10 Fantastic Space Fireworks Photos
Plus: Were Greek Monster Myths Born in Our Imagination or Science?
10 Fantastic Space Fireworks Photos
Celebratory fireworks ain’t got nothin’ on the natural explosions that birth new stars and rip old ones apart out there in space. As a science reporter, I’ve been writing about incredible cosmic images since the 1990s, and while it’s impossible to rank my favorites, I dug into the archives to find 10 of the best space fireworks photos I’ve ever seen, starting with a brand new one this week from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
Were Greek Monster Myths Born in Our Imagination or Science?
Ask kids to draw monsters, like this book author did, and they’re apt to pull pieces and parts from various real creatures to create the most bizarre chimeras. Ancient people are thought to have done something similar: Upon discovering remains of multiple creatures lying together in fossil beds, they’d conjure a strange, hybrid monster as the logical explanation for a mixed bag of bones—thus myths were born. New research, however, upends this explanation for the Griffin, and the writer takes the opportunity to delve into the origins of myths ranging from Medusa to Cyclops. One example:
Like the Griffin, folklorists have theorized that the ancient Greeks based Medusa's story on fossilized animals. Imagine if you had yet to learn about fossils in second grade. You might assume the worst - Medusa's gaze had turned the creature to stone. In reality, the plant or animal had not been turned into stone but was preserved in stone.
—Carlyn Beccia
New Clock Is Most Accurate Ever
This atomic timekeeper, created by US scientists and engineers, would lose no more than 1 second if it ran for 30 billion years. Why do we need such precise timekeeping?
Enabling pinpoint navigation in the vast expanse of space as well as searches for new particles, this clock is the latest to transcend mere timekeeping. With their increased precision, these next-generation timekeepers could reveal hidden underground mineral deposits and test fundamental theories such as general relativity with unprecedented rigor.
—Katie Palubicki
In addition to this weekly newsletter, I also post cool science news briefs and amazing new images to the Aha! Science Substack site…
That’s all for this short work week!
Cheers,
Rob