The moon is hundreds of thousands of miles away from Earth, but humankind has played a major role in shaping it for more than six decades. <\/p>\n
In fact, human exploration has had such a significant impact in altering the lunar surface that some scientists argue it\u2019s time to declare a new geological epoch called the \u201cLunar Anthropocene.\u201d <\/p>\n
Experts say the epoch began when the former Soviet Union\u2019s uncrewed spacecraft, Luna 2, had a hard landing on the moon in September 1959, leaving behind a crater. <\/p>\n
Since then, hundreds of missions have followed, and whether they have crash-landed or successfully touched down for a soft landing, each spacecraft has left its mark. <\/p>\n
Rovers, science experiments, golf balls\u00a0and other telltale signs of human exploration still sit on the lunar surface, and it\u2019s only just beginning as more space agencies and countries plan trips to the moon. <\/p>\n
The\u00a0Peregrine spacecraft burned up on reentry\u00a0into Earth\u2019s atmosphere Thursday after a fuel leak prevented it from reaching the moon, but another spacecraft was on its way for a lunar rendezvous. <\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s \u201cMoon Sniper\u201d robotic explorer successfully landed on the lunar surface Friday but\u00a0almost immediately encountered a critical issue. <\/p>\n
After executing a precise landing, the uncrewed Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, mission, was forced to rely on limited battery power because its solar cell wasn\u2019t generating electricity. <\/p>\n
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency team said it believes the solar power issue is a result of the spacecraft facing the wrong direction. <\/p>\n
But all hope may not be lost for the lander and its two rovers, which are designed to study the origins of the moon. If the Moon Sniper can soak up some sunlight, the mission may continue. <\/p>\n
Before going extinct about 4,000 years ago, woolly mammoths roamed across North America \u2014 and humans followed them. <\/p>\n
Researchers have been able to trace the lengthy treks by studying mammoth tusks, which preserved information about the animals\u2019 environments and diets like time capsules. <\/p>\n
By using a precise new tool to study chemical traces in a tusk, a team led by scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks was able to\u00a0track the movements of E\u0301lmay\u0173ujey\u2019eh, or Elma, a female mammoth that\u00a0<\/strong>lived 14,000 years ago. <\/p>\n When researchers compared Elma\u2019s movements with maps of archaeological sites, it became clear that humans set up seasonal hunting camps in areas where mammoths gathered. <\/p>\n Malaysia\u2019s tigers are disappearing at an alarming rate, and only 150 are estimated to be left within the country\u2019s ancient rainforests. To aid conservation efforts, photographer Emmanuel Rondeau partnered with WWF-Malaysia to capture an image of the iconic but elusive big cat. <\/p>\n The effort was a massive undertaking that required a team of rangers, eight cameras, 300 pounds of equipment, months of patience and countless miles. In the process, an ant colony overran one camera, and an elephant destroyed another. <\/p>\n But Rondeau\u2019s careful preparations paid off, and\u00a0he captured a \u201cmillion-dollar shot.\u201d\u00a0\u201cThis image is the last image of the Malayan tiger \u2014 or it\u2019s the first image of the return of the Malayan tiger,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Eager to see more mesmerizing photos? Check out some of the winning images of the Close-up Photographer of the Year 2023 competition, including an\u00a0oak peacock moth attracted by a wedding\u00a0and ants firing acid into the air. <\/p>\n About 29 million years ago in Oregon, a grasshopper dug an underground nursery in a sandy bank near a creek and laid about\u00a050 eggs in a stunning radial pattern. <\/p>\n Rather than hatching, the pod of eggs fossilized and now provides\u00a0<\/strong>a rare window into what life was like for ancient insects. <\/p>\n Typically, neither insects nor their delicate eggs preserve well in the fossil record. It\u2019s even more surprising that the grasshopper nursery survived since\u00a0<\/strong>it was found in an area where water once flowed, according to the researchers. <\/p>\n \u201cThere just isn\u2019t anything else like this in the fossil record anywhere that we know of,\u201d said Dr. Nick Famoso, a paleontology program manager and museum curator at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Mitchell, Oregon. <\/p>\n Winter storms moving across the United States this week have brought snow and below-zero temperatures to many areas \u2014 and some in Chicago experienced \u201cfrost quakes.\u201d <\/p>\n Frost quakes are loud, booming or popping sounds accompanied by small earthquake-like tremors that can occur during a sudden freezing of the ground in\u00a0<\/strong>cold weather. <\/p>\n While the sounds frost quakes make are disconcerting, they aren\u2019t dangerous and won\u2019t knock framed photos off the walls, according to Illinois state climatologist Trent Ford. <\/p>\n Scientists hope to unlock more of the\u00a0mysteries around frost quakes, and whether they are increasing or not, by monitoring areas where the phenomenon occurs this winter. <\/p>\n You don\u2019t want to miss these intriguing new stories: <\/p>\n \u2014 A laser mapping technique helped archaeologists uncover the oldest and largest\u00a0network of ancient cities found in the Amazon rainforest. <\/p>\n \u2014 The process of bringing Retro, a cloned rhesus monkey, to life has highlighted\u00a0some of the limitations of cloning, according to scientists. <\/p>\n \u2014 NASA and Lockheed Martin just unveiled the\u00a0sleek X-59, a quiet supersonic plane\u00a0that could change the future of air travel. <\/p>\n\n The moon is hundreds of thousands of miles away from Earth, but humankind has played a major role in shaping it for more than six decades. In fact, human exploration has had such a significant impact in altering the lunar surface that some scientists argue it\u2019s time to declare a new geological epoch called the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Wild kingdom<\/h3>\n
Dig this<\/h3>\n
Force of nature<\/h3>\n
Explorations<\/h3>\n