Are insects drawn to light? New research shows it’s confusion, not attraction - PBS NewsHour

WASHINGTON (AP) — Like a moth to flame, many scientists and poets have long assumed that flying insects were simply, inexorably drawn to bright lights.

But that’s not exactly what’s going on, a new study suggests.

Rather than being attracted to light, researchers believe that artificial lights at night may actually scramble flying insects’ innate navigational systems, causing them to flutter in confusion around porch lamps, street lights and other artificial beacons.

“Insects have a navigational problem,” said Tyson Hedrick, a biologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the research. “They’re accustomed to using light as a cue to know which way is up.”

READ MORE: For insects that glow, artificial light is killing the vibe

Insects do not fly directly toward a light source, but actually “tilt their backs toward the light,” said Sam Fabian, an Imperial College London entomologist and co-author of the study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

That would make sense if the strongest light source was in the sky. But in the presence of artificial lights, the result is midair confusion, not attraction.

For the study, researchers attached tiny sensors to moths and dragonflies in a laboratory to film “motion-capture” video of flight — similar to how filmmakers attach sensors to actors to track their movements.

They also used high-resolution cameras to film insects swirling around lights at a field site in Costa Rica.

This allowed them to study in detail how dragonflies will circle endlessly around light sources, positioning themselves with their backs facing the beams. They also documented that some insects will flip upside down — and often crash land — in the presence of lights that shine straight upward like search lights.

Insect flight was least disrupted by bright lights that shine straight downward, the researchers found.

“For millions of years, insects oriented themselves by sensing that the sky is light, the ground is dark” — until people invented artificial lights, said Avalon Owens, a Harvard entomologist who was not involved in the research.

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What a 45,000-year-old pit of bones reveals about our earliest human ancestors - NBC News

Inside a cave beneath a medieval German castle, researchers have discovered a pit of bones that they say unlock secrets of the earliest humans. 

The remains — buried in layers of soil in the collapsed cave — contained the genetic material of cave bears, hyenas and 13 bones of early humans who died some 45,000 years ago. 

The findings — which were described in a trio of papers published Thursday in the journals Nature and Nature Ecology & Evolution — show that early humans ventured further north earlier than scientists had realized, that they could craft spear-shaped tools, and that humans then had the wherewithal to thrive in temperatures far more frigid than the climate today. 

The discoveries, which were made possibly because of the development of new DNA technology, are reshaping how scientists understand the time when both humans and Neanderthals walked the European continent. 

“Because of the age of this site and location, we know Neanderthals and humans quite definitively had a large overlap,” said Elena Zavala, a paleo and forensic geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, who helped author the three studies. The species likely roamed the same geography for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. 

A fragment of human bone from the cave in Ranis, Germany.Tim Schüler via Springer Nature

The discoveries could bring scientists closer to understanding why Neanderthals ultimately died out and what role humans played in their demise. 

John Hawks, a University of Wisconsin-Madison paleoanthropologist who studies ancient human relatives but was not involved in this research, said the study helps solidify the theory that patches of different human cultures were developing as Neanderthals neared their end. 

“These groups are exploring. They’re going to new places. They live there for a while. They have lifestyles that are different,” he said of the early humans. “They’re comfortable moving into areas where there were Neanderthals.” 

These discoveries were only possible because previous researchers left a stone unturned. Archaeologists in the 1920s and 1930s previously excavated the Ilsenhöhle cave, below the Ranis Castle in Germany’s Thuringia region. The castle was built above the cave long before any excavation.

At that time, the scientists hit a more than 5-foot-thick rock, which blocked them from burrowing into key layers of the collapsed cave. 

In 2016, armed with modern digging technology and new forms of analysis, the researchers returned. About 24 feet below the surface, they found layers that contained leaf points — which are like spear points — and human bone fragments. 

The discovery of human bone fragments sent the researchers digging through the material excavated about nine decades ago — in which they found additional skeleton fragments.

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NASA's Webb Depicts Staggering Structure in 19 Nearby Spiral Galaxies - Science@NASA

It’s oh-so-easy to be absolutely mesmerized by these spiral galaxies. Follow their clearly defined arms, which are brimming with stars, to their centers, where there may be old star clusters and – sometimes – active supermassive black holes. Only NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope can deliver highly detailed scenes of nearby galaxies in a combination of near- and mid-infrared light – and a set of these images was publicly released today.

