Jul 12th, 2020 - (CNN) Astronomers have found a new stream of stars in our Milky Way galaxy, but they likely didn't originate there, according to a new study. This new star cluster has been named Nyx, for the Greek goddess of the night. They are within the vicinity of our sun's location in the galaxy and extend about 6,000 light-years above and below the plane of the Milky Way galaxy if you were to view it from the side. The study published this week in the journal Nature Astronomy . The cluster of 250 stars are rotating with the Milky Way's galactic disk, where most of the galaxy's stars are located. But ... [Read More]

Jul 11th, 2020 - Disney World reopens Saturday – what that will look like and what the experts say Summer is usually a high season for theme parks, and this year, after closing in March amid the Covid-19 pandemic, some of Florida's top parks are reopening.  Universal Studios Orlando  and SeaWorld Orlando as well as Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay all reopened in June. But among all the parks, perhaps none is as highly anticipated as Walt Disney World Orlando's reopening on Saturday — the iconic theme park is consistently ranked one of the most-visited theme parks in the world, with 20 million people ... [Read More]

Jul 11th, 2020 - Stellar evolution is a circle of life — dying stars spew their contents into the galaxy, paving the way for the next generation. We live in a relatively quiet district of a galaxy 100,000 light-years across that contains around 200 billion stars arranged in a disk beset with spiral arms. As galaxies go, it’s pretty big, though the supermassive black hole at the center is relatively small, just 4 million solar masses. There is ample evidence from the Milky Way’s rotation that our galaxy, like all others, contains considerable dark matter, whose role in star formation eludes us. But many ... [Read More]

Jul 11th, 2020 - How Risky Is It to Take a Road Trip, Train Trip, or Flight Right Now? To be clear: Staying home is still safest. What’s the safest way to travel during the new coronavirus pandemic—if any? As of this writing, COVID-19 has killed more than 130,000 people in this country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). New hotspots continue to pop up, like those in Arizona, California, Texas, Florida, and Louisiana, among other states. And it’s becoming clearer that some people who contract but don’t die of the virus may face ongoing medical issues like intense ... [Read More]

Jul 10th, 2020 - JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Now that more people in Duval County are getting tested for the novel coronavirus, the Duval County health department said that has led to confusion about when to start self-quarantining. And that confusion can lead to the further spread of the virus, health officials said. When COVID-19 testing first started, there was no confusion over when to self-isolate because the tests were only performed on people who had symptoms. But now that everyone is being tested, the start of self-isolation varies. When it comes to COVID-19 testing, the Duval County Health Department ... [Read More]

Jul 10th, 2020 - The British government rolled back pandemic travel restrictions Friday on arrivals from 75 countries and British overseas territories — but visitors from the United States will still be asked to self-quarantine for 14 days. Under the new policy, first formulated last month, travelers entering Britain from dozens of countries, including former novel coronavirus hot spots, will no longer face a requirement to self-isolate. The lightened rules free up residents of Britain to travel to the countries in question, as they will not face a requirement to isolate upon return. Italy and Spain, once ... [Read More]

Jul 10th, 2020 - The surviving core of a gas giant has been discovered orbiting a distant star by University of Warwick astronomers, offering an unprecedented glimpse into the interior of a planet. The core, which is the same size as Neptune in our own solar system, is believed to be a gas giant that was either stripped of its gaseous atmosphere or that failed to form one in its early life. The team from the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics reports the discovery today (1 July) in the journal Nature, and is thought to be the first time the exposed core of a planet has been observed. It offers ... [Read More]

Jul 10th, 2020 - This 15-meter-long dolphin was also the first predatory whale to use echolocation. The fossil of a 15-meter-long extinct species of dolphin is helping us better understand how different lineages of marine mammal independently evolved the same characteristics. The species, christened Ankylorhiza tiedemani lived about 25 million years ago during the Oligocene in what today is South Carolina. It belonged to a group of large dolphins (Odontoceti) whose best-known modern representative is the orca (killer whale). The anatomy of this fossil suggests that it was likely a top predator in its day. It ... [Read More]