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A trio of F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets chased the moon’s shadow across the Earth during a solar eclipse. The jets, taking off from southern Idaho, stayed in the moon’s shadow for three minutes. The speed of the Moon, and the speed of the rotation of the Earth, meant the planes really had to shovel to stay within the darkness created by the eclipse.During a solar eclipse, large parts of the planet experienced partial or total darkness for a handful of minutes as the Moon passed in front of the sun....

The B-17 “Flying Fortress” is one of the most iconic aircraft of World War II. Built by Boeing, the four-engine bomber was the United States’ primary weapon of destruction in the air campaign to annihilate cities and bring Nazi Germany to its knees. Its combat performance was decidedly uneven, yet no one questions its primacy in the war.The B-17E, the first mass-produced model, carried nine machine guns and a 4,000-pound bomb load....

A team of researchers in Montana have discovered the most complete young rex fossil yet discovered. The paleontologists, from the University of Kansas, found the specimens in Hell Creek, an area known for its plethora of fossils. View full post on YoutubeThe T. rex skeleton is in amazing condition, with all of its two-inch teeth intact. The size indicates this dinosaur was probably young, six to eight years old. It was likely about 17 feet long, and at this point in its life, the young dino was putting on an incredible one to three pounds per day....

Media Platforms Design TeamOver the past 80 years, televisions have evolved from bulging black-and-white tubes to svelte wall-mounted panels. Despite this metamorphosis, TVs have always displayed just two dimensions. Not anymore: By the end of the year, most major TV manufacturers will have released 3D models. Yet with all the hype, you can’t blame customers for being skeptical. After all, 3D TV is a brand-new technology, with premium-priced sets and a mere trickle of content....

View full post on YoutubeAt 10:58 a.m. Wednesday, Orbital Sciences launched a crucial step toward its future in space. The company’s Antares rocket blasted the Cygnus capsule off the launch pad at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and toward a Sunday rendezvous with the International Space Station. If Orbital succeeds, it will join SpaceX as the only companies to reach the ISS with a privately built spacecraft, and continue on a path that leads to Orbital’s spacecraft sending cargo and eventually crew into space for NASA, taking the place of the retired space shuttles....

Last summer a furiously pedaling cyclist named Todd Reichert lofted a gigantic, four-rotor, human-powered helicopter off the ground and into the record books. The Atlas helicopter team won the Sikorsky Prize, a $250,000 award for the first team to hover at least 10 feet off the ground for 1 minute in a helicopter powered only by a human.Now Reichert and his teammates at AeroVelo are back with another human-powered mission: to beat the land-speed record on a bicycle, which now stands at about 84 mph....

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a guide to facial hair and respirator mask fit that’s way more detailed than you’d probably expect. It turns out the presence of any facial hair can impact the seal of your N95 respirator mask.Although the guide was originally intended for workers in hazardous conditions during No Shave November, it’s gone viral amid the coronavirus outbreak.⚠️ Update, March 4, 2020: Following the spread of this facial hair chart on social media, the CDC has updated the original blog post to reinforce that the image was not created as a guide during the coronavirus outbreak....

Variety is reporting that Neill Blomkamp, director of District 9 and Elysium, will be heading up a new Alien movie distinct from Ridley Scott’s upcoming Prometheus 2. It’s still very early for the project; no script exists, and the news comes weeks after Blomkamp confirmed that he had discussed the idea of a new Alien film with Fox.Blomkamp confirmed the news on Instagram:View full post on InstagramThe news doesn’t come as a total surprise: earlier this year, Blomkamp posted incredible concept art images to Instagram of an unauthorized version of a new Alien movie that he’d been working on....

When the Boston Public School District recently decided to change what type of map it used, that move inspired a group of scientists to develop a brand new type of world map. They claim it is the most accurate yet.The big problem with mapmaking is that while maps are flat, the Earth is a globe. It’s impossible to accurately represent a curved planet on a flat surface without cutting or stretching part of it....

Buy NowEvery time there’s a new hands-off life-capture device (GoPro, Snap’s new Spectacles), I get excited, wondering how I’ll stay grounded once I become Instagram famous. Instead, I use it for a week, get tired of slogging through all the footage, and then introduce it to my tech junk drawer. Related StoryGoogle Cam’s Best Feature Is What It Doesn’t DoBut unlike those cameras, Google Clips (starting at $250) shoots only when there’s something worth capturing....

