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Space and Earth Discoveries
New discoveries about Uranus, the moon, endangered tigers, and a deep-sea slug.
English
United States
Us PoliticsTechnologyScienceNatureSpaceDiscovery
NasaJplWwfRoscosmosMbari
Jamie JasinskiDon JohansonBruce Robison
- What was significant about the discovery of the Lucy fossil?
- Lucy, an Australopithecus afarensis fossil discovered in 1974, provided the first evidence of upright walking in ancient hominins 3.2 million years ago. The discovery was accidental and has since fueled decades of research into human evolution.
- What is unusual about the recently discovered sea slug species?
- A new species of bioluminescent sea slug, Bathydevius caudactylus, has been discovered in the ocean's midnight zone, a depth rarely explored for such creatures. Its unusual habitat highlights the diversity of life in deep ocean environments.
- What is the significance of the reintroduction of Amur tigers to Kazakhstan?
- Two Amur tigers, Bodhana and Kuma, were reintroduced to Kazakhstan's Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve in November 2023, marking the first wild tigers in the region in over 70 years. They were brought from the Netherlands and underwent a quarantine period before release.
- What new information about the moon's far side has recently been discovered?
- Analysis of lunar soil samples from China's Chang'e-6 mission reveals unexpectedly young volcanic activity on the moon's far side, about 2.8 billion years ago. This finding could help explain the asymmetry between the moon's near and far sides.
- How might Voyager 2's 1986 flyby of Uranus have affected scientific understanding of the planet?
- New research suggests that Voyager 2's 1986 flyby of Uranus may have produced skewed data due to unusual solar wind conditions. These conditions, which occur only 4% of the time, likely distorted the spacecraft's observations of Uranus' magnetosphere.