Despite its thinner atmosphere and lower gravity, Pluto is home to icy dunes resembling those on Earth, according to research published today in the journal Science.
The big picture: Pluto's surface is far more dynamic and diverse than researchers expected before NASA's New Horizon's spacecraft flew closely past it in 2015. The finding also suggests similarities between the dwarf planet and our own.
"It gives us further information about our own planet’s formation — the world we’re all standing on right now."
At least 404 terrestrial volcanoes have erupted since 1883 — the year of Krakatoa's historic eruption. Nearly 200 of these eruptions have occurred since the year 2000. These eruptions have varied in size and effects. Some are downright cataclysmic, like the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington, while other eruptions are much smaller, frequent and localized. Kilauea, the shield volcano now causing destructive lava flows in Hawaii, has erupted 95 times since 1883.
Puerto Rico is in danger of being without power once again when it is inevitably hit by another hurricane — be it this season or years from now, reports the Associated Press.
Why it matters: The United States spent $3.8 billion to get Puerto Rico's power system running again following damage caused by Hurricane Maria, but the system is in such bad shape that it's at risk of suffering more damage if another hurricane were to strike the island before it can be properly fixed.
The cancellation of Roseanne Barr's ABC show as a result of a racist tweet was covered far more than a Harvard study revealing that as many as 5,000 people may have died during and in the wake of Hurricane Maria last year in Puerto Rico.
The big picture: Media Matters for America found that news surrounding Roseanne was covered for more than 10 hours while the study surrounding the Hurricane was only covered for 30 minutes.
With the richest vein of crystal-clear images of the galaxy to date, researchers are mapping the past orbits of stars to get closer to understanding the Milky Way's history.
What's going on: The practitioners of this science call it "galactic archaeology," which has gotten a huge boost with a burst of images from Gaia, an observatory launched into orbit by the European Space Agency in 2013 (see image above.)
