Astronomers have spotted a bright gamma-ray burst that upends previous theories of how these energetic cosmic eruptions occur.

Last December, astronomers caught sight of an extremely bright, extremely close gamma ray burst that lasted for a little under a minute — close as far as gamma ray bursts, anyways: about a billion light-years away. Ordinarily, it would be interesting, but nothing groundbreaking, something to be filed away with the tens of thousands of other long gamma ray bursts that have been observed over the past half-century. But then, something didn’t happen: the supernova required to create such a lengthy explosion was nowhere to be found.

NASA’s Perseverance rover snagged two new samples from the Martian surface on Dec. 2 and 6. But unlike the 15 rock cores collected to date, these newest samples came from a pile of wind-blown sand and dust similar to but smaller than a dune. Now contained in special metal collection tubes, one of these two samples will be considered for deposit on the Martian surface sometime this month as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign.

Everyone’s personal brand of fun is different. Some people like trying new restaurants, traveling, going to bars and clubs or playing outdoor sports. Others enjoy riding roller coasters, going to the movies, or playing video games. But having fun can be expensive – the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average American spends over $3,500 on entertainment per year.

With the 2022 election all wrapped up, Clark County is starting its search for a new top election official.

A plane crashes into one of the dormitory buildings on the UNLV campus on this night in December while a few hundred feet away thousands of fans are packed into the Thomas Mack Center for the National Finals Rodeo. This hypothetical situation is one of the simulations used in a master’s degree program at UNLV on emergency and crisis management, in which students are taught how to prepare for, respond to, mitigate and recover from natural and man-made disasters.

Social media is flooded with posts that claim to prove the Earth is flat. A recent example is a post that claims a photo of Chicago taken from Indiana demonstrates the Earth's flatness.

Mankind's crucial fossil fuels—coal, natural gas and crude oil—all unfortunately contain large amounts of carbon. But why is that and where does it come from?