Over the past few years, competing countries have turned the moon into a hotspot for activity not witnessed since the Apollo 17 astronauts departed from the lunar surface in 1972. <\/p>\n
In one lunar region, Japan\u2019s \u201cMoon Sniper\u201d mission has beaten the odds and survived three long, frigid lunar nights since its sideways landing on January 19. <\/p>\n
Engineers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency didn\u2019t design the spacecraft to last through one lunar night, a two-week period of freezing darkness, but the Moon Sniper continues to thrive amid lunar extremes and send back new images of its landing site. <\/p>\n
Elsewhere, an international team of astronomers believes it has homed in on a crater created a few million years ago when something massive slammed into the lunar surface \u2014 and sent a chunk of the moon\u2019s far side, or the side that faces away from Earth, hurtling into space. The hunk of moon became a rare quasi-satellite, or asteroid that orbits near Earth. <\/p>\n
The Tianwen-2 mission will visit the space rock later this decade. But first, China has set its sights on returning to the moon\u2019s \u201chidden side.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Chang\u2019e-6 mission, which launched Friday, is aiming to bring back the first samples from the South Pole-Aitken basin, or the largest and oldest crater on the moon. Since the Chang\u2019e 4 mission in 2019, China remains the only country to have landed on the moon\u2019s far side, sometimes called the \u201cdark side\u201d of the moon. <\/p>\n
The \u201cdark side\u201d of the moon is actually a misnomer, experts say, and the remote lunar hemisphere receives illumination \u2014 scientists just don\u2019t know as much about the region as they\u2019d like. <\/p>\n
The far side, with its thicker crust, is vastly different from the near side that was explored during the Apollo missions. <\/p>\n
Scientists hope that returning samples from the far side could solve some of the biggest remaining lunar mysteries, including the moon\u2019s true origin. <\/p>\n
Papyrologists studying the Herculaneum scrolls have deciphered revealing details about Plato\u2019s last evening and final resting place. <\/p>\n
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, volcanic ash charred and buried the papyrus scrolls, but experts have gleaned insights from the fragile artifacts by using innovative technology. <\/p>\n
The Greek philosopher\u2019s burial site was likely a secret garden near the sacred shrine to muses inside the Platonic Academy of Athens, according to Graziano Ranocchia, professor of papyrology at the University of Pisa. <\/p>\n
And the translated text, Ranocchia added, indicated that Plato was not a fan of the flute music played as he languished on his deathbed, noting that he commented to a guest on its \u201cscant sense of rhythm.\u201d <\/p>\n
About 75,000 years ago, a Neanderthal woman was laid to rest in a cave with a rock beneath her head like a cushion. <\/p>\n
Now, scientists have reassembled her skull using 200 bone fragments in a \u201chigh-stakes 3D jigsaw puzzle\u201d to recreate the face of Shanidar Z, named for the cave in Iraqi Kurdistan where paleoanthropologist Dr. Emma Pomeroy found the remains in 2018. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s actually got quite a large face for her size,\u201d said Pomeroy, an associate professor of archaeology at the University of Cambridge. \u201cShe\u2019s got quite big brow ridges, which typically we wouldn\u2019t see, but I think dressed in modern clothes you probably wouldn\u2019t look twice.\u201d <\/p>\n
Amateur archaeologists have uncovered a baffling 1,700-year-old artifact representing \u201cone of archaeology\u2019s great enigmas,\u201d according to the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group. <\/p>\n
The 12-sided object is 3 inches (8 centimeters) across, hollow and covered with holes. It\u2019s one of the largest Roman dodecahedrons ever found, and only about 130 exist in the world. <\/p>\n
No one knows what they were used for, and dodecahedrons remain absent from Roman literature and mosaics. But it\u2019s possible that the objects played a part in ritualistic or religious rites. <\/p>\n
Rakus, a Sumatran orangutan living in Gunung Leuser National Park in South Aceh, Indonesia, surprised scientists when they saw him intentionally treat a wound on his face by using a medicinal plant. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s the first time researchers have documented such behavior in great apes. <\/p>\n
Rakus, likely wounded by another male orangutan, chewed leaves from a plant known locally as akar kuning that is used in traditional medicine to treat dysentery, malaria and diabetes. <\/p>\n
Then, he applied juice from the leaves to his wound, leaving researchers to wonder whether the pain relief treatment was accidental or a learned behavior from other wild orangutans. <\/p>\n
Take a deep dive into these intriguing reads: <\/p>\n
\u2014 A new analysis of hunter-gatherer remains from a cave in Morocco has revealed the true \u201cpaleo\u201d diet and what was really on the Stone Age menu 13,000 years ago. <\/p>\n
\u2014 Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft, carrying astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore on a test flight, now has the green light from NASA to attempt a launch Monday evening to the International Space Station. <\/p>\n
\u2014 Remember the \u201cSix Degrees of Kevin Bacon\u201d game? Scientists have identified what they call a \u201cdegrees of Kevin Bacon\u201d gene, which could provide a genetic basis that determines how central you are to your social network. <\/p>\n
\u2014 Here comes that sound! Learn all about periodical cicadas in a visual guide to 2024\u2019s rare dual emergence. <\/p>\n
And don\u2019t forget to look up in the early predawn hours on Sunday and Monday to see the Eta Aquariid meteor shower as it dazzles in the night sky. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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