|  Researchers find possible ninth planet beyond Neptune  | By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - The solar system may host a ninth planet that is about 10 times bigger than Earth and orbiting far beyond Neptune, according to research published on Wednesday. Computer simulations show that the mystery planet, if it exists, would orbit between about 200 and 1,000 times farther from the sun than Earth, astronomers with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena said. "It's a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that's still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting," said astronomer Mike Brown, whose discovery was published in this week's Astronomical Journal.
| Read More » Hiding in Plain Sight: 24 New Beetle Species Discovered in Australia  | Most of the beetles were collected almost 30 years ago, but they remained unnamed until Alexander Riedel, a curator at the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe, and Rene Tänzler, a biologist at the Zoological State Collection in Munich, both in Germany, started cataloging them and stumbled across 24 new species that have now been added to the weevil genus Trigonopterus. All of the newly described weevils are restricted to small areas of tropical rainforests along the east coast of northern Queensland, Australia. The new beetle species are also easily overlooked because they live on fallen leaves and dead wood, feeding on leaf litter, bits of palm fronds and other rainforest plants, basically recycling plant material, the scientists added.
| Read More » NASA Sees Massive Winter Storm Moving East  | A massive winter storm that is expected to bring snow and ice to the eastern United States in the next 48 hours dwarfs the central part of the country in a new satellite image. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES-West satellite spotted this cloudy view of the large storm near the Gulf Coast today (Jan. 21) at 10 a.m. EST. The NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite captured another view of the looming winter storm yesterday (Jan. 20) at 2:30 p.m. EST, showing clouds and snow cover stretching from northern Texas into the Great Lakes states.
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