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Astronomers Discover New Planet Near Neptune

Astronomers announced today that a new "minor planet" with an unusual orbit has been found just two billion miles from Earth, closer than Neptune.
Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, astronomers detected a small, comet-like object called 2006 SQ372, which is likely made of rock and ice. However, its orbit never brings it close enough to the sun for it to develop a tail. Its unusual orbit is an ellipse that is four times longer than it is wide, said University of Washington astronomer Andrew Becker, who led the discovery team.

The only known object with a comparable orbit is Sedna — the distant, Pluto-like dwarf planet discovered in 2003. But 2006 SQ372's orbit takes it more than one-and-a-half times further from the Sun, and its orbital period is nearly twice as long.

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Newly Discovered Skeletons Help Prove Sahara Desert Was Once Green

A tiny woman and two children were laid to rest on a bed of flowers 5,000 years ago in what is now the barren Sahara Desert.
Researchers discovered the slender arms of the youngsters still extended to the woman in a perpetual embrace.
The remarkable cemetery is providing clues to two civilisations who lived there, a thousand years apart, when the region was moist and green.

Some 200 graves of humans were found during fieldwork at the site in 2005 and 2006, as well as remains of animals, large fish and crocodiles.

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Portal to 'Mythical' Mayan Underworld Discovered in Mexico

Mexican archeologists have discovered a maze of stone temples in underground caves, some submerged in water and containing human bones, which ancient Mayans believed was a portal where dead souls entered the underworld.
Clad in scuba gear and edging through narrow tunnels, researchers discovered the stone ruins of eleven sacred temples and what could be the remains of human sacrifices at the site in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Archeologists say Mayans believed the underground complex of water-filled caves leading into dry chambers -- including an underground road stretching some 330 feet -- was the path to a mythical underworld, known as Xibalba.

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Scientists Stop Aging Process

Scientists have stopped the ageing process in an entire organ for the first time, a study released today says.
Published in today's online edition of Nature Medicine, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York City also say the older organs function as well as they did when the host animal was younger.

The researchers, led by Associate Professor Ana Maria Cuervo, blocked the ageing process in mice livers by stopping the build-up of harmful proteins inside the organ's cells.

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Radio Signal Detected from Beyond Solar System

Seems like we're always told things, after the fact. You know, like those headlines that read something along the lines of "Earth encountered a 'near miss' last month." Well, although this isn't exactly like that, it fits the bill.
Remember that WOW signal detected by SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) from 1977? The signal, witnessed by a project volunteer, was so strong that he quickly circled the indication on a printout and scribbled the phrase “Wow!” in the margin. Dubbed the Wow! signal, it's considered by some to be the most likely candidate from an artificial, extraterrestrial source ever discovered, but it's never been detected again.

And now this.

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Researchers: Yellowstone Eruption Cannot be Ruled Out

How hot is the Yellowstone hotspot? At 80 kilometres beneath the Earth's surface it's about 1450 °C, say researchers – which, for a supervolcano, is only lukewarm.
That doesn't mean we won't get another eruption. The last explosion, some 642,000 years ago, created the Yellowstone caldera and blanketed half of the present day US in ash.
Yellowstone National Park in the US is one of a few dozen volcanic hotspots around the world, along with the likes of Hawaii and Iceland.

What causes it to periodically erupt is not clear, but even though the Yellowstone Caldera may look pretty, you don't want to be on the same continent when it blows.

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