Phil Plait

Bad Astronomy

Carnival of Space 116

stone tools

Learn about the 430,000-year-old stone tools and techniques that allowed ancient humans to butcher elephant meat for a hefty meal. 

Ancient Humans Carved Up Elephant Meat with Small, Yet Sophisticated Stone Tools 

(Image Credit: Dotted Yeti/Shutterstock) 

Tardigrade in space

Learn more about the tardigrades aboard the Beresheet spacecraft that crashed on the moon in 2019, and how they could have survived this long. 

Tardigrades May Still Be Living on the Moon After Lunar Lander Crash

Being bombarded with so much high-energy radiation does not bode well for HIP 67522 b. The planet is similar in size to Jupiter but has the density of candy floss, making it one of the wispiest exoplanets ever found.

Over time, the radiation carried by the flares is eroding away the planet’s wispy atmosphere, meaning it is losing mass much faster than we thought. In the next 100 million years, HIP 67522 b could go from an almost Jupiter-sized planet to a much smaller Neptune-sized planet.

(Image Credit: 
Janine Fohlmeister (Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam))

Cheops-stellar-flares

Learn about new observations that reveal an exoplanet is destroying itself by cuddling up to its host star, in an astronomical first.

A Clingy, Cotton Candy Exoplanet Is Causing Its Host Star to Flare Up

Carnival of Space 116

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