Media Platforms Design TeamIf an ice volcano erupts on Saturn’s moon Titan, chances are no one is around to hear it. But it does make a sound, and now researchers from the University of Southampton in England have simulated this otherworldly audio.Someday humans may be able to travel to such places and maybe listen to the soft cascade of methane waterfalls. In the meantime, the Southampton team of acoustician Tim Leighton, mathematician Paul White, and graduate students Nikhil Banda and Benoit Berges are using physics to predict, and model, how things might sound on other worlds—waterfalls on Titan, storms on Venus, or a human voice on Mars....

Light pollution has become a familiar and expanding woe. Artificially-lit areas are all around us, expanding by 2.2 percent per year, and light pollution comes with its own health risks for both humans and animals. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to fight back. Norwegian programmer and YouTuber Bjørn Nyland highlights an experiment in highway lights that auto-dim when nobody’s around.View full post on YoutubeThere’s no sense in using energy and creating light pollution to illuminate an empty space....

In October 2014, an unmanned rocket lifted off from a launch pad at Wallops Island, Virginia. Seconds later, it exploded into a ball of flame and debris. When the smoke cleared and the engineers surveyed the damage, they found $16.2 million worth of damage to the launchpad: electrical systems crisped, fuel plumbing ruined, and buildings blasted by the fiery explosion. Yesterday, the Virginia Commercial Spaceflight Authority reported that major repairs to Wallops are complete....

On Saturday, August 26, Lieutenant Junior Grade Austin Fullmer was in Tampa, Florida, aboard the Coast Guard cutter Juniper, when he got orders to head to Houston. The previous evening, Hurricane Harvey had made landfall near Corpus Christi, and it was clear the storm would be what the Coast Guard, in its levelheaded way, calls an incident. In the storm’s early hours, much of the Coast Guard was devoted to search and rescue: Its helicopters plucked Texan after Texan from rising waters....

(Photograph by Zach Desart)Indoors1. SAWDUST AND WORKSHOP CLUTTER The chief culprit in workshop mess is sawdust. It’s slippery underfoot and dangerous to breathe, so making short work of it should be your first priority. Begin by suiting up. Wear a dust mask and old clothes or, better yet, coveralls. Yeah, we know, it’s something out of your dad’s generation–but keeping a pair of coveralls hanging in the shop will make it easier to keep clean....

When the Earth rotates, it doesn’t just spin. The Earth also wobbles on its axis like a top, and now a NASA study has clarified just what causes that wobble. The study identifies three separate causes, and one of those is our fault.Scientifically, the Earth’s wobble is known as “polar motion.” It’s a very small effect and barely noticeable with even sensitive equipment. Over the past century, the Earth’s axis has only moved about 30 feet, and it drifts about 4 inches per year....

From the giant comet that once wiped out 75 percent of life to the equally intimidating sucker that once killed off Téa Leoni, asteroids have long presented threats both real and imagined to our big blue marble. And we’ve tried our best to stop them in their tracks, or at least limit the damage. Earlier this month, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)’s spacecraft Hayabusa2 practiced Earth defense against an asteroid striking the planet, planting a small projectile of a near-Earth object known as Ryugu....

We’ve always had a soft spot in hearts for boxy cars and trucks. That goes for blocky trucks, too, if this sweet-looking build is any indication.Related StoryThe Best Space-Themed LEGO SetsYou’re looking at a life-size replica of the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LT Trail Boss realized entirely in Lego blocks. Chevy launched the project as a tie-in with The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, out February 8, in which the Lego Silverado has a cameo....

When Lion Air Flight 610 crashed, killing 189 people last October, pilots frantically looked through a handbook, searching for a way to override the plane’s automatic aircraft nose down feature, triggered by inaccurate sensor readings. They failed, and according to The New York Times, their window for success was exceedingly small. In Boeing simulations of the crash, the window between when the system engaged and when the plane’s nosedive became irreversible could be as small as 40 seconds....

We don’t think winter is as miserable as some people make it out to be. After all, it gives us an excuse to go skiing and tubing—and to break out our favorite toasty winter jackets. Speaking of jackets, the best ones keep you warm, dry, and comfortable. So last week at the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Denver, our team of gear editors scoured the convention center to find the coolest ones coming out next winter....