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Virginia Tech study shows dogs can detect invasive lanternfly Researchers at Virginia Tech say man's best friend may also be one of nature's best defenses against an invasive pest. For the first time, a study shows that pet dogs could help stop the rapid spread of the spotted lanternfly. Spotted lanternflies feed on different plants and excrete a sugary substance called honeydew, which promotes mold growth. They are considered so destructive that some states have launched campaigns urging residents to stomp them on sight. Experts say the real solution is to wipe out their egg masses, but those can be hard to find because they often resemble dried mud and can blend in with their surroundings. That's where the dogs can come in to help with their strong sense of smell. "Dogs have one dominant sense. It's their nose. We use our eyes. Dogs use their nose like their eyes," said study participant, Katie Thomas.  INVASIVE PESTS COULD STAGE DRAMATIC COMEBACK THIS SUMMER, EXPERTS WARN Thomas and her nine-year-old pitbull mix, Finch, participated in the study, hoping to put their years of recreational scent work to good use. They went through indoor and outdoor tests, sniffing out egg masses, and receiving an award when Finch was right on the money.  SPOTTED LANTERNFLY: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE INVASIVE INSECT "To be able to do things that we already do, that we are having a lot of fun with... Train our dogs to sniff stuff, being able to apply that to something like a real problem that affects our community is really fulfilling," said Thomas. The spotted lanternfly is native to Asia and was first detected in the United States in Pennsylvania over ten years ago. Since then, it has spread to 19 states, according to the USDA. "They are everywhere, and we need to search out the eggs. The problem is it's too late once we have the lanternfly," said study participant, Carolyn Shelburne.  CALIFORNIA WINEGROWERS ON EDGE OVER PEST THAT COULD 'DEVASTATE' LUCRATIVE INDUSTRY Carolyn and her 9-year-old border collie, Hermes, was one of the first five K9 and handler teams to pass their field tests. Ultimately, 182 volunteer teams across the U.S. took part in the study.For indoor tests, dogs identified the lanternfly scent correctly more than 80% of the time. For more real-world outdoor tests, dogs identified the scent correctly more than 60% of the time. That's still better than most human searches. "Hopefully, more people will see that you can train any dog to do this, and it gives you something fun to do with your dog," said Shelburne.Researchers are hoping this is just the beginning for dogs to protect local environments. Even in areas where spotted laternflies aren't a problem, dogs could be trained to sniff out other invasive species. Harvard physicist says massive interstellar object could be alien probe on 'reconnaissance mission' Astronomers recently discovered a rare interstellar object passing through our solar system, and a Harvard physicist is sounding the alarm that its strange characteristics might indicate it's more than just a typical comet."Maybe the trajectory was designed," Dr. Avi Loeb, science professor at Harvard University, told Fox News Digital. "If it had an objective to sort of to be on a reconnaissance mission, to either send mini probes to those planets or monitor them... It seems quite anomalous."The object - dubbed 3I/ATLAS - was first detected in early July by an Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, telescope located in Chile. The discovery marked only the third time an interstellar object has been observed entering our solar system, according to NASA.Although NASA has classified the object as a comet, Loeb noted that an image of the cosmic visitor indicated an unexpected glow appearing in front of the object, rather than trailing behind it - something he described as "quite surprising." METEORITE FRAGMENT THAT SLAMMED THROUGH HOMEOWNER'S ROOF IS BILLIONS OF YEARS OLD, PREDATES EARTH: PROFESSOR "Usually with comets you have a tail, a cometary tail, where dust and gas are shining, reflecting sunlight, and that's the signature of a comet," Loeb told Fox News Digital. "Here, you see a glow in front of it, not behind it."Measuring about 20 kilometers across, making it larger than Manhattan, 3I/ATLAS is also unusually bright for its distance. However, according to Loeb, its most unusual characteristic is its trajectory. RARE JUPITER-SIZED PLANET DISCOVERED 3,200 LIGHT-YEARS AWAY USING EINSTEIN'S SPACE-TIME WARPING METHOD "If you imagine objects entering the solar system from random directions, just one in 500 of them would be aligned so well with the orbits of the planets," he said.The interstellar object, which comes from the center of the Milky Way galaxy, is also expected to pass near to Mars, Venus and Jupiter - something that is also highly improbable to happen at random, according to Loeb."It also comes close to each of them, with a probability of one in 20,000," he said.  