NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found signs of water vapor spewing from the surface of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. The water appears to shoot about 125 miles high and may come from the global ocean thought to be beneath the moon's surface. The discovery whets the appetite of scientists who want to investigate whether the distant world could harbor life. "If there are plumes emerging from Europa, they're significant because it means we may be able to explore [its ocean] for organic chemicals or even signs of life, without having to drill through unknown miles of ice," team leader William Sparks, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said.

Horses can tell you what they want to wear

Twenty-two horses in Norway can tell you whether they want to wear a blanket or stick with bare backs, according to a new study. This discovery is an important addition to the understanding of horse smarts and learning abilities, according to researchers at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute. They taught the horses to use symbols to indicate their blanket-wearing preference — and the equines' easy mastery of the task suggests they understood that the symbols had meanings that led to outcomes.

Greenland losing more ice than thought

Greenland is losing about 40 trillion pounds more ice a year than scientists had thought, according to a new study that used GPS to help estimate how much is melting. Greenland lost about 590 trillion pounds of ice each year between 2003 and 2013, said study co-author Michael Bevis of Ohio State University. The Empire State Building weighs 730 million pounds, so 40 trillion pounds a year is the equivalent of more than 50,000 Empire State Buildings.

Pet store rings up a new species of crab

A previously unknown freshwater crab has been discovered in plain sight: on sale at a pet shop in China. The animals, called Yuebeipotamon, are about an inch across with brilliant orange coloring, wide-set eyes and long slender legs.

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