Creating fnords with technology.
Kuiper-Belt Object 2014 MU69, New Horizon's next target, may be two objects in close proximity.
The Hubble Space Telescope discovers an exoplanet with a warm stratosphere. A zone of where atmospheric temperature increases with altitude—a stratosphere—is common for planets in the solar system, but this is the first positive detection in another system. The detection involved oxidane gas, but the planet in question is undoubtedly too hot to have liquid water on the surface.
A federal excise tax on ammunition pays for state wildlife conservation, which garnered a lot more money during the Obama years due to gun control concerns.
Cephalopods evolve faster by RNA editing than DNA mutation. This is basically unheard-of in animal species, which poses some interesting questions for biologists.
U.S. Army team discovers a new technique for manufacturing hydrogen from water and aluminum alloys. If it scales up economically, it might finally be viable to switch away from polluting hydrogen fuels. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long to find out.
Asteroid 3122 Florence will pass Terra at 7 million kilometers distance on September 1. This will be its closest approach for the next several hundred years, and should be a good target for amateur astronomers.
Solar flares don't leave an impact on polar nitrate records. This is interesting because dozens of other chemicals do leave an ice-core trace after solar flares, but some of the biggest flares don't show any evidence.
Our World In Data crunched the numbers, and nuclear power plants are still the safest energy source. If anything, their analysis is pessimistic; I might do a follow-up post at a later date. Related: IAEA on nuclear storage accidents.