These Webb images are part of a large, long-standing project, the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program, which is supported by more than 150 astronomers worldwide. Before Webb took these images, PHANGS was already brimming with data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope’s Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, including observations in ultraviolet, visible, and radio light. Webb’s near- and mid-infrared contributions have provided several new puzzle pieces.

“Webb’s new images are extraordinary,” said Janice Lee, a project scientist for strategic initiatives at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. “They’re mind-blowing even for researchers who have studied these same galaxies for decades. Bubbles and filaments are resolved down to the smallest scales ever observed, and tell a story about the star formation cycle.”

Excitement rapidly spread throughout the team as the Webb images flooded in. “I feel like our team lives in a constant state of being overwhelmed – in a positive way – by the amount of detail in these images,” added Thomas Williams, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured millions of stars in these images, which sparkle in blue tones. Some stars are spread throughout the spiral arms, but others are clumped tightly together in star clusters.

The telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) data highlights glowing dust, showing us where it exists around and between stars. It also spotlights stars that haven’t yet fully formed – they are still encased in the gas and dust that feed their growth, like bright red seeds at the tips of dusty peaks. “These are where we can find the newest, most massive stars in the galaxies,” said Erik Rosolowsky, a professor of physics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

Something else that amazed astronomers? Webb’s images show large, spherical shells in the gas and dust. “These holes may have been created by one or more stars that exploded, carving out giant holes in the interstellar material,” explained Adam Leroy, a professor of astronomy at the Ohio State University in Columbus.

Now, trace the spiral arms to find extended regions of gas that appear red and orange. “These structures tend to follow the same pattern in certain parts of the galaxies,” Rosolowsky added. “We think of these like waves, and their spacing tells us a lot about how a galaxy distributes its gas and dust.” Study of these structures will provide key insights about how galaxies build, maintain, and shut off star formation.

Evidence shows that galaxies grow from inside out – star formation begins at galaxies’ cores and spreads along their arms, spiraling away from the center. The farther a star is from the galaxy’s core, the more likely it is to be younger. In contrast, the areas near the cores that look lit by a blue spotlight are populations of older stars.

What about galaxy cores that are awash in pink-and-red diffraction spikes? “That’s a clear sign that there may be an active supermassive black hole,” said Eva Schinnerer, a staff scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. “Or, the star clusters toward the center are so bright that they have saturated that area of the image.”

There are many avenues of research that scientists can begin to pursue with the combined PHANGS data, but the unprecedented number of stars Webb resolved are a great place to begin. “Stars can live for billions or trillions of years,” Leroy said. “By precisely cataloging all types of stars, we can build a more reliable, holistic view of their life cycles.”

In addition to immediately releasing these images, the PHANGS team has also released the largest catalog to date of roughly 100,000 star clusters. “The amount of analysis that can be done with these images is vastly larger than anything our team could possibly handle,” Rosolowsky emphasized. “We’re excited to support the community so all researchers can contribute.”

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

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2024 solar eclipse path: Where to see totality near St. Louis | ksdk.com - KSDK.com

The moon will block out 99% of the sun in St. Louis, but a view of totality is just a few hours away.

ST. LOUIS — Some of the best places to see the Great American Eclipse on April 8, 2024, will be in Missouri and Illinois.

In St. Louis, the moon will block out nearly 99% of the sun, but totality will be visible just a few hours south or east of the city. 

Parts of Missouri and Illinois are in the path of totality, including a few that witnessed totality during the 2017 eclipse. With people coming from around the world to see the celestial show, you may need to find a viewing spot or event early.

Totality will be visible in spots from Texas to Maine. As it cuts through the Midwest, it will be visible at about 2 p.m. It will be the last time the path of totality is visible anywhere in the U.S. until 2044.

From state parks to universities, there will be no shortage of locations to take in the solar eclipse. Here are some of the best locations to view totality.

