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NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured stunning images of frozen sand dunes, nicknamed “kidney beans,” trapped in Mars’ northern hemisphere. These frosty formations, photographed in September 2022 and released in December 2024, offer clues about the planet’s potential for past life. Unlike Earth’s ever-shifting dunes, Mars’ sand dunes remain motionless during the planet’s northern winter. A layer of carbon dioxide frost blankets them, halting wind-driven sand migration. As spring approaches and temperatures rise, the…
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Monsters on the Run: Zoo Escapees and Myth Versus Reality Source link
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News stories about the likely existence of extraterrestrial life, and our chances of detecting it, tend to be positive. We are often told that we might discover it any time now. Finding life beyond Earth is “only a matter of time”, we were told in September 2023. “We are close” was a headline from September 2024. It’s easy to see why. Headlines such as “We’re probably not close” or “Nobody knows” aren’t very clickable. But…
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Paranormal Cats of the Creepy Kind: These Ones Can Run on Their Back Limbs Source link
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Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. Earth is being pummeled by meteorites daily, but most of its residents aren’t even aware. According to NASA’s planetary defense system Scout, nearly 50 tons of meteoritic matter hit the planet daily. Most small pieces are never found, but occasionally a celestial fireball pushes through the atmosphere and lands on the ground. And…