Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander successfully landed on the lunar surface on February 24. This achievement marks Firefly Aerospace as the second private company to accomplish this feat. The mission was captured in photos showing the spacecraft’s shadow on the moon’s surface and its landing gear embedded in moon dust.
Meanwhile, AstroForge’s Odin spacecraft, launched in collaboration with Intuitive Machines’ Athena lunar lander, has unfortunately encountered difficulties. Odin was on a mission to scout for platinum resources on an asteroid but is now believed to be adrift in space with communication lost.
In a separate lunar exploration endeavor, Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander also reached the moon but experienced a premature end, lying on its side inside a crater near the lunar south pole. Despite this setback, the lander briefly operated and transmitted data, marking a significant achievement in southern lunar exploration.
In other space news, Colossal Biosciences has genetically modified mice with woolly mammoth-like traits to study the link between specific genetic sequences and physical characteristics that enabled mammoths to survive in cold environments. While the modified mice have curly whiskers and longer hair, there is still much to learn about their physiology and behavior.
Lastly, the world’s largest iceberg, A23a, has completed its journey after five years in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. The iceberg, weighing 1.1 trillion tons, captured attention as it navigated the ocean and circled an undersea mountain.
An iceberg known as A23a, weighing about 127 billion metric tonnes and slightly smaller than Rhode Island, has stranded on South Georgia Island in the southern Atlantic Ocean. “Nutrients stirred up by the grounding and from its melt may enhance food availability for the entire regional ecosystem, benefitting penguins and seals,” stated Andrew Meijers, an oceanographer at the British Antarctic Survey. Researchers are now working to forecast the future of A23a and anticipate the consequences if it breaks apart.
In a groundbreaking archaeological discovery, a collection of tools made from elephant and hippopotamus bones dating back 1.5 million years has been unearthed at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, known as the “Cradle of Humankind.” These bone artifacts, believed to be the oldest of their kind by approximately 1 million years, display evidence of being meticulously crafted using stone tools. The finding suggests that early human ancestors exhibited advanced skills in tool-making and potentially possessed critical thinking abilities, although the identity of the tool makers remains a subject of ongoing research.
In recent explorations:
– A SpaceX Starship test mission ended in a midflight explosion, causing disruption in air traffic and scattering flaming debris captured on video by spectators in the Caribbean.
– Scientists have documented the novel ways in which narwhals utilize their iconic tusks, shedding light on the playful behaviors exhibited by these Arctic creatures.
– The Voyager probes are taking measures to conserve power by deactivating some scientific instruments, prolonging their historic missions.
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