Three newly released images of Mars’ moon Phobos resemble brightly colored candies—and could lead to some sweet discoveries, too.NASA’s spacecraft captured these new images, with rainbow hues indicating temperature variations on the planet, according to a from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Using Odyssey’s infrared camera—a device known as is Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS)—scientists took three pictures of the small moon in December 2019, and February and March 2020.The December image captures Phobos at full-moon phase, when a large part of its surface is exposed to the sun and...…Three newly released images of Mars’ moon Phobos resemble brightly colored candies—and could lead to some sweet discoveries, too.NASA’s spacecraft captured these new images, with rainbow hues indicating temperature variations on the planet, according to a from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Using Odyssey’s infrared camera—a device known as is Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS)—scientists took three pictures of the small moon in December 2019, and February and March 2020.The December image captures Phobos at full-moon phase, when a large part of its surface is exposed to the sun and...WW…

In 2018, scientists launched an antenna into space dedicated solely to tracking the world’s animals. From its perch 240 miles above Earth on the International Space Station, the antenna receives signals from tiny transmitters attached to more than 800 species of animal ranging from elephants to bats, reports Katharine Gammon for . After some early setbacks, the tracking system was switched on in March. Data from the project may be available to researchers on Earth as early as this fall, according to a ."The sensors allow animals to be our eyes and ears and noses in the world, and we are...…In 2018, scientists launched an antenna into space dedicated solely to tracking the world’s animals. From its perch 240 miles above Earth on the International Space Station, the antenna receives signals from tiny transmitters attached to more than 800 species of animal ranging from elephants to bats, reports Katharine Gammon for . After some early setbacks, the tracking system was switched on in March. Data from the project may be available to researchers on Earth as early as this fall, according to a ."The sensors allow animals to be our eyes and ears and noses in the world, and we are...WW…

Around this time of year, hosts dozens of houseguests in her basement. Far from using camping equipment or cots, they sleep upside-down, clinging to a curtain. The entomologist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has collected cicadas, those bizarre and misunderstood cyclical insects, for four years.“In Illinois, we have 20 species, and hardly anything is known about them,” Alleyne says. “We know very little about what they’re doing underground.”Cicadas have a longstanding reputation as loud, swarming pests that keep obnoxiously particular schedules. In the United States, they...…Around this time of year, hosts dozens of houseguests in her basement. Far from using camping equipment or cots, they sleep upside-down, clinging to a curtain. The entomologist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has collected cicadas, those bizarre and misunderstood cyclical insects, for four years.“In Illinois, we have 20 species, and hardly anything is known about them,” Alleyne says. “We know very little about what they’re doing underground.”Cicadas have a longstanding reputation as loud, swarming pests that keep obnoxiously particular schedules. In the United States, they...WW…

As a young naturalist growing up in the Deep South, I feared kudzu. I’d walk an extra mile to avoid patches of it and the writhing knots of snakes that everyone said were breeding within. Though fascinated by the grape-scented flowers and the purple honey produced by visiting bees, I trembled at the monstrous green forms climbing telephone poles and trees on the edges of our roads and towns.Introduced from Asia in the late 19th century as a garden novelty, but not widely planted until the 1930s, kudzu is now America’s most infamous weed. In a few decades, a conspicuously Japanese name has...…As a young naturalist growing up in the Deep South, I feared kudzu. I’d walk an extra mile to avoid patches of it and the writhing knots of snakes that everyone said were breeding within. Though fascinated by the grape-scented flowers and the purple honey produced by visiting bees, I trembled at the monstrous green forms climbing telephone poles and trees on the edges of our roads and towns.Introduced from Asia in the late 19th century as a garden novelty, but not widely planted until the 1930s, kudzu is now America’s most infamous weed. In a few decades, a conspicuously Japanese name has...WW…

In the past decade, tales of art “restorations” gone wrong have alternatively delighted and horrified social media users. Many of these fiascos have happened in Spain: Take, for instance, a disfigured fresco of Jesus, now known as the , that went viral in 2012, or a that underwent “unrestoration” after a failed attempt left its subject looking more like than a legendary dragon slayer.Now, another ill-fated artistic endeavor has surfaced in Spain. As Spanish news agency reports, a private collector in Valéncia paid €1,200 (around $1,350 USD) to have a painting of the Virgin Mary cleaned and...…In the past decade, tales of art “restorations” gone wrong have alternatively delighted and horrified social media users. Many of these fiascos have happened in Spain: Take, for instance, a disfigured fresco of Jesus, now known as the , that went viral in 2012, or a that underwent “unrestoration” after a failed attempt left its subject looking more like than a legendary dragon slayer.Now, another ill-fated artistic endeavor has surfaced in Spain. As Spanish news agency reports, a private collector in Valéncia paid €1,200 (around $1,350 USD) to have a painting of the Virgin Mary cleaned and...WW…

