Yesterday, I published a post titled “Koalas are ‘Functionally Extinct’ now“, based on an article on Forbes. It seems this isn’t the case: science journalist Erin Biba (@erinbiba) wrote on Twitter that “The news that Koalas are functionally extinct is from a press release that was issued in May, before the fires, from a group that has been saying they’re extinct for years. Koalas ARE IN TROUBLE but there is still hope for conservation.”
This NASA visualization shows a rapid decline in Arctic Sea ice over the last 35 years, based on satellite observations. The situation is really bad: in the 1st week of January 1988, over 1.2 million sq. miles (3.1 million km2) were covered by sea ice 4 years of age or older, compared with just over 44,000 sq. miles (114,000 km2) in the same week in 2019. Less than 5% once it was!
After bushfires in Australia have destroyed 80% of their habitat, koalas, iconic symbols of Australia, are “functionally extinct”, according to reports. Australia is the only place in the world where koalas are found.
Another amazing Beluga whale video (click here to see “Beluga whale filmed playing fetch” video): the cute animal rescues an iPhone from the sea and returns it to the humans.
Nine human species walked the Earth 300,000 years ago. Now there is just one. The Neanderthals, H. neanderthalensis, were stocky hunters adapted to Europe’s cold steppes. The related Denisovans inhabited Asia, while the more primitive H. erectus lived in Indonesia and H. rhodesiensis in central Africa. Were other humans the first victims of the sixth mass extinction?
The Mk1 prototype of Starship, SpaceX’s reusable interplanetary spacecraft, which will take people to and from Mars and Moon has exploded during test at Boca Chica Starship Construction and Launch Facility.
On May 4, 2019, the American space company SpaceX launched its 17th contracted cargo resupply mission (SpaceX CRS17, also known as SpX-17) to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, carrying 2,482 kg (5,472 lb) of cargo. You can watch the launch at 15:00 in the video at the end of this post.
Following the stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage landed successfully on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship that was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean (the landing begins at 23:00 in the video below, at the end of this post).
Two days after the launch, the SpaceX Dragon docked at the Harmony module. There it remained for about one month before returning to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on June 3.
While attached to the station, the crew of the orbiting laboratory took a lot of photos of the spacecraft. One of the photos (below), showing the Dragon craft moments before being released from the Canadarm2 robotic arm, was unreal.
The era of climate change is upon us, and if we stand idle, its far-reaching negative impact will only increase. Increased emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide play a significant role in the onset of climate change. Gases like these trap heat in the atmosphere, not allowing temperatures to fall. This results in global warming, and the subsequent climate change consequences. While this climate disaster has repercussions at many levels, its effect on public health is one of grave concern.
Jaguar (scientific name: Panthera onca) is a big cat and one of the five species in the Panthera genus (the others are Lion, tiger, leopard, and snow leopard). It is the most feared predator in the Americas. Here are 20 amazing jaguar facts.
Earth’s atmosphere is leaking: around 90 tonnes of material escapes and streams out into space from our planet’s upper atmosphere every single day.
To understand this escape, NASA launches rockets into space. The space agency also sends scientists to a tiny Arctic town named Ny-Ålesund (English: New Alesund) on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway. Because understanding this atmospheric escape on Earth can benefit us in many ways – from predicting which exoplanets might be habitable, to piecing together how Mars became the desolate, exposed planet it is today.