Category: 7. Science

IN A NUTSHELL

🌕 Apollo 17 marked the end of the Space Race with a plaque commemorating the final manned lunar mission’s peaceful intentions. 🚗 SpaceX launched a cherry-red Tesla Roadster into space, showcasing the Falcon Heavy rocket’s capabilities and symbolizing technological innovation. 🌍 The UNESCO Memory Disk project preserves Earth’s linguistic and cultural heritage on the Moon, promoting unity and safeguarding shared history. 🛰️ Space burial offers a celestial resting place for notable figures, highlighting the enduring connection between human culture and space exploration.

Since the dawn of the Space Age, humanity has ventured beyond Earth, sending not only satellites and scientific instruments but also cultural artifacts into the cosmos. These missions have carried messages and memorabilia that mark our presence in the universe. From the Apollo plaques to the more recent UNESCO Memory Disk, these endeavors aim to preserve human culture for future generations and potential extraterrestrial discoverers. As we continue to explore space, the legacy of these missions remains a testament to human curiosity and the desire to leave a mark on the universe.

Apollo 17: The Last Footprints on the Moon

The Apollo 17 mission marked a significant moment in space exploration as the last manned mission to the Moon under the Apollo program. The lunar lander carried a plaque commemorating this historic mission. The inscription read, “Here man completed his first explorations of the Moon December 1972, A.D. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind.” This plaque underscored the peaceful intentions of space exploration and the hope that such endeavors would inspire unity among humankind.

The plaque also featured the names of the astronaut crew—Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald E. Evans, and Harrison H. Schmitt—and the signature of then-President Richard Nixon. While the Apollo 11 mission is often celebrated for its role in beginning the era of lunar exploration, Apollo 17 symbolized the closing chapter of the initial Space Race. This mission’s legacy continues to inspire future generations to explore and understand our celestial neighbor.

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Musk’s Cherry Roadster: A Modern-Day Space Oddity

On February 6, 2018, SpaceX launched a unique payload into space: a cherry-red Tesla Roadster owned by Elon Musk. This vehicle, complete with a mannequin named “Starman” in the driver’s seat, was part of the inaugural test flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket. The mission demonstrated the rocket’s capabilities and captured global attention with its unorthodox cargo.

The Roadster was deployed into an elliptical orbit around the sun, crossing Mars’ orbit. This feat made it the first production car launched into space. The car’s journey through space serves as a symbol of human ingenuity and the ever-evolving relationship between technology and exploration. While the vehicle is expected to drift through the Solar System for millions of years, its enduring presence raises questions about the future of space travel and the legacy we leave behind.

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The UNESCO Memory Disk: Safeguarding Earth’s Linguistic Heritage

In 2024, UNESCO collaborated with commercial space companies to launch the “Memory Disk” to the Moon. This nano-engraved nickel plate contains recordings of 275 Earth languages and various cultural artifacts. The initiative aims to preserve humanity’s linguistic diversity and cultural heritage, recognizing the importance of these elements in shaping our worldviews.

The Memory Disk bears the Preamble of the UNESCO Constitution, translated into 275 languages, reflecting the organization’s commitment to peace and cultural preservation. Although the first mission faced challenges during its lunar landing, the disk remains a testament to human resilience and the desire to protect our shared heritage. Future iterations of the project will continue to reinforce the message of unity and the importance of safeguarding our cultural legacy.

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Space Burial: Resting Among the Stars

Space burial, the practice of sending cremated remains into space, represents a unique way of honoring individuals who have contributed to science and exploration. Notable figures like Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, have had their ashes carried into the cosmos. Tombaugh’s remains joined the New Horizons mission, which passed Pluto in 2015, securing his place in the longest post-mortem spaceflight in history.

Additionally, several members of the Star Trek cast and crew have chosen space as their final resting place. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the series, had his ashes flown aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, while other portions were included in commercial space flights. These symbolic gestures highlight the enduring connection between human culture and the vastness of space. As more individuals choose this celestial resting place, space burial continues to explore the intersection of human legacy and the infinite possibilities of the universe.

As humanity continues its journey into space, the artifacts and messages we send serve as a reflection of our values, achievements, and aspirations. These endeavors not only preserve our cultural heritage but also raise intriguing questions about our role in the universe. What will future generations discover about us, and how will they interpret the legacy left behind by these cosmic messages?

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Leopard seals, some of the loneliest animals in Antarctica, may have more in common with us than we thought. A new study reveals that these massive, solitary predators spend hours underwater each day singing songs that echo the structure of the nursery rhymes we sing to children.

The discovery comes from researchers at UNSW Sydney. The team analyzed old recordings of leopard seal calls and found striking similarities in the structure of their songs and the predictability of human rhymes.

“Leopard seal songs have a surprisingly structured temporal pattern,” said Lucinda Chambers, a PhD candidate at UNSW and the study’s lead author.

