On March 3, 2021, the red planet Mars and Pleiades star cluster in Taurus will appear close together on the sky’s dome. The two won’t get this close again until 2038! See photos of the big event. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/mars-pleiades-march-3-2021-conjunction-photographs…
Tag: historic
Photos of Amelia Earhart, Marie Curie and others come alive (creepily), thanks to AI
In AI-generated animations, faces that were once frozen in time blink, turn their heads and even smile. Source: https://www.livescience.com/ai-animates-historic-photos-creepily.html
Apple’s Powerful M1 MacBooks are Lowering The Resale Value of Older MacBooks
“The impressive performance and battery life gains of the new M1 MacBooks have created a historic discontinuity in the normally placid resale market,” reports ZDNet: Should you spend $800 for a one year old MacBook Air when for $200 more you could get a MacBook Air with several times the performance and 50 percent better battery life? That’s a question savvy…
Space station launch honors ‘Hidden Figures’ mathematician
A space station supply ship named after the Black NASA mathematician featured in the movie “Hidden Figures” rocketed into orbit Saturday, the 59th anniversary of John Glenn’s historic launch. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-space-station-honors-hidden-figures.html…
Geomagnetic reversal linked to mass extinction
Scientists believe that a historic reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field may have proven catastrophic. The current orientation of our planet’s magnet… Source: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/344093/geomagnetic-reversal-linked-to-mass-extinction…
How Our Brutal Science System Almost Cost Us a Pioneer of mRNA Vaccines
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: As the first COVID-19 vaccines arrived at Penn Medicine last year, Penn Today reported with great pride, “It was mRNA research conducted at Penn—by Drew Weissman, a professor of Infectious Diseases, and Katalin Karikó, an adjunct associate professor—that helped pave the way for the development of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID vaccines.” While Weissman and Karikó…
Has the polar vortex arrived? What is it?
The polar vortex is an enormous, 3-dimensional ring of winds that surrounds the North and South poles during each hemisphere’s winter. The polar vortex influences the jet stream, which can bring cold winter weather to the U.S. and Europe. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/what-is-the-polar-vortex…
Is this the end of the A-68A iceberg?
Satellite images reveal that the once colossal A-68A iceberg has broken into multiple pieces. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/end-of-the-a68a-iceberg-feb2021…
France Found Guilty of Failing To Meet Its Paris Climate Accord Commitments
“Four environmental groups are crying victory after France was found guilty of failing to meet climate change goals it committed to in a historic accord signed in and named after its own capital city,” reports CBS News: The Administrative Tribunal in Paris ruled Wednesday that France had fallen short of its promise to reduce greenhouse gases under commitments made in the…
SpaceX Announces First-Ever All-Civilian Space Flight Crew
Jared Isaacman, an entrepreneur behind a payment processing startup, is funding a multimillion trip to space aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which could be the first-ever orbital flight crewed entirely by non-astronauts. CNN reports: Isaacman, 37, said he will command the mission, which is slated for late-2021 and will see the spacecraft make a “multi-day” trip into Earth’s orbit, according…