Hey there,

I'm trying out some format changes to the newsletter this week which you'll notice below. A reminder that if there's ever anything you like or don't like about the newsletter, or if you have other suggestions, you can let me know by responding to this email. Thanks, and have a great week!

-Evan

#01 ANTHROPOLOGY

+ About 35 million years ago a group of primates went on an unexpected transatlantic adventure, or at least that's what newly unearthed teeth in Peru's Amazon basin seem to indicate. Curiously, the teeth "closely resemble those of parapithecids, a primate family that inhabited northern Africa from roughly 56 million to 23 million years ago." So how did primates from northern Africa get to Peru? Scientists concluded they may have made the journey on vegetation mats created by storms and swept out to sea. And you thought your family trips were bad. (kudos to FutureCrunch for this story and the excellent email subject line!)

+ “We came across some curious paintings that are unlike anything we’d seen before.” Hundreds of newly documented cave paintings in Australia illustrate what life may have been like nearly 10,000 years ago.

#02 SPACE

+ If you didn't have plans on October 20th at 3:12 pm Pacific time, you do now! The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to touch down on the asteroid Bennu, rapidly collect a small amount of sample in a touch-and-go maneuver, and jet back off into space.  The event will be broadcast on NASA TV starting with orbit departure around 10 am Pacific time the same day. The collected sample will return to Earth in 2023 and despite the diminutive and far-flung nature of the small asteroid, there is plenty it could teach us about our home planet.

+ The European Bepi-Colombo spacecraft flew by Venus this week as part of a circuitous journey that will eventually end in orbit around Mercury in a few years. Although Venus is not Bepi-Columbo's final destination, planetary scientists don't pass on good opportunities. They used the probe to follow up on the discovery of phosphene, a potential sign of biologic activity, in Venus's atmosphere. Scientists also are looking for sulfur dioxide, a sign of ongoing volcanism. Bepi-Colombo only got within about 6,700 miles of the surface this time around, probably too far away to learn much, but should be able to get a better look next year when it will pass by Venus at an altitude of only 400 miles.

+ Astronauts on the space station have another problem to deal with after the oxygen supply failed on the Russian side of the orbiting laboratory. This is in addition to a small but persistent leak air leak the crew has been trying to track down lately. It's unclear if the two are related, but rest easy knowing that the crew is safe thanks to redundant systems and extra supplies kept onboard. 

+  "Instead of guessing, why not actually build the experiment and send it to space?" Although that might be a common phrase to hear at NASA center, it is much less often offered as a piece of advice for second graders. Maggie Samudio’s second-grade class at Cumberland Elementary School in Indiana went on their own odyssey that ended with hardware in space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket and proved that fireflies would be able to light up in space. Welcome to the democratization of space! "We’re able to fly that for half the cost of high school football uniforms... So really any school district now that affords football can afford spaceflight.”   

#03 ARCTIC

+ A German research ship called the Polarstern returned to its home port last week. That may not seem remarkable, but the ship had just wrapped up 13 months at sea, much of it frozen into the arctic ice pack, with a rotating cast of crew members and scientists. To achieve their goal of learning more about arctic ice and climate the crew faced many challenges including curious polar bears, damaging storms, unreliable ice conditions, and of course, a global pandemic that scrambled logistics. Regardless, expedition leader Markus Rex was buoyant, “It’s a historic milestone for Arctic research. We come back with a pool of data and samples that will change Arctic research for a long time.” 

+ "It looks fittingly forbidding, the way it emerges from its drape of fog like the dark spread of a wing. Curved, treeless mountains crowd its sliver of land, plunging in sudden cliffs where they meet the surf... To set foot on this scatter of land surrounded by endless ocean is to feel yourself swallowed by the nowhere at the center of a drowned compass rose." Meet the desolate Alaskan island of St. Matthew, where humans have occasionally visited but none have stayed very long.

#04 PALEONTOLOGY

+ I've been told for some time that birds are one of the closest living ancestors to dinosaurs. But I've never stopped to think about what allowed the avian lineage to survive while so many others died off. Turns out, it might all be in the beak.

#05 CONSERVATION

+ Tasmanian Devils are no longer limited to Tasmania. The world's largest marsupial carnivore lived in Australia proper about 3,000 years ago but was probably out-competed by dingos. Luckily, the dogs never made it to Tasmania where the devils thrived until the 1980s when a fatal disease decimated the population. The 26 individuals transported to New South Whales are disease-free though, and conservationists hope they will form a stable population and help keep in check other predators like feral cats and foxes.

+ The island nation of Singapore goes on a million tree planting spree to protect its future and provide habitat for migrating species.

#06 A GOOD BOOK

+ If you've ever wondered Where the Animals Go, James Chesire and Oliver Uberti have some answers. The duo worked with scientists around the world to compile animal tracking data and present it in 50 wonderfully illustrated maps and diagrams. Each map not only synthesizes a massive amount of data but also tells a story about animal migration. Follow in the tracks of an elephant named Kulling that taught researchers about animal movements in Africa before regrettably being poached. Travel with Slavc, a wolf who made an epic 1,000km journey across Europe and linked two isolated populations for the first time. Or watch as albatross #1332083 (they can't all have cool names) circumnavigates Antarctica. There's a good reason this book brought home the Best Overall award from the British Cartographic Society, it is gorgeous and sets a new standard for how to represent data in maps. This is truly one for the cartophiles out there.

"From footprints to fallen feathers, nests to droppings, the history of where animals go has been a history of physical traces. This book is about a new era, one in which the traces we follow are imprinted not in the earth, but in the silicon of a computer."

That's all for this week! You can respond to this email to tell me about anything you liked or didn't like, tell me about a project you're working on, or suggest a story. You might also forward this email to a friend so they can subscribe too!

- Evan Hilgemann

This newsletter was produced as a private venture and not in the author's capacity as an employee of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology or of Griffith Observatory. Any views and opinions expressed herein or on exploreandobserve.com are his own and not those of his employers.

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