A Cosmic Airburst May Have Devastated a Vast Native American Culture 1,500 Years Ago

More than 1500 years ago, a vast culture known as the Hopewell tradition (or Hopewell culture) stretched across what is today the eastern United States.  The cause of the culture’s decline has long been debated, with war and climate change two of the possibilities, but now a new avenue of inquiry has opened up: debris from a … Read more

Mars may have been habitable millions of years later than we thought

Analysis of minerals in a Martian meteorite suggest that the planet may have begun to be hospitable for life 30 million years later than previously thought Space 2 February 2022 By Chen Ly Caption: NWA 7034Copyright: NASA NASA Deformations in a small mineral grain from a Martian meteorite hint that habitable conditions on Mars could … Read more

Meteorite Fragment Reveals an Extreme Asteroid Impact Hidden in Mars’ Ancient Past

Evidence for an intense asteroid impact on Mars has been found in a Martian meteorite, which could alter the timeline for when the red planet might have been habitable. In a famous meteorite named NWA 7034, or ‘Black Beauty’, scientists discovered a shocked crystal of the mineral zircon, showing a feature only seen on Earth … Read more

NASA lays out plan for the International Space Station’s final years

The International Space Station’s final nine years are going to be busy. NASA just released a report outlining the big-picture goals for the rest of the orbiting lab’s operational life, which is expected to end with a controlled deorbit in January 2031. These goals are: enabling deep-space exploration, conducting research to benefit humanity, inspiring our … Read more

New Maps Show US Flood Damage Rising 26 Percent in Next 30 Years

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Climate change is raising flood risks in neighborhoods across the U.S. much faster than many people realize. Over the next three decades, the cost of flood damage is on pace to rise 26% due to climate change alone, an … Read more

Earth has an extra companion, a Trojan asteroid that will hang around for 4,000 years

In 2020, astronomers thought they’d found something incredible: the second so-called Earth Trojan asteroid ever seen. Now, a new team of researchers has confirmed that it’s real. Trojan asteroids are small space rocks that share their orbit with a planet, circling whatever host star that planet does in a stable orbit. While we have spotted … Read more

50, 100 & 150 Years Ago: February 2022

1972 Tectonic Dump “A speculative but intriguing scheme for disposing of man-made solid wastes has been put forward by two investigators at the University of Washington. The plan would take advantage of regions called subduction sinks, where sedimentary material is being drawn downward into the earth’s mantle as a consequence of seafloor spreading. A hypothetical … Read more

Hundreds of Strange, Tiny Fossils Found Inside Fish Cranium From 9 Million Years Ago

In a first for paleontology, scientists have found hundreds of tiny, fossilized fecal pellets crammed inside a fish braincase dating to about 9 million years ago. The wee fossil poops, also known as coprolites, were deposited by scavengers – probably worms – that devoured the fish’s decaying head, including its brain.   As they munched the flesh … Read more

Scientists Spent 4 Years Identifying a New Wasp That Only Leaves Its Home For 2 Days

Parasitic gall wasps don’t get out much. For the vast majority of their year-long lives, from eggs to larvae, pupae to adults, these tiny insects are entombed in cocoon-like crypts on the leaves, flowers, and stems of oak trees.   When spring rolls around, there’s no time to waste, not even for food. The wasps … Read more

Challenger artifacts intended for President Reagan recovered after 36 years

Artifacts that were recovered from the fallen space shuttle Challenger and prepared for presentation to the President of the United States have been recovered again, 36 years later, after they surfaced at auction among the collection of a NASA liaison to the White House. Little is known about how or why the late James Foster … Read more