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Every year, the planet inches closer to its star Like the giant planet illustrated here, the planet Kepler 1658b is on a slow death spiral into its sun. The first planet ever spotted by the Kepler space telescope is falling into its star. Kepler launched in 2009 on a mission to find exoplanets by watching them cross in front of their stars. The first potential planet the telescope spotted was initially dismissed as a false alarm, but in 2019 astronomer Ashley Chontos and colleagues proved it was real (SN: 3/5/19). The planet was officially named Kepler 1658b. Now, Chontos and others have…

Kendall Jenner reflected on life in the spotlight after growing up in a famous family as she stunned on the cover of Vogue Italia on Monday. The model, 27, looked incredible in a black dress for the dramatic shot as a fire raged behind her. Chatting with the publication she touched on her stardom, saying there are time she doesn’t want to be ‘famous’ – but that she is ‘grateful’ for what she has. For the cover she showed off her figure in the floor-length dress while her brunette tresses were styled in loose waves over her shoulders. She opted for a bold…

But there’s a possible explanation for the weirdness spotted in NASA images. This processed image from the MRO HiRise camera uses distinctive colors to highlight formations and features of a crater with unusual deposits inside it.NASA, JPL-Caltech, UArizona This story is part of Welcome to Mars, our series exploring the red planet. Mars offers lots of grand mysteries. Did it ever host microbial life? Are there hidden “lakes” under the polar cap? But the red planet also has intriguing smaller mysteries, like what’s going on inside a series of craters in the northern part of Mars. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured some views…

In lab experiments, the brainy birds carried a stick and scooped with them to get at cashews kept in a box A cockatoo uses a sharp stick to poke through a membrane before using a scoop to fish out the cashew inside the box. Thomas Suchanek We don’t think twice about knifing an avocado in half, spooning it into a bowl and then mashing it into a tasty guacamole. Such simple acts set humans apart from most other animals. Few other species use tools, and the ability to plan ahead, thinking of the multiple tools needed to complete a task and…

Construction worker at Lindisfarne car park in Northumberland, England, have uncovered a surprising discovery – a group of seven graves dating back to medieval times. According to Chronicle Live , the graves were found by Northumberland County Council archaeologists during work to install a new water pipe, just before the new year. The team believes there could be more graves yet to be discovered. The remains have not yet been dated, but they are thought to be medieval or possibly even early medieval. Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, has a rich history, with a monastery founded in around 634 by Irish monk St…

To put it simply, the Bullock’s oriole is a bewitching bird if you’re lucky enough to spot one. “Everybody is excited to see such a charismatic, beautiful species,” says Boaz “Bo” Crees, an avian specialist for both the Montana Natural Heritage Program and Montana Audubon. Check out the 8 types of orioles to look for in North America. Male and Female Bullock’s Orioles WALTER NUSSBAUMERBullock’s oriole, male VICKI MILLERFemales have more muted colors Baltimore and Bullock’s orioles are often confused for one another because of their similar colorings. In both species, males feature black on their heads and backs. A key difference is…

The owner of one of the two sarcophagi that were found in an excavation at the intersection of Notre Dame de Paris’ nave and transept earlier this year has been identified. The cathedral was severely damaged by fire in April 2019. Two human-shaped lead coffins were uncovered at the transept crossing as reconstruction work began on the vault and spire of the Paris cathedral. The remains of Antoine de la Porte, a powerful high cleric who died on Christmas Eve 1710 at the age of 83, are housed in the first coffin. The lead coffin has a bronze plaque identifying the deceased as Antoine…

Bad Bunny and Kendall Jenner’s rumoured romance is thought to have heated up in the past couple of weeks (Picture: Getty) Bad Bunny has seemingly confirmed his romance with Kendall Jenner in a new track. The rapper, 29, recently teamed up with fellow hitmaker Eladio Carrion on stone cold banger Coco Chanel, and although Bad Bunny, real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, performs in Spanish, listeners were quick to translate the lyrics. At one point in the song, Bunny seems to reference runway star Kendall, 27, who he’s been romantically linked to for the past few weeks. Not only does the Puerto Rico-born musician call…