State parks

The state of Missouri put together a list of parks that will be in the path of totality. Some have lodging and camping, although many are already fully booked. Here is the list:

• Sam A. Baker State Park, Patterson
• Battle of Pilot Knob State Historic Site, Pilot Knob
• Big Oak Tree State Park, East Prairie
• Bollinger Mill State Historic Site, Burfordville
• Current River State Park, Salem
• Echo Bluff State Park, Eminence
• Elephant Rocks State Park, Belleview
• Eleven Point State Park, Couch
• Grand Gulf State Park, Thayer
• Hawn State Park, Ste. Genevieve
• Hunter-Dawson State Historic Site, New Madrid
• Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park, Middle Brook
• Lake Wappapello State Park, Williamsville
• Missouri Mines State Historic Site, Park Hills
• Morris State Park, Campbell
• St. Joe State Park, Park Hills
• Taum Sauk Mountain State Park, Ironton
• Towosahgy State Historic Site, East Prairie
• Trail of Tears State Park, Jackson
• Felix Vallé House State Historic Site, Ste. Genevieve

Many of the state parks in Illinois also have camping and lodging. You can find more information and make a reservation by clicking here.

• Beall Woods State Park, Mount Carmel
• Cache River State Natural Area, Belknap
• Cave-In-Rock State Park, Belknap
• Dixon Springs State Park, Golconda
• Eldon Hazlet State Recreation Area, Carlyle
• Ferne Clyffe State Park, Goreville
• Fort Massac State Park, Metropolis
• Giant City State Park, Makanda
• Golconda Marina, Golconda
• Hamilton County State Fish and Wildlife Area, McLeansboro
• Horseshoe Lake Alexander County, Miller City
• Kinkaid Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area, Murphysboro
• Lake Murphysboro State Park, Murphysboro
• Lincoln Trail State Park, Marshall
• Newton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area, Newton
• Piney Creek Ravine State Natural Area, Campbell Hill
• Pyramid State Recreation Area, Pinckneyville
• Randolph County State Recreation Area, Chester
• Red Hills State Park, Sumner
• Sahara Woods State Recreation Area, Carrier Mills
• Saline County State Fish and Wildlife Area, Equality
• Sam Dale Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area, Johnsonville
• Sam Parr State Fish and Wildlife Area, Newton
• Sielbeck Forest State Natural Area, Belknap
• Stephen A. Forbes State Recreation Area, Kinmundy
• Ten Mile Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area, McLeansboro
• Trail of Tears State Forest, Jonesboro
• Tunnel Hill State Trail, Vienna
• Union County State Fish and Wildlife Area, Jonesboro 
• Washington County State Recreation Area, Nashville
• Wayne Fitzgerrell State Recreation Area (Rend Lake), Whittington
• World Shooting and Recreational Complex, Sparta

Cities in Missouri

Ste. Genevieve

65 miles south of St. Louis (one-hour drive)

Perryville

82 miles south of St. Louis (one-and-a-half-hour drive)

Perryville is hosting a three-day Solarfest event that will feature hot air balloon rides, a 5K run/walk and other events. 

Cape Girardeau

115 miles south of St. Louis (two-hour drive)

Sikeston

150 miles south of St. Louis (two-hour-and-15-minute drive)

Sikeston is hosting a weekend-long event called Total Eclipse of the Park. For more information about the event, click here.

Poplar Bluff

152 miles south of St. Louis (two-and-a-half-hour drive)

Kennett

200 miles south of St. Louis (three-hour drive)

Cities in Illinois

Mount Vernon

80 miles east of St. Louis (one-hour-and-15-minute drive)

Benton

100 miles southeast of St. Louis (one-hour-and-30-minute drive)

Carbondale

100 miles southeast of St. Louis (two-hour drive)

After being in the path of totality in 2017, Carbondale is going all out again in 2024 with the Southern Illinois Crossroads Festival. SIU Carbondale is partnering with NASA to host a three-day event that culminates on Eclipse Day.

Alto Pass

110 miles southeast of St. Louis (two-hour drive)

The Bald Knob Cross of Peace will host an eclipse event. For more information and to buy tickets, click here.

Makanda

115 miles southeast of St. Louis (two-hour drive)

Makanda is home to the Touch of Nature Outdoor Education Center, which will be hosting a weekend-long event. Click here for more information.

Fairfield

120 miles east of St. Louis (two-hour drive)

Marion

120 miles southeast of St. Louis (two-hour drive)

Olney

120 miles east of St. Louis (two-and-a-half-hour drive)

Olney & the Greater Richland County Chamber of Commerce is hosting a weekend-long event for the whole family. For more information, click here. 

Metropolis

160 miles southeast of Missouri (two-and-a-half-hour drive)

See the solar eclipse in the hometown of Superman. The three-day event will feature live music, educational displays and local vendors. Click here for more information.