ASTRONOMERS MAKE GROUNDBREAKING DISCOVERY ABOUT LARGEST COMET EVER OBSERVED FLYING THROUGH DEEP SPACE The 3I/ATLAS object will reach its closest point to our sun - about 130 million miles away - on October 30, according to NASA."If it turns out to be technological , it would obviously have a big impact on the future of humanity," Loeb said. "We have to decide how to respond to that."In January, seven years after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk launched a Tesla Roadster into orbit, astronomers from the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts confused it with an asteroid. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP A spokesperson for NASA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Astronauts splash down in Pacific after completing ISS mission that relieved stranded crew members Four crew members who flew to the International Space Station (ISS) earlier this year to relieve two astronauts who were left stranded by a beleaguered space capsule returned to Earth on Saturday. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with Japan's Takuya Onishi and Russia's Kirill Peskov, splashed down in the Pacific off the coast of Southern California on Saturday morning at 11:33 a.m. ET in a SpaceX capsule. It was the first Pacific splashdown for NASA in 50 years, and the third for SpaceX with people on board. NASA astronauts last splashed down in the Pacific in 1975, during the Apollo-Soyuz mission, the first crewed international space mission that involved Americans and Soviets.  BUZZ ALDRIN COMMEMORATES APOLLO 11 MOON LANDING MILESTONE ON 56TH ANNIVERSARY WITH HEARTFELT MESSAGE The crew launched in March, replacing Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were left stuck at the space station for nine months on what was meant to be a week-long mission after the Boeing Starliner they arrived in suffered thruster problems and helium leaks.NASA concluded returning them to Earth in the capsule was too risky, so the Starliner flew back crewless, and Wilmore and Williams came home in a SpaceX capsule in March after their replacements arrived. Wilmore announced his retirement after 25 years with NASA this week. "We want this mission, our mission, to be a reminder of what people can do when we work together, when we explore together," McClain said before leaving the space station on Friday, mentioning "some tumultuous times on Earth."  FAMED APOLLO 13 MOON MISSION COMMANDER JIM LOVELL DEAD AT 97 She said she was looking forward to "doing nothing for a couple of days" once back home, and her crewmates were excited about hot showers and burgers. Earlier this year, SpaceX decided to switch their splashdowns from Florida to California to reduce the risk of debris falling on populated areas. After exiting the spacecraft, the crew received medical checks before being flown via helicopter to meet up with a NASA aircraft bound for Houston."Overall, the mission went great, glad to have the crew back," Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said in a press conference after splashdown. "SpaceX did a great job of recovering the crew again on the West Coast."Dina Contella, deputy manager for NASA's International Space Station program, added that she was "pretty happy to see the Crew 10 team back on Earth. They looked great, and they are doing great." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP She noted the crew had orbited the Earth 2,368 times and traveled more than 63 million miles during their 146 days at the space station. New study reveals leprosy existed in the Americas before European explorers arrived Scientists say a species of bacteria rewrites the history of when an infectious and potentially deadly disease first arrived in the Americas. And it was long before the arrival of European explorers.Researchers from the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, with help from a U.S. university, recently announced in a news release that a second species of bacteria is also responsible for the disease known as leprosy, or Hansen's disease, in the Americas.  In years past , many believed that the bacterium known as Mycobacterium leprae caused leprosy and that it was only spread in America by early European explorers and settlers.However, the revelation of a second bacterium puts that theory of blaming the settlers on its head, as an existing strain was already on the continents calling the New World home. FIRST KNOWN CASE OF RARE MPOX STRAIN CONFIRMED IN UNITED STATES The bacterium Mycobacterium lepromatosis existed and infected humans for 1,000 years prior to Europeans arriving, researchers say.Dr. Maria Lopopolo, the first author of the study and researcher at the Laboratory of Microbial Paleogenomics at the Institut Pasteur, said it changes everything about leprosy in the Americas."This discovery transforms our understanding of the history of leprosy in America. It shows that a form of the disease was already endemic among Indigenous populations well before the Europeans arrived," she said in the release. POTENTIALLY DEADLY ZOONOTIC VIRUS FOUND IN THE US, SPARKING CONCERNS OF SPREAD TO HUMANS The study - led by scientists from the Laboratory of Microbial Paleogenomics at the Institut Pasteur, alongside the French National Center for Scientific Research, and the University of Colorado in the U.S. - began after Mycobacterium lepromatosis was found in a Mexican patient in 2008, and red squirrels in the British Isles in 2016.Using advanced genetic techniques to reconstruct the genomes of  Mycobacterium lepromatosis from