The 4.1 billion year old Teghaza 001 meteorite contains evidence of water altered Martian crust, unusual minerals and zircon crystals that let researchers examine a previously unsampled region from the earliest stages of Mars’s history.
After more than two decades observing powerful cosmic events, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has fallen to Earth. Its archive, built from thousands of gamma-ray bursts, supernovae and other targets, is expected to fuel discoveries for decades.
A glass case inside an ordinary looking Austrian church holds the completely mummified remains of a parish vicar believed to have died in the mid to late 1700s, revealing a startling example of deliberate anthropogenic mummification.
Researchers found no blue whales during an intensive Galápagos survey, while unusually warm water and a mismatch between food and ideal temperatures raised questions about whether El Niño influenced their movements.
Up to 20% of people report out of body experiences, and Bart Simpson’s fictional brush with death mirrors many of their features. The resemblance is striking, but it does not prove that anyone actually left the body.
Evidence from a 1,500 kilometer journey across the Arabian Desert suggests that fresh water alone could not sustain early human occupation. Access to stone suitable for toolmaking may have determined where populations could settle.
An AI equipped acoustic buoy is listening for endangered southern resident killer whales as shipping noise disrupts their hunting and communication, while a voluntary vessel slowdown has reduced underwater noise by as much as 50%.
NASA expects the Swift Observatory to burn up during an uncontrolled descent early Wednesday, although some debris may survive. Its failed rescue could shape future efforts to extend the lives of valuable space telescopes.