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Artist's concept of a near-Earth object.

An Unexpected Asteroid Buzzed by Earth Last Sunday

The space rock is one of the largest ever to come in such close proximity to our planet

Official cover art for "The Fall of Gondolin"

One of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Earliest Middle-Earth Stories Will Be Published as a Novel

The author wanted to transform ‘The Fall of Gondolin’ into a book, but never finished the text before his death

A piece of the Almahata Sitta in Sudan

New Research

Diamonds Trapped in Strange Meteorite Came From Solar System’s Earliest Planets

Impurities in the diamonds could only have formed within a planet the size of Mercury or Mars

Cool Finds

This 13 Year Old Helped Find Viking Treasure In Germany

The silver jewelry and coins date to the reign of King Harald Bluetooth and may have been deposited during his flight from Denmark

A rendering of the planned memorial honoring Ed Johnson.

Public Sculpture in Tennessee Will Memorialize Lynching Victim

Chattanooga confronts its history with a planned memorial to a young black man named Ed Johnson who was murdered by a white lynch mob in 1906

How to Catch a Glimpse of This Weekend’s Lyrid Meteor Shower

Conditions are expected to be favorable, and experts say the shower might produce as many as 18 meteors every hour

Kendrick Lamar makes history with Pulitzer win

Future of Art

Why Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Win Is History-Making

Smithsonian curator Dwandalyn Reece calls the award an important “recognition of the cultural, musical influence of hip-hop and rap”

Cool Finds

Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Casket Rediscovered in Former Wine Cellar

Parishioners at St. Michael’s Church in Highgate hope to refurbish the crypt after identifying where exactly Coleridge’s final resting place was

A new study reveals at which temperature the Giant Causeway were formed.

Europe

How Giant’s Causeway Formed Its Spectacular Array of Columns

Scientists recreated the process behind the formation’s near-perfect hexagonal columns

Open Heritage shows Bagan, an ancient city in Myanmar, before and after the 2016 earthquake.

Check Out the World’s Largest Archive Digitally Preserving At-Risk Heritage Sites

Open Heritage features 27 sites in 18 countries with more locations to be added in the future

Under Canada's Devon Ice Cap, shown here, scientists have found the first isolated hypersaline subglacial lakes in the world.

Super Salty Lakes Found Deep Below Canadian Ice Cap

The discovery could provide insights about life in extreme environments, and help in the search for extraterrestrial life

Four of the seven newly named Mercury's faculae lie in the Caloris basin, shown here.

Sci-Fi and Snakes Rule in New Official Names for Features on Pluto’s Largest Moon and Mercury

Stanley Kubrick and Octavia Butler are among the figures honored

New Research

Massive Gathering of Mysterious Basking Sharks Found in Aerial Photos

In 2013, nearly 1,400 of the normally solitary filter feeders had a party off the coast of southern New England

Ataqeloula stele

Cool Finds

Large Cache of Texts May Offer Insight Into One of Africa’s Oldest Written Languages

Archaeologists in Sudan have uncovered the largest assemblage of Meroitic inscriptions to date

Bridget the Bearded Lioness Has Died at the Oklahoma City Zoo

The 18-year-old lioness suddenly began growing a mane last year, baffling her caretakers

Turtle That Breathes Through Its Genitals Lands on Endangered Reptiles List

Australia’s Mary River turtle was a popular pet in the 1960s and 70s, but raids of the animal’s nests have driven it towards extinction

Elle Fanning as author Mary Shelley

Coming Soon

Watch: The First Trailer for ‘Mary Shelley’ Explores the Many Inspirations for ‘Frankenstein’

The biopic will follow Mary Wollstonecraft’s scandalous teenage romance with the older Percy Bysshe Shelley and the events that shaped her most famous book

New Research

Ocean Current That Keeps Europe Warm Is Weakening

Two new studies show the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation has decreased 15 to 20 percent over the last 150 years

The body of a juvenile sperm whale was found on a beach in Spain's Murcia region.

Dead Sperm Whale Had 64 Pounds of Trash in Its Digestive System

The juvenile sperm whale was found in the Murcia region of Spain, and its death has spurred a local campaign to combat plastic pollution

What Causes the Cringe-Inducing Sound of Knuckle Cracking?

A new study suggests the sound comes from the collapse of bubbles that form in the fluid-filled spaces of the joints

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