Do Our Odds of Dying Ever Stop Increasing With Age? Scientists Disagree

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

As we get older, our chances of dying go up. To that, you might say, well, duh. But, when we hit around 80 years old or so, a funny thing seems to happen: Our odds of dying stop increasing and instead start leveling out. So you’ve got the same shot — about 50/50 — of croaking at, say, 110 (an age that would classify you as a so-called supercentenarian) as you would at 95. It’s an odd phenomenon that’s left experts puzzled for years. Researchers have floated ma ...read more

New Horizons Survived its Flyby of Ultima Thule

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

New Horizons successfully "phoned home" at 10:28 a.m. EST, letting NASA scientists know all of its systems survived the flyby of Ultima Thule. The first real images will now slowly trickle in over the coming hours and days. "We have a healthy spacecraft," Mission Operations Manager, "MOM," Alice Bowman announced to a crowd of cheering scientists Tuesday morning. New Horizons, Phone Home Not long after the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day, as 2018 gave way to 2019, NASA's New Horizon ...read more

Watch Tonight’s New Horizon’s Flyby of Ultima Thule Right Here

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

A New Year's Flyby A billion miles past Pluto, at 12:33 a.m. EST tonight on New Year’s Day, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will swoop in close to the most distant object humans will have ever visited. For just a moment, the craft will fly within 2,200 miles (3,540 km) of Ultima Thule, a primitive space rock from the Kuiper Belt far beyond Neptune. This will be over three times closer than the craft flew to Pluto, according to New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern. If New ...read more