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Gemstone-filled river and striped mountain ridge form massive 'Y' in China's revitalized desertEarth from space A 2025 satellite photo shows a giant "Y" in the middle of the Taklamakan Desert, where a verdant river and a lengthy "red-white mountain" meet. The intersecting features are also home to an eighth-century fort that was chock-full of ancient artifacts.
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Live Science crossword puzzle #33: The 'E' in E =mc^2 — 2 downScience crossword Test your knowledge on all things science with our weekly, free crossword puzzle!
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'Truly extraordinary': Mega-laser shooting at us from halfway across the universe is the brightest 'cosmic beacon' we've ever seenAstronomers have discovered the brightest and most distant "megamaser" to date. The cosmic energy beam is shooting toward Earth from 8 billion light-years away and was spotted thanks to a weird space-time trick first predicted by Einstein.
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3 rivers merge into striking half-and-half waterway in GuyanaEarth from space A 2023 satellite photo highlights the point where a trio of rivers converges in Guyana. One of the waterways has been significantly altered by mining waste, creating a striking color contrast.
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Live Science crossword puzzle #32: Largest ocean on Earth — 8 across
Science crossword Test your knowledge on all things science with our weekly, free crossword puzzle!
Science crossword -
The sun just experienced its first 'spotless days' in 4 years — but we're not in the clear yetEarlier this week, the number of visible sunspots on our home star fell to zero for the first time in 1,335 days. This normally indicates a period of greatly reduced solar activity, but it's still too soon to relax, experts say.
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Giant 'spiderwebs' on Mars contain tiny egg-like structures that scientists 'can't quite explain,' NASA rover revealsNew photos captured by NASA's Curiosity rover show that Mars' giant, spiderweb-like "boxwork" features are covered in tiny, never-before-seen nodules that bear a striking resemblance to arachnid eggs. And researchers are struggling to explain them.
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Live Science crossword puzzle #31: First person to walk on the moon — 11 across
Science crossword Test your knowledge on all things science with our weekly, free crossword puzzle!
Science crossword -
Incomplete remains of world's 'youngest' impact crater spotted lurking in Chinese forestEarth from space A 2021 satellite photo shows off the recently uncovered Yilan crater in China, which is most likely the youngest impact structure on Earth. The incomplete ring is also the largest of its kind and only the second impact crater ever found in the country.
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Saturn's largest moon may actually be 2 moons in 1 — and helped birth the planet's iconic ringsA new study hints that Saturn's largest moon, Titan, was created around 400 million years ago, when two massive moons smashed into each other. This hypothesis could also help to solve several other mysteries surrounding other moons and the planet's iconic rings.
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City-size, cold-volcano comet transforms into a glowing 'snail shell' after major explosive outburstFollowing a massive cryovolcanic eruption, the mysterious Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann has been morphed into a giant spiral and is now shining 100 times brighter than normal.
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Supercomputers simulated the orbits of 1 million satellites between Earth and the moon — and less than 10% survivedResearchers used a pair of powerful supercomputers to simulate the potential trajectories of 1 million satellites in a cislunar orbit between Earth and the moon. Less than 10% of these orbits remained stable throughout the simulations, but this is not as disastrous as it may sound.
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Hidden beauty of Zimbabwe's 2.5 billion-year-old 'geological marvel' revealed in striking astronaut photoEarth from space A 2010 astronaut photo shows off the astonishing scale of the Great Dyke of Zimbabwe, which stretches over 340 miles (550 kilometers). The lengthy structure, which is not actually a dike, is full of extremely valuable minerals that fuel a massive mining industry.
3 CommentsEarth from space -
Live Science crossword puzzle #30: Brightest star in the night sky — 5 down
Science crossword Test your knowledge on all things science with our weekly, free crossword puzzle!
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Newly visible, city-size 'green comet' will soon be ejected into interstellar space — just like 3I/ATLASComet Wierzchoś, also known as C/2024 E1, is rapidly brightening as it approaches its closest point to Earth next week. But experts predict it will eventually be thrown out of the solar system forever, just like the "alien" comet 3I/ATLAS.
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Astronaut snaps salty, pink Valentine's Day 'heart' shining in ArgentinaEarth from space A 2024 astronaut photo shows a striking pink, heart-shaped salt lake in the middle of the Argentine lowlands. The endearing photo was originally released to celebrate Valentine's Day.
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New 'sungrazing' comet could become visible to the naked eye during the day — if the sun doesn't destroy itThe newly discovered sungrazing comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) will undergo an extremely close slingshot around our star in early April, and could become bright enough to be seen without a telescope during the day.
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Impossibly powerful 'ghost particle' that hit Earth may have come from an exploding black holeA supercharged neutrino that smashed into our planet in 2023 may have been spit out by an exploding primordial black hole with a "dark charge." If true, this theory could lead to a definitive catalog of all subatomic particles and unveil the elusive identity of dark matter.
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Live Science crossword puzzle #29: The 'middle' period of the dinosaurs — 13 across
Science crossword Test your knowledge on all things science with our weekly, free crossword puzzle!
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Martian meteorite that fell to Earth is full of ancient water, new scans revealA new study has revealed that the iconic Black Beauty meteorite contains much more hidden water than previously suspected. The rock, which fell to Earth from Mars, could reveal clues about the Red Planet's watery past.
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'Behemoth star,' previously thought to be dying, is 'rising from the ashes' like a phoenixA new study suggests that the red supergiant WOH G64, also known as the "behemoth star," has not transitioned into a yellow hypergiant as previous research suggested. This means it is now unlikely to imminently explode in a colossal supernova.
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Trippy 'biomass' snap reveals first detailed look at our planet's carbon storesEarth from space The first false-color image from ESA's newly operational Biomass satellite shows off a unique perspective of the rainforests, grasslands and wetlands surrounding a winding river in Bolivia.
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Live Science crossword puzzle #28: Largest desert in Asia — 6 across
Science crossword Test your knowledge on all things science with our weekly, free crossword puzzle!
Science crossword -
NASA jet crashes in flames on Texas runway — taking it out of the Artemis II missionNew footage shows one of NASA's WB-57 research jets spewing out flames and smoke as it skids across a runway during an emergency landing near Houston. The veteran aircraft was due to play a small role in the Artemis II mission.
2 Commentsspace-exploration