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See the 19 spiral galaxies NASA captured "on the smallest scales ever observed" past the Milky Way - CBS News

The James Webb Space Telescope's remarkable gifts

The James Webb Space Telescope's remarkable gifts 07:29

A "treasure trove" of stunning new images showing 19 spiral galaxies have been captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the European Space Agency said on Monday. The images reveal "stars, gas, and dust on the smallest scales ever observed beyond our own galaxy," the Milky Way, the agency said. 

According to the agency, researchers are analyzing the new images to find out how these galaxies originated. NASA says they were taken as part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program, and show off millions of stars that "sparkle in blue tones." They also reveal "glowing dust," and stars that are still developing, NASA said. 

Some of the "newest, most massive stars in the galaxies," can be found in the images, said Erik Rosolowsky, a physics professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. PHANGS researchers have also released what NASA says is the largest catalog ever of roughly 100,000 star clusters, a list that Rosolowsky says allows for analysis "vastly larger than anything our team could possibly handle." 

But that isn't all. Researchers said the galaxy pictures also show off "large, spherical shells" that were possibly created by exploding stars, as well as supermassive black holes, which can be seen as galaxy cores with pink and red spikes. 

Janice Lee, a project scientist for strategic initiatives at Baltimore, Maryland's Space Telescope Science Institute, said the galaxy images are "extraordinary." 

"They're mind-blowing even for researchers who have studied these same galaxies for decades," Lee said. "Bubbles and filaments are resolved down to the smallest scales ever observed, and tell a story about the star formation cycle." 

See the 19 new images of spiral galaxies below. 

Spiral galaxy IC 5332

Face-on spiral galaxy, IC 5332, was captured by the James Webb Space Telescope and shows dust glowing in infrared light. IC 5332 is 30 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), Rupali Chandar (UToledo), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 628

Webb's image of spiral galaxy NGC 628 shows it's densely populated and anchored by its central region, which has a light blue haze. Within its core are older stars, represented by blue lights. NGC 628 is 32 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 1087

This image of NGC 1087 shows so much light that the galaxy's arms "look muddled," James Webb researchers said. NGC 1087 is 80 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), Rupali Chandar (UToledo), PHANGS Team

NGC 1300

NGC 1300's center is highlighted by a bright white point, surrounded by a yellow circle, and according to James Webb researchers, is "tiny compared to the rest of the galaxy." NGC 1300 is 69 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

NGC 1365

NGC 1365's core covers roughly an eighth of the entire image, with the central region looking "like an angled, smashed oval" with six light white diffraction spikes, James Webb researchers said. NGC 1365 is 56 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

NGC 1385

James Webb researchers say this image shows NGC 1385 as a "messy" galaxy with a difficult-to-distinguish spiral shape. NGC 1385 is 30 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy 1433

The central core of Spiral Galaxy 1433 takes up roughly a fifth of this James Webb image, researchers said, and a blue haze of stars make up a "large bar structure." NGC 1433 is 46 million light-years away in the constellation Horologium. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 1512

Along with the spiral galaxy, this James Webb image also shows "two larger foreground stars with at least six different diffraction spikes," researchers said. NGC 1512 is 30 million light-years away in the constellation Horologium. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 1566

Researchers say the "densely populated" spiral galaxy NGC 1566 features two prominent arms as well as "innumerable bright blue pinpoints of light." The galaxy is 60 million light-years away in the constellation Dorado. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), Rupali Chandar (UToledo), Daniela Calzetti (UMass), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 1672

This galaxy's spiral shape is not as apparent in this James Webb image, researchers said, but NGC 1672 is acnhored by its center and features "two spiny orange" arms that rotate clockwise. NGC 1672 is 60 million light-years away in the constellation Dorado. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 2835

The dense spiral galaxy NGC 2835 has a central region "immediately engulfed in the orange spiral arms," James Webb researchers said, and was seen with a "blue glow of stars" that spread outward from its core. The pink and blue lights toward the bottom of the image are likely background galaxies. NGC 2835 is 35 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 3351

This image of NGC 3351 is just a still, but James Webb researchers say the spiral arms that form a roughly circular shape around it make it appear "as if there's movement." NGC 3351 is 33 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 3627

The spiral galaxy NGC 3627 features two spiny arms and was captured by the James Webb telescope with stars seen "scattered across the packed scene." NGC 3627 is 36 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 4254

