Millennials and older generations memorized the planets of our solar system with the mnemonic device “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas,” which was then changed to “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles” when Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet in 2006. However, a recent discovery could change it all over again as scientists have discovered what could be a “new” ninth planet.
In a recently published study, an international team of astronomers have found a gas giant orbiting TOI-6894, a tiny red dwarf star located just beyond Pluto. The cold gas giant reportedly has a radius slightly larger than Saturn and is so close to TOI-6894 that it can complete its orbit around the tiny star within three days. What flummoxes scientists is how such a small star can draw in a massive potential planet as its discovery challenges current conventional theories about our solar system.
Goodbye to our Solar System as we know it: Astronomers confirm there is a new planet orbiting the Sun beyond Pluto https://t.co/xlfrNOmQqX via @marca Can you imagine a new planet being found— Trinette Mercer (@TrinetteMercer1) June 5, 2025
“It’s an intriguing discovery. We don’t really understand how a star with so little mass can form such a massive planet!” said one of the study’s co-authors, Dr. Vincent Van Eylen, in a press release. “These findings suggest that even the smallest stars in the universe can in some cases form very large planets. That forces us to rethink some of our planet formation models.”
“The question of how such a small star can host such a large planet is one that this discovery raises – and we are yet to answer,” said astronomer and co-author Edward Bryant to Reuters. “Given these stars are very common, there may be many more giant planets in the galaxy than we thought.”
One of the many intriguing things about this could-be planet is that, unlike most other gas giants, many of which have temperatures over 1,000 degrees Celsius, this gas giant is much colder, under 150 degrees Celsius. That’s still quite hot on the surface, but scientists theorize that is because it is so close to its star. In fact, the gas giant is 40 times closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun. While further study is needed, it’s theorized that the gas giant is mostly made of hydrogen and helium with a massive core in its center.
While this discovery changes how astronomers think about our galaxy and the potential for other possible planets just outside our known solar system, it’s unclear whether we can consider this a “ninth planet” and change “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles” again. Per the International Astronomical Union (IAU), there are three requirements before this gas giant becomes defined as a “planet.” It needs to orbit a star, be big enough to have enough gravity to force it into a spherical shape, and its gravity must be able to clear away other objects of similar size near its orbit. So far, this gas giant can fulfill those requirements. But, as more data is needed, it still may not “count” as one of our solar system’s planets since it orbits around the red dwarf star rather than the Sun.
Time and study will tell if this will be another planet to add, or if there are even more planets still out there.
East Lawn Cemetery in Ithaca, New York is “home” for dozens people who’ve been laid to rest. However, it is not just the home for departed humans. It is also the underground burrow housing over five million bees.
While there have been records of bees emerging from the grounds of East Lawn Cemetery since 1935, it wasn’t until 2023 that a study of its scale was measured. In April of that year, a team at Cornell University began fieldwork by setting up 10 emergence traps made of tents over the bees’ nest. These traps collected insects in a plastic jar with a 70% ethanol solution.
There Are 5.6 Million Bees Living Beneath This Cemetery Beneath a quiet cemetery in New York, scientists discovered millions of bees living underground, building tunnels, pollinating, and surviving completely unnoticed for decades. While everything above changes, generations come and go, this hidden world continues without interruption, a reminder that life moves forward with or without us. #NatureMystery#DidYouKnow#HiddenWorld#ScienceFacts#creatorsearchinsights
By analyzing the number of bees caught in these traps along with other data, they calculated that as many as 5.56 million bees live in the cemetery’s ground. To put it in perspective, the typical honeybee hive contains around 30,000 bees.
“I was completely floored when we did the calculations,” Cornell University entomologist Bryan Danforth said to Scientific American. “I have seen published estimates of bee aggregations in the hundreds of thousands. But I never really imagined that it would be 5.56 million bees.”
Many might be puzzled about bees living underground rather than in a typical hanging hive. In actuality, though, the majority of bees live underground. The miner bees (Andrena regularis) found in the cemetery actually live solitary lives within burrows. They nest there during the winter months and emerge in the spring to pollinate, mate, and dig burrows for their larvae. For New Yorkers who enjoy apples and blueberries, these bees are responsible for helping them bloom and grow in the spring.
“This species overwinters as adults, which is relatively rare, and that’s part of the reason why they come up out of the ground so early in spring, timed to the apple bloom,” said study author Steven T. Hoge.
What are bees doing living at a cemetery?
But why is the cemetery a popular living space for these bees?