“When we compared their songs to other studies of vocal animals and of human music, we found their information entropy – a measure of how predictable or random a sequence is – was remarkably close to our own nursery rhymes.”

But don’t mistake the singing for lullabies. The seals aren’t crooning to their young. In fact, it’s the males who do most of the vocalizing, and their reasons have more to do with competition and courtship.

How leopard seals spend their spring days

Leopard seals live in the icy waters around Antarctica. They’re apex predators who spend most of their lives alone. But during spring, from late October to early January, something changes.

Male seals begin a daily ritual. They swim beneath the pack ice and sing. For hours on end, they alternate two minutes underwater with two minutes at the surface, cycling through this pattern up to 13 hours a day.

Study co-author Professor Tracey Rogers from UNSW began recording leopard seal songs in the 1990s.

“They’re incredibly committed. It’s big business for them,” said Professor Rogers. “They’re like the songbirds of the Southern Ocean. During the breeding season, if you drop a hydrophone into the water anywhere in the region, you’ll hear them singing.”

Songs that carry across long distances

These aren’t random noises. The calls are composed of five core sounds shared by the population. What makes each seal’s song unique isn’t the sound itself, but the order and structure.

“You can’t tell them apart by how the call sounds. It’s the order and pattern that matters,” explained Professor Rogers.

“They’ve stylized it to an almost boring degree, which we think is a deliberate strategy, so their call carries a long distance across the ice.”

Purpose of the leopard seal calls

Male leopard seals are spread far apart on the sea ice, but their voices carry. A single call can travel long distances underwater. That’s useful during breeding season, when females are only in heat for a few days each year.

“The greater structure in their songs helps ensure that distant listeners can accurately receive the message and identify who is singing,” noted Chambers.

The singing might help attract mates, but it also sends a signal to rivals. These underwater performances could be about love – or territory.

“It’s a bit of a dual message,” said Professor Rogers. “It could be a ‘this is my patch’ to other males and also a ‘look how strong and lovely I am’ to the females.”

“It’s like they’re saying, ‘I’m the biggest and the strongest, look how long and how loud I can sing,’” said Chambers.

Features of leopard seal songs

To better understand how leopard seal songs compare to other species, the researchers analyzed entropy – essentially how repetitive or predictable a sound sequence is.

They compared recordings from 26 male leopard seals to vocal sequences from humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins, squirrel monkeys, and several types of human music, including baroque, classical, romantic, contemporary, and Beatles songs.

What stood out was how closely the leopard seal songs matched the structure of nursery rhymes.

“Nursery rhymes are simple, repetitive and easy to remember – that’s what we see in the leopard seal songs,” said Chambers.

“They’re not as complex as human music but they aren’t random either. They sit in this sweet spot that allows them to be both unique and highly structured.”

Each seal has its own signature song

The sound recordings analyzed in the study were from the 1990s, when Professor Rogers would bike across Antarctica to the ocean’s edge, mark individual seals with dye, and return at night to record their songs.

“They sing at night, so I would mark them during the day and go back out at night to visit each of the seals to get recordings from different males,” she said.

While all the seals use the same five calls, each male puts them in a distinct order – creating a kind of signature.

“We think it’s a bit like each seal having its own name,” explained Chambers. “They’re all using the same alphabet of five sounds – but the way they combine them creates a pattern that’s individually distinctive.”

An evolving story

With today’s tools, the researchers want to return to Antarctica and investigate what has changed.

According to Chambers, the next step is to use mathematical models to test whether leopard seals use their songs like dolphins use signature whistles – to announce individual identity.

“We want to know if new call types have emerged in the population,” she said. “And if patterns evolve from generation to generation.”

“We’d love to investigate whether their ‘alphabet’ of five sounds has changed over time.”

It turns out that in the coldest, quietest places on Earth, animals are still finding ways to be heard – and remembered.

The full study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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Skyscraper-size spires of mehtane ice may cover around 60% of Pluto‘s equatorial region — a larger area than scientists previously estimated, new research finds.

The study, published July 5 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, was based on data collected by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which captured the first close-up images of the tiny world a decade ago, on July 14, 2015.

Researchers have unveiled two “hyperrealistic” reconstructions of adult sisters who lived and worked in a brutal mining community in what is now the Czech Republic more than 6,000 years ago.

The stunning, 3D reconstructions are based on a new analysis of the sisters’ remains, which were unearthed more than 15 years ago from a prehistoric chert mine in the South Moravian region. New evidence suggests the sisters worked in the mine, extracting heavy rocks for tools and weapons.

The Perseid meteor shower is seen over the Ulanbum grassland in Chifeng city, Inner Mongolia, China, August 14, 2023. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Perseid meteor shower, the most popular “shooting star” display of the year, will be far from its best because of the presence of a near-full moon in the sky, experts have warned.

When Is The Perseid Meteor Shower?

The most prolific meteor shower of the year under ideal conditions, the Perseids are active right now, having started on July 14. The show will extend through Sept. 1, but come to a narrow peak overnight on Tuesday-Wednesday, Aug. 12-13.