This James Webb scene of a "densely populated" galaxy shows NGC 4254 with counterclockwise spiny arms and lots of stars scattered across the galaxy. NGC 4254 is 50 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 4303

The spiral galaxy NGC 4303's central region is seen about midway down in this image, and clusters of blue stars can be seen throughout. NGC 4303 is 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. NASA, ESA, CSA, ESO, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 4321

This spiral galaxy is shaped like a "smashed circle," according to James Webb researchers, and features a prominent spiral arm across the bottom of the image. NGC 4321 is 55 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 4535

NGC 4535 was captured by the James Webb Space Telescope as having a small central region with a light orange haze and "filaments of flowing dust" crossing into its spirals, according to James Webb researchers. The galaxy is 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 5068

NGC 5068 is a spiral galaxy, although its shape is hard to register with the image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Some of the lighter red areas "look like smoke drifting up," researchers said. NGC 5068 is 20 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Spiral galaxy NGC 7496

This spiral galaxy captured by the James Webb Space Telescope reveals the galaxy's core is small compared to the rest of the galaxy, with the central region starting "as a bright white dot that melts into bright oranges," according to researchers. NGC 7496 is 24 million light-years away in the constellation Grus. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

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'One of the holy grails of shark science': Watch 1st ever footage of a pure white newborn great white shark - Livescience.com

A newborn great white shark has been spotted in the wild for the first time, researchers have announced. 

The ghostly white pup was photographed off the coast of California on July 9, 2023 and was nothing like any great white shark documented before. 

Wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna and University of California, Riverside biology doctoral student Phillip Sternes, who found the unusual pup, noticed the 5-foot (1.5 meters) shark was thin, short and had rounded fins — a trait usually seen in embryos. It was also entirely white. They documented the sighting in a study published Jan. 29 in the journal Environmental Biology of Fishes. 

The pure white shark is believed to be the first newborn great white ever documented.  (Image credit: Carlos Gauna/The Malibu Artist)

Great whites (Carcharodon carcharias) are the largest predatory sharks in the world today and can grow to be up to 21 feet (6.4 m) long as adults. The researchers think the pup was just hours old: "Maybe one day old at most," Sternes said in a statement. 

The unique sighting, which was captured via drone, could help answer one of the biggest mysteries about great white sharks. "Where white sharks give birth is one of the holy grails of shark science. No one has ever been able to pinpoint where they are born, nor has anyone seen a newborn baby shark alive," Gauna said in the statement. "There have been dead white sharks found inside deceased pregnant mothers. But nothing like this."

It is possible that the California coastline could be a critical breeding ground for great white sharks. (Image credit: Carlos Gauna/The Malibu Artist)

Related: Great white sharks are hanging out in the twilight zone and scientists don't know why 

On closer inspection, they noticed that the pup was covered in a white film that the pup was shedding as it swam. Great white sharks usually have countershading on their bodies — a gray back and white underside — but the authors think the baby shark was white because pregnant female white sharks produce a milky fluid called "uterine milk" for her embryos to consume.

"I believe what we saw was the baby shedding the intrauterine milk," Sternes said. However, the authors noted it could also be caused by an unknown skin condition. 

This potential newborn was spotted around 1,000 feet (305 m) from the beach. Large, apparently pregnant, females have been seen in that location before, indicating they may give birth in the area. 

"This may well be the first evidence we have of a pup in the wild, making this a definitive birthing location," Sternes said, although the authors noted that some scientists believe white sharks may give birth further offshore.

Knowing where great white babies are born is important for the conservation of the species, which is listed as vulnerable to extinction. "Further research is needed to confirm these waters are indeed a great white breeding ground. But if it does, we would want lawmakers to step in and protect these waters to help white sharks keep thriving," Sternes said. 

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Watch live as SpaceX launches private cargo spacecraft to the ISS today (video) - Space.com

SpaceX will launch a private cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station this week, and you can watch the action live.

A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch Northrop Grumman's latest robotic Cygnus freighter Tuesday (Jan. 30) at 12:07 p.m. EST (1707 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

You can watch the liftoff live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency. Coverage will begin around 11:50 a.m. EST (1650 GMT).

Related: Facts about Cygnus, Northrop Grumman's cargo ship

A Northrop Grumman Cygnus freighter spacecraft in between two halves of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket payload fairing. (Image credit: NASA/Kennedy Space Center)

Northrop Grumman named this Cygnus vehicle after Patty Hilliard Robertson, a NASA astronaut who died in a private plane crash in 2001. She was selected to the astronaut corps in 1998 and was supposed to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2002.

