One small 🚀 collision for 🌍

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

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?

PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA TV

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

ILLUSTRATION BY TAYLOR MAGGIACOMO

A visual timeline of every animal sent into space (depicted above, dogs were early favorites)

The Viking raiders who set their sights on Rome

Here’s how hurricanes form—and why they’re so destructiveRelated: 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

DANIEL LINDSKOG

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.

THE LIKELY SUSPECTS

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY SOFIA JARAMILLO, @SOFIA_JARAMILLO5

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.

THE FUTURE OF FORESTS

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

PHOTOGRAPH BY SEBASTIAN SCHÜTTE AND JOHANNA ECKERT, MPI FOR EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY

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

We hope you liked today’s newsletter. This was edited and curated by Sydney Combs, Jen Tse Heather Kim, and David Beard. Have an idea or a link for us? Write david.beard@natgeo.com. Happy trails!

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One small 🚀 collision for 🌍

One small 🚀 collision for 🌍

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