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On July 20, 1969, the world watched as mankind landed on the moon for the first time.
But the perfect touchdown on the lunar lander Eagle by a NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong was anything but easy.
As he and another astronaut Buzz Aldrin flew over the intended landing site, Armstrong looked out the window and saw a treacherous boulder field. Relying on his piloting skills, Armstrong manually navigated to a safe landing site, with only 30 seconds of fuel left.
After the exploration of the lunar surface by the remaining Apollo missions, it has been more than 50 years since the United States landed a spacecraft on the moon. Now, a new robotic explorer is on its way to accomplish the feat.
Lunar update
After launching early Thursday morning, the lunar lander Odysseus, or “Odie,” is on a historic journey to the moon.
The mission, developed by NASA and Houston-based Intuitive Machines, will aim to land near the lunar south pole on February 22.
The spacecraft carries a camera system called EagleCam to capture its descent, an original sculpture designed in collaboration with artist Jeff Koons, and science and technology experiments that could help future lunar landing missions like Artemis III.
Inquiries
After the naturalist Charles Darwin died in 1882, his impressive library began to deteriorate, and his large number of books and pamphlets ended up elsewhere over time.
Now, the Darwin Project has almost assembled its library and its 7,400 titles after 18 years of painstaking research.
Researchers had to look for many previously unknown titles, which resulted in “5,000 small detective stories” that helped them reconstruct their original collection, said project leader Dr. John van Wyhe, historian of science at the University of Singapore.
Among the books were surprising discoveries, including the last novel read aloud to Darwin before he died.
Secrets of the sea
While surveying the seabed in Germany’s Mecklenburg Bay, a team of scientists made the unexpected discovery of an ancient sunken megastructure in the Baltic Sea.
The investigation, using diving teams and underwater robots, revealed a wall made of 1,670 stones that stretched for more than half a mile (1 kilometer).
Experts believe the wall was one of the oldest hunting structures from the Stone Age. The barrier was probably built around 11,000 years ago to help hunter-gatherers pursue reindeer in the sparse landscape after the last ice age.
Separately, the wreck of the SS Arlington, a bulk carrier that sank in 1940, was found at the bottom of Lake Superior, but the discovery only solves one of the mysteries behind the ship’s sinking.
Long long ago
Researchers have pieced together the fascinating story of Denmark’s earliest Stone Age immigrant.
“Vittrup Man” was violently killed and thrown into a bog in Denmark 5,200 years ago, and his remains were first discovered in 1915. By studying the collagen of Vittrup Man’s bones and teeth, scientists were able establish the history of its geographical movements. diet.
Born and raised along the coast of Scandinavia and living on seafood, Fer Vittrup suddenly crossed the sea to live and eat as a farmer in Denmark while still a teenager. He lived that way until he was between 30 and 40 years old and was clubbed over the head.
The team believes that his brutal death may have been part of a religious sacrifice in the swamp.
Wild kingdom
A rare sighting of a golden tiger in India’s Kaziranga National Park provided an extraordinary experience for photographers in January. But conservationists see the animal’s appearance as a troubling sign.
The park has the largest tiger population in the region. There are only a handful of golden tigers in the wild, and their particular fur color comes from a genetic mutation, like “spelling mistakes in the DNA,” said Uma Ramakrishnan, a professor of ecology at India’s National Center for Biological Sciences.
As migration routes close due to rapid development, the park’s tiger population may become more prone to genetic mutations and disease due to isolated inbreeding.
Meanwhile, a landmark new report warns that human interference could wipe out hundreds of migratory species on Earth.
Discoveries
Dive deep into these fascinating stories:
— The history of kissing is more complicated than it seems, but evidence from the ancient world shows that people have been kissing romantically for at least 4,500 years.
— A tiny surgical robot aboard the International Space Station successfully performed its first procedures on simulated tissue and surgeons operated the device remotely in Lincoln, Nebraska.
— A shallow, salty lake in British Columbia, called Last Chance Lake, could help scientists solve the mystery of how life looked on Earth, and how it could form on other worlds.
— Almost 2,000 years after its birth, an intact egg found at an ancient Roman site still contains liquid inside.
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