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Get up early tomorrow morning and peek out in the direction of the Orion constellation. You might just see a meteor every few minutes. The Orionids aren’t the most impressive or prodigious meteor shower of the year, but they’re important for another reason: the source of the shower is debris from Halley’s Comet, a famous visitor to night skies every 76 years. With the last visit taking place in 1986, the comet won’t be back until 2062, so this is the closest thing to seeing it until then....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/jZTXbUzHPi0?version=3&hl=en_US[/youtube](Chris Grundy of Cool Tools reviews last year’s PM Home Safety Prep Show.)Helping people to stay informed and prepared is a century-long tradition at Popular Mechanics. That’s why we teamed up with 40/29 News to present RAM Home Safety Prep Show. Our first event, in Springdale, Ark. happens Saturday, March 24, from 11 to 4. We’ve got experts talking about emergency first aid, storm shelters, and more. Former U.S. Army green beret Mykel Hawke of the hit Discovery show Man, Woman, Wild will be giving a mini survival school on site....

It’s proving to be a tough year for emergency warning systems and for the people who are alerted by them. At approximately 8:30 AM this morning, a National Weather Service tsunami warning identifying itself as a test got sent out to an unknown number of people. Third-party weather service AccuWeather reportedly pushed the warning out as real.View full post on TwitterView full post on TwitterThe false warnings appear to have spread to states where tsunamis are unlikely, including Texas, Connecticut and New York....

You drive the same route to work every day—same open stretches, same intersections, same stop-and-go. But today there’s a subtle discord in the usual harmony, a blip on your vehicular radar, a bad vibe in your mechanical karma. Shifts seem oddly late and soft. Later, as you pull into the drive, you sense something peculiar. Letting your car idle, you pull the dipstick out of your auto transmission. Fresh automatic transmission fluid (ATF) is bright red and has a distinct petroleum smell....

Media Platforms Design TeamIf you live in an area where power outages are common, then you know the frustration of being suddenly plunged into darkness. And loss of lighting isn’t the only inconvenience. Going without electricity for just a few hours can cause fresh foods to spoil and frozen foods to thaw. Unless you have a gas range or barbecue grill, forget about cooking meals. And if your home has an electric well pump, you won’t have any water for drinking, washing, bathing, or flushing the toilets....

Welcome to the first installment of our occasional series LATE TO THE PARTY, in which we try not-so-new-anymore things most people tried a long time ago, in order to see if the hype was justified.Maybe you first heard about sous vides when you were deciding between an HD DVD player and Blu-Ray. About a decade ago they were fad-y and cool, part Jetsons cooking, part newfangled internet of things. We were also told that chefs had been doing this for decades....

Media Platforms Design TeamOver the weekend, a giant balloon carried NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) up to 120,000 feet over Hawaii and then let it go. The flying saucer then began a half hour of powered flight, at the end of which it set down in the Pacific Ocean.“The test vehicle worked beautifully, and we met all of our flight objectives,” NASA project manager Mark Adler said in a statement. “We have recovered all the vehicle hardware and data recorders and will be able to apply all of the lessons learned from this information to our future flights....

During the last days of its mission, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft got an unprecedented look at how five of Saturn’s tiny inner moons are influenced by their ringed home planet. The moons are covered with material from Saturn’s iconic rings, as well as icy particles from its prominent, watery moon Enceladus. “The daring, close flybys of these odd little moons let us peer into how they interact with Saturn’s rings,” says Bonnie Buratti of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a press statement....

For the InSight lander, it’s Sol One on Mars as the vehicle is ready to begin surface operations. “It’s been a long day for the team,” Tom Hoffman, InSight’s project manager at JPL, said last night. “But tomorrow begins an exciting new chapter for InSight: surface operations and the beginning of the instrument deployment phase.“There may have been cheers yesterday as the InSight lander set down on Mars, but a major milestone remained unchecked even as the celebrations began....

President Trump held a ceremony today to correspond with the Apollo 17 landing anniversary before signing Space Policy Directive - 1, a new space agenda focused on human spaceflight and returning to the moon. In attendance with the president for the ceremony were Vice President Mike Pence, who has been spearheading the administration’s new space policy, as well as NASA acting administrator Robert Lightfoot and astronauts Christina Koch and Peggy Whitson....

Would you think twice about turning off your TV if it asked you not to? Probably! A study performed by a team of German scientists shows that after people have a conversation with a robot, they began to respect its spoken desires not to be turned off.Eighty-nine people were asked to communicate with a Nao robot, an adorable companion bot which are used in marketing, classrooms, and even working to help autistic children develop social skills....