Here’s a look back at Kendall Jenner’s wedding guest fashion moments from 2009 to now Though she’s a busy and successful international model,Kendall Jenner still makes time to support her friends and family during their most important milestones. The star has been spotted at a number of celebrity weddings and, of course, has stood by her sisters’ sides on their big days. Whether she’s wearing a matching bridesmaid dress or a trendy gown of her own choosing, Kendall never fails to stand out. In fact, one particularly revealing wedding guest dress prompted critics to call her out for standing out a bit too much —…

Staying in the air for 11 days straight, a bar-tailed godwit flew from Alaska to New Zealand. Bar-tailed godwits are impressive flyers, scaling thousands of miles without stopping. (Image credit: Shutterstock) An international traveler just broke the world’s record for longest nonstop flight. Among birds that is. A bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica) just flew for 11 days straight from Alaska to New Zealand, traversing a distance of 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers) without stopping, breaking the longest nonstop flight among birds known to scientists, The Guardian reported(opens in new tab). Bar-tailed godwits are “big, noisy and cinnamon-colored,” according to the National Audubon Society(opens in…

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When the universe’s first stars emerged from the cosmic dark ages, they ballooned to 10,000 times the mass of Earth’s sun, new research suggests. An illustation showing a twinkling burst of starlight at the center of a turbulent field of crackling orange radiation and glowing black holes. (Image credit: ESA) The first stars in the cosmos may have topped out at over 10,000 times the mass of the sun, roughly 1,000 times bigger than the biggest stars alive today, a new study has found. Nowadays, the biggest stars are 100 solar masses. But the early universe was a far more exotic place, filled with mega-giant stars…

Around 2.2 billion years ago, a massive space rock collided against our planet, leaving a massive scar.Around 200 million years older than any other site like it on the planet’s surface, the so-called Yarrabubba impact structure is located in Australia. Although the impact site is the oldest found to date, finding it was not easy.Our planet’s surface is continually changing due to tectonic activity and erosion, making it very difficult to date ancient impact craters. This is precisely the case of the 70 km-wide Yarrabubba crater in Western Australia, which lacked a precise age but was nonetheless considered one of…

Some 7 billion light-years away, two black holes swirled closer and closer together over eons until they crashed together with a furious bang, creating a new black hole in the process. This disturbance in the cosmos caused space-time to stretch, collapse, and even jiggle, producing ripples known as gravitational waves which reached our Earthly abode on May 21st of 2019. Using LIGO (Laser Interferometry Gravitational-wave Observatory), a pair of identical, two-and-a-half-mile-long interferometers in the United States, and Virgo, a roughly two-mile-long detector in Italy, an international team of scientists announced Wednesday that they had detected this cosmic collision, and it’s…

A new study resolves the complex relations between geography, ancestry, and gene flow in Scandinavia – encompassing the Roman Age, the Viking Age, and later periods. Researchers investigated a 2,000-year genetic transect through Scandinavia spanning the Iron Age to the present, based on 48 new and 249 published ancient genomes and genotypes from 16,638 modern individuals. A surprising increase of variation during the Viking period indicates that gene flow into Scandinavia was especially intense during this period. An international study coordinated from Stockholm and Reykjavik investigates the development of the Scandinavian gene pool over the latest 2000 years. In this…

The American redstart is a stunning, distinctive warbler. Learn how to identify these colorful birds, and see what the female and juveniles look like. Redstart ID Tips Bright yellow plumage is common among warblers. But the vibrant American redstart is distinctive. Males are mostly black with rich, reddish orange patches on the sides, wings and tails. Redstarts are among the most active warblers as they flit through trees. They fan out their brightly colored tails, a notable behavior that makes them easy to identify. If you’re birding on the edges of eastern forests, be sure to look for redstarts. Like most warblers, redstarts usually…

