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☆ 27 jaw-dropping images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope show its first year peering into the cosmos
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

This is just the beginning for NASA's most powerful telescope. Stephan's Quintet is shown here taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScIThis post has been updated. It was originally published December 25, 2022.

Persons: James Webb Organizations: James Webb Space Telescope, NASA, ESA, CSA

☆ American cacti are rapidly colonizing the slopes of the Swiss Alps as snow disappears, says report
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Prickly pear cacti, native to the arid regions of the Americas, are now thriving in the Swiss Alps. The plants are typically seen in hot, dry areas, such as the Grand Canyon. So, diminishing snow cover provides a fertile environment for them to thrive. Snow cover in the Alps has been plummeting. Another study said the number of days where there is snow cover under 2,600 feet has halved since 1970.

☆ Why we love to anthropomorphize space-faring robots
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

We know Mars rovers are robots, but they feel like friends, or pets. "It's the way the rovers are designed," Abigail Freeman, the deputy project scientist of the Curiosity rover, told Insider. The first selfie NASA's Opportunity Mars rover snapped. Their ability to snap selfies on the Martian surface make them seem self-awareNASA's Curiosity Mars rover created this selfie in front of Mont Mercou. On February 12, 2019, mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, sent the last commands to ask NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars to call home.

☆ I have visual-snow syndrome. This is what it's like living with static-like vision 24/7.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Sierra Domb is the CEO and founder of the Visual Snow Initiative and has visual-snow syndrome. I immediately contacted the doctor who wrote the article, and he subsequently diagnosed me with visual-snow syndrome. When I first experienced the onset of visual-snow syndrome, I wasn't even aware there were other people out there who had it too. This graphic showcases the vision of someone without visual-snow syndrome, on the left, and the vision of someone with visual snow, on the right. Visual Snow InitiativePeople might link their visual snow to a specific incident.

☆ 11 qualities in men that women find attractive, according to science
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Rebecca Harrington | Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Good looks can be a factor, but they're not as important as you may think. Studies from Evolutionary Psychology and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found women typically choose better-looking guys for flings, not long-term relationships.

☆ ExxonMobil's secret projections of the climate crisis were astonishingly accurate, and a legal expert says that's 'a stick of dynamite' for the oil giant's court battles
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

ExxonMobil scientists knew about the coming climate crisis in precise detail, a Harvard study found. The analysis is "dynamite" for an array of lawsuits against ExxonMobil, legal experts told Insider. A growing wave of 'unassailable' evidence suggests Exxon lied about what it knewDespite having accurate predictions about global warming, the oil giant denied it would happen. That's exactly the track global warming is on right now. Those "stranded assets" are now a real possibility, due to global climate goals outlined in the Paris Agreement.

☆ How exoplanet hunters find alien worlds hundreds of light-years away and figure out if they have water
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In the journal Nature Astronomy, astronomers announced that the two exoplanets — Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d — could be made up of mostly water. NASA AmesSince the first worlds outside our solar system were discovered in 1992, astronomers have searched for other planets orbiting sun-like stars. Astronomers have already captured direct evidence of 5,241 planets beyond our solar system, according to NASA's Exoplanet Archive. Water worlds beyond our solar system could be abundant in the universeWorlds rich in liquid water might not be as rare as astronomers previously thought, Piaulet said. But by discovering and studying new worlds, astronomers can hone in on what makes a world habitable beyond a sample size of one — Earth.

☆ Blood Falls gushes red water from Antarctica's ice. It took scientists 106 years to figure out what causes its color.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

"Among the big questions here are 'how does an ecosystem function below glaciers? ', 'How are they able to persist below hundreds of meters of ice and live in permanently cold and dark conditions for extended periods of time, in the case of Blood Falls, over millions of years?," Jill Mikucki, a microbiologist and the study's lead author, said in a press release. Blood Falls overlooking Lake Bonney. Peter West / NSFSource: National Science Foundation

☆ The timing of your meals can help jumpstart weight loss, according to science
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Rebecca Harrington | Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Making breakfast the largest meal of the day is best for losing weight, studies have found. Now you know you're not supposed to eat that late, because you've heard it's bad for you, but how late is too late? While most Americans eat our biggest meal at dinner, multiple studies have found this is linked to weight gain. ferrantraite/Getty ImagesResearchers have had groups of people eat more calories at breakfast than dinner, while the other group eats more at dinner than breakfast. In studies, people who eat most of their calories at dinner also tend to skip breakfast, get worse sleep, eat more calories overall, and be obese.

