On February 7, 1984, during the STS-41-B (the tenth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the fourth flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger), NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II (June 8, 1937 – December 21, 2017) made the first-ever untethered free flight using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (see notes 1). With a distance of 98 meters (320 feet) from the space shuttle, he also broke the untethered spacewalking record.
Giraffes are like the tall towers of the animal world, living in Africa where it’s warm and grassy. They are famous for their long necks and spots, each one different like a fingerprint. Although they look quiet and calm, giraffes hide many surprises. They don’t just eat leaves and roam around; there’s much more to learn about them. From the way they drink water to how they talk without making a sound, giraffes are full of interesting secrets. We’re going to explore some of these cool facts, getting to know these tall friends better. Here are 10 amazing giraffe facts.
In November 2015, NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover started exploring the Bagnold Dunes, a 35-kilometer-long (about 22 miles) and 1-2 km wide (0.62-1.25 mi) group of dark grey dunes in the Gale Crater on Mars, on the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. The dunes are named after the 20th-century desert explorer, geologist, and soldier Ralph Alger Bagnold (3 April 1896- 28 May 1990), who staged the first recorded East-to-West crossing of the Libyan Desert in 1932. Curiosity’s exploration of the area continued for about 1.5 years, ending in April 2017.
In the history of science and physics, several scholars, theories, and equations have become household names. In terms of scientists, notable examples include Pythagoras, Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Planck, and Hawking. In terms of theories, there’s Archimede’s “Eureka,” Newton’s Apple (Universal Gravitation), and Schrodinger’s Cat (quantum mechanics). But the most famous and renowned is arguably Albert Einstein, Relativity, and the famous equation, E=mc2. In fact, Relativity may be the best-known scientific concept that few people truly understand.
Sustainable manufacturing and construction are becoming more critical than ever before across the globe. With population growth and the increasing demand for resources, we must find new ways to build and produce goods that don’t damage our environment.
Growing crops needs a lot of lands. Generating electricity through solar panels take up space, too. So, why not grow crops under solar panels?
An interesting question: do giraffes get struck by lightning more often than other animals? At first, it looks funny, but when you think that giraffes are way taller and pointier than other land animals, why they shouldn’t be? And, interestingly, there are studies about that subject, and some of them are even peer-reviewed!
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy published on his Twitter account an amazing video of the International Space Station (ISS) transiting the Moon, over the landing site of Apollo 11, the first moon landing mission. Such an incredible amount of human achievement is represented in just one short video!
As a civilization, we’ll pay a huge price if we can’t get carbon out of the Earth’s atmosphere because of the ongoing runaway climate change. Some kind of carbon capture technology that captures atmospheric carbon dioxide and stores it underground became vital to keep Earth from dangerous global warming. We need to clean up the skies and we must do it fast.