A whole boatload of new planets are discovered. Paleontologists dig for fossils in the Antarctic. And senators push for bonds to fight climate change. It's Earthy Thursday, our weekly segment on science and Earth-related news! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!
Thanks to a new technique that saves time on processing information from the Kepler space telescope, astronomers have now discovered over 1,000 new planets outside of the confines of our solar system. You can read more about the astounding news at the blog Bad Astronomy.
You might thing of tattoo magic as something of a modern craze but while that's true to some extent there's long historical precedent for similar markings used in religious rites. Archaeologists recently found one possible example on an Egyptian woman buried and mummified 3,000 years ago.
Archaeologists aren't the only ones who dig through dirt to understand the past though. Paleontologists do too. And some are digging in a most unusual location: Antarctica, the bottom of the world. To learn more about what they're looking for and why, head over to Discover Magazine.
You may have heard something about astronomers believing they may have discovered a fifth giant planet (after Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus) in our solar system beyond the orbit of Pluto. Well, they still haven't nailed it down for sure yet but that doesn't mean things haven't continued to get weird. New analyses suggest the planet (if it exists) might be something akin to a giant snowball.
During the world wars, the U.S. government sold bonds to raise money to fund the military. Now, at least two senators are working to see if a similar approach can be utilized to combat global warming. Grist has more over at their website.
Top image by PaoMic
