Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise was the first of NASA's space shuttles. Its original name, "Constitution", commemorated the United States Bicentennial in 1976, but a campaign led by dedicated fans of the television series "Star Trek" led President Gerald R. Ford to request that NASA change the name to "Enterprise". The shuttle flew eight captive flights on the back of a 747 to evaluate its systems in a flight environment, and five free flights tested…
Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise was the first of NASA's space shuttles. Its original name, "Constitution", commemorated the United States Bicentennial in 1976, but a campaign led by dedicated fans of the television series "Star Trek" led President Gerald R. Ford to request that NASA change the name to "Enterprise". The shuttle flew eight captive flights on the back of a 747 to evaluate its systems in a flight environment, and five free flights tested…
Several recent studies have questioned whether exposure to common pesticides might be impairing bee performance and contributing to the observed population declines. Neonicotinoids are a family of pesticides chemically related to nicotine, and are widely used in both large-scale agriculture as well as in home gardening products. This type of pesticide circulates through flowering plants and collects in nectar and pollen. Recent studies conducted by…
Texas endured its driest year ever in 2011, and southern Alabama and Georgia have continued to suffer serious drought in 2012. Climate change is predicted to make drought more frequent in the southern United States, putting a strain on groundwater resources. This visualization reveals the freshwater stores that NASA’s GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite detects from space and shows how that data can be used to evaluate groundwater…
Vesta, the second-largest object in the asteroid belt, is bright enough to be seen from Earth without a telescope. Now, thanks to NASA's Dawn spacecraft, scientists can take a much closer look at Vesta. As Dawn orbits Vesta at low altitude, it captures high-resolution images of the asteroid's surface. Vesta's scarred, cratered landscape is marked by deposits of bright and dark minerals, which appear most frequently at impact sites. Other observations…
A new species of frog recently announced itself to scientists studying amphibians in the area surrounding New York City. The marshes and wetlands of the tristate area have long been recognized as home to spotted leopard frogs; several species have already been described in the region. But when researchers heard this frog's unusual vocalization, they suspected that it was not one of the known types of leopard frogs. Specimens were collected in northern…
A good sense of smell may have contributed to the development of certain kinds of social functions in Homo sapiens, according to a new study. Scientists used 3D modeling to reconstruct modern human and Neanderthal brains and discovered that the olfactory areas, which govern smell, are larger in humans. Their models also show that humans have larger temporal lobes, regions related to social behavior. Future studies will explore the possibility of a…
When researchers in Brazil studied the early larval stages of the butterfly Aricoris propitia, they discovered that the larvae had solicitous caretakers—fire ants. Fire ants are a notorious invasive species and are frequently seen as pests, but A. propitia butterflies actively seek them out when choosing a location for egg-laying. The ants attend the larvae, transporting them to shelter during the day and carrying them out again at night to feed on…
By sending an infrared telescope to altitudes of 12,000 meters (40,000 feet) and higher, NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) conduct astronomical research that would be impossible using telescopes based on Earth. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy—SOFIA—is the only airborne telescope in the world. Infrared imaging of stars and planets is difficult from ground-based observatories, because water vapor in Earth's lower atmosphere…
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