A Smithsonian magazine special report|Raging bushfires. Devastated wildlife. And the compassionate souls who went to the rescueA young koala recovers at the wildlife park hospital.I ​arrived on Kangaroo Island bracing myself for the sight of acres of blackened trees and white ash, but I had not expected the parasitic bright green vines wrapped around almost every charred trunk, glowing phosphorescent in the sunlight. This was no parasite, I learned. It was epicormic growth, bursting directly from the burnt trunks themselves, a desperate bid for photosynthesis in the absence of a leaf...…A Smithsonian magazine special report|Raging bushfires. Devastated wildlife. And the compassionate souls who went to the rescueA young koala recovers at the wildlife park hospital.I ​arrived on Kangaroo Island bracing myself for the sight of acres of blackened trees and white ash, but I had not expected the parasitic bright green vines wrapped around almost every charred trunk, glowing phosphorescent in the sunlight. This was no parasite, I learned. It was epicormic growth, bursting directly from the burnt trunks themselves, a desperate bid for photosynthesis in the absence of a leaf...WW…

New research suggests mysterious bright spots seen at the equator of ’s moon may be dried up lake beds, reports Lisa Grossman for . The new research, published this week in the journal , offers an explanation for a phenomenon first observed in 2000.is the ringed planet’s and is the second largest moon in the entire solar system. The mega-moon is also the only one known to have a substantial atmosphere.Between 2000 and 2008, radio telescopes at the in Puerto Rico and the in West Virginia identified roughly a dozen spots at Titan’s equator that were bouncing anomalously bright radio signals...…New research suggests mysterious bright spots seen at the equator of ’s moon may be dried up lake beds, reports Lisa Grossman for . The new research, published this week in the journal , offers an explanation for a phenomenon first observed in 2000.is the ringed planet’s and is the second largest moon in the entire solar system. The mega-moon is also the only one known to have a substantial atmosphere.Between 2000 and 2008, radio telescopes at the in Puerto Rico and the in West Virginia identified roughly a dozen spots at Titan’s equator that were bouncing anomalously bright radio signals...WW…

As protests against and continue, Confederate monuments across the nation have been with spray paint, by crowds and even .The weathered, oxidized surfaces of these monuments seemingly suggest that the battle over slavery is a distant chapter in American history. But until May 31, the United States government was still paying out a Civil War pension, reports Michael M. Phillips for the .Irene Triplett, who died last month at the age of 90, received a check for $73.13 every month. Her father, Mose Triplett, served as a private in the Confederate Army before deserting and shifting his...…As protests against and continue, Confederate monuments across the nation have been with spray paint, by crowds and even .The weathered, oxidized surfaces of these monuments seemingly suggest that the battle over slavery is a distant chapter in American history. But until May 31, the United States government was still paying out a Civil War pension, reports Michael M. Phillips for the .Irene Triplett, who died last month at the age of 90, received a check for $73.13 every month. Her father, Mose Triplett, served as a private in the Confederate Army before deserting and shifting his...WW…

A Smithsonian magazine special reportStarting in 1918, as the Bay Area suffered through the flu pandemic, Californians crafted masks of gauze, an open-weave fabric perhaps hard-pressed to stop microscopic particles, even when folded to a thickness of six, as the Oakland Red Cross advised. As a hub for soldiers returning from war, Oakland and San Francisco were targeted by influenza. By the end of the pandemic in 1920, around had died of the disease.The city’s mayor, John L. Davie, was in his second stint of an eventual five in the executive office when the pandemic struck. The...…A Smithsonian magazine special reportStarting in 1918, as the Bay Area suffered through the flu pandemic, Californians crafted masks of gauze, an open-weave fabric perhaps hard-pressed to stop microscopic particles, even when folded to a thickness of six, as the Oakland Red Cross advised. As a hub for soldiers returning from war, Oakland and San Francisco were targeted by influenza. By the end of the pandemic in 1920, around had died of the disease.The city’s mayor, John L. Davie, was in his second stint of an eventual five in the executive office when the pandemic struck. The...WW…

As far as archaeologists know, Asian monkeys weren’t trotting the globe during the Bronze Age. That’s why a millennia-old Greek painting of a gray langur—a primate native to the Indian subcontinent—was surprising enough to stop researchers dead in their tracks.Archaeologists and primatologists re-analyzing wall paintings found in Akrotiri, a Minoan settlement on Thera (modern-day Santorini) buried by volcanic ash around 1600 B.C., have uncovered evidence that Bronze Age Greek artists knew of—and may have even seen—monkeys whose native habitat was thousands of miles away. Their findings,...…As far as archaeologists know, Asian monkeys weren’t trotting the globe during the Bronze Age. That’s why a millennia-old Greek painting of a gray langur—a primate native to the Indian subcontinent—was surprising enough to stop researchers dead in their tracks.Archaeologists and primatologists re-analyzing wall paintings found in Akrotiri, a Minoan settlement on Thera (modern-day Santorini) buried by volcanic ash around 1600 B.C., have uncovered evidence that Bronze Age Greek artists knew of—and may have even seen—monkeys whose native habitat was thousands of miles away. Their findings,...WW…