nature

We are, right now, headed down a road that leads to this planet's 6th mass extinction. It's not inevitable, but it is highly likely, and it's not particularly likely that we'll be able to avoid massive loss of life over the next few hundred years. A study published this week added to previous assertions that we're headed toward global trouble, suggesting that "over 40% of insect species are threatened with extinction" right this minute.

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The first and last images captured by the NASA-JPL space telescope Kepler are shown here side-by-side. This craft was launched back on March 7th, 2009, and its planned mission duration was 3.5 years. A full 9 years, 7 months, and 23 days later, it was still doing work. Now that span is over, and the final data's come in.

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In the first of February, 2019, a van-sized asteroid-turned-meteor exploded over Cuba. This explosion and subsequent disintegration happened at a scale and height that allowed leftover pieces to be recovered in its aftermath. This space rock entered our Earthly vision at around West Palm Beach, Florida, and entered the atmosphere somewhere between there and Pinar del Rio, where it landed. We are in no current danger of any similar falling fireballs - none that've yet been detected, that is to say.

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A team of scientists have made a new discovery about naturally occurring magnetic materials, which in turn could lead to the development of nanoscale energy sources used to power next generation electronic devices. Researchers from Japan's Okayama University and UC Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering worked together to study the gumboot chiton, a type of mollusk that produces teeth made of the magnetic mineral magnetite, in hopes of better understanding its genetic process.

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Today we're getting a better look at the furthest space object viewed relatively up-close by a human-made craft: Ultima Thule! This space body - likely made of mostly ice-like material - is out beyond Pluto. This double-rock-looking hunk was captured in images by the NASA mission New Horizons - a mission whose primary target was our distant cousin Pluto.

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New evidence was discovered that suggests feathers started appearing on animals around 70 million years earlier than previously suspected. Two anurognathid pterosaurs were studied by a group of paleontologists and research was published this week on their findings. This little monster was previously known to have at least a little bit of fur covering its body - now it would seem that it had four different sorts of feathers, too!

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A set of scientists in Australia studied a group of wombats that'd been run over by cars. The study, done exclusively on the digestive tracks of wombats "that has been euthanized following motor vehicle collisions" aimed to discover the truth behind a mysterious natural secret that'd plagued the minds of many for time uncounted. They wanted to know how and/or why wombat poop comes out in cubes.

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There's a spot in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico where great white sharks hang en masse. This is the White Shark Cafe, and it's not the plot of a fictional story - it's a real place. Originally discovered 14 years ago by Stanford marine scientist Barbara Block, this year a team of researchers took the plunge to see what was up - or down, rather.

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There's a pest-removal proposal going down in Southland, New Zealand, that'll ban cats, goats, and pigs. If you live in this region, once the proposal is put into effect, you're going to need to get your cat chipped - or it could get removed and destroyed. Per the proposal's outline, these animals aren't the pests - they're just part of the pest problem. As such, they've gotta be kicked out - or at least kicked into gear.

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A mesmerizing natural light show long considered to be another aurora is actually something completely unknown, scientists have concluded, after digging into the oddly-named STEVE phenomenon. The glowing ribbons of white and purple light had been observed in Canada's night sky for many years, with the unsurprising assumption that it was just another type of aurora.

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When your fellow dinosaurs have big teeth and even bigger appetites, what's a herbivore to do but develop some seriously impressive natural armor. That's the case with Akainacephalus johnsoni, a freshly-identified dinosaur the remains of which were extracted from a cache of ancient bones in Utah.

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This week a report showed off the newest "world's oldest" rain forest frogs. "It was exhilarating to hold these small fossils up to the light to reveal the frogs within," said David C. Blackburn, one of several paleontologists that authored the study published this week. "We have few small and intact fossil frogs, and the primary specimen of Electrorana is a rare find."

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