☆ 17 scientific facts to motivate you to eat healthier, even when you don't want to
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Rebecca Harrington | Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Eating right could improve men's fertility. The Office / NBCA 2017 study suggest a Mediterranean diet — which includes whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, herbs, spices, nuts and healthy fats such as olive oil — is associated with an increased sperm count. Meanwhile, a number of studies have found that obese men tend to have fewer, more abnormal sperm.

☆ Lasers revealed 5 ancient civilizations that were hiding in plain sight
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Archeologists beam lasers from the sky to unearth ancient settlements hiding in plain sight. State-of-the-art laser technology is transforming archaeology by creating 3D renderings of ruins. A hidden 2,000-year-old Mayan civilization in northern GuatemalaResearchers found a 2,000-year-old Mayan civilization in northern Guatemala using LiDAR. 61,000 previously unknown structures hidden under the dense Guatemalan jungleLiDAR laser technology found ancient cities with more than 60,000 structures in Guatemala. An overgrown ancient civilization buried in the Bolivian AmazonA LiDAR image of an ancient Amazonian urban network in what is now Bolivia.

☆ It should take another 300 years for NASA's Voyager 1 probe to reach the most distant region of our solar system. Until then, it's cruising through the void between the stars.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Voyager 1 and 2 are exploring the mysterious region between stars, called interstellar space. Both plucky spacecraft continue to send data back from beyond the solar system — and their cosmic journeys are far from over. A diagram showing both of NASA's Voyager probes in interstellar space as of November 2018. An illustration of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud in relation to our solar system. NASA/JPL-CaltechFor the last decade, Voyager 1 has been exploring interstellar space, which is full of gas, dust, and charged energetic particles.

☆ 6 climate wins from 2022 that are worth celebrating
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Sweeping climate legislation passed, climate candidates won, and animals got important protections. Here are six of the year's highlights in climate progress, according to experts. But through it all, there was encouraging progress on climate that's worth celebrating. Peter B. de Menocal, president of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, told Insider that the event featured the first-ever Ocean Pavilion. "I want to invite other Indigenous communities in Ecuador and the world to join these collective fights happening in Amazonia," Lucitante previously told Insider.

☆ 10 of the biggest oil spills in history
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill released 206 million gallons of oilFire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon, off Louisiana US Coast GuardOn April 20, 2010, BP's Deepwater Horizon, a semi-submersible drilling rig, exploded, burned, and subsequently sank in the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven people were killed, according to NOAA. The five-month spill leaked approximately 206 million gallons of oil. According to estimates from The Center for Biological Diversity, 82,000 birds, 25,900 marine mammals, and a "vast" number of fish were harmed or killed.

Here are 12 of the weirdest and most fascinating animal behaviors scientists spotted in 2022. Here are 12 bizarre and amazing things animals were spotted doing, some of which had never been seen before. It turned out that at least 12 species of primates had been reported doing so, a review published in the Journal of Zoology in October found. A dolphin swallowed 8 venomous sea snakesA sea snake (indicated with pink arrow), moments before it is captured and eaten by a Navy dolphin. Though animals have often been spotted using tools, these usually are used to give the animal a clear survival advantage.

☆ 20 jaw-dropping images from NASA's powerful new James Webb Space Telescope
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

The new image also shows seven of Neptune's 14 known moons. The bright blue feature that looks like a star is actually Neptune's largest moon, Triton. Zooming in on Neptune shows Webb captured its rings. Neptune has 14 known satellites, and seven of them are visible in this image. NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

☆ 12 amazing archaeological discoveries of 2022: From the world's oldest limb amputation to the fighting sausage dogs of the Roman Colosseum
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Iraq's extreme drought reveals a 3,400-year-old cityAerial view of the excavation site with Bronze Age architecture partly submerged. While this did, in parts, cause ecological devastation and ravaged wildlife hotspots, it also revealed some incredible secrets that were hidden underwater. In June, Insider's Paola Rosa-Aquino reported that successive droughts had revealed the hidden city, which dates back to the Empire of Mittani. Experts say burial beneath the fallen walls might have helped preserve the ancient structures after years of submerging underwater. You can read the full story on the hidden city here and learn about the ancient artifacts that survived over 3,000 years.

