Plus, America's most cherished places; Uranus rising
| Wednesday, August 17, 2022 | |
 | | ILLUSTRATION BY CLAUS LUNAU/SCIENCE SOURCE | | Students learn that a six-mile-wide piece of space rock crashed into Mexico’s Yucatán coast 66 million years ago, leading to the extinction of 75 percent of the world’s species, including all non-avian dinosaurs.
But what if that space rock was not alone?
Using seismic data, researchers have discovered a possible crater, 5.3 miles wide, now buried under the sandy seafloor off the west coast of Africa. A new study says it could have been created about the same time as the dinosaur extinction. It was made by a space rock at least a quarter-mile wide, slamming into Earth at 45,000 mph, unleashing the energy equivalent to 5,000 megatons of TNT. (Above, a rendering of an asteroid impact on Earth.)
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY OLIVER MECKES AND NICOLE OTTAWA | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY ANA ELISA SOTELO | | Taking the heat: Peru’s Boiling River is the stuff of legend, a four-mile stretch of geothermal-heated water in the Peruvian rainforest that reaches 200-degree temperatures. Chemical biologist and Nat Geo Explorer Rosa Vásquez Espinoza (pictured above with a field microscope) is studying microbes that can take the heat. They may lead to new ways to develop antibiotics, antifungal agents, and antivirals, Nat Geo reports.
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 | ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW FAZEKAS
| | The seventh planet: Tonight look for the waning gibbous moon to guide you to the ice giant planet Uranus. Usually, the planet is challenging to spot even under dark, unpolluted skies. However, the green world will appear tonight only 5 degrees from the moon—equal to the span of three fingers held at arm’s length. By Thursday night the moon will have glided over to the much closer and brighter Mars. If you scan above the pair, you’ll find another cosmic treasure—the Pleiades star cluster 444 light years away. — Andrew Fazekas
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| This newsletter has been curated and edited by Jen Tse, David Beard, and Heather Kim, with help from Anne Kim-Dannibale and Allie Yang. Have an idea? Let us know! Still up for discovery? Here’s yesterday’s newsletter. | |
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