Model Kendall Jenner has been compared to Kim Kardashian, as fans are convinced she is ‘morphing’ into her big sister in a series of new snaps on Instagram 0 seconds of 20 secondsVolume 90% Kendall Jenner is the latest person to “morph” into her big sister Kim Kardashian, according to confused fans. The supermodel, 27, was almost mistaken for 42-year-old Kim after sharing a string of new snaps on Instagram. In the pictures, Kendall gave a behind-the-scenes glimpse of her night at the Vanity Fair Oscars Party earlier this week. She wowed in a plunging figure-hugging gold dress, which she accessorised with a matching gold…

Archaeologists arrived at Marcel Loubans cave near  Bologna, Italy, in 2017 to embark on  a unique rescue mission . Their goal was to extract a solitary human skull that had somehow become marooned on a rocky ledge deep inside the  cave, at the top of a 40-foot (12 m) vertical shaft that could only be reached with specialized climbing equipment. Fortunately, the archaeologists were able to successfully retrieve the severed head, which consisted of a  cranium with no jawbone attached. It was found encrusted within multiple layers of sediment and covered with a thin layer of calcite cave rock, suggesting that water had been flowing over…

Spotted a blue bird that you can’t identify? Here’s how to ace a common birding test: blue grosbeak vs indigo bunting.Blue Grosbeak vs Indigo Bunting: What’s the Difference? When you peek through your binoculars and see only a fluttering flash of blue, it can be difficult to interpret that glimpse. Which flash of blue have you seen? If you managed to catch a few black accents on the wings, you can rule out eastern bluebirds or mountain bluebirds—but in distinguishing between a male blue grosbeak vs an indigo bunting, that might not be much help. Here’s how to I.D. these birds in a snap, so…

The reality TV star has sent fans crazy as the face of the brand’s new underwear campaign, as she shot a series of stunning black and white snaps for the occasion Kendall Jenner has stunned fans as the new face of Calvin Klein’s latest underwear campaign. The supermodel looked incredible as she stripped off for the brand’s photoshoot. The 27-year-old could be seen topless in the snaps and covering her modesty with her hands as she shot a sultry gaze down the camera. The black and white shoot saw Kendall don a few of the company’s items, from jeans to underwear.…

People accused Kendall Jenner of photoshopping a pic last week where her hand and fingers looked unnaturally long. I know you saw all that drama around Kendall Jenner’s Instagram pics last week. People had accused her of using Photoshop to alter the photos, pointing out how certain body parts looked stretched, specifically her hand and fingers. The pic’s in here, in the fourth slide. But Kendall insists there was no Photoshop — she just has long hands! She responded to the photoshopping claims on Wednesday in a video shared on Hailey Bieber’s IG story. “We’re sitting here analyzing…look how bizarre her hand looks…

A shower of comets rains down on Earth while violent volcanic eruptions billow up from below. Both events may follow our planet’s passage through dark matter concentrated in the Milky Way’s plane and help to trigger extinction events. Do geologists dream of a final theory? Most people would say that plate tectonics already serves as geology’s overarching idea. The discovery of plate tectonics 50 years ago was one of the great scientific achievements of the 20th century, but is the theory complete? I think not. Plate tectonics describes Earth’s present geology in terms of the geometry and interactions of its…

Astronomers studying the formation of a distant star have discovered a cloud of water in space. The water, which is both regular water as we know it from Earth, as well as heavy water – water where one of the hydrogen atoms has been replaced by deuterium – could offer new insights into the origins of water in our solar system. This discovery is also intriguing because it’s the first time that astronomers have been able to measure the composition of water in a protoplanetary disk. The disc of material is located roughly 1,300 light-years away in the constellation Orion,…

The findings could help scientists learn more about how social behaviors evolved in other animals. Male acorn woodpeckers, like the one on the left, have more offspring over their lives when they’re polygamous, according to new research. (Vivek Khanzode) Two’s company and three’s a crowd — unless you’re a male acorn woodpecker vying for the biggest brood award. A new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found that when breeding polygamously, these feathery fathers-to-be produced 1.5 times more offspring and kept breeding two to three years longer than their monogamous counterparts. The findings suggest that male…