ancient individuals from Argentina and Canada, scientists found that the two strains from the different regions were genetically close in the  Mycobacterium genome family tree, meaning that the bacteria spread rapidly throughout the continent.The release stated that the results confirmed that Mycobacterium lepromatosis had already spread throughout North and South America.Researchers worked in collaboration with indigenous communities, various international institutions and archaeologists, according to the release, and were able to study over 800 DNA samples from ancient human remains and recent medical cases showing signs of leprosy.Nicolás Rascovan, the lead author of the study at the Institut Pasteur , said that the research proves that human history can be changed."We are just beginning to uncover the diversity and global movements of this recently identified pathogen," he said. "This study allows us to hypothesize that there might be unknown animal reservoirs." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  (CDC) says leprosy can affect the nerves, skin and eyes of patients, and is treated with antibiotics. Up to 225 people in the U.S., and 250,000 around the world, contract Hansen's disease, according to the CDC. Researchers develop face 'e-tattoo' to track mental workload in high-stress jobs Scientists say that they have formulated a way to help people in stressful and demanding work environments track their brainwaves and brain usage - an electronic tattoo device, or "e-tattoo," on the person's face.In a study posted in the science journal Device , the team of researchers wrote that they found e-tattoos to be a more cost-effective and simpler way to track one's mental workload. Dr. Nanshu Lu, the senior author of the research from the University of Texas at Austin , wrote that mental workload is a critical factor in human-in-the-loop systems, directly influencing cognitive performance and decision-making.Lu told Fox News Digital in an email that this device was motivated by high-demand, high-stake jobs such as pilots, air traffic controllers, doctors and emergency dispatchers.  TEEN GOES FROM 10 NIGHTLY SEIZURES TO ZERO WITH BRAIN IMPLANT Lu also said ER doctors and robot/drone operators can also leverage this technology for training and performance enhancements. One of the goals of this study was to find a way to measure cognitive fatigue in high leverage and mentally straining careers.The e-tattoo is temporarily attached to the subject's forehead, and is smaller than current devices in use today.According to the study, the device works by using electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrooculogram (EOG) to measure both brain waves and eye movements. 8 SLEEP TRACKERS TO HELP YOU GET A BETTER NIGHT'S REST While most EEG and EOG machines are bulky and expensive, the e-tattoo offers a compact and cost-effective solution.Lu wrote that in this study, "we propose a wireless forehead EEG and EOG sensor designed to be as thin and conformable to the skin as a temporary tattoo sticker, which is referred to as a forehead e-tattoo ." Lu also added that "human mental workload is a crucial factor in the fields of human- machine interaction and ergonomics due to its direct impact on human cognitive performance. "The way the study was conducted was with six participants being shown a screen on which 20 letters flashed up, one at a time, at various locations. Participants were asked to click a mouse if either the letter itself, or its location, matched one shown a given number of letters.Each participant carried out the task multiple times, corresponding to four levels of difficulty.The team found that as the tasks became harder, the different types of brainwaves detected showed shifts in activity that corresponded to a higher mental workload response.The device consists of a battery pack and reusable chips with a disposable sensor. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Lu said that the device is currently a lab prototype."Before it can be ready for commercialization, it will need more development, such as real-time, on-tattoo mental workload decoding and validation on more people and in more realistic environments," she said. "The prototype currently costs $200." Potential discovery of new dwarf planet adds wrinkle to Planet Nine theory A team of scientists at the Institute for Advanced Study School of Natural Sciences in Princeton, New Jersey, might have found a new dwarf planet , potentially leading to more evidence of a theoretical super-planet.The scientists announced in a news release that they have found a trans-Neptune Object(TNO), code-named 2017OF201, located past the icy and desolate region of the Kuplier Belt.The TNO, which are described as minor planets that orbit the sun at a greater distance than Neptune, were found on the edge of our solar system.While there are plenty of other TNOs in the solar system, what makes 2017OF201 special is its large size and extreme orbit. NASA LOOKING FOR WAYS TO DESTROY ASTEROID THAT COULD STRIKE EARTH, KILL CITY One of the team leads, Sihao Cheng, along with Jiaxuan Li and Eritas Yang from Princeton University, made the discovery.The team used advanced computational methods to identify the object's distinctive trajectory pattern in the sky."The object's