Using cutting-edge telescopes, scientists have observed 39 ancient galaxies.These galaxies have become more difficult to find as the universe has aged.Discovering the galaxies is just the beginning of the research.Combining the strength of various observatories spanning the globe and off-planet space telescopes, scientists have discovered 39 previously unknown ancient massive galaxies, as well as the revelation that billions of years ago, these galaxies were intimately connected through supermassive black holes.“This is the first time that such a large population of massive galaxies was confirmed during the first 2 billion years of the 13....

Last week, SpaceX launched the second-ever Falcon Heavy rocket and landed all three first-stage boosters. Unfortunately, retrieving all three has proven to be more problematic. According to a new statement given to The Verge, SpaceX lost the center booster because of rough seas on the way back to port. The Falcon Heavy is the biggest rocket currently in service, and features three modified Falcon 9 first-stage boosters strapped together. Essentially, that makes it three times as powerful as the Falcon 9, but with the added challenge of managing all of those boosters at the same time....

Airing on January 3rd, 1993, the premiere episode, “Emissary,” played out like a changing of the guard. Jean-Luc Picard and his crew, which had solidified Trek’s glorious return to television with The Next Generation, boards the Enterprise at the episode’s conclusion and disembarks for some new adventure—but the audience is left behind.That’s because it was time for something new, and that something was Deep Space Nine. Now, some 26 years later, fans are returning to what’s become a beloved show, sometimes even eclipsing the ones that had come before it, with What We’ve Left Behind, a crowdfunded documentary that explores the show, its past, its impact, and all the actors and creators that brought it to life....

Owner: Rich Kupelian / Location: Nashville, Tennessee / Found On: Craigslist / Purchase Price: $7,000 / Months Owned: Nine When I was in high school, the sound of these Mustangs had me hooked. It’s unique, this big V-8 in this tiny car. I’ve always wanted one, but time got away from me and I forgot about them. When I got married, I wanted to get a car. You always hear stories about older couples and the car they drove as newlyweds....

Between its growing age and uncertain future, Air Force One gets a lot of attention, but it’s just one of the United States President’s many modes of conveyance. Yes, planes might be expensive and sophisticated, but there’s a whole lot going on in a seemingly simple row of cars. As Wendover Productions explains, a typical presidential motorcade involves no less than a dozen different vehicles, including motorcycles that run ahead to clear the roadway, no less than two identical armored limousines for carrying the president, a handful of cars full of Secret Service and other guards, and at least one vehicle with capabilities that are classified....

The USS Michael Monsoor, the second and latest Zumwalt-class stealth destroyer, suffered an equipment failure that prevented the ship from conducting sea trials. The ship returned to the shipyard for a fix. The repairs are not expected to delay handover of the ship to the U.S. Navy in March.The Monsoor left Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine on December 4th to conduct builder’s trials. All ships conduct builder’s trials, in order to test key systems before handing them over to their buyer....

The Paris Air Show famously delivers exotic designs that very well may never see the light of day. After all, military contracts and hardware procurement is often full of delays and disappointments. But among the mounds of military hardware paraded at this year’s show, Arquus’ Scarbée might just be one of the weirdest.As a subdivision of Volvo, Arquus is in the business of armored military vehicles. Formerly named Renault Trucks Defense, Arquus’ main business partner is the French military, and its latest creation is the Scarabée (which is French for “beetle”)....

Americans are using more cash than 10 years ago, partly because of mistrust of banks.Foreign countries with “dollarized” economies use far more bills than the U.S.Ecuador’s failed digital currency may still represent an emerging currency movement.Since 2017, U.S. $100 bills are more common than $1 bills—and mostly used outside the U.S., according to Interesting Engineering. That’s a fascinating stat with a fascinating story.Benjamins have been massively popular in other countries since at least five years ago, when their prevalence as a part of black market and criminal economies caused Harvard economists to suggest getting rid of the $100 bill altogether....

Abel Mendez / Planetary Habitability Lab / UPR-AreciboEvery day, it seems like there’s a new exoplanet out there—and often, claims of habitability. But it’s easy to get lost in the mess of numbers. We have discovered more than 3,700 exoplanets, but they range in size from smaller than the moon to bigger than Jupiter, bordering on the size of failed stars.Just today, astronomers announced a new exoplanet, Ross 128 b, which is nearby (11 light-years) and possibly in a slightly chilly habitable zone....