Today, physicist Wal Thornhill continues his discussion of NASA’s New Horizons mission to the dwarf planet Pluto. The mission has already provided a number of surprises for planetary scientists.

The tiny planet’s geological activity, its apparent age, the stunning features on its moons and more all defy many fundamental ideas in planetary science.

As principal investigator Alan Stern recently stated, Pluto is “going to send a lot of geophysicists back to the drawing board.” But are these discoveries surprising from an Electric Universe perspective?

Over the past ten years in the United States, unconventional gas and oil drilling using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has experienced a meteoric increase. Since well drilling requires an influx of water, materials and workers into yotherwise rural and remote areas, the question has been: could air, water and noise pollution negatively impact on the health of nearby residents?

A study published last year suggested that hydraulic fracturing and proximity to active well drilling are associated with congenital heart disease and low birth weight newborns.

In research from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University published this week in PLoS One, my colleagues and I found that hospitalizations for heart conditions, neurologic illness and other maladies were higher among people who live near unconventional gas and oil drilling.

The finding suggests that these people are exposed to stressors, such as toxic substances and noise, that can lead to a higher rates of hospitalizations.<...

Around 865 000 people have been evacuated from the coastal areas of Zhejiang province, China ahead of Typhoon "Chan-hom" landfall.  The typhoon is expected to hit land Saturday afternoon between the coastal cities of Rui’an and Zhoushan, south of Shanghai. Chinese Meteorological Administration has issued a red warning for the province.

Authorities have also ordered 28 764 ships back to ports, canceled all flights into and out of Zhoushan along with 400 flights elsewhere in the region. More than 100 trains between the region's cities are not operating.

During the last 24 hours, Chan-hom has been moving in the East China Sea in a NW direction, causing 20 injuries in southern Japanese islands, and reached Chinese coastal areas close to Ningbo (Zhejiang province) as of 00:00 UTC on July 11.

At the time, the typhoon had a wind speed of approximately 167 km/h (104 mph) which made it a Category 2 tropical cyclone.

A spectacular conjunction of Venus and Jupiter will be visible on July 1 with the two planets appearing extremely close, only 0.3 degrees apart.

Several weak meteor showers this month will set stage for Perseids, one of the most popular annual meteor showers expected to reach its peak on August 13. 

The first full moon of the month falls on July 2, this full moon was known by early Native American tribes as the Full Buck Moon. This moon has also been known as the Full Thunder Moon and the Full Hay Moon.

The Delta Aquarids are scheduled for July 28 and 29. This is an average meteor shower usually producing up to 20 meteors per hour at its peak. Unfortunately, the nearly full moon will block out all but the brightest meteors this year.

• July 1 - Conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. A spectacular conjunction of Venus and Jupiter will be visible in the evening sky. The two bright planets will be extremely close, appearing only 0.3 degrees apart. Look for this impressive pairing in the western sky just after sunset.

World stock markets have tumbled on Monday, June 29, 2015 after Greece failed to reach a deal with its foreign creditors over the weekend and imposed new strict measures to deal with their debt crisis.

Just before 01:00 UTC on June 29, Greek government closed all country's banks and capped daily ATM withdrawals at 60 Euros.

The move was preceded by the announcement of a July 5 referendum on austerity measures demanded by their creditors.

The government said all banks will remain closed until after the referendum and assured they will reopen them on Tuesday, July 7.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras ​appealed for calm, insisting that Greeks’ savings and pensions are safe.

European shares took a hammering in early deals on Monday, with Southern European banks especially badly hit, Reuters reported.