aphelion - the farthest point on the orbit from the Sun - is more than 1600 times that of the Earth's orbit," Cheng said in the release. "Meanwhile, its perihelion - the closest point on its orbit to the Sun - is 44.5 times that of the Earth's orbit, similar to Pluto's orbit."2017OF201 takes about 25,000 years to orbit the sun, making Yang suggest that "It must have experienced close encounters with a giant planet, causing it to be ejected to a wide orbit." NEWLY DISCOVERED ASTEROID TURNS OUT TO BE TESLA ROADSTER LAUNCHED INTO SPACE Cheng also added that there may have been more than one step in its migration. "It's possible that this object was first ejected to the Oort cloud, the most distant region in our solar system, which is home to many comets, and then sent back," Cheng said.This discovery has significant implications for the current understanding of the layout of our  outer solar system .  According to NASA , California Institute of Technology (Caltech) astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown in January 2016 announced research that provided evidence for a planet about 1.5 times the size of Earth in the outer solar system.However, the existence of Planet X or Planet Nine is strictly theoretical as neither astronomer has actually observed such a planet.The theory puts the planet at around the same size as Neptune , far past Pluto somewhere near the Kuiper Belt, where 2017OF201 was located. If it exists, it is theorized to have a mass of up to 10 times as much as Earth's with a distance of up to 30 times further than Neptune to the Sun.It would take between 10,000 and 20,000 Earth years to make one full orbit around the Sun.However, the area beyond the Kuiper Belt, where the object is located, had previously been thought to be essentially empty, but the team's discovery suggests that this is not so.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Cheng said in the release that 2017OF201 only has about 1% of its orbit visible to us."Even though advances in telescopes have enabled us to explore distant parts of the universe, there is still a great deal to discover about our own solar system," Cheng said.NASA mentioned that if Planet Nine exists, it could help explain the unique orbits of some smaller objects in the distant Kuiper Belt.As of now, Planet Nine remains all but a theory, but the existence of this far-off world rests on gravitational patterns in the outer solar system. Earth's oceans are growing darker, threatening marine life worldwide: study Oceans around the globe have become darker over the last two decades, leaving researchers fearful for their marine inhabitants, according to a new study.Professor Thomas Davies of the University of Plymouth said in a study published in the Global Change Biology journal there is growing concern for the marine ecosystem.Satellite data from NASA's Ocean Color Web data portal showed 21% of the planet's oceans had darkened between 2003 and 2022.According to Davies, the majority of marine life lives in the photic zones of the ocean, which is where sufficient light penetrates to stimulate photobiological processes. RARE COLOSSAL BABY SEA CREATURE CAUGHT ON CAMERA FOR THE FIRST TIME The photic zone, which is 200 meters deep, is where global nutrients and carbon budgets sustain the planetary fish markets.This is the area where light reaches marine life that lives closer to the surface of the ocean.These ocean inhabitants rely on both the moonlight and sunlight for hunting, mating, reproduction and other important milestones. SPOOKY DEEP-SEA FISH RARELY SEEN BY HUMANS CAUGHT ON CAMERA IN SHALLOW WATER: 'NIGHTMARE FUEL' The upper level of the ocean is where microscopic organisms and different types of plankton live.With the oceans beginning to darken, it will cause creatures that rely on light to begin moving closer to the surface, potentially creating a cramped living space.Using satellite data and an algorithm-derived measure of the attenuation of light in seawater, Davis was able to measure how deep each photic zone was around the world.Among the darker oceans, 9% of their photic zones were 50 meters more shallow, and 3% of the oceans' photic zones were 100 meters more shallow.The reasoning behind the darkening of oceans far offshore is less clear. Global warming and changes in ocean currents are thought to be involved in this phenomenon, according to the study.Despite an overall darkening, about 10% of oceans, or 37 million square kilometers, have become lighter over the past 20 years, the study found. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP It also found that most coastal areas have seen an increase in light. However, the study found that this does not translate into a net reduction in photic zone depth near shorelines.Davies predicts the implications of ocean darkening could be severe for marine food webs, global fisheries and carbon and nutrient budgets. Scientists predict underwater volcano eruption 300 miles off Oregon An underwater volcano off the Oregon coast could erupt late this year, scientists say. The volcano, known as Axial Seamount, is more than 4,900 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean and 300 miles off the Oregon coast, but it is showing signs it will soon erupt for the first time since 2015.The volcano is formed by a hot spot, an area in the Earth's mantle where hot plumes of molten material rise upward into the crust, the University of Washington's College of the Environment said in an April blog post. As the crust moves over the top of the mantle, the hot spot stays put, which results in long chains of volcanoes over time. VIDEO: CHAOS IN BANGKOK AS APARTMENT BUILDING COLLAPSES, SENDING PEOPLE RUNNING   "Over two-thirds of the Earth's surface was formed by volcanic eruptions at these mid-ocean ridges," said Maya Tolstoy, a marine geophysicist and dean of the university's College of the Environment. "Axial Seamount is a direct result of these fundamental processes that continue to shape our planet today."The eruption doesn't pose a danger, scientists said. "Axial Seamount is much too deep and far from shore for people on land to even notice when it erupts. An eruption at Axial Seamount also has nothing to do with seismic activity on land, so Pacific Northwesterners don't need to worry about this event triggering a major earthquake or tsunami," the blog post states. The first sign of an eruption at the volcano will be a sharp increase in the number of earthquakes around it, the post states.  VIDEO: WATER CASCADES DOWN SIDE OF BUILDING IN BANGKOK FOLLOWING EARTHQUAKE   "The volcano has already surpassed the inflation we observed in 2015, but the earthquake activity is still quite low," said Deborah Kelley, a professor at the UW School of Oceanography and director of the Regional Cabled Array. "We're seeing 200 to 300 earthquakes per day, with some spikes around 1,000 per day due to the tides. If what we learned in 2015 is correct, I would expect to see more than 2,000 per day for a few months before the eruption."The quakes will be caused by magma moving toward the surface, the post states."That period lasts about an hour, and then the magma reaches the surface," said William Wilcock, a professor at the UW School of Oceanography. "Lava flows spread across the caldera, and lava-filled fissures open up to the north or the south, reaching as far as 40 kilometers (about 25 miles). "The seismic activity dies down pretty quickly over the next few days, but the eruption will continue slowly for about a month."  Soviet-Era spacecraft crashes back to Earth after 53 years A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus.The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking confirmed its uncontrolled reentry, based on analysis and no-shows of the spacecraft on subsequent orbits. The European Space Agency's space debris office also indicated that the spacecraft had reentered after it failed to appear over a German radar station.It was not immediately known where the spacecraft came in or how much, if any, of the half-ton spacecraft survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said ahead of time that some if not all of it might come crashing down, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus , the solar system's hottest planet. SPACE FORCE'S MYSTERIOUS X-37B PLANE RETURNS TO EARTH AFTER 434 DAYS IN ORBIT The chances of anyone getting clobbered by spacecraft debris were exceedingly low, scientists said.Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union , the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction.Much of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch. No longer able to resist gravity's tug as its orbit dwindled, the spherical lander - an estimated 3 feet (1 meter) across - was the last part of the spacecraft to come down. The lander was encased in titanium, according to experts, and weighed more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms).After following the spacecraft's downward spiral, scientists, military experts and others could not pinpoint in advance precisely when or where the spacecraft might come down.  MASSIVE EUROPEAN POWER OUTAGE BLAMED ON SOLAR PLANT BREAKDOWNS Solar activity added to the uncertainty as well as the spacecraft's deteriorating condition after so long in space.As of Saturday morning, the U.S. Space Command had yet to confirm the spacecraft's demise as it collected and analyzed data from orbit.The U.S. Space Command routinely monitors dozens of reentries each month. What set Kosmos 482 apart - and earned it extra attention from government and private space trackers - was that it was more likely to survive reentry, according to officials.It was also coming in uncontrolled, without any intervention by flight controllers who normally target the Pacific and other vast expanses of water for old satellites and other space debris. Google working to decode dolphin communication using AI Cracking the dolphin code.Dolphins are one of the smartest animals on Earth and have been revered for thousands of years for their intelligence, emotions and social interaction with humans.Now Google is using artificial intelligence (AI) to try and understand how they communicate with one another - with the hope that one day humans could use the technology to chat with the friendly finned mammals.Google has teamed up with researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology and the Wild Dolphin Project (WDP), a Florida-based non-profit which has been studying and recording dolphin sounds for 40 years, to build the new AI model called DolphinGemma. 