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Tech NewsThese Stunning New Photos of Mars Are Weirdly Earth-Like
If someone told us that these stunning new photos had been taken on Earth, we wouldn’t have blinked an eye. But they weren’t. Instead, every one of these photographs comes from a planet millions of miles away from us. The new collection of over 1,000 photographs, which you can browse in its entirety right here, … Continued
By Ria Misra -
EartherClimate Change
Strange Minerals From Siberian Mine Are Unlike Anything Found in Nature
From deep inside a Siberian mine, researchers have catalogued a series of materials unlike any others yet found in the ground. They do, however, bear a startling similarity to certain lab-grown materials that weren’t thought to exist in nature at all—until now. In the last few decades, chemists have been crafting a series of new … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
You Can Be the Curiosity Rover in NASA’s New Driving Game
Admit it: In your heart, you’re a space robot, laughing at death on Mars, while you pop a wheelie over an underground water cavern. Now there’s a game that lets you take your true form. The game is called Mars Rover and it was just released by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a kind of … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
X-Ray of Degas Painting Reveals a Mysterious Secret Portrait
For almost a hundred years, viewers have speculated over a shadowy figure that appears to be slowly emerging from behind a famous Degas portrait. Now, researchers have used a new imaging technique to look behind the painting—and they’ve discovered a secret portrait. The artwork in question is Edgar Degas’ Portrait of a Woman, painted around … Continued
By Ria Misra -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
The 20 Most Earth-Like Exoplanets We’ve Found
Kepler has given us a stash of thousands of exoplanets. Now, researchers have pulled twenty from that stash that they say are the most likely to be habitable. To get this handful of planets, researchers first selected from a list of 216 exoplanets out of more than 4,000 that Kepler had uncovered. These first couple … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
Stop Drinking Out of Starbucks’ Metal Straws
Starbucks has recalled 2.8 million of its stainless steel straws after reports of children cutting their mouths while drinking. Starbucks sold the straws bothon their own and as part of a reusable steel cup. They come in two sizes—Grande, a 9.5 inch straw, and Venti, 10.4 inches—both of which are being recalled as “an injury … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
China’s Rover Just Died on the Moon—Again [UPDATED]
After over two-and-a-half years on the moon, China’s lunar rover Yutu has been pronounced dead—for the second and (probably?) final time. [Update: It looks like Yutu may be coming back for yet another shot at life.] China’s state news agency announced that the lunar rover had died this morning. Yutu, or “Jade Rabbit,” as it’s … Continued
By Ria Misra -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
One of the Best Explanations For Why We Haven’t Found Alien Life
So far, the only examples of sentient life we’ve found are right here on our own planet. It’s not for lack of trying, though—we’ve sent out spacecraft deep into our solar system and, so far, still remain alone. What if the problem isn’t where we are looking, though, but when? A forthcoming study in Journal … Continued
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Tech News
What Five Years of Drought Have Done to the United States
We’re in the midst of a long, sustained drought that’s been unfolding for the past several years. But just how hard has that drought hit in different parts of the United States? This maps shows exactly. John Nelson over at Adventures in Mapping drew the map using over five years of combined weekly data from … Continued
By Ria Misra -
ScienceSpace & SpaceflightWhat a Giant Solar Flare Would Look Like Next to Earth
If a solar flare really took place that close to Earth, it would mean the end of days on our little planet. But seeing that flare erupt right next to us sure does show us just how powerful these things really are. This image of a particularly giant solar flare was created by the ESA. … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
This Is How Much Time Americans Spend Eating Each Day
Quick, how much time do you think you spent eating yesterday? What about the day before that? The USDA just wrapped up a big survey of current American eating trends. Of particular interest was its deep dive into the time we spend eating—and just how much of that time is also devoted to doing something … Continued
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Tech News
Lava Spilling Over a Cliff Looks Like Hot Candy
Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has been slowly leaking lava onto the surface around it for over three decades now, but only rarely does that lava reach the island’s cliffs. This week, it finally did—and a photographer caught the whole thing from a boat. David Ford started snapping photos of the streaming lava when it first hit … Continued
By Ria Misra -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
These Deep Trenches on Mars Aren’t What We Thought They Were
The surface of Mars is lined with mysterious deep-carved trenches. A long-standing theory suggesting that the were left long ago by flowing rivers was just debunked. So where did these trenches come from? Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have been studying images of the gullies from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. At first, there was nothing … Continued
By Ria Misra -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
The World’s Fastest Rocket Just Launched a Secret Spy Satellite
A secret satellite was launched into space today. We don’t know just what it’s doing in space. But! We can see in these pictures exactly how it got there: aboard an incredibly fast rocket. The Atlas V isn’t quite as big as ULA’s other big launch rocket, the Delta IV, which is the largest in … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
How to Watch Tonight’s Delta Aquarid Meteor Shower
The Delta Aquarid meteor shower is tonight and it’s a reliably good show that you shouldn’t miss. Here’s how, when, and where to watch. Some meteor showers are prone to either feast or famine, raining down hundreds of meteors one year, only to slow to a trickle the next. Not the Delta Aquarids. This is … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
Why Did This Lake Suddenly Turn Blood Red?
Three months ago, Iran’s Lake Urmia was green. Today, it’s blood red. But it’s not something that’s been added to the lake that caused the change—it’s something that’s been taken out. NASA’s Earth Observatory caught the lake in transition, photographing it first in April, when it was a springtime green and again last week it’s … Continued
By Ria Misra -
ScienceSpace & SpaceflightResearchers Just Solved One of the Big Paradoxes About Jupiter’s Atmosphere
There’s a mystery above Jupiter. The planet is five times farther from the sun than Earth is—and yet has similar atmospheric temperatures to our own. So where’s all that extra heat coming from? It turns out, Jupiter may have a second heat source in its Big Red Spot. In a new paper out today in … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
Divers Just Found a Sweet Tub of Cheese in a 17th-Century Shipwreck
An on-going excavation of a Swedish warship sunk in the 17th century recently yielded quite the haul. The newly found treasure includes gold coins, a diamond ring, and a 340-year-old pot of cheese. Truly, the ocean is full of wonders. The Kronan was a 105-gun battleship sunk in the Baltic Sea in 1676 during a … Continued
By Ria Misra -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
There’s Something Very Strange Surrounding This Galaxy
Meet the Eye of Horus. It’s a newly discovered galaxy system that’s hiding something incredible in those fuzzy swirls of light circling it: a way of looking back into even further and older galaxies. The new galaxy system was discovered by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan using the Subaru Telescope over the course of … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
Researchers Just Figured Out a New Way to Keep Apples Fresh for Weeks
Our current solution to apples that start to soften (just bake them into a pie) has been working darn well. But a new method could give us apples that stay crisp for several weeks. A team of researchers used a specially designed plasma tool, based on one that had been used in hospitals to disinfect … Continued
By Ria Misra
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