Enceladus (Credit: NASA)
The Cassini spacecraft has entered its final hours. And with the end nigh, Discover called up the Southwest Research Institute’s Hunter Waite — a Cassini principal investigator — for a look back at how this has redefined our view of where alien life might live in our solar system.
Before reaching Saturn in 2004, astronomers knew little about the gas giant’s many moons. Voyager got a glimpse of the system decades earlier. And Titan — the on ...read more
This timeline charts Cassini’s final flyby of the moon Titan, leading to its demise in Saturn’s atmosphere September 15. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Today, Cassini takes its final photograph, calls home with its last pre-packed data, and transitions to continuous real-time transmission to squeeze science out of every last final second before destruction.
At 12:58 p.m. Pacific time on September 14, 2017, the Cassini spacecraft will look around Saturn’s system for the fin ...read more
The Skyfront Tailwind is a hybrid powered drone that can be powered by both gasoline and electricity. And it just broke a record ― well, sort of ― for the longest drone flight. (Credit: Skyfront)
What story would you believe: A story about a drone that can fly for 4 hours or 4 minutes? Probably the latter, but this is a story about a hybrid powered drone that can fly for hours.
Whether it’s a researcher using drones to drop bugs onto crops or a hobbyist trying to capture ...read more
(Credit: Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock)
When an asteroid smashes into the Earth things get pretty toasty.
A 17 mile-wide crater in Canada was home to what scientists say is the hottest temperature ever recorded in Earth’s crustal rock, a whopping 4,300 degrees Fahrenheit. They didn’t just stick a thermometer in there, of course, the crater is some 36 million years old. Instead, researchers from Curtin University in Australia looked to the rocks.
Embedded in the crater walls wer ...read more
From left, the vapor above the bottlenecks of bottles stored at 6 °C, 12 °C and the deep blue CO2 freezing plume from a bottle stored at 20 °C. (Credit: Equipe Effervescence, Champagne et Applications/URCA)
Looking for a new party trick? A study published in Scientific Reports researchers demonstrated that storing your champagne bottles at different temperatures can change the shape and even the color of the fog plume that’s released after that characteristic “pop.&rdqu ...read more
Cassini spent part of its Grand Finale diving through the gap between Saturn and its rings, taking observations that had never before been attempted. (Credit: JPL/Caltech)
The Cassini probe has given us a spectacular view of the Saturn system over the 13 years it’s been there. In that time, it’s opened up untold wonders of our second-largest planet and its 62 spectacular moons. Here are a few big-to-small numbers to know as Cassini prepares for self-destruction:
4.9 billion miles:& ...read more
By: Lily Bui
In the brief span of two months, a series of disasters have swept across the globe. Hurricanes in the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean left homes, businesses, and streets flooded, disarmed power grids and basic services, and devastated the communities that rely on them. An earthquake in Mexico spurred mass evacuations and toppled buildings. Floods in South Asia killed thousands and shut millions of children out of school.
Critical to disaster response efforts after an incident is the ga ...read more
(Credit: Shutterstock)
Women may soon have more options when it comes to deciding how often they are screened for cervical cancer. But here’s the thing ― age is important.
Women ages 30 to 65 years can either get screened every three years with a pap smear or every five years with a high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) test, according to draft recommendations on cervical cancer screening released Tuesday by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). This draft recommen ...read more
A macaque using a stone tool to break open shellfish. (Credit: Luncz et. al/eLife)
The advent of tools was a big deal for humanity. It made it far easier to manipulate our environment and mold the planet to serve our own interests—from the folsom point to the iPhone X.
Some animals use tools too, like the macaques of Thailand, who have figured out that their favorite shellfish snacks are much easier to eat if they bash them open with rocks first. They’ve become proficient shellfish ...read more