☆ Tons of other animals have clitorises — and they can teach us more about human sexuality
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Many animals have clitorises, a female sex organ, but experts say they're understudied. She said she's seen more interest in this field in recent years, mostly from young female researchers. They found that all female snakes studied have a pair of clitorises — or hemiclitores, a two-part clitoris. Brennan said the fact that snake species have intersex individuals has heightened confusion about the creature's genital organs over the years. Their findings suggest that, like those in human females, the dolphin's clitoris provides pleasure during sex.

☆ 5 of the wildest experiments tardigrades have survived in the name of science
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Water bears can go years without food or water and endure extreme radiation and temperatures. When the water bears returned to Earth, the scientists discovered that 68% survived. A thawed tardigrade survived being frozen for 3 decadesIn 2016, scientists at Japan's National Institute of Polar Research examined tardigrades retrieved from a frozen moss sample collected in Antarctica in 1983. Still, in a 2020 study, researchers found that long-term exposure to high temperatures, even in their hibernated state, can kill tardigrades in only a day. Tardigrades survived being shot out of a high-speed gunSome scientists believe that tardigrades may be capable of spreading life to different planets.

☆ Gorgeous animation shows how the Earth changes with the seasons
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An animation showcases how the seasons change with Earth's orbit around the sun. Earth's angle causes very specific weather patterns and daylight during the course of a year. That ancient bump is what caused the Earth's seasons — times of the year that have very specific weather patterns and hours of daylight that vary depending on the latitude. Earth’s seasons are caused by its axis being tilted about 23 degrees. The angle of the Earth's tilt is relatively stable, but there are some slight shifts over large time scales (tens of thousands of years).

☆ Listen to 'the bloop,' a strange noise recorded in the southern Pacific Ocean that stumped scientists for years
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In 1997, NOAA scientists recorded a haunting, strange sound in the southern Pacific Ocean's depths. These underwater microphones the US Navy originally developed were 2,000 miles apart in the Pacific Ocean. Below, you can listen to the bloop sped up 16 times:Over the years, theories about the mysterious ocean sound's origin abounded. An adult blue whale swimming in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Icequakes occur when glaciers fracture in the ocean, cracking ice.

☆ Strange reports have claimed humans spontaneously burst into flames, but science can explain how bodies sometimes act like a candle wick
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Nearly a year later, a coroner officially ruled that he'd died of a peculiar phenomenon, the Irish Independent reported — spontaneous human combustion. But if spontaneous human combustion is a real phenomenon, Byard added, why doesn't it happen more often? 'Spontaneous' human combustion over the centuriesIn the 17th century, a Danish anatomy expert described the first known case of spontaneous human combustion. Science says bodies can act like a candleThe prevalent scientific explanation for spontaneous human combustion is known as the wick effect, which proposes that humans can act like candles do. The pig's feet were left behind — exactly the result of many reported cases of spontaneous human combustion.

☆ 10 fiction books worth reading that imagine what climate change could look like
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

"The Light Pirate" by Lily Brooks-Dalton (2022)"The Light Pirate" by Lily Brooks-Dalton Grand Central PublishingLily Brooks-Dalton's "The Light Pirate", which takes place in the near future, follows an electrical line worker, his pregnant wife, and their two sons as they prepare for an incoming hurricane in a small town in southeast Florida. In four parts, Brooks-Dalton explores how Florida deals with climate change over decades.

☆ Mesmerizing new NASA image shows the lava on one of Jupiter's moons that helps form the massive planet's auroras
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

NASA's Juno spacecraft snapped an infrared image of Jupiter's moon Io. Io is our solar system's most volcanically-active body, and its surface is peppered with lava lakes. In the image, taken on July 5 and released on Wednesday, you can see the shapes of lava flows and lava lakes as bright red spots. After studying the gas giant, Juno flew by Jupiter's moon Ganymede in 2021 and by Europa earlier this year. Scientists hope to gather more data on the moon's volcanoes and its magnetism — which play a "tug of war" to form Jupiter's auroras — as they fly by.

☆ NASA fixed a glitch on Voyager 1 after consulting 45-year-old manuals. The spacecraft was beaming information through a dead computer.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In May, NASA reported its Voyager 1 spacecraft was sending strange data back to Earth. An engineer works on an instrument for one of NASA's Voyager spacecraft, on November 18, 1976. NASA/JPL-CaltechDuring the first 12 years of the Voyager mission, thousands of engineers worked on the project, Dodd said. In late August, Voyager engineers located the source of the garbled data: the spacecraft's attitude-control system was routing information through a dead computer. NASA/JPLFrom discovering unknown moons and rings to the first direct evidence of the heliopause, the Voyager mission has helped scientists understand the cosmos.

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