It is the oldest telescope in the world – and it lies at the bottom of the ocean. Ancient sea floor sediments have revealed that a supernova exploded during the Pliocene era and may have caused a minor extinction event on Earth. Image: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
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If you want to avoid cancer it may be time to ditch those breakfast fry-ups. A comprehensive report on the link between nutrition and cancer recommends avoiding all processed meats, including bacon and some sausages. It also advises against eating more than 6 grams of salt per day. Image: StefZ
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Fifteen minutes of fame doesn’t always translate into big bucks. This was spectacularly true of two meteorites which, though exceptional in size, failed to fetch sky-high prices at auction on Sunday. Bidding for both rocks stalled at around one-third of their valuations, and they were withdrawn from sale at Bonhams auction house in New York. Image: jtaylor14368
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Unlike human infants, newborn stars seem to have a way to stop themselves getting too hyper for their own good. When stars form from a spinning disc of gas and dust, they should spin ever faster as gravity pulls this matter in towards the centre – just as pirouetting ice skaters spin faster as they retract their arms – and so throw material back out. Yet for some reason this doesn’t happen. Image: WilzDezign
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Scraping the barrel can be a surprisingly productive exercise. By doing just that, marine archaeologists have pinned down exactly which commodities were traded by early European civilisations. Image: voyageAnatolia.blogspot.com
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