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Fromrecord - break away hitch in spaceto a " tongue - handle orca , " it has been a interfering week in the world of science intelligence . But the story that has most captured our imagination is that of what Earth could look like8 billion years into the future . The exoplanet KMT-2020 - BLG-0414 , located 4,000 light - age from ours , is a rocky world that orbits a white dwarf — a hot terra firma - sizing pith from a sun that has exhausted all its nuclear fuel , just as Earth ’s Lord’s Day will in billions of years .

However , before the sun recoil to this lilliputian sizing , it will expand into a ruby monster , which endanger to unsay Earth alongside Mercury and Venus . If our planet survive , then we may well resemble KMT-2020 - BLG-0414 . Whether humanity will be there to see it …

A collage of two pictures showing a small tree standing in a pot in a greenhouse.

Scientists have grown an ancient seed from a cave in the Judean Desert into a tree.

Lost Biblical tree resurrected from mystery seed

For 14 years , researchers have been grow a tree diagram from an ancient semen that archaeologist excavate from a Judean Desert cave in the later 1980s . Now that the specimen stomach at around 10 foot ( 3 meters ) tall , the scientists believe that the tree grown from this 1,000 yr old seedcould go to a long - lost lineage remark in the Bible .

The seed of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , dub " Sheba , " date back to somewhere between A.D. 993 and 1202 , and the investigator believe that the full - grown specimen could be the source of scriptural " tsori " — a resinous extract associated with healing in Genesis , Jeremiah and Ezekiel .

" The identity element of Biblical ' tsori ' ( translated in English as ' balm ' ) has long been loose to fence , " the research worker wrote in the study . Now , having revive Sheba , the squad recollect it has finally ravel out its whodunit of this ancient plant .

A man pours molten metal

No one knows for sure when steel was invented, but some of the earliest examples crop up in the first millennium B.C. in Central and South Asia.

unwrap more archeology news

— 2,700 - year - old shields and helmet from ancient kingdom unearth at castle in Turkey

— Mysterious ' horseman ' from lead coffin unearthed in Notre Dame Cathedral in conclusion identify

A small circular chip is held between two human fingertips. It is covered in biological diagrams.

Scientists used lasers to transcribe all 3 billion letters of the human genome onto a “5D memory chip” the size of a coin.

When was steel invented?

brand is the anchor of the modern world and used in houses , skyscrapers , motorcar and more . But steel is n’t found in nature , sowhen did human invent steel ?

Near-indestructible ‘5D memory crystal’ could survive to the end of the universe

Scientists have spring up a Modern data storage format that , under the right precondition , could survive well beyond the destruction of Earth as it gets consume by the sun , and perchance until the very terminal of the known cosmos . Most data store organization degrade over time , but researchers at the University of Southampton in the U.K. made a synthetic " 5D memory crystallization " that mimics the properties of fused quartz , one of the most chemically and thermally unchanging materials there is .

And what have they done with this incredible new material ? They etched a copy of the entire human genome on it , in the Bob Hope that our species could be revived long after our extinction — however unlikely that may be .

find out more technology narration

A composite image showing different angles of the snowman-shaped asteroid 2024 ON as it flew close to Earth recently

The “potentially hazardous” asteroid 2024 ON looks like a tipsy cosmic snowman in these radar images obtained by the Deep Space Network’s Goldstone Solar System Radar.

— ' The dystopian possibilities seem dateless ' : How attempt to mix human brainiac with machines could go disastrously incorrect

— What is artificial general intelligence operation ( AGI ) ?

Also in science news this week

NASA reveals images of enormous, snowman-shaped asteroid

We ’re no strangers to " potentially wild " asteroid , given that as of September 2024 , NASA has identifiedmore than 2,400 know asteroidsthat will go within 4.65 million miles ( 7.5 million kilometre ) of our satellite . While " potentially hazardous " sound alarming , that ’s approximately 20 times the average distance between Earth and the moon , and astronomers do not believe any of them threaten our house for at least the next 100 age .

However , when they do blow over , it gives us an opportunity to study asteroids in greater item than when they are far forth from us . One such asteroid fly safely past Earth at a distance of 620,000 miles ( 1 million km ) earlier this calendar month , and new icon captured by the Goldstone Solar System Radar near Barstow , California , expose the " snowman " mould rock is actuallytwo asteroids locked together by their own gravity — known as a contact binary star .

Something for the weekend

If you ’re wait for something a little longer to read over the weekend , here are some of the well farsighted reads , book excerpts and interviews published this hebdomad .

Science in pictures: ‘Scuba-diving’ lizards

When risk lurks for sure semi aquatic lizard , there is one place they can hide — submerged . But how can they ride out there long enough to avert depredation ? A clever fast one , whereby they create an gentle wind bubble on their brow to store atomic number 8 , allowing them to emit underwater like a scuba diver .

This demeanour was first discovered in 2018 , but a recent study found that the bubble allowed them to stay underwater32 % longer than without it . " We acknowledge that they can stay submerged at least about 20 minute , but probably longer , " study author Lindsey Swierk , assistant research prof in biologic sciences at Binghamton University in New York , told Live Science in an email .

Split image of the Martian surface and free-floating atoms.

Split image of newborn planets and the burial object left in a newly discovered ancient Egyptian tomb.

A two paneled image. On one side, a space capsule in the ocean. On the other side, an illustration of a human with a DNA strand

Split image of merging black holes and a woolly mice.

Split image of the world�s largest underground thermal lake on record and a �city-killer� asteroid approaching Earth.

Split image of a "cosmic tornado" and a face depiction from a wooden coffin in Tombos.

a photo of an eye looking through a keyhole

A collage-style illustration showing many different eyes against a striped background

an illustration of a man shaping a bonsai tree

a sculpture of a Tecumseh leader dying

a woman yawns at her desk

A large group of people marches at the Stand Up For Science rally

Fragment of a stone with relief carving in the ground

An illustration of microbiota in the gut

an illustration of DNA

images showing auroras on Jupiter

An image of the Eagle Nebula, a cluster of young stars.

a reconstruction of an early reptile