Reuters Science News Summary

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Possible new ​dwarf planet identified orbiting beyond Pluto

Scientists ​using a Chile-based telescope have identified ‌an icy ​object orbiting beyond Pluto that may join our solar system's small roster of dwarf planets. Researchers said the candidate, named 2026 ED138, has ‌a diameter estimated at between roughly 370 and 930 miles (600 and 1,500 km) and is orbiting about 46 times farther from the sun than Earth. By way of comparison, Pluto orbits at an average of ‌about 40 times farther from the sun than Earth.

Ancient armored bottom-feeder is first seagoing amphibian

Amphibians ‌rely on their permeable skin for the crucial functions of breathing and drinking, a wonderful adaptation in freshwater that is subverted by the salt in seawater. As a result, there has been no known amphibian — extinct or extant — with a ⁠fully marine ​lifestyle. Until now, that ⁠is. Researchers have discovered in China's Guizhou Province two nearly complete skeletons of an amphibian that lived in the sea about ⁠237 million years ago during the Triassic Period, with a flat, disc-shaped and armored body and a ​wide mouth indicative of a bottom-dwelling suction feeder that ambushed its prey.

NASA rover detects ultrafine ⁠dust particles on Mars

Mars is a dusty place. Dust is circulated by everyday winds, whirlwinds called dust devils and larger ⁠dust ​storms raging at local, regional and global scales. Dust is a factor that must be addressed in any human mission to Mars, and new data from a NASA rover is revealing ⁠just how much of a challenge it may present. NASA's Perseverance rover, operating in and around an ⁠area called Jezero Crater ⁠in the Martian northern hemisphere since landing in 2021, has detected the finest particles of dust to date on Earth's planetary neighbor. It documented ultrafine particles ‌as small ‌as around 100 nanometers wide, about 500 times thinner ​than a human hair.