In the 1970s, the original version of the Voyager mission was supposed to include a Pluto flyby–and Alan Stern worked through many failed attempts to launch a Pluto mission in the decades since. (Graphic: Jason Davis/The Planetary Society)
On July 14, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft swept past Pluto, returning eye-popping images of the dwarf planet and its huge (relatively speaking) moon, Charon. At the time, the best existing images of Pluto showed nothing more than an enigmatic blur. ...read more
A bright tangle of magnetic field lines has appeared on its surface. But otherwise the Sun is singularly serene. What’s going on?
View of the Sun from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory
The other day, NASA posted this closeup view of the Sun under the headline: “Tangled Up in Blue.”
The reference to the Bob Dylan tune aside, I found the video particularly intriguing. That’s because the Sun’s surface, as imaged here by the Solar Dynami ...read more
This colorful version of Mercury was assembled from spectral data taken with the MESSENGER spacecraft, highlighting various minerals on the planet’s surface. (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)
New data is throwing our theories about Mercury’s formation into disarray.
Scientists already knew that Mercury looked a bit odd inside. The planet is 60 percent core by volume. Earth is just 15-17 percent core. The crust and ...read more
The new fissure eruption in Leilani Estates on the far downslope of the East Rift zone of Kilauea, seen on May 3, 2018. USGS/HVO.
Yesterday, a new eruption started on the slopes of Kilauea. Far down the East Rift zone, in the Leilani Estates subdivision, fissures began to open yesterday. By the time evening hit, lava was spattering from the cracks and short lava flows that travelled ten meters (30 feet) soon followed.
Scientists from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory flew over the new erupt ...read more
While this captive gorilla noshes on fibrous veg such as kale, in the wild, the animals’ diets vary seasonally, as does their microbiome. (Credit Wikimedia Commons/Ltshears)
Researchers analyzing the gut microbes of gorillas and other primates found seasonal shifts that underscore just how much is missing from the modern human diet — and why it matters.
Right now, you’re hosting your own special ecosystem. Millions of microbes live out their lives on your skin and in every no ...read more
What’s happening in the West over the long run is less about reduced snowfall and more the result of warming temperatures
A comparison of satellite images showing the Rocky Mountains. Snowpack in April of 2016 was much more substantial than it is now. (Images: NASA Worldview. Animation: Tom Yulsman)
In the western United States, the most important reservoirs are not the manmade ones along rivers, but the natural ones high up in our mountains: the snowpack that accumulates all w ...read more
Some of the drones just didn’t feel like dancing in formation. (Beijing News/YouTube)
Drones have flown over blowholes and detected heartbeats from the sky. They’re also good entertainers.
Ehang, Chinese drone manufacturer known for its autonomous flying taxi, flew 1,374 drones over the Xi’an City Wall. The company reclaimed the Guinness World Record for the “most number of unmanned aerial vehicles airborne simultaneously.”
The drones danced into&nbs ...read more
(Credit: Valentyna Chukhlyebova/Shutterstock)
Superman was the Man of Steel. We can’t possibly be like him.
But guess what? Ounce for ounce, our bones are stronger than steel.
So why are people always breaking them? It’s because bones are also light and flexible, and the physics behind the speed and angle of blows make mincemeat of strength measures. That’s why a karate expert can break brick with his hand, but might also break a finger after slipping on ice. Chest compressio ...read more
An example of a Turing structure. (Credit: L. Yang and I.R. Epstein/Youtube)
Water, it’s safe to say, is pretty important. A key necessity for life to flourish, the substance is also chemically important, the “universal solvent” that enables many familiar reactions. Also, we need to drink it or we die.
It’s becoming an increasing concern. South Africa’s Cape Town barely managed to push back its “Day Zero,” when taps would literally run dry, into 2019. ...read more
