aren’t the first type of bird that comes to mind when you think of colorful birds with flashy patterns. While it’s true that most ducks aren particularly flashy, there are a few that really stand out. One of the most brilliantly colored ducks anywhere in the world is the male Mandarin duck.  This delicate duck is a feast for the eyes, especially when it is in full plumage during the breeding season. Continue reading to learn 10 facts about the Mandarin duck. 10 FACTS ABOUT MANDARIN DUCKS 1. THEY ARE ONE OF THE MOST-COLORFUL DUCKS IN THE WORLD. During…

A. Sutherland  – AncientPages.com – Giza pyramids belong to Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, and vandals and thieves looted them a long time ago. The southernmost is associated with Menkaure (Mykerinos, in Greek), the fifth king of the 4th Dynasty. Not much is known about this ruler, and the only source mentioning Menkaure (though not always reliable) is that of Herodotus and some legends. Menkaure was the eldest son of Pharaoh Khafre, the grandson of Khufu (Cheops), and ruled in the middle of the third millennium BC, from about 2490 to -2473, though the length of Menkaure’s reign is uncertain. His wives…

Kingfishers are very easy to recognize. Their powerful bills allow them to spear fish when they dive into the water, and their colorful feathers glitter just like the streams they love to perch above. Found worldwide, these unique looking birds are always fun to watch. In this article we explore 14 facts about kingfishers and how they are unique in the animal kingdom. 14 FACTS ABOUT KINGFISHERS 1. THERE ARE ABOUT 114 SPECIES OF KINGFISHERS. Kingfishers live on every continent but Antarctica. Most species live in the eastern parts of the Old Word, that is, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Southeast Asia…

50 years ago, Pioneer 11 set sail for the outer solar systemPioneer 11 was the first spacecraft to explore Saturn up close. But that was far from its only accomplishment. Pioneer 11 is just one of five spacecraft currently on a trajectory that will take it out of the solar system. And in some 4 million years, this robotic emissary from Earth, which sent its final transmission nearly 20 years ago, will silently pass near the star Lambda Aquilae, located some 125 light-years away in the constellation Aquila the Eagle. However, Pioneer 11 was never meant for longevity. This quarter-ton, car-sized probe,…

If you live in North America, you may not have heard of the Bearded Reedling. This small wetland bird has a cute and unique appearance. In this article we will look at some fun facts about Bearded Reedlings, including where in the world you can find them and how they thrive in their specialized habitat. FACTS ABOUT BEARDED REEDLINGS 1. MEMBERS OF THE PANURIDAE FAMILY The Bearded Reedling is a unique bird, so much so that scientists historically weren’t sure what family of birds it should be a member of. It was moved around until finally it was decided that…

Blue is one of the most peaceful colors, and it makes sense that we find blue birds to be some of the most calm and relaxing birds around. It isn’t as common a color to see on birds in North America, so it really stands out when encountered. In this article we will choose our favorite 16 types of blue birds. 16 TYPES OF BLUE BIRDS While red birds create red pigment from the foods they eat, blue birds cannot do this. In fact, there aren’t any bird species that actually create blue pigment. Instead, the blue color of their plumage is…

A Scientist Claims The World’s Oldest Pyramid Is Hidden in an Indonesian Mountain When Dutch colonists became the first Europeans to discover Gunung (Mount) Padang in the early 20th century, they must have been awestruck by the sheer scale of their ancient stone surroundings. Here, scattered across a vast hilltop in the West Java province of Indonesia, lay the remnants of a massive complex of rocky structures and monuments – an archaeological wonder since described as the largest megalithic site in all of Southeastern Asia. But those early settlers couldn’t have guessed the greatest wonder of all might lay hidden,…

Bluebirds and blue jays are two blue-feathered birds that live in North America. While these songbirds are both blue, they have many differences that make them easy to tell apart.  This article focuses on 9 major differences between bluebirds vs blue jays. At the end of the article, you’ll learn a little more about each species. 9 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BLUEBIRDS VS BLUE JAYS From plumage patterns to diet to the sounds they make, these two birds have many differences that make each unique. While this isn’t every single difference between the two, this list of 9 differences between bluebirds vs blue jays should…

Another alignment milestone has been reached, and the telescope is outperforming expectations. In early February, NASA engineers began to remotely align the 18 hexagonal segments of the James Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror, which had been folded away for launch. The goal of this meticulous, three-month-long process is to perfectly position the mirror segments relative to each other, creating a single, smooth, 6.5-meter-wide surface that can gather and focus light from the distant cosmos. You may recall earlier snapshots that marked previous milestones. For example, the second of seven milestones was punctuated with a shot taken before the mirrors were…

Warp drives: Physicists investigate faster-than-light space travel If humanity wants to travel between stars, people are going to need to travel faster than light. New research suggests that it might be possible to build warp drives and beat the galactic speed limit. Faster than light travel is the only way humans could ever get to other stars in a reasonable amount of time.Les Bossinas/NASA/Wikimedia Commons The closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri. It is about 4.25 light-years away, or about 25 trillion miles (40 trillion kilometers). The fastest ever spacecraft, the now- in-space Parker Solar Probe will reach a top speed…

Why does Mercury have such a large core?Mercury’s metallic core makes up more than 80 percent of planet’s diameter. No other inner solar system planet compares. The solar system’s four terrestrial planets each holds a metallic interior, but Mercury is the oddball — its core spans more than 80 percent of the innermost world’s width. // Astronomy: Roen Kelly, after NASA Why does Mercury have such a large core? One of the enduring enigmas of Mercury is why such a small planet, roughly 38 percent of Earth’s diameter, is so dense. Thanks to Mariner 10’s 1974–5 flybys of the innermost world…

