Photo credit: Joe Gutheinz, courtesy of Christopher McHugh
Nancy Lee Carlson from Inverness, Illinois has filed a new lawsuit accusing NASA of damaging a sample bag taken on the historic first manned moon mission in 1969 and illegally taking particles of moon dust. She first purchased the item in 2015 for $995 and later sold it in 2017 for $1.8 million, in which during that two-year period, Carlson and NASA were engaged in a protracted legal battle over its ownership, which she eventually won. “The bag contained lunar samples, including some lunar dust enmeshed in the bag fibers when the Apollo 11 mission returned to Earth,” the suit says. Read more for a video about building a lunar base out of moon dust and additional information about the case.
William ‘Captain Kirk’ Shatner spotted a strange “shiny bluish light” in an image captured by the NASA InSight Rover on Mars, and then promptly shared his discovery with the world on Twitter. Before things got out of hand, the space agency Tweeted back: “Just a bit of lens flare as the sun dips low on the horizon. Both photos were taken shortly before sunset. No cause for alarm, Captain!” For those don’t know about the mission, InSight’s objectives are to basically place a seismometer, called SEIS, on the surface of the red planet to measure seismic activity and provide accurate 3D models of the planet’s interior; and measure internal heat flow using a heat probe called HP3 to study Mars’ early geological evolution. Read more for the original Tweet from William Shatner, a video about the InSight and additional information.
“Planet Nine” is theorized to be 10 times larger than Earth and is supposedly located somewhere in the outer reaches of our solar system, but it may not be a real planet after all, but instead a massive disc of smaller objects lying just beyond Neptune that exerts the same gravitational force as a super-Earth-sized planet. This mysterious planet is thought to be located so far from the Sun that it reflects very little light, and scientists have based its existence based on the strange clustered orbits of a group of trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), which includes Pluto. Read more for another video and additional information.
James A. Mucciaccio Jr., a 48-year-old man from Deerfield Beach, drove his blue Ferrari 360 into the Lake Worth Inlet and stated to police that Jesus told him to do it. Police said Mucciaccio claimed he was waiting for a friend to pick him up by the dock, and once the officer told him that he couldn’t park there, he reversed toward the road but then suddenly switched into drive and drove into the inlet at a high rate of speed. “Jesus told me to drive through a small gate and into a 6 foot window. Jesus made me the smartest man on Earth and it’s so hard to have this responsibility. Money is going to be irrelevant in two days, remember to smile,” said Mucciaccio. Read more for a video with new pictures of the actual supercar in the lake.
StartRocket, a Russia-based startup, wants to take advertising to a whole new level, literally. Their plans is to create a massive solar-powered billboard that can be used to display advertisements in the night sky by sending a fleet of mini-satellites, also known as CubeSats, into low-Earth orbit. When in place, this programmable display is capable of showcasing ads that target a potential audience of 7 billion people. “When phones don’t work, during zero visibility, power cuts and catastrophic emergencies, the government can use the display for urgent notifications for the population,” said the company. Read more for a video and additional information.
A new video, captured in Vietnam, has surfaced that shows honeybees performing an audio-like defense wave to ward off wasps. This technique, officially known as ‘shimmering’, where the hive is made to look as though it is performing a Mexican wave, involves the bees pushing their abdomens up into the air. To be more specific, each honeybee surrounding outer layer of the hive lifts their abdomen to create a ripple effect from one end of to the other for a shimmer-like effect. Read more for the video and additional information.
A conjunction is a celestial event that occurs when two astronomical objects or spacecraft have either the same right ascension or the same ecliptic longitude, usually as observed from Earth. This year, Jupiter and Venus will shine brightly together before dawn on Tuesday, January 22, after the Super Blood Wolf Moon on Sunday. Despite rising together, climbing above the horizon by 5 a.m. local time, and then appearing to be close, the two planets are actually 400-million miles apart. “The Jupiter and Venus conjunction will be easily bright enough to see from any location, even large cities,” said NASA. Read more for a NASA video explaining what exactly a conjunction is.
Photo credit: Instagram
Yes, believe it or not, a stock photo of an egg has become the most user liked Instagram post ever, surpassing 35-million likes at the type of writing. “I was sitting at home reading an article online about the top 20 Instagram posts of 2018. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to try and beat the record with something as basic as possible. Which led to me deciding on the egg. I guess it’s also a comment on celebrity culture and how fragile and easily cracked it is (pun intended),” said the account owner to Penn Live. Read more to see how celebrity Kylie Jenner responded to this after it broke her record for most liked post.
Think of the all-new Polaris Slingshot Grand Touring as a three-wheeled Batmobile that you can actually drive on the streets. “Designed with comfort, style, and performance for rides that don’t end,” it comes nicely equipped with a 7-inch multi-touch display, comfortable racing seats, a new wind deflector, color-matched rear fender, 18-inch front / 20-inch rear aluminum wheels, electronic-power assisted steering, ESP plus traction control, and ABS disc brakes. Power comes from a GM-sourced 2.4L gasoline engine producing 173 horsepower (129 kilowatts) and 166 pound-feet (225 Newton-meters) of torque, mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox. Read more for a video review, additional pictures and information.
Photo credit: Daily Star
If you have arachnophobia, then it may not be the best time to visit Brazil right now, as there is at least one area where it seemingly is raining spiders. Residents living in the inland state of Minas Gerais reported seeing thousands of these eight-legged creatures in the sky, but in actuality, they were just crawling on a giant sticky web they created to capture prey. João Pedro Martinelli Fonseca, a 14-year-old who witnessed the bizarre phenomenon while visiting family in the area, said he was “stunned and scared” by the sight, particularly when at least one spider fell to the ground. Read more to watch the video he filmed.