Plus small rockets, a lot more butterflies, and a single human tooth.

#01 JUST IN TIME

+ "He was lying facedown on his stomach with his legs extended, unsure of just how much snow he was sealed beneath. With his hands by his face, a small pocket of air had been fortuitously preserved near his mouth, but breathing was already getting difficult. Then, crackling over his walkie-talkie, he heard the urgent voice of one of his companions, “Joël, do you hear me?” The microphone dangled on a cord extending from his backpack. But he couldn't answer. He couldn't move his arms. He lay immobile, struggling to breathe for about three minutes. Then everything faded to black." When you have a really bad day skiing in the swiss alps, this is the storied mountain rescue team that will come to find you.

#02 THE RIGHT STUFF IN THE WRONG DIRECTION

+ Upstart small spacecraft rocket launch company Astra suffered a setback after their first attempted launch from Florida ended with a failure. The vehicle lost control a couple of minutes after launch, resulting in the delivery of at least one Explore and Observe reader's spacecraft to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean (sorry Tonya!).

+ Anther small aerospace company, Rocket Labs, has been selected to build the first privately funded interplanetary spacecraft. The 100 lb vehicle will head to Venus to search for chemicals essential for life in the planet's upper atmosphere and could launch as soon as next year.

#03 BUTTERFLIES

+ In a spectacular comeback, Over 247,000 western monarch butterflies were counted in California this year, a 100x increase from the roughly 2,000 insects found two years ago. 

+ Officials in the UK counted 72 breeding pairs of Cranes, the most seen in over 400 years.

#04 FIRST LIGHT

+ The James Webb Space Telescope has taken its very first pictures. Don't expect any majestic galaxies or nebulae quite yet though. The imagery of bright stars in the sky will be used by engineers on the ground to further calibrate and align the 18 mirror segments. Regardless, it continues to be smooth sailing for the most ambitious astrophysics mission ever launched into space. 

#05 DENTAL RECORDS

+ The discovery of a single human tooth in France provides proof that homo sapiens first entered Europe at least 54,000 years ago, about 10,000 years earlier than had previously been established. Although long suspected, this is the first definitive proof that our ancestors lived in the same area and at the same time as Neanderthals. The discovery was made in Grotte Mandrin, a cave in the Rhône Valley.

That's all for this week! To tell me about anything you liked or didn't like, suggest a story, or otherwise get in touch, you can simply respond to this email. If you particularly enjoyed it please forward to a friend so they can subscribe too!

- Evan Hilgemann