[QUICKREADS]
More than 35 years after the world's worst nuclear accident, the dogs of Chernobyl roam among decaying, abandoned buildings in and around the closed plant – somehow still able to find food, breed and survive. Scientists hope that studying these dogs can teach humans new tricks about how to live in the harshest, most degraded environments, too. Chernobyl's environment is singularly brutal. Some of the dogs live in the power plant, a dystopian, industrial setting.
A new study shows that humans give more viruses to animals than animals give to humans. The analysis of viral genome sequences revealed that 64% of human-to-animal transmissions and 36% were animal-to-human. This highlights the impact humans have on the environment and animals. Zoonotic diseases, like COVID-19, can have devastating effects when pathogens jump from animals to humans.
Earth's rotation is speeding up, possibly leading to a negative leap second by 2029. The Earth's core and melting ice at the poles are factors. This could disrupt global timekeeping systems, which have been using leap seconds to adjust the difference between astronomical and atomic time. Technology companies are developing their own solutions to this issue.
An American private lander named Odysseus failed to "wake up" on the Moon, ending its mission after landing at a wonky angle. Despite completing tests and sending back photos, the lander did not respond when sunlight was expected to power its radio. NASA and Intuitive Machines consider the mission a success, with plans for more lunar missions and eventual human exploration.
Astronomers have discovered two ancient streams of stars, named Shakti and Shiva, that are among the Milky Way's early building blocks. These structures may be remnants of galaxies that merged with the Milky Way 12 billion years ago. Identified using the Gaia space telescope, Shakti and Shiva offer insight into the galaxy's formation. The stars in these structures, located near the galactic center, are "metal poor" and formed 12-13 billion years ago.
Researchers have identified the earliest building blocks of the Milky Way galaxy from 12-13 billion years ago, close to when the first galaxies formed. Named 'Shakti' and 'Shiva', these star groups have low metal content and high angular momentum, suggesting they are among the galaxy's oldest ancestors. Data from the Gaia satellite and Sloan Digital Sky Survey aided the study.