Nature Hub

      From BBC World News      By Alessia Franco and David Robson, Features correspondent               Edited by  Amal Udawatta Share Nasa (Credit: Nasa/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington) From its "absurd" core to the baffling chemical composition of its surface, Mercury is full of surprises – not least the planet's origins. But some answers could be held in rocks found in Cyprus. Curiosity has killed many an explorer, and Nicola Mari feared he was to be the next. Driving around Cyprus's remotest mountains, Mari had relied on his cell phone for directions. But as the light of the day faded, so did his phone battery – and he found himself stuck in the middle of nowhere with little idea of the way back to his lodgings. "I'd travelled for more than 50km (31 miles) without seeing another vehicle," he says. He thought he could remember the way to an inn, where he might refill his stomach, engine, and phone

    From - Sky & Telescope     By  -  David L Chandler      Edited by  - Amal Udawatta Constant Contact Use. This image shows the location and distribution of stars that are part of the Shakti (yellow) and Shiva (blue) streams in the Milky Way. These streams of stars were identified by their shared orbital properties. ESA / Gaia / DPAC / K. Malhan Astronomers have identified two groupings of stars in the inner Milky Way that they conclude represent two early proto-galaxies that collided with an early version of the Milky Way, helping to build it into the large whirlpool of stars that we live in today. If their interpretation is correct, it helps give credence to the idea that galaxies first formed from collisions of many smaller aggregations of gas and stars. The finding may thus provide glimpses of our galaxy in its earliest stages of formation — in essence, our galaxy’s baby pictures. The newly identified groupings have been dubbed Shakti and Shiva, after two Hindu deities, by th

     By Jacqueline Howard,  BBC News,  Edited by Amal Udawatta Share Getty Images The president of Botswana has threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany in a political dispute. Earlier this year, Germany's environment ministry suggested there should be stricter limits on importing hunting trophies. Botswana's president Mokgweetsi Masisi told German media this would only impoverish people in his country. He said elephant numbers had exploded as a result of conservation efforts, and hunting helped keep them in check. Germans should "live together with the animals, in the way you are trying to tell us to", Mr Masisi told German newspaper Bild. Botswana is home to about a third of the world's elephant population - more than 130,000 - more than it has space for. Herds were causing damage to property, eating crops and trampling residents, he told Bild. Botswana has previously given 8,000 elephants to neighbouring Angola, and has offered hundreds more to Mozambique