One small 🚀 collision for 🌍
In today’s newsletter, we cover the BOOM of a NASA spacecraft into a potentially threatening asteroid, investigate a 1,500-year-old murder mystery, discover how hurricanes form, travel the threatened valley that inspired Encanto’s scenery … and see a chimp’s human-like response to stress. Plus, what were these Vikings thinking?
So, is slamming a NASA tin can at 14,000 mph into a rock the size of Yankee Stadium really going to move an asteroid’s path away from Earth?
Maybe not today, but someday, says a member of the lab that managed the spacecraft’s collision with the asteroid Dimorphos late yesterday (pictured above, moments before impact).
“I don’t really lose sleep about the Earth getting destroyed by asteroids, but I am excited about living in a world where we might be able to potentially prevent this in the future,” Nancy Chabot tells Nat Geo.
Read the full story here.
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STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING
• The Viking raiders who set their sights on Rome
• Here’s how hurricanes form—and why they’re so destructive Related: The danger of storm surges
• Is the pandemic part of COVID over?
• Why COVID headaches are so painful and how to treat them
• Hibernating bears could hold a clue to treating diabetes
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
An ancient murder mystery: When archaeologists began excavating Sandby Borg, an Iron Age archaeological site on Sweden’s coast (pictured above), they made a chilling discovery: the bones of 26 men and boys who were ambushed, their bodies left laying where they were killed. The village, men, and its priceless possessions—from silver broaches to a Roman coin—were untouched for 1,500 years. Researchers are trying to figure out why.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Waiting on a miracle: Colombia’s Cocora Valley is home to the tallest wax palms in the world with some nearing 200 feet tall. Although the valley inspired the setting of Disney’s animated film Encanto, the iconic trees are threatened by mining, cattle ranching, and agriculture, says Sofia Jaramillo in her latest post on Nat Geo’s Instagram. A recent study says that without intervention, the trees will be gone by 2090.
IN A FEW WORDS
Let kids get lost. Getting lost and finding my way back was the most fun that I ever had as a kid. If I didn't have my job, I’d go underwater and get lost and find my way home every day.Erika Bergman, Submarine pilot, engineer, and Nat Geo Explorer, From: Bergman’s tips on inspiring kids to explore
LAST GLIMPSE
It was a prank: Chimpanzees laugh while they play, but does that mean they also have a sense of humor? Well, at least some of them do. In a recent story exploring the minds of animals, writer Yudhijit Bhattacharjee shares how a researcher wearing a panther mask surprised a group of chimps. At first the chimps were angry, but when he revealed his familiar face, some of the chimps—the older chimps—laughed. (Pictured above, a chimp named Changa inspects a thermal imaging camera and registers, as in humans, a colder nose when stressed.)
JOY, EMPATHY, GRIEF—ANIMALS FEEL IT TOO
