On October 5, 2022, NASA astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann became the first Native American woman to launch into space. Mann is also the first woman to command a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). The 45-year-old is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes....

The origin of Saturn's beautiful rings and the reason for the planet's unusually large 27 degree-tilt on its axis has puzzled astronomers for decades. Scientists had initially believed that the rings had been a part of the planet since its formation billions of years ago. However, recent research indicates that the planet acquired them sometime between 100 and 200 million years ago....

On September 26, 2022, NASA's golf cart-sized DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft intentionally crashed into a distant asteroid. The spectacular collision, observed by telescopes worldwide, was NASA's first practical attempt to alter the path of an asteroid. The $325 million mission was part of the space agency's overall planetary defense strategy to protect Earth from the impact of an errant space rock....

Any 25th birthday is a cause for celebration. But it was even more so for Janus, a two-headed Greek tortoise who marked the milestone year on September 3, 2022. The resident of the Natural History Museum in Geneva, Switzerland, is now believed to be the world's oldest two-headed tortoise. The museum celebrated the special occasion with a day-long party filled with fun events, which included taking photos with the birthday "boy."...

The giant African land snail (GALS) has returned to Florida for a third time. The invasive species was first detected in the state in 1969. It took seven years and $1 million to get rid of them. The gastropods reappeared in 2011 and were eradicated in 2021 at a cost of $23 million. On June 23, 2022, Florida officials reported that the snails had been found in the New Port Richey area of Pasco County....

The Prophalangopsis obscura (P. obscura) is one of only eight remaining descendants of an ancient katydid family of over 90-known species that lived during the Jurassic period (199.6 million to 145.5 million years ago). However, there is only one known specimen of the grasshopper-like insect. It was discovered in India in the mid-1800s and later donated to London's Natural History Museum. Scientists have now digitally recreated the P. obscura's long-lost call in the hopes of locating the insects in the wild....

The carnivorous pitcher plants obtain nutrition by luring unsuspecting insects inside their unique jug-shaped leaves and devouring them. However, the brightly-colored "pitfall traps" are usually set above the ground. Now, researchers have found a new species that grows its prey-trapping contraptions underground to capture subterranean bugs like ants, mites, and beetles....

Bacteria can be found almost everywhere on Earth, from the bottom of the ocean to the inside of our intestines. However, the single-celled organisms typically measure a few micrometers and can only be seen through a microscope. Now, researchers have identified a thin, thread-like bacteria species that grows up to 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) long. Named Thiomargarita magnifica, it is the largest bacteria found to date....

Batesian mimicry — where a harmless species mimics a harmful one to escape predators — is widespread in animals. But most recorded examples of the phenomena are visual. For instance, the harmless scarlet kingsnakes have evolved to resemble a venomous species, while the flower-loving hoverflies have adopted the persona of stinging wasps. Now, for the first time, researchers have uncovered a mammal that has developed acoustic Batesian mimicry to scare away predators....

Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) as they are now called, are finally getting the attention they deserve. On June 9, 2022, NASA announced it had commissioned a study to examine observations of events that "cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena."...

There are over 30 meteor showers annually. However, few are as spectacular as the Perseids. The "shooting stars" have been blazing through the sky at a rate of about a dozen an hour since mid-July. But the best time to watch the natural fireworks show will be between August 11 and August 12, 2022. That's when the pace of the meteors will escalate to between 50 and one hundred an hour....

Over the years, there have been numerous attempts to document the surface of the Moon. However, none have been as comprehensive as the map released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences on June 14, 2022....

The James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) was launched into space on December 25, 2021, with high expectations. Scientists hoped the $10 billion space observatory would allow them to explore the origins of the Universe, its galaxies, and perhaps even the formation of the first stars. The initial photos, released by NASA on July 12, 2022, indicate that Webb is living up to its promise....

On June 22, 2022, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida revealed they had captured a 215-pound (98-kilo) female Burmese python in Everglades National Park. Measuring 18 feet long (5 meters), it is the heaviest Burmese python ever caught in the state. The previous record-holder was a 185-pound (84-kilo)( specimen captured in Naples, Florida, in 2021....

Canadian pop star Justin Bieber recently revealed that he had been diagnosed with a rare neurological condition known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome. The June 11, 2022, announcement came after the 28-year-old musician postponed three shows on his 2022 Justice World Tour. Bieber subsequently delayed all his upcoming US performances to recover....

School may be out for the summer, but the astronomical start of the warm season will not be until June 21, 2022. Called the summer solstice, it is the day when the North Pole is most inclined towards the Sun. This allows Northern Hemisphere residents to enjoy the longest day of the year. Those in the Southern Hemisphere will mark the start of winter with the year's shortest day....

Tardigrades are perhaps the most resilient creatures on Earth. Popularly called water bears, or moss piglets, they can thrive in the most extreme of conditions — from the peaks of mountains to the bottom of oceans, to even the vacuum of space. Now, researchers have finally found the one thing capable of killing the otherwise indestructible microscopic organisms — snail slime....

A four-month-old giraffe calf at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, California, is finally standing tall thanks to a custom brace. Msituni, which means "in the forest" in Swahili, was born on Feb. 1, 2022, with her front legs bending improperly. The abnormality put a lot of pressure on the calf's joints and bones, making it hard for Msituni to nurse or walk around her enclosed habitat. Zoo officials worried that the calf would probably die if the condition was left untreated....

You may have heard your parents complain about the rising costs of everything from groceries to gas, clothes, electronics, and even cars. They are not wrong. From March 2021 to March 2022, consumer prices for food rose by 8.8 percent, while energy costs went up 32 percent. The rate of increase in prices over a given period of time is called inflation....

On May 12, 2022, an international team of astronomers led by scientists at the Harvard—Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics revealed the first image of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Researchers have known about the black hole, called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A* (pronounced sadge-ay-star), since the 1970s. However, until now, its existence had only been deduced from its effect on surrounding stars and dust. The stunning picture is the first direct visual evidence of our galaxy's black hole....

The partial solar eclipse on April 30, 2022, was only seen by a lucky few. However, the total lunar eclipse on the night of May 15, 2022, will be visible to about 2.7 billion people on Earth's night side. This includes the residents of North America, Africa, South America, and Central and Western Europe....

Taylor Swift has received numerous music awards and even an Emmy. Now, the popular American singer-songwriter can add an unusual achievement to her growing list of accolades — a new millipede species named after her. The Nannaria swiftae (N. swiftae) is one of 17 new twisted-claw millipede species recently identified by Dr. Derek Hennen and his team at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia....

All space missions are significant. However, SpaceX's Crew-4 mission, which docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on April 28, 2022, was particularly historic. The approximately 16-hour flight was SpaceX's fastest Dragon astronaut trip to the space lab yet. More importantly, the crew of four included Jessica Watkins — the first African American woman assigned to the ISS on a long-term mission....

Ants are truly fascinating creatures. The industrious insects can lift up to 50 times their own body weight, morph into rafts to protect themselves from floods, predict earthquakes, and even repair their damaged homes. Now, researchers have found that the amazing insects may even be able to help detect cancer in humans....