'SUPER POD' OF MORE THAN 1,500 DOLPHINS OFF CALIFORNIA COAST CAPTURED ON DRONE VIDEO For decades, WDP has correlated sound types with behavioral contexts. For instance, signature whistles have been used by mothers and calves to reunite, while burst pulse "squawks" are often observed during dolphin fights, researchers said, according to a Google blog on the project.Click "buzzes" are often used during courtship or chasing sharks.Now, using the vast data gathered by WDP, Google has built DolphinGemma, building upon Google's own AI lightweight open model, known as Gemma.DolphinGemma has been trained to analyze the vast library of recordings to detect patterns, structures, and even potential "meanings" behind the dolphin communications or vocalizations. Over time, DolphinGemma will try to organize the dolphin sounds into categories - almost like words, sentences, or expressions in human language. CHINESE HUMANOID ROBOT WITH EAGLE-EYE VISION AND POWERFUL AI "By identifying recurring sound patterns, clusters and reliable sequences, the model can help researchers uncover hidden structures and potential meanings within the dolphins' natural communication - a task previously requiring immense human effort," a post on Google about the project reads."Eventually, these patterns, augmented with synthetic sounds created by the researchers to refer to objects with which the dolphins like to play, may establish a shared vocabulary with the dolphins for interactive communication."DolphinGemma uses Google's Pixel phone technology, specifically the audio recording technology used in Pixel devices, to make clean, high-quality sound recordings of dolphin vocalizations.The Pixel phone technology can separate out dolphin clicks and whistles from background noise like waves, boat engines, or underwater static. That clean audio is critical for AI models like DolphinGemma, because messy, noisy data would confuse the AI, researchers said. GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE Google says it plans to release DolphinGemma as an open model this summer, allowing researchers around the world to use and adapt it.Although it's trained on Atlantic spotted dolphins, the model could also help study other species like bottlenose or spinner dolphins with some fine-tuning, researchers said. "By providing tools like DolphinGemma, we hope to give researchers worldwide the tools to mine their own acoustic datasets, accelerate the search for patterns and collectively deepen our understanding of these intelligent marine mammals," the blog post reads.  Wolf made famous in 'Game of Thrones' brought back from 12,500-year extinction, US company claims A Dallas-based company claims to have brought back wolves that last roamed the Earth more than 12,500 years ago and became widely known due to the hit HBO series "Game of Thrones." Colossal Biosciences says it rebirthed three dire wolves using genome-editing and cloning technologies in what it says is now the world's first successful "de-extincted animal," although one expert believes the company merely genetically modified a wolf as opposed to bringing the apex predator back from extinction. Dire wolves roamed the American midcontinent during the Ice Age and the oldest confirmed dire wolf fossil is 250,000 years old from Black Hills, South Dakota , according to Colossal Biosciences. In Game of Thrones, the wolves are bigger and smarter than normal wolves and fiercely loyal to their Starks, the most important noble family in the series.  TOP MIGRATORY SPECIES THAT ARE VULNERABLE AND THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION The three litters of Colossal's dire wolves include two adolescent males called Romulus and Remus, and one female puppy named Khaleesi.The scientists took blood cells from a living gray wolf and used "CRISPR" technology, short for "clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats," to genetically modify them in 20 different sites, according typo Beth Shapiro, Colossal's chief scientist. These changes gave the pups traits like larger bodies and longer, fuller, light-colored fur, traits believed to have helped dire wolves survive cold climates during the Ice Age.The 20 genome edits were made to replicate the dire wolf's ancient DNA, with 15 of those edits matching genes found in actual dire wolves. The ancient DNA was extracted from two dire wolf fossils: a tooth from Sheridan Pit, Ohio, that is around 13,000 years old, and an inner ear bone from American Falls, Idaho, around 72,000 years old.They transferred the genetic material to an egg cell from a domestic dog. When ready, the embryos were transferred to surrogates, also domestic dogs, and 62 days later the genetically engineered pups were born.Ben Lamm, CEO of Colossal Biosciences, said that it was a massive milestone and the first of many upcoming examples demonstrating that the company's end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works."It was once said, 'any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.'" Lamm said. "Today, our team gets to unveil some of the magic they are working on and its broader impact on conservation." 