NASA’s Voyager Probes Find Puzzles beyond the Solar System
For all of humanity’s millennia of staring at the stars and decades of launching probes to explore our universe, only two spacecraft carrying working instruments have ever managed to escape the bubble of space governed by our sun. The twin Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977 on an epic tour of the outer planets; both swung
How Do Astronomers Navigate the Sky?
As someone who has spent thousands of hours observing the night sky, I like to think that I’m pretty familiar with it and able to navigate my way around with some ease. That’s certainly true on the large scale: bouncing from one constellation to another or searching out bright stars. But when I’m at the
Modern Zoos Are Trailblazing Animal Conservation Efforts
Rachel Feltman: Who here grew up loving animals? Personally, I had a five-foot-long [one-and-a-half-meter-long] iguana who taught himself to use the cat’s litter box. That dude was the best. But, of course, there are plenty of furry and scaly friends we don’t keep in our houses and yards—and for those critters, surviving and thriving in
Mysterious Drone Sightings Illustrate Just How Many Fill America’s Skies
December 12, 2024 2 min read Mysterious drone sightings over New Jersey and New York State are underscoring the high number of these vehicles in the U.S. By Meghan Bartels edited by Jeanna Bryner Joel Papalini/Getty Images For weeks, residents of New Jersey and neighboring states have been baffled by high numbers of mysterious drone
When Did Neandertals and Humans Interbreed? Genomics Closes In on a Date
Scientists have long known that humans outside of Africa owe 2 to 3 percent of their genome to Neandertal ancestors. But now, using the oldest modern human DNA ever analyzed, two separate studies have traced this ancestry to a single surge of interbreeding that occurred between 45,000 and 49,000 years ago. Neandertals (Homo neanderthalensis) and
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