“The peacefulness, the lack of pesticides, and the fact that, overall, the ground is rarely disturbed, all make cemeteries good habitat for bees,” Danforth told Science Alert.
Given the huge population, the Cornell University researchers state that the cemetery is actually very important for the area’s ecosystem. Should the cemetery grounds be disturbed or altered, it could impact the vegetation and crops in the surrounding areas. In fact, there are some cemeteries partnering up with beekeepers and other bee conservationists.
Keeping the bees (and the dead) in peace
Danforth and his colleagues have encouraged a global community science project to help the bees. The purpose is to study, protect, and conserve these ground-dwelling bees and their habitats.
“These populations are huge, and they need protection,” Danforth said. “If we don’t preserve nest sites, and someone paves over them, we could lose in an instant 5.5 million bees that are important pollinators.”
If you notice a bee coming out of the ground, leave it be and spread the word. It could be helping restock your grocery store or farmers market with quality produce.
The urban monkeys in New Delhi are so bold they’ll steal the lunch right off your plate. If you’ve spent time in New York, you’ve probably seen squirrels try to do the same. Sydney’s white ibises got the nickname “bin chickens” for stealing trash and sandwiches.
This brazen behavior isn’t normal for most species in the countryside, yet it shows up in urban wildlife, and not just in these cities.
Studies show that animals living in urban environments around the world exhibit common sets of behaviors. At the same time, these urban animals are losing traits they would need in the wild. This process of urban animals’ behavior becoming more similar is known as “behavioral homogenization,” and it accompanies the loss of species diversity with urbanization.
Squirrels in New York’s Central Park have no qualms about rifling through your belongings and stealing your food. Keystone/Getty Images
Cities, despite their local differences, share many of the same features worldwide: They are warmer than the surrounding countryside, noisy, polluted by light and, most importantly, dominated by people.
Cities drive evolution as well. Humans and the changes we’ve brought to cities have led to the survival of bolder animals, and those bolder animals pass on their traits to future generations. In genetics, scientists refer to this as the environment “selecting” for those traits.
It’s not just sandwich-stealing that is more common among city wildlife; urban birds also sound more alike.
Why? Cities are loud and filled with traffic noise, so those who can effectively communicate in that environment are more likely to survive and pass on those traits.
Animals may behave similarly in cities because they learn from each other how to exploit novel human food sources. For instance, the cockatoos in Sydney have learned to open trash bins. In Toronto, the raccoons are in a race to outwit humans as urban wildlife managers try to design animal-proof trash bins.
The buildings and bridges in cities become home to bats, birds, and other urban dwellers, at the cost of learning to use more natural nesting sites. Roads and culverts modify how and where animals move.
While rural animals may forage at a variety of places and eat a variety of foods, urban animals may concentrate on garbage bins or rubbish dumps where they know they can find food, but they end up eating a potentially unhealthy diet.
Consequences of similar behaviors
The loss of behavioral diversity is happening everywhere that humans increase their footprint on nature. This is worrisome on several levels.
At the population level, behavioral variation may reflect genetic variation. Genetic variation gives species the ability to respond to future environmental change. For example, for animals that have evolved to breed at a specific time of the year, urban heat islands can select for earlier breeding.
Reducing genetic variation leaves populations less able to respond to future changes. In that sense, having genetic variation resembles a diversified investment portfolio: Spreading risk across a variety of stocks and bonds lowers the risk that a single shock will wipe out everything.
Moreover, as animals become tamer, new conflicts between animals and humans may emerge. For instance, there may be more car crashes, animal bites, property damage and zoonotic disease transmission. Such conflicts cost money and may harm both the animals and humans.
Losing behavioral diversity is also troubling for conservation.
When a species loses behavioral diversity, it loses resilience against future environmental change in the wild, making reintroducing urban animals to the wild harder.
Losing behavioral diversity also risks erasing socially learned, population-specific behaviors, such as local migration routes, foraging techniques, tool-use traditions or vocal dialects.
For example, Australia’s regent honeyeater populations have been shrinking and are critically endangered. The isolation of having fewer of their own species around has disrupted normal song-learning behavior, making it harder for male birds to sing attractive songs that help them find mates and breed successfully.
Ultimately, behavioral homogenization is making wildlife in cities such as Los Angeles, Lima, Lagos and Lahore behave in similar ways despite living in different environments and having different evolutionary histories.
Many of these behaviors influence survival and reproduction, so understanding this form of diversity loss is important for successful wildlife conservation, as well as future urban planning.
Since 2015, the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, created by photographers and conservationists Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam, have been delivering laugh-out-loud moments through the lens of nature. With a mission to entertain while raising awareness about wildlife conservation, the competition celebrates the charming and comical side of the animal kingdom.
