Science news this week: Neanderthals made fire, orcas and dolphins team up, and the 'Star of Bethlehem' explored

It has been an exciting week in science news, with our understanding of human evolution and animal behavior taking interesting turns. But before we dip into matters on Earth, let's look to the skies and see what we've discovered in space.

A bright binary star system could soon light up with the nuclear brilliance of thousands of suns. The star system, called V Sagittae, is giving off brilliant flares before going supernova a century from now. Skywatchers are in for a treat, because the flares will be visible with the naked eye — day or night. Meanwhile, a mysterious X-ray signal from deep space may in fact be the death throes of a star getting ripped to bits by two separate black holes.

Finally, in a bit of out-of-this-world holiday news, Jupiter will be big and bright in the skies this month, making some wonder if it could have been the Star of Bethlehem described in the story of Jesus' birth. We'll never know for sure, but it's unlikely.

And closer to home, a particle detector buried deep underground in South Dakota has found no hints of elusive dark matter. The particle accelerator was searching for a type of particle theorized to make up dark matter. Scientists had spotted anomalies in prior experiments that they had theorized were due to a dark matter particle, but the new experiment effectively rules that out.

Are orcas and dolphins teaming up?

Killer whales are teaming up with dolphins on salmon hunts, study finds — but not everyone agrees

Orcas living off the coast of British Columbia have been spotted hunting with Pacific white-sided dolphins and sharing scraps of salmon with them after making a kill.

A study released this week shows the two species in this area generally showing few signs of mutual aggression and sometimes even seeking each other out, which is unusual given that orcas hunt dolphins in other locations, while some dolphins mob orcas.

The study authors claim the findings are the first documented recording of cooperative hunting and prey-sharing between orcas and dolphins. However, not all experts agree that the behavior shows these species working together. Instead, it could be a form of kleptoparasitism, in which one animal steals food that another has already hunted.

Life's Little Mysteries

What if Antony and Cleopatra had defeated Octavian?

In 30 B.C., Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII died by suicide after they were defeated by Octavian's forces in a civil war.

But what if Antony and Cleopatra had defeated Octavian, the man who became Rome's first emperor? Would they have become rulers of Rome? How would history have been different?

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Neanderthals made fire very early

Archaeologists uncover evidence that Neanderthals made fire 400,000 years ago in England

The use of fire is often considered one of the key moments in the history of human evolution, but a new study released this week has pushed back previous estimates of when Neanderthals were first able to control it by some 350,000 years.

A naturally occurring mineral called pyrite can be found all around the world, and when struck against flint, produces fire-starting sparks. But the mineral, also known as fool's gold, is extremely rare at an archaeological site in Suffolk, England, from more than 400,000 years ago, a time when Neanderthals ruled the land but much earlier than previous evidence of fire making. Its presence at the site suggests it was intentionally brought there, probably with the aim of making fire, the researchers said in the study.

Because of the importance of controlled fire, paleoanthropologists have long debated the timing of this invention. The study's results add fuel to a larger debate about Neanderthals' control of fire and their social and cultural use of it.

Discover more archaeology news:

—1,800-year-old 'piggy banks' full of Roman-era coins unearthed in French village

—The 'hobbits' may have died out when drought forced them to compete with modern humans, new research suggests

—Lost Indigenous settlements described by Jamestown colonist John Smith finally found

Also in science news this week

—CDC panel, stuffed with vaccine skeptics, votes to end recommendation for universal newborn hepatitis B vaccination

—'It is simply too hot to handle': 2024 was Arab region's hottest year on record, first-of-its-kind climate report reveals

—New 'physics shortcut' lets laptops tackle quantum problems once reserved for supercomputers and AI

—Glue strong enough to tow a car made from used cooking oil

Beyond the headlines

New discoveries at Hadrian's Wall are changing the picture of what life was like on the border of the Roman Empire

Two millennia ago, the Roman Empire reached the limits of its power. The island of Britain marked the northernmost border of the Roman Empire and the point at which the ancient superpower's expansion came to a halt.

The Romans launched several invasions and kept 10% of the entire army in the province but failed to conquer the whole island. Instead, a militarized frontier divided the island in two — marked by the 73-mile-long (118 kilometers) Hadrian's Wall, which was the border for nearly 300 years.

One key source of information we've gleaned about this borderland is a historic fort called Vindolanda.New discoveries at Vindolanda are changing the picture of what life was like on the edge of the empire. The Roman frontier was far from a forbidding, "Game of Thrones"-like outpost in the middle of nowhere. Instead, clues point to a vibrant community that was a demographic snapshot of the entire empire. And the site is shining a light on some of the most understudied groups in Roman society.

Something for the weekend

If you're looking for something a little longer to read over the weekend, here are some of the best polls, interviews and opinion pieces published this week.

—Earth's crust hides enough 'gold' hydrogen to power the world for tens of thousands of years, emerging research suggests [Feature]

—'Intelligence comes at a price, and for many species, the benefits just aren't worth it': A neuroscientist's take on how human intellect evolved [Book extract]

—Female chemist initially barred from research helps develop drug for remarkable-but-short-lived recovery in children with leukemia — Dec. 6, 1954 [Science history]

—#23: Distance around the edge of a circle — 6 down [Crossword]

Science in pictures

Strangely bleached rocks on Mars hint that the Red Planet was once a tropical oasis

This may look like a particularly unassuming rock, but its curious bleaching suggests that its home, Mars, may have once had wet, humid areas with heavy rainfall, similar to tropical regions on Earth.

The rock seen in this photo, taken by NASA's Perseverance rover, appears to be kaolinite, an aluminum-rich type of clay that on Earth almost always forms under very warm, steamy conditions. So how did it form on the cold and dry climate of Mars?

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