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When archaeologists dig through layers of earth to tell stories about the past, they sometimes find impressive traces of humanity.
Ongoing excavations in the ancient city of Pompeii have unearthed the remains of a man and a woman in a small bedroom that was buried under ash and volcanic glass by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.
It appears the couple took refuge in the temporary sleeping quarters while the house was being renovated. After her death, the woman still kept a cache of earrings and gold, silver and bronze coins.
Meanwhile, a team working to restore a neglected, earthquake-damaged archaeological site in Turkey stumbled upon a tiny 3,500-year-old cuneiform tablet. The small piece of clay, covered in wedge-shaped letters, resembles a purchase receipt that could provide insight into Late Bronze Age society.
New revelations about an iconic Neolithic monument may shed more light on the people who built it.
Long ago
Mysteries still swirl around Stonehenge, thousands of years after the enormous stones were erected in what is now southern England. But a new study of the Altar Stone, which sits at the heart of the horseshoe-shaped monument, suggests it traveled a great distance to get there.
Mineral analysis showed the stone probably came from 700 kilometres away, in what is now north-east Scotland, rather than Wales, overturning a centuries-old theory.
"This is the longest recorded journey for a stone used in a monument during that period," said Nick Pearce, professor of geography and earth sciences at Aberystwyth University in Wales.
Researchers believe the stone may have been transported across open water, suggesting that ancient Britain and its inhabitants were far more advanced than previously thought 5,000 years ago.
Solar update
German astronomer Johannes Kepler used a projection apparatus to sketch the sunspots he saw in 1607, just a few years before the first telescopic observations of the features.
The drawings have now helped scientists solve an age-old solar mystery.
Astronomers use sunspots to track the sun's 11-year cycle of waxing and waning activity. But between 1645 and 1715, the sun underwent a phenomenon known as the Maunder Minimum, a period of extremely weak and abnormal solar cycles.
A new analysis of Kepler's long-ignored drawings shows that two of the solar cycles before this grand minimum were normal, suggesting that there are likely unidentified precursors to what was thought to be an anomaly.
Secrets of the Ocean
The world's largest iceberg has been slowly spinning in the Southern Ocean for months with no end in sight.
The iceberg, known as A23a, first broke away from Antarctica's Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in 1986, creating a chunk of ice slightly larger than Rhode Island.
After drifting over a submarine mountain, it enters a water vortex created by ocean currents crashing into the mountain, causing the iceberg to rotate about 15 degrees per day.
Scientists are baffled by the phenomenon and are monitoring the frozen block to see how long it can remain trapped in the vortex as it slowly melts.
Other worlds
The InSight mission may end in 2022, but data from NASA's lander has provided evidence of a water reservoir deep beneath the Martian surface.
New estimates show that there may be enough water in tiny cracks and pores in the rock at the center of Mars' crust to fill the oceans on the planet's surface.
The water is between 11.5 and 20 kilometers below the surface, making it impossible to reach.
But if the water could ever be reached, scientists think the underground reservoir could provide a new place to look for life on the Red Planet.
About the universe
Chinese astronomers first spotted what they called a "guest star" in 1181, and for six months the dying star appeared as bright as Saturn in the night sky. And the supernova, spotted long before telescopes existed, has baffled researchers ever since.
Amateur astronomer Dana Patchick discovered a remnant called a nebula, or giant cloud of gas and dust, linked to the 2013 supernova. Now scientists have modeled the supernova's evolution and discovered a cosmic surprise.
The event that created the nebula may have been a rare Type Lax supernova, or the result of two white dwarf stars colliding and leaving behind a "zombie star." And the so-called zombie star has shown intriguing signs of recent activity that could provide insight into the life and death of stars.
NB
Discover these unexpected stories:
- NASA will soon announce its decision on how the crew of Boeing's Starliner mission will return to Earth, as the crew faces looming challenges including a limited food supply aboard the International Space Station.
- A fossil hunter made the discovery of a lifetime when he found a gigantic intact tusk of an Ice Age mammoth in a creek in Mississippi.
- Invasive Jorō spiders continue to spread and build their large webs almost everywhere, and the way the spiders "stay cool under pressure" could explain why, according to the lead author of a new study of the spiders' heart rates.
- The wreck of a torpedoed World War I warship has been located in "astonishing condition" off the coast of Scotland, divers say, but the shipwreck carries a tragic story for those on board when it sank.
-The asteroid that struck Earth 66 million years ago and set in motion events that led to the demise of the dinosaurs was a rare clay-rich mud ball, scientists have discovered.
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