However, although the sturgeon moon will turn full on Saturday, Aug. 9, it will still be very bright come the Perseids peak — and rise into the sky just as it gets dark.

The Truth About The Perseid Meteor Shower In 2025

According to the American Meteor Society, this is interrupting the Perseids’ “strong maximum” and playing havoc with the 50-75 “shooting stars” per hour normally expected to be seen on the peak night. “In 2025, the waning gibbous moon will severely compromise this shower at the time of maximum activity,” says the AMS. “Such conditions will reduce activity by at least 75 percent as only the brighter meteors will be visible.”

That means a maximum of only about 12-18 “shooting stars” per hour will likely be seen on the peak night of the Perseids this year.

What NASA Says About The Perseid Meteor Shower

NASA agrees that one of the best annual meteor showers, the Perseids, will this year disappoint. “Unfortunately, this year the moon is nearly full on the peak night, and its glare will wash out all but the brightest meteors,” states NASA in its latest skywatching tips for August 2025. However, there is some positive news. “While that’s not so great for Perseid watchers, the good news is that another favorite annual meteor shower, the Geminids, is poised for Moon-free viewing in December,” writes NASA.

When Is The Geminids Meteor Shower?

Of all the major meteor showers in 2025, it’s the Geminids that are poised to be the most impressive. Active from Dec. 1-21, the Geminid meteor shower can produce up to 150 “shooting stars” per hour during the peak — at least, in theory — with the peak overnight on Saturday/Sunday, Dec. 13/14. This time, the moon will not get in the way until a few hours after midnight, rising as a crescent in the eastern sky as the peak comes to an end.

So while 2025’s Perseids peak may be a letdown, the December’s Geminids promise to deliver a dazzling consolation prize under much darker skies later this year.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

The air we breathe may seem like a permanent feature of our planet, but new research suggests it’s far from eternal. A study published in Nature Geoscience by scientists from NASA and Japan’s Toho University paints a stark picture: Earth’s oxygen-rich atmosphere, which supports complex life, will likely collapse within the next billion years. Even more striking, the initial decline could begin as soon as 10,000 years from now—a blink of an eye in geological time.

The sun’s warming could trigger a chain reaction

Researchers led by Kazumi Ozaki of Toho University modeled the long-term evolution of Earth’s atmosphere, focusing on the relationship between the planet’s oxygen levels and the Sun’s gradual warming. Over time, the Sun is expected to increase in luminosity, pushing Earth into a hotter climate. That warming will accelerate the breakdown of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Plants, which rely on CO2 for photosynthesis, will struggle to survive, cutting off the planet’s main source of oxygen.

Without oxygen-generating plants, Earth will lose its ozone layer, exposing the surface to dangerous levels of ultraviolet radiation. At the same time, methane—a greenhouse gas that oxygen currently keeps in check—will build up in the air. “After the great deoxygenation, the atmosphere will be characterized by a high concentration of methane, low levels of CO2, and the absence of an ozone layer,” Ozaki said in a statement.

Complex life won’t survive the shift

The consequences for life on Earth would be devastating. Humans and other oxygen-dependent species could not survive in an atmosphere with such low oxygen levels. The study suggests that oxygen levels could eventually drop to a million times lower than they are today, effectively suffocating most forms of life. Only anaerobic microorganisms—tiny organisms that thrive without oxygen—might endure in the new, toxic environment.

This shift would mirror the conditions of the early Earth billions of years ago, before the Great Oxidation Event flooded the atmosphere with oxygen. If the researchers’ predictions hold, our planet could return to that ancient state, becoming a microbial world once again.

A timeline that starts sooner than you think

While the final collapse is still about a billion years away, the process leading to it could begin much earlier. The researchers estimate the first measurable drop in oxygen levels could happen in roughly 10,000 years. That’s a vanishingly short period when viewed on a planetary timescale. Once the decline starts, it will be irreversible.

Importantly, the study emphasizes that this is part of Earth’s natural evolution, not a consequence of human-driven climate change. But the findings underscore a broader point: habitable conditions on planets are temporary. As Christopher Reinhard, a co-author from the Georgia Institute of Technology, noted in a related discussion, “The lifespan of oxygen-rich atmospheres may be shorter than we previously thought.”

Why this matters beyond Earth

The research has implications far beyond our planet. Astronomers searching for life on exoplanets often look for oxygen as a key biosignature. But as this study shows, a planet can have oxygen for billions of years before losing it again. That means finding oxygen in an exoplanet’s atmosphere doesn’t necessarily mean it’s permanently habitable.

Earth’s eventual loss of oxygen won’t directly affect our species, which is unlikely to be around in a billion years. But it offers a sobering reminder that even the most stable-seeming planetary systems are temporary. Understanding how and why Earth will change could help scientists refine their search for life elsewhere—and better appreciate the delicate balance that keeps our own world alive.