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☆ There's a mysterious, abandoned island less than a mile from Manhattan and almost no one is allowed to visit — here's what it's like
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Dave Mosher | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

North Brother Island is a 22-acre piece of land in New York City that has been abandoned since 1963. Less than a mile from Manhattan — one of the priciest and most densely populated places in the world — sits North Brother Island, a mysterious island that people abandoned more than half a century ago. New York City owns the 22-acre plot, which pokes out of the East River between the South Bronx's industrial coast and a notorious prison: Rikers Island Correctional Center. It's illegal for the public to set foot on North Brother Island and its smaller companion, South Brother Island, without permission from the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. In 2017, producers for the Science Channel obtained the city's permission to visit North Brother Island, and the crew invited Business Insider to tag along.

Organizations: Morning, New York City, Correctional, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Science Channel, North Locations: Brother, New York City, Manhattan, New, North Brother

☆ 8 men and women once sealed themselves inside this enormous fake Mars colony for 2 years. Here's what it's like today.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Dave Mosher | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Biosphere 2 was a highly ambitious experiment to simulate a self-sustaining Mars colony in the Arizona desert. Eight men and women locked themselves inside for 2 years and experienced one incredible challenge after another. They say it generated science that has only grown in value as NASA and Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, push to populate Mars. Four men and four women sealed themselves inside the airtight space in September 1991 and emerged two years later. Business Insider visited the facility in April 2018 to investigate the many challenges that early Martian colonists could face.

Others can trigger global extinctions,But how big of an asteroid does it take to damage cities, states, countries, and the planet? Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest on the culture & business of sustainability — delivered weekly to your inbox. Some angry space rocks, like the recent Chelyabinsk meteorite that exploded over Russia, are big enough to shatter windows and crumble walls. A handful can trigger global extinctions, like the asteroid that smashed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago. But how big of an asteroid does it take to damage cities, states, countries, and the planet?

The vernal or spring equinox of 2023 happens Monday, March 20. Technically, two things: Earth's tilted axis and the planet's orbit around the sun. How the spring equinox worksThe Earth orbits the sun once every 365 days and six hours. The spring equinox occurs when the sun's warming rays line up perpendicular to Earth's axial tilt:An illustration of the spring equinox. About 92 days and 19 hours after the spring equinox, the Earth will reach its summer solstice.

NASA unveiled the suit astronauts will wear during the 2025 Artemis III moon mission. The new Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuit was developed by private company Axiom Space. NASA gave astronauts their first operational spacesuits in the early 1960s. The space agency just unveiled a new fit for the occasion, developed by private company Axiom Space. From the silvery suits of the Mercury program to Elon Musk's sleek Crew Dragon suits, here's how astronauts' spacesuits have evolved over six decades.

☆ Astronauts explain why nobody has visited the moon in 50 years — and the reasons are depressing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Dave Mosher | Hilary Brueck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

The last time a person visited the moon was in December 1972, during NASA's Apollo 17 mission. But those stays during the Apollo program didn't establish a lasting human presence on the moon. Researchers and entrepreneurs have long pushed for the creation of a crewed base on the moon — a lunar space station. But many astronauts and other experts suggest the biggest impediments to making new crewed moon missions a reality are banal and somewhat depressing. During NASA's Apollo program, 12 people landed on the moon.

☆ A terrifying animation shows how 1 'tactical' nuclear weapon could trigger a US-Russia war that kills 34 million people in 5 hours
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Ellen Ioanes | Dave Mosher | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A simulation called "Plan A" produced by researchers shows how the use of one so-called tactical or low-yield nuclear weapon could lead to a terrifying worldwide conflict. In the roughly four-minute video, a Russian "nuclear warning shot" at a US-NATO coalition is followed by a tactical nuke that leads to a global nuclear war. "This project is motivated by the need to highlight the potentially catastrophic consequences of current US and Russian nuclear war plans. The risk of nuclear war has increased dramatically in the past two years," the project states on its website. The following shows how a NATO-Russia conflict involving a nuclear warning shot and the use of a tactical nuclear weapon could quickly escalate into a full-scale nuclear war.

The fall equinox happens when the sun's warming rays square up perfectly with the earth. Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy PolicyThursday is this year's fall equinox. This astronomical event, which happens every year, means the day is about as long as the night. How the fall equinox worksIn June and December, the Earth hits its solstices — the longest and shortest days of the year. Matt Cardy/Getty ImageCelebrating equinoxFor some, equinox is more than a day that comes with the return of the pumpkin spice latte.

☆ The December solstice is here. Here's how it works and why it starts winter and summer at the same time.
▼ + stars: | 2018-12-21 | by ( Marianne Guenot | Shayanne Gal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The 2022 winter solstice happens on Wednesday 21 December at 4:48 p.m. It is the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere but the summer solstice in the southern. This is due to Earth's tilted axis as it orbits around the sun. How the December solstice worksThe winter solstice is the point when the sun will stay closest to the horizon all day. At that point, the sun's most direct rays reach the Tropic of Cancer, summer starts for the northern hemisphere, and winter begins for those south of the equator.

☆ If a nuclear weapon is about to explode, here are 17 things you can do
▼ + stars: | 2018-01-24 | by ( Dave Mosher | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Here is how to best protect yourself in case of a nuclear blast, according to trusted sources. A pulse of nuclear radiation. The blast wave is slower, but goes much farther. What to do if you're outside when the blast hitsIf you're outside, your first priority is to shelter from the blast wave. Be prepared to shelterIt's best to hunker down in your blast shelter if you're unsure whether it's safe to move.

☆ US nuclear forces are controlled by this shockingly obsolete tech
▼ + stars: | 2016-05-26 | by ( Dave Mosher | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A new government report paints a disquieting picture of the computer systems used to run the United States. But perhaps the most alarming information touches on the Department of Defense (DoD), which controls the nation's stockpile of 7,100 nuclear and thermonuclear warheads. The GAO found that the Strategic Automated Command and Control System (SACCS) — a computer system that "coordinates the operational functions of the United States' nuclear forces, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear bombers, and tanker support aircrafts" — still runs on 8-inch floppy disks. Per the GAO report:[T]he system's primary function is to send and receive emergency action messages to nuclear forces. But US command and control systems aren't the only pieces of nuclear strike infrastructure that are dated: The nuclear weapons themselves are not getting any younger.

Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" delves into the design and development of the atomic bomb. But nuclear experts say the atomic bomb is nowhere near as deadly as its nuclear cousin. Hydrogen bombs can be up to 1,000 times more powerful than atomic bombs. The device on the left is an implosion-type fission bomb, like the Fat Man bomb detonated over Nagasaki, and it compresses everything inward. Below is a second graphic showing a boosted atomic bomb and a hydrogen bomb.

Persons: Christopher Nolan's, Oppenheimer, J, Robert Oppenheimer, Little Organizations: Service, Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory, Little Boy, Reuters Locations: Wall, Silicon, Japan, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Korea

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