Scientists may have made a profound discovery just on the edge of the solar system.
Quaoar, a dwarf planet with a ring, has some astronomers scratching their heads as it seems to defy long standing rules of planetary science: its rings extend out more than twice as far as previously thought allowable.
"It was unexpected to discover this new ring system in our solar system, and it was doubly unexpected to find the rings so far out from Quaoar, challenging our previous notions of how such rings form," said Professor Vik Dhillon, a co-author of the study from the University of Sheffield's Department of Physics and Astronomy.
The planet is considered a dwarf because it has enough mass to form a sphere but it has not "cleared the neighborhood around its orbit," according to NASA.
Astronomers first noticed Quaoar by chance after it passed in front of a star during its trek around the sun. Located just 620 million miles away from Pluto, it completes a revolution around the sun every 288 years. The size of the dwarf planet as measured via the Hubble Space Telescope found it to be 690 miles in diameter — much smaller than Earth's 7,926 miles.
Doctors in Taiwan made a surprising discovery when a 64-year-old female patient complained of a clicking and rustling sound in her ear, which turned out to be a spider.
Many DNA tests on the market offer a glimpse into what makes your individual character, including who your ancestors are and some can even analyze your risk for developing certain diseases. Cheddar News spoke with Sam Beeler, chief strategy officer with Nebula Genomics; Eleanor Griffith, a certified genetic counselor; and Dr. Neil Iyengar, a medical oncologist with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center about the process involved in checking DNA and its effectiveness.
A new study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry that involved 80 participants with moderate to severe depression found hot yoga could have some positive impacts on mental health.
