And how does mama clean it when it gets dirty? Although many marsupials raise their young in pouches — including opossums, Tasmanian devils and even koalas — kangaroos are almost certainly the most iconic. So what’s it like inside a kangaroo’s pouch? Think of the kangaroo’s pouch as a hoodieContinue Reading
Geologic processes nearer the surface, rather than deep-mantle plumes, may fuel activity there Some of the world’s volcanic hot spots may be fueled by molten material that originates surprisingly close to Earth’s surface. While some of the hottest spots are fueled by plumes of buoyant material welling up from deepContinue Reading
Saltwater spray could come from pockets of watery mush in the moon’s icy shell Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus sprays water vapor into space. Scientists have thought that the plumes come from a deep subsurface ocean — but that might not be the case, new simulations suggest. Instead, the waterContinue Reading
A massive line of vegetation in the Sahel may intensify the West African monsoon, simulations show Africa’s “Great Green Wall” initiative is a proposed 8,000-kilometer line of trees meant to hold back the Sahara from expanding southward. New climate simulations looking to both the region’s past and future suggest thisContinue Reading
New rovers started exploring the Red Planet while other missions launched to asteroids While a flurry of missions crowded around Mars this year, some lesser-explored parts of the solar system are about to get fresh eyes. Three countries visited the Red Planet in 2021, sending orbiters, landers, rovers and evenContinue Reading
The skeleton has been unearthed at Herculaneum. The skeleton of a man killed by the deadly eruption of Mount Vesuvius almost 2,000 years ago has been unearthed from an ancient beach at Herculaneum — possibly as he ran in an attempt to escape the disaster. The man was killed justContinue Reading
A mysterious burst of extragalactic light appears to have spawned a small, compact object A cosmic flare-up called the Cow seems to have left behind a black hole or neutron star. When the flash was spotted in June 2018, astronomers debated its origins. Now, astrophysicist DJ Pasham of MIT andContinue Reading
The newfound planet is smaller than Earth, as dense as iron and hot enough to melt A newly discovered exoplanet is really making astronomers prove their mettle. Planet GJ 367b is smaller than Earth, denser than iron and hot enough to melt, researchers report in the Dec. 3 Science. “WeContinue Reading
Probably not. But there’s more to the story than meets the eye. There’s a story that Benjamin Franklin thought the turkey should be the national bird instead of the eagle. In a 1784 letter addressed to Sarah, his daughter, Franklin wrote: “For my own part I wish the bald eagleContinue Reading
“Such inoculation should be common everywhere.” A letter written by Russian empress Catherine the Great on April 20, 1787, stressing the importance of the smallpox vaccine to the count of Malorossiya (modern-day Ukraine), will go up for auction on Dec. 1 at MacDougall’s in London, according to news reports. ThatContinue Reading