TECHAZINS

A scrawny dwarf planet nicknamed the Goblin   has been discovered well beyond Pluto .   A round frozen world just 186 miles (300   kilometers) across, the Goblin was spotted by   astronomers in 2015 around Halloween, thus   its spooky name. But it wasn’t publicly unveiled   until Tuesday following further observations   with ground telescopes. Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for   Science , one of the astronomers who made the   discovery, said the Goblin is on the small end   for a dwarf planet. It is officially known as 2015   TG387 by the International Astronomical Union’s   Minor Planet Center.   This is the third dwarf planet   recently found   to be orbiting on the frigid fringes of   our   solar system . Goblin’s orbit is extremely elongated — so   stretched out, in fact, that it takes 40,000 years   for it to circle the sun .   At its most distant, t...

  Where the Earth’s core and mantle   meet, the temperature is 10,800°F.   That’s as hot as the surface of the Sun.   There, at a depth of 1,800 miles, lies the   graveyard of the continents . This is where   gigantic slabs called tectonic plates are   pulled down toward the planet’s molten   outer core. But this final resting place of   the continental slabs is not final at all—   it’s also a place of new beginnings. Like a   phoenix rising from the ashes, mushroom   shaped   masses of magna from the interior   of Earth rise up to the surface, emerging   from the ocean as new volcanic islands,   such as those of Hawaii. Seismologists   have found one of these mantle plumes   rising under Australia and New Zealand.   And they’re certain: This is where the next   volcanic islands will be coming forth from   the ocean floor. A LAKE OF LAVA There are only six active lav...