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When astronauts spacewalk to perform maintenance outside the International Space Station, the scenery can be distracting.
The Sun is shining, and the Earth emits a glow in the surrounding darkness from 220 miles (354 kilometers) away.
“The only thing between you and the rest of the universe, between you and seeing the entire cosmos of creation, is the glass front of your visor on your helmet,” NASA astronaut Mike Fincke previously told CNN.
Now four civilians will bear witness as Fincke aims to perform the first commercial spacewalk, which he described as “truly breathtaking.”
Defying gravity
The Polaris Dawn mission will embark on a wild and risky flight around Earth on Tuesday.
Billionaire Jared Isaacman, former Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis will spend five days aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to orbit the planet at a record-breaking altitude.
About 1,400 kilometers from Earth, the quartet will encounter the Van Allen radiation belts, where high-energy solar particles are trapped and form two dangerous bands of radiation.
Crew members will be exposed to the vacuum of space as they wear brand new spacesuits developed by SpaceX, open the hatch and spacewalk at a lower, safer altitude.
In space news, NASA has decided to delay the return of Starliner astronauts to Earth in the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in February 2025; the Boeing Starliner capsule will return empty.
Wild Kingdom
As the sun sets each day over rice fields in central China, orb-weaving spiders spin new webs to trap fireflies and hijack their flickering signals to catch more prey.
The spider, Araneus ventricosus, accomplishes this deadly feat by getting male fireflies to emit the single pulses of light that female fireflies use as a mating signal.
Researchers aren’t sure how the spiders manipulate male fireflies into mimicking females, but it’s thought to be through their venom or a series of strategic bites.
Long ago
A study of unmarked graves at the English settlement of Jamestown in Virginia has revealed a long-buried secret belonging to the family of the colony’s first governor, Thomas West.
When researchers analyzed DNA from two skeletons in the graves, they discovered that both men were related to West through a common maternal line. One of the men, Captain William West, was illegitimate and was born to West’s unmarried aunt Elizabeth.
According to the study’s authors, this scandal may have prompted William West to cross the Atlantic Ocean and join the colony.
Researchers have also identified how ancient humans constructed a monument weighing two jets, dwarfing Stonehenge in southern Spain, 5,600 years ago.
Other worlds
With the Chandrayaan-3 mission landing on the Moon over a year ago, India became the fourth country to achieve such a feat.
Now, findings from the mission’s Pragyan rover, deployed near the Moon’s south pole, provide evidence for a theory about the Moon’s past.
Samples collected during the Apollo missions revealed that billions of years ago the Moon was a deep magma ocean, which slowly cooled and formed layers of minerals and rocks.
The Pragyan rover analyzed the lunar soil and found a type of rock that likely crystallized on top of the magma ocean to form the moon’s crust.
Meanwhile, the European Space Agency’s Juice mission this week conducted the first dual flyby of Earth and the Moon to explore the habitability of Jupiter’s icy moons. The risky maneuver put the spacecraft on track to reach Jupiter in 2031, capturing postcard-like images of both encounters.
Magnificent creatures
Two male flamingos have hatched together at Paignton Zoo in southwest England and are looking after the growing, feathered chick.
Although the zoo has hosted other male pairs during breeding season, keepers have no idea how Arthur and Curtis got hold of the egg.
“It’s possible that this egg came along unprotected, just left there (in a nest), and then they jumped at the opportunity,” said Pete Smallbones, the zoo’s bird curator.
The adoption and hatching of eggs highlights the birds’ parenting instincts, and experts have theories as to why the flamingo duo works together to parent the little chick.
Frequently asked questions
These fascinating stories may fascinate you:
— Astronomers have discovered an unusual object that may be a rare hypervelocity star.
It’s moving so fast that it could escape the Milky Way’s gravitational pull.
— A stunning image of a dinosaur fossil and a soaring dance between two birds are just two of the wonders featured in the winning images of the 2024 BMC Ecology & Evolution and BMC Zoology Image Competition.
— The Perseverance rover is climbing a steep climb to the rim of a crater on Mars, and what it finds could change scientists’ understanding of Mars’ past.
— “ManhattAnts” have been living under the feet of New Yorkers for more than a decade. Now researchers have solved the mystery of where the ant species came from.
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