Roman Lead Sarcophagus Accidentally Found In Granada When archaeologists began exploring underneath a building in Granada, in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia, they weren’t expecting to find anything of importance. After all, they were just completing a standard prospection of the Villamena building, as required for any planned underground work in the city to rule out the existence of historic remains. The survey was going ahead as planned. They found a few remains from the Christian era and from the days of Muslim rule, but nothing truly relevant. But before finishing the work, they decided to explore a little…

Summer tanagers, scientifically known as Piranga rubra, are members of the Cardinalidae family, which also includes cardinals, grosbeaks, and buntings. These medium-sized songbirds are a colorful and welcome sight as they return to the United States each spring and summer to breed. They prefer open woodlands and forests but can also be found in parks and gardens with mature trees. In this article we will look at interesting facts about summer tanagers. 10 FACTS ABOUT SUMMER TANAGERS 1. THEY ARE THE ONLY COMPLETELY RED BIRD IN NORTH AMERICA While there are certainly many red colored birds in North America such as the cardinal,…

Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein, shown in this artist’s impression, is 10 times larger than most comets and 1,000 times as massive.NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva Astronomers searching through six years of images from one of the best astro-cameras in the world have just made a massive discovery — literally. Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein, both of the University of Pennsylvania, have spotted a giant comet traveling inward from the fringes of our solar system, headed for a close encounter with the Sun in 2031. Based on the amount of light it reflects, the pair estimates the comet, called C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein), is some 60 to…

When you think of a white bird, what comes to mind? A swan, a heron, or a crane? These are just a few of the white birds that are some of the most easily recognizable in the United States. Pure white birds aren’t something you are likely to see at your bird feeder, but there are many types of snowy white birds in the wild. Keep reading to learn about 15 types of white birds found in North America. 15 TYPES OF WHITE BIRDS While many birds have some white in their plumage, birds that are almost entirely white are…

Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the solar system and is home to a potentially habitable planet.Hubble/European Space Agency/WikimediaCommons, CC BY-SAThe Sun isn’t the only star to produce stellar flares. On April 21, 2021, a team of astronomers published new research describing the brightest flare ever measured from Proxima Centauri in ultraviolet light. To learn about this extraordinary event – and what it might mean for any life on the planets orbiting Earth’s closest neighboring star – The Conversation spoke with Parke Loyd, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University and co-author of the paper. Excerpts from our conversation are below and…

What Are the Most Colourful Birds? Colours play an important role in our lives, and we all react differently to different colours. Our choice of clothes, the way we decorate our homes, and even our purchases are driven by our colour preferences. It’s no wonder that we love to see brightly coloured birds as well. We may enjoy looking at birds with certain colours in their feathers, beaks and other body parts. In addition, their social behaviour has encouraged us to keep them as pets, and they have found a place in poetry and popular music. This article showcases 10…

Lost WW2 Aircraft lifted from the sea after more than 75 years Specialist divers and archeologists finished an operation this week to recover the wreckage of a 1943 Fairey Barracuda Torpedo Bomber (thought to be No. BV739) – just in time for D-Day’s 75th anniversary. The three-seater plane, part of 810 Squadron Royal Navy Air Station, based at Lee-On-Solent is believed to have got into difficulty shortly after taking off for its test flight before crashing 500m from the coast in Portsmouth. It was found by National Grid engineers last summer during a seabed survey ahead of the construction of new subsea electricity…

Jupiter fills the sky as seen from Europa’s surface in this artist’s concept, which shows the moon’s rough, white-and-red terrain in the foreground and the Sun in the far background.NASA/JPL-CaltechEuropa, one of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons, is not the most welcoming place. On the surface, daytime temperatures barely surpass −260 degrees Fahrenheit (–160 degrees Celsius), and a fractured, icy shell blankets the landscape. Giant geysers occasionally blast water vapor 125 miles (200 kilometers) above the surface — the equivalent of about 20 stacked Mount Everests. If these conditions weren’t enough to deter visitors, intense radiation from Jupiter would doom any…

Why astronomy is considered the oldest scienceInitially a cosmic curiosity, the night sky was eventually decoded by ancient peoples, making astronomy one of (if not the) oldest science. This roughly 2,800-year old Babylonian tablet shows priests at the shrine of the Sun-Temple at Sippar, home to a Sun-worshiping cult. In the field above the Sun God, you can see the Sun and Moon, as well as an eight-pointed star, each a symbol of an ancient deity. Below their feet is the “heavenly ocean.” Millions of years ago, ancient humans living on the African savanna likely gazed up in wonderment…

Archaeologists who found the 1,600-year-old skeleton near Mexico’s ancient Teotihuacan said the woman was 35-40 when she died with an intentionally deformed skull and teeth encrusted with mineral stones Archaeologists in Mexico have recently uncovered a 1,600-year-old skeleton of a woman who had mineral-encrusted teeth and an intentionally elongated skull – evidence that suggests she was part of her society’s upper class. While it isn’t uncommon for archaeologists to find deformed remains, the new skeleton is one of the most “extreme” ever recorded. “Her cranium was elongated by being compressed in a ‘very extreme’ manner, a technique commonly used in…

Birds vary enormously in size and shape. The ostrich can grow up to 9ft tall. But what about at the other end of the spectrum? Here are the world’s 10 very smallest birds. The class Aves, the taxonomic group containing all birds, is an astonishingly diverse one. Birds can be found on all of the world’s seven continents, from snow petrels of the South Pole to roadrunners of the Mojave desert. The 11,000+ different species come in a dizzying array of colours and shapes, with disparate behaviours, habitats, and lifestyles. They may be completely flightless or spend almost their whole…