Today's biggest science news: Kilauea lava fountains | Northern Lights forecast | Comet 3I/ATLAS activity
Monday, Dec. 8, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
Live Science news roundup
- Lost Indigenous settlements described by Jamestown colonist John Smith finally found
- Strangely bleached rocks on Mars hint that the Red Planet was once a tropical oasis
- 1,800-year-old 'piggy banks' full of Roman-era coins unearthed in French village
- New NASA, ESA images show 3I/ATLAS getting active ahead of its close encounter with Earth
'Hobbit' extinction
A drought may have doomed the small ancient human species Homo floresiensis, nicknamed "the hobbit," Live Science contributor Owen Jarus reports.
New research suggests that declining rainfall could have reduced the population of Stegodon (extinct elephants) that H. floresiensis relied on for food, and, in turn, forced the Hobbit to compete with modern humans (us).
H. floresiensis lived in Indonesia from at least 100,000 years ago until about 50,000 years ago. Researchers still have a lot to learn about these enigmatic ancient humans, the remains of which have only ever been found in one cave, and it remains uncertain whether they interacted with us.
Species typically go extinct for multiple reasons. In the case of H. floresiensis, a volcanic eruption may have also been a significant factor in their demise.
Read the full story here.
Camera lost in lava fountain
Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupted with spectacular, giant lava fountains over the weekend and consumed a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) camera.
Kilauea volcano is one of the world's most active volcanoes and has erupted almost continuously on Hawaii's Big Island for more than 30 years.
The latest activity marked the 38th episode of the Kilauea summit's eruption cycle, which began on Dec. 23, 2024. We've seen plenty of lava fountains before, but the USGS's cameras are rarely this close to the action.
