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A Roman lead ingot recently unearthed in Wales

Cool Finds

Local Man Finds 2,000-Year-Old Roman Lead Ingot in Welsh Field

Rob Jones’ discovery adds a tangible piece of evidence to the history of mining in Roman Britain

An artist’s rendering of the mysterious object, which has a mass about 2.6 times that of the sun and was consumed by a black hole some 23 times the mass of the sun. Astronomers say it's less massive than any known black hole and more massive than any known collapsed star, called a neutron star.

Distant Black Hole Collides With a Mysterious Object

Scientists detect what is either the heaviest known neutron star or the least massive black hole ever recorded

Louisa May Alcott wrote "Aunt Nellie's Diary" in 1849, almost 20 years prior to the publication of Little Women.

Early Short Story by Louisa May Alcott Published for the First Time

The “Little Women” author wrote “Aunt Nellie’s Diary” in 1849, when she was 17 years old

Mary Jackson was the first African American woman engineer at NASA. She worked at the agency from 1951 to 1985.

NASA Names D.C. Headquarters for ‘Hidden Figure’ and Engineer Mary Jackson

Jackson may have been the only African American woman aeronautical engineer in the 1950s

This map shows a heat wave, from March 19 to June 20, that has been blistering the Arctic region in recent days, alarming scientists and residents of the region alike.

Temperatures Hit a Sweltering 100.4 Degrees Fahrenheit in Arctic Town

The likely record-setting day is the latest development in a blistering heat wave that’s been warming the region and exacerbating wildfires

A 1967 funeral program for Mrs. Julia Burton

New Digital Archive Explores 133 Years of African American Funeral Programs

The online resource offers a veritable treasure trove of information for historians and genealogists

"Maisy" a rare hybrid hawskbill-green sea turtle being released into the Atlantic in the Florida Keys. The turtle's satellite tracking tag will allow it to participate in a "race" put on by a sea turtle conservation group.

Rare Hybrid Hawksbill-Green Sea Turtle Released in Florida

The turtle will participate in an annual ‘race’ put on by a Florida-based sea turtle conservation group

A magnitude 7.4 quake shook Mexico's southern state Oaxaca June 23.

Magnitude 7.4 Earthquake Hits Southern Mexico

Mexico sits above a complicated system of tectonic plates that makes the region prone to violent temblors

Replica of a Norse Viking longhouse in Scotland's Shetland Islands. Archaeologists in Iceland have uncovered the remains of two ancient Viking longhouses that may have been among the island's very first settlements.

Cool Finds

Newly Excavated Viking Dwelling May Be Oldest Found in Iceland

Archaeologists say the settlement, which may have housed a Norse chieftain, dates to roughly 800 A.D.

A rendering of Spaceship Neptune, a commercial spacecraft from the new company Space Perspective, is depicted here. The company says it plans to test its craft in early 2021.

For $125,000, You Could Ride a Balloon Into the Stratosphere

A new company, Space Perspective, announced its plan for a commercial space craft this week

The "restored" painting may be a copy of this 17th-century work by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.

Botched Art Restoration Renders Virgin Mary Unrecognizable

The failed makeover—one of several to surface in Spain in recent years—has prompted calls for stricter regulation of the field

Following the Monday performance, the Barcelona opera house donated its 2,292 houseplants to local health care workers.

Covid-19

Audience of Plants Roots for Barcelona Opera House on Opening Night

The leafy crowd enjoyed a string quartet’s performance of Puccini’s “Crisantemi”

In Australia, pyrocumulonimbus clouds sent somewhere between 300,000 and 900,000 metric tons of smoke into the stratosphere.

New Research

Australia’s Fires Sent Smoke 19 Miles High

The unprecedented plumes of were carried aloft by smoke-filled thunderclouds and exhibited unusual wind patterns

NASA is asking volunteers to help label photographs of the Martian surface to help the Curiosity rover avoid obstacles like loose sand.

You Can Help Teach the Curiosity Rover to Drive on Mars

The rover isn’t quite eight years old, but NASA thinks it’s time that Curiosity becomes more independent

The circle of submerged shafts likely acted as a boundary for a sacred area or precinct associated with the Durrington Walls henge.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover Enormous Ring of Ancient Pits Near Stonehenge

The buried shafts may represent the largest prehistoric structure ever found in Great Britain

The Alaska Army National Guard used a CH-47 Chinook helicopter to remove the bus featured in the book and film "Into the Wild." The bus was removed due to public safety concerns. Hundreds of fans of the book and film had undertaken the dangerous pilgrimage to reach the bus's remote location, resulting in the deaths of two women.

‘Into the Wild’ Bus Airlifted Out of the Wilderness

Dangerous and even deadly pilgrimages to the bus prompted officials to remove the bus due to public safety concerns

In 2016, fluid like water or liquid carbon dioxide broke into the fault system. Over four years, it filled the cracks and set of a swarm of tremors.

New Research

Earthquake Swarm Reveals Complex Structure of a California Fault Line

In 2016, fluid broke into the cracks of a fault system, setting off a four-year-long swarm of mini earthquakes

The Bighorn Fire burns through the western side of the Santa Catalina Mountains in Oro Valley, Arizona on June 14.

Arizona Faces Wildfires and Evacuations as COVID-19 Cases Rise

Arizona has spread out firefighters’ camp sites and relied more on aircraft to fight fires amid the pandemic

Time lapse of photographs captured by the GOES-East satellite from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on June 16, 2020. The plume is set to reach the southwest United States this week.

Huge Saharan Dust Cloud Could Bring Hazy Skies, Spectacular Sunsets to the United States

The large dust cloud has already obscured skies in the Caribbean and will likely reach Gulf Coast states by the middle of this week

Debate over Beethoven's race sparked once again on Twitter last week. He is depicted here in a portrait by August Klober from 1818.

Was Beethoven Black? Probably Not, but These Unsung Composers Were

A music scholar examines the history of the decades-old theory, and what its permanence tells us about who is considered ‘canon’ in classical music

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