Archaeologists Uncover 123 Bodies in Ancient Leicester Burial Pit
An excavation near Leicester Cathedral has led to the discovery of a burial pit containing the remains of 123 individuals. The find, described as one of the largest mass graves from the period, dates back over 800 years to the early 12th century. Despite the scale of the burial, no evidence of violence was found, leaving researchers questioning whether famine or disease was responsible for the deaths.
The team, led by Mathew Morris, Project Officer at the University of Leicester Archaeological Services, concluded that the pit was filled rapidly in three successive deposits. Morris, in an interview published by The Guardian, stated that the bodies appear to have been brought in cartloads and dropped into the shaft within a short period. He estimated the buried individuals represented about 5 percent of Leicester’s medieval population.
Clues in Historical Records and Radiocarbon Dating
As per the report by the publication, tnitial speculation linked the burial to the Black Death. However, radiocarbon testing placed the deaths in the 12th century, predating the plague by over a century. Morris told the publication that that this raises significant questions as there is no clear record of what caused the widespread fatalities.
Historical accounts mention severe famines and pestilences in England between the 10th and 12th centuries, offering potential explanations. The discovery aligns with descriptions of repeated outbreaks of disease and hunger.
Ongoing Investigations and Genetic Analysis
Samples have been sent to the Francis Crick Institute in London to identify pathogens that might explain the mass deaths. The absence of clothing remnants suggests deliberate preparation of the bodies, with burial practices hinting at civic organisation even during times of crisis. The burial pit was discovered during work for a heritage learning centre, which followed the unearthing of Richard III’s remains in 2012. This excavation has revealed nearly 1,200 burials spanning over eight centuries, offering a unique glimpse into Leicester’s past.
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The gas giant TOI-2109b is more than five times as massive as Jupiter, and resides in a perilous orbit 870 light-years from our planet. As an “ultrahot Jupiter,” it completes a lap around its parent star in a mere 16 hours, the briefest orbit of any such planet known. It is baking its atmosphere to broiling temperatures, and inching closer to oblivion in an orbit that is slowly pulling it in toward its parent sun. Using archived space telescope data from TESS and Cheops, astronomers have observed the testimony of this inevitable spiral, and contemplated three (wildly divergent) possible fates of the doomed planet.
Fates for TOI-2109b
According to the new research, conducted with data from NASA’s TESS and ESA’s Cheops missions shows that TOI-2109b’s orbit is decaying — a process it will continue for thousands of Earth’s years to come by 10 seconds over three Earth years. This proves that it is in a process of slow in fall. If the decay becomes worse, the planet may start falling directly into its host star and create a luminous flare, just like ZTF SLRN-2020. Alternatively, the star’s tidal forces could permanently warp the planet and rip it asunder.
A Potential Planetary Rebirth
There is a third, less-tragic possibility which could happen through a process of photoevaporation, in which strong radiation from the hosting star removes TOI-2109b’s gaseous envelope to reveal its rocky core. If the planet shrinks quickly enough, it might survive the process, avoiding its destruction by spiraling within its eternal Roche limit, and settling as a super-Earth or Neptune-sized blow-up hard relic. Then TOI-2109b would be an odd, rare opportunity to witness up close how this process unfolds.
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TOI-2109b, ultrahot Jupiter, exoplanet death spiral, TESS, Cheops, super-Earth, planetary evolution, space science, astronomy, NASA, ESA
The Hubble Space Telescope has taken its initial shots of comet 3I/ATLAS, a comet visiting us from beyond our solar system that recently fell apart — but not before it struck a pose for the cameras. It’s only the third such object ever known, after 1I/ʻOumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. The subject of numerous scientific tweets and some frantic searches by astronomers anxious to figure out just what it is — and where it came from — before it is gone into the pitch black of deep space forever, 3I/ATLAS was first sighted by the ATLAS survey telescope on July 1, 2025.
Ancient Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Offers Clues to Planetary Systems Beyond Our Own
According to As per Space.com, recent studies indicate that 3I/ATLAS could be some 7 billion years old, well beyond the 4.6 billion years of our solar system. That’s an indication that the comet arose in the more ancient parts of the Milky Way, which would give researchers a rare glimpse of what the early days of other planetary systems were like. Undergraduate researcher Astrafoxen first flagged the Hubble images on Bluesky, noting the comet’s “nice and puffy” coma, despite interference from cosmic rays.
A newly available preprint paper has already revealed that 3I/ATLAS contains abundant water ice and a dust makeup resembling D-type asteroids—organic-rich bodies typically found in the outer solar system. Unlike ultrared trans-Neptunian objects, D-types are believed to have high carbon and silicate content, potentially shedding light on the comet’s deep-space origins and volatile chemistry.
The comet 3I/ATLAS was discovered just as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory was gearing up to carry out its initial observations of the heavens, dovetailing with the LSST’s expected discovery of many more interstellar objects in the coming decade.
Until then, 3I/ATLAS holds the astronomical spotlight. Its brief solar system passage offers a precious opportunity for researchers to analyse the material makeup of alien planetary systems. The Hubble images, now available for download, are expected to aid future papers as scientists continue to unravel the story of this ancient cosmic traveller.
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