The freighter is packed with more than 8,200 pounds (3,720 kilograms) of supplies and scientific hardware. Among the research gear is a cartilage-growing experiment that could help address joint damage and disease here on Earth and a European Space Agency project that will test the 3D printing of metals in microgravity.

You can learn more about this cargo mission — called NG-20, because it's the 20th that Northrop Grumman will fly to the ISS for NASA — via NASA's overview.

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If all goes according to plan today, the Falcon 9's first stage will return to Earth for a touchdown at Cape Canaveral about 8 minutes and 15 seconds after launch. It will be the 10th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.

The Cygnus, meanwhile, will deploy from the Falcon 9's upper stage 14 minutes and 40 seconds after launch. The freighter will then begin making its own way to the ISS, arriving at the orbiting lab around 4:20 a.m. EST (0920 GMT) on Thursday (Feb. 1). You can watch its rendezvous and docking activities live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA.

Cygnus will spend about six months docked to the ISS, then head back down for a fiery destruction in Earth's atmosphere. One experiment aboard Cygnus, called the Kentucky Re-entry Probe Experiment-2, will gather data during this death dive, taking "measurements to demonstrate a thermal protection system for spacecraft and their contents during re-entry in Earth's atmosphere, which can be difficult to replicate in ground simulations," NASA officials wrote in their NG-20 mission overview. 

Cygnus is one of three robotic cargo craft that currently service the ISS, along with SpaceX's Dragon capsule and Russia's Progress vehicle. Progress, like Cygnus, is an expendable spacecraft, but Dragon is reusable, surviving the trip through Earth's atmosphere and splashing down softly under parachutes in the ocean.

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It's Alive! Japan's Moon Lander Comes Back To Life, Starts Snapping Photos - IFLScience

Ten days after its soft landing on the Moon, Japan’s history-making Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is back in action. The lander had a slight mishap while carrying out its precision landing, ending up on its side, which prevented its solar panels from powering up and left the lander running on batteries. Crucially, the solar panels were pointing West – facing away from the Sun at that time – leaving the team with the hope that as the Moon slowly rotated, sunlight would eventually reach the panels. And so it did, yesterday. SLIM has woken up and even sent back a photo. 

Without wasting any time, the team started working on the scientific mission, which has already exceeded expectations for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The goal was a precision pinpoint soft landing within 100 meters (330 feet) of a specific target area. In comparison, the expected landing site for Apollo 11 was an ellipse 20 kilometers by 5 kilometers (12 by 3.1 miles). SLIM appears to have landed just 55 meters (180 feet) from its target, a precision never achieved before on another world. 

Despite the slightly askew landing, SLIM deployed its two small rovers – one of which snapped the image of SLIM slanted on the surface – which are exploring their surroundings. Now that power is back on and it doesn’t have to rely on batteries, SLIM is using its cameras to study the interesting rocks near the lander.

Six have been identified and they have been named after dog breeds: Toy Poodle, Shiba Inu, Bulldog, Akita Inu, Kai Ken, and St Bernard. SLIM has begun analyzing the Toy Poodle rock using spectroscopy – a technique that allows us to work out the composition of an object based on its light. Once, Toy Poodle is fully analyzed, SLIM will move on to the next rocks.

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While the work on the surface continued, SLIM was also snapped from orbit. On January 22, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft passed over the landing site and photographed SLIM from orbit. LRO was about 80 kilometers (50 miles) above the Lunar surface at the time. A before-and-after photo shows not only the 2.4 meter-long (8 feet) lander but also the effects of its rocket on the Moon. 

The retrorockets lifted the top layer of lunar soil, the regolith, which is darker than what lies below it. It is made of thin, weathered, tiny, and sharp rocks. It is dangerous to instruments and even to humans; Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt was discovered to be allergic to Moon dust.

The landing site before and after SLIM landed.

Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

The regolith lifting was seen around India's Vikram lander last summer and even during the Apollo missions; so much so during Apollo 11 that Buzz Aldrin noted that they were “picking up some dust” as they were about to touch down on the Moon's surface.

SLIM will now try its best to catch up on lost time and conduct its science mission before the Sun sets on it, and the lander goes back into sleep mode, bracing for the freezing 14-day lunar night.  

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