Let’s take a joyful stroll down memory lane with some of the most funniest entries from the 2019 contest (and if you’re feeling inspired, you’ll also learn how to submit your own wild and witty shots for future competitions).
OVERALL WINNER, CREATURES OF THE LAND WINNER: “Grab Life By the…”
You don’t think about how hard it would be to be the parent of a small, curious creature with massive, sharp claws. Let’s all take a moment to be grateful that even though it’s very hard to have a human baby, they don’t have super sharp claws. That would make things ten times worse.
CREATURES IN THE AIR WINNER: “Family Disagreement”
I think if I were an otter, I too would constantly clutch my face in disbelief. “I can’t possibly be this cute, can I? Cute nose, fuzzy head, tiny little eyes? That can’t be! Oh, but it is! I really am this adorable! I am! I am!”
Have you seen those videos of foxes diving headfirst into the snow to catch prey? It’s hilarious and fascinating, and I think this fox forgot that there was no snow. His friend is really trying to help him not hurt himself, but his buddy insists on being dumb. Oh, foxes!
“And then Carol was like, ‘You otter come over for dinner sometime!’ Get it? Get it? Man, Carol’s hilarious. So I went over for dinner and she had like, this whole seafood spread. Crabs, clams, mussels…the whole shebang. Anyway, I think I’m going to marry her.”
Just think about how much poise it took for this photographer to take this photo. Not only is the shark sneaking up on this poor fish, but there’s a person behind that camera! Presumably, the photographer escaped unscathed, since he was able to enter this photo in the contest.
It’s clearly not just human women who have to put up with the incessant nagging conversation from dudes we have no interest in talking to. See the look on that bird’s face? Staring straight out just willing him to go away? Tell me you haven’t made that face. Yeah, that’s what I thought.
“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?” No one really knows this, but squirrels are generally huge Shakespeare fans. They saw him put up a play in Europe centuries ago and have just carried that love for his words through generations and generations of squirrels.
I relate to this bear hard. Anyone who has had to get up and go to work after a long weekend knows this feeling. Sometimes, you just don’t want to deal with anything. Sometimes, you just want to lie on the ground, cover your face with your hands, and nap for a little while longer.
I love this photo so much. Because not only is it a picture of a penguin farting, but it’s a picture of a penguin who is clearly trying to hide the fact that he’s farting and play it off like he’s doing absolutely nothing. He’s just standing there twiddling his wings. He has no idea what that big bubble under his butt is.
There seems to be a whole genre of “Small rodents holding flowers” photos, and I am a sucker for every single one of them. I’m pretty sure this comes up when you look up “cute” in the dictionary. It’s just so pure.
“Hi there! Welcome to my flower. So glad you could make it! It’s a little cold and wet right now, but once the sun comes up we’ll be in business. Help yourself to a dewdrop. They’re especially fresh this morning.”
“And then my friend Steve, the otter, told me that Carol said to him, ‘You otter come over for dinner!’ Get it? Get it? Because they’re otters! So it’s funny. Hey, where’d you go?”
These poor monkeys were just trying to get it on. Their kids were finally out of the tree, they had some peace and quiet, and then they were so rudely interrupted by a photographer. Although mom looks like she was kinda zoning out anyway.
This little chimp is living the life! He’s got it all figured out, and from the looks of him, he’s still a tiny baby. He’s just looking out at the jungle, thinking about all that milk he’s going to drink later.
I bet that when you’re a Snowy Owl and it finally snows, you are just so ecstatically happy. I mean, it’s right there in your name. Look at her face! It’s full of such pure joy.
Like this little monkey, I, too, usually save my existential crises for bath time. There’s something about the weightlessness of floating in the water that makes you question everything you know to be true about yourself and the world.
Who’s calling this snapping turtle slow? He’s just “taking his time.” On another note, I think turtles are probably the most prehistoric-looking creatures that still exist. If you really take the time to look at them, they’re so crazy.
Imagine playing hide and seek on a block of ice as a polar bear. On one hand, there aren’t too many places to hide. On the other hand, you’re looking for white on white, and that’s not easy.
I don’t know if you knew this, but rodents love ABBA. Here is one getting down to “Dancing Queen.” Because they’re so small, they really feel the music down to their bones. Raise your hand if you would watch an all-rodent adaptation of Mamma Mia! Yeah, me too.
If you want to enter next year’s competition, follow the link here to sign up for mailing list updates!
This article originally appeared six years ago. It has been updated.