1-IN-5 MIGRATORY ANIMALS FACE EXTINCTION, FIRST UN REPORT OF ITS KIND SAYS Colossal has previously announced similar projects to genetically alter cells from living species to create animals resembling extinct wooly mammoths, dodos and others.During this week's announcement, the company announced it had birthed two litters of cloned red wolves, the most critically endangered wolf in the world, using a new approach to non-invasive blood cloning. The birth of red wolves, the company said, provides evidence it can conserve animals through de-extinction technology.Lamm said the team met with officials from the Interior Department in late March about the project, while Interior Secretary Doug Burgum praised the work on X on Monday as a "thrilling new era of scientific wonder" even as outside scientists said there are limitations to restoring the past.Corey Bradshaw, a professor of global ecology at Flinders University in Australia, poured cold water on the claims that the company had brought the dire wolf back from extinction ."So yes, they have slightly genetically modified wolves, maybe, and that's probably the best that you're going to get," Bradshaw said. "And those slight modifications seem to have been derived from retrieved dire wolf material. Does that make it a dire wolf? No. Does it make a slightly modified gray wolf? Yes. And that's probably about it."Colossal Biosciences said the wolves are now thriving in a 2,000-acre secure expansive ecological preserve in Texas that is certified by the American Humane Society and registered with USDA. Long term, Colossal plans to restore the species in secure and expansive ecological preserves, potentially on indigenous land. 'Well-preserved' baby mammoth dating back to Ice Age dissected by scientists: photos Warning: This article contains graphic pictures. Reader discretion is advised. Stunning pictures show a female baby mammoth, dating back over 130,000 years, recently being dissected by Russian scientists.The mammoth, which has been nicknamed "Yana," was dissected at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia, on March 27. The baby mammoth had been preserved in permafrost until she was dug up in the cold Russian province of Yakutia last year.Pictures of the necropsy show a team of scientists huddled around the 397-pound animal, which closely resembles a modern baby elephant. The creature's mouth was open, and her trunk was curled as scientists opened up her skin.Scientists initially believed that Yana lived 50,000 years ago, but that estimate was updated to over 130,000 years after scientists analyzed the permafrost layer where she was found. ANCIENT SETTLEMENT REVEALS REMAINS OF 1,800-YEAR-OLD DOG, BAFFLING EXPERTS: 'PRESERVED QUITE WELL' Maxim Cherpasov, head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum Laboratory, told Reuters last year that the mammoth was just over a year old when she died. The corpse was already partially eaten by predators when she was discovered."As a rule, the part that thaws out first, especially the trunk, is often eaten by modern predators or birds," Cherpasov told Reuters. ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER LONG-LOST TOMB OF UNKNOWN PHARAOH IN EGYPT "Here, for example, even though the forelimbs have already been eaten, the head is remarkably well-preserved."Though the discovery of a well-preserved mammoth is exceedingly rare, it is not unheard of for other mammoth remains to be discovered. In June 2024, a fisherman found a mammoth bone on the banks of the Raba River in Książnice, near Gdów, Poland.In August of the same year, a fossil collector discovered a portion of a Columbian mammoth tusk in an embankment in Madison County, Mississippi. Reuters contributed to this report. Spectacular blue spiral light brightens up night sky, likely from Space X rocket A mysterious spiraling blue light illuminated the night skies over Europe on Monday.The cosmic whirlpool was captured in stunning video and appears to have been created by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster falling back toward Earth , according to experts.Time-lapse video taken from Croatia at around 4 p.m. EST, or 9 p.m. local time, shows the glowing light spinning across the sky in what many social media commentators likened to a spiral galaxy. The full video at normal speed lasts for about six minutes. ELON MUSK CONGRATULATES SPACEX, NASA FOR 'EXCELLENT WORK' RESCUING STRANDED ASTRONAUTS The Met Office in the U.K. said it had received many reports of an "illuminated swirl in the sky" and said it was likely caused by the Space X rocket which launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida at around 1:50 p.m. EST as part of the government's classified NROL-69 mission. The Elon Musk- owned SpaceX was launching a payload on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the government's intelligence and surveillance agency."This is likely to be caused by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched earlier today," the Met Office wrote on X. "The rocket's frozen exhaust plume appears to be spinning in the atmosphere and reflecting the sunlight, causing it to appear as a spiral in the sky."The glowing light is an example of what some people call a "SpaceX spiral," according to Space.com . SPACEX DRAGON CAPSULE STICKS SPLASHDOWN LANDING AS NASA ASTRONAUTS RETURN HOME AFTER MONTHS STUCK IN SPACE SpaceX spirals develop after the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket separates from its first-stage booster. As the upper stage continues towards space , the lower stage falls, spiraling back to Earth, dumping what remains of its fuel. The fuel then freezes instantly due to its high altitude and light then reflects on it, creating the strange-looking glow in the sky, per the outlet.   CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital reached out to SpaceX for comment but did not immediately receive a response. Monday's cosmic display came just days after a SpaceX team working with NASA returned two stranded astronauts from space .  Rare 'Sharktopus' - an octopus riding a shark - sighting caught on camera shared by scientists What happens when an octopus jumps on a shark for a ride around town? A "sharktopus," of course.The rare sighting, captured on video off the coast of New Zealand and shared by scientists affiliated with the University of Auckland, shows a Maori octopus riding on top of a mako shark, which is the fastest in the world with the ability to swim up to 46 mph. The university said the December 2023 encounter "was one of the strangest things University of Auckland marine scientists had ever seen. It was a mysterious sight indeed... octopus are mostly on the seabed while short-fin mako sharks don't [favor] the deep." MASSIVE SHARK HEADED DOWN FLORIDA COAST AHEAD OF BUSY TRAVEL SEASON The university researchers had been looking for shark feeding frenzies in the Hauraki Gulf near Kawau Island when a mako shark with an "orange patch" on its head was discovered. The researchers launched a drone and put a GoPro camera in the water and "saw something unforgettable: an octopus perched atop the shark's head, clinging on with its tentacles," University of Auckland Professor Rochelle Constantine wrote in a piece for the university last week.  AMERICAN TOURISTS FELT 'NUDGE' BEFORE SHARK ATTACK AT POPULAR BAHAMAS RESORT Constantine added that the researchers moved on after 10 minutes, so they weren't sure what happened to the "sharktopus" next, but the "octopus may have been in for quite the experience, since the world's fastest shark species can reach [30 mph].""At first, I was like, 'Is it a buoy?'" Constantine told The New York Times this week. "'Is it entangled in fishing gear or had a big bite?'" CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP She pointed out, "You can see it takes a fair amount of real estate on the shark's head," noting that neither animal seemed bothered by the encounter. "The shark seemed quite happy, and the octopus seemed quite happy. It was a very calm scene," she said.  'Alien' encounter: ISS crew member plays joke as SpaceX team arrives Even astronauts have a sense of humor, as shown during NASA's Crew-10 docking on the International Space Station (ISS), when they were met by an "alien" early Sunday morning. Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner wore an alien mask while welcoming four newcomers after their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked to the station at 12:04 a.m., about 29 hours after launching at 7:03 p.m. on Friday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.While ISS crew members were preparing the capsule for deboarding, Vagner could be seen floating around while wearing a mask, a hoodie, pants and socks during the "lighthearted moment," a NASA spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov entered the International Space Station shortly after opening the hatches between the space station and the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at 1:35 a.m. EDT," NASA said in a statement. NASA'S STUCK ASTRONAUTS WELCOME REPLACEMENTS WHO ARRIVED TO SPACE STATION ON SPACEX CAPSULE Following the hatch opening by Suni Williams, the ship's bell was rung as the new arrivals floated in, shook hands and hugged the Expedition 72 crew after Vagner's practical joke. "It was a wonderful day. Great to see our friends arrive," Williams told Mission Control.  ELON MUSK'S SPACEX LAUNCHES CREW TO RESCUE STUCK NASA ASTRONAUTS FROM ISS Williams and Butch Wilmore are expected to show the new arrivals the ins and outs of the space station before they finally return home after nine months. Their mission was only scheduled to last one week after the launch of Boeing's first astronaut flight, but they were stuck in space after issues forced NASA to bring the Boeing Starliner back empty.Crew-9 commander Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are scheduled to depart the station on Wednesday as early as 4 a.m. before splashing down off Florida's coast. Fox News' Landon Mion, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.  Athena lunar lander makes it to the moon - but its condition remains unknown A lunar lander made its touchdown on the moon earlier on Thursday, but controllers on the ground were unable to confirm the Athena lander's condition upon landing, the Associated Press reported. In addition to its condition, the location of where the craft landed is also unclear.The lander, which is owned by Intuitive Machines, was carrying an ice drill, a drone and two rovers. Athena was apparently able to communicate with its controllers, the Associated Press reported, citing officials.Mission director and co-founder Tim Crain was heard telling the team to "keep working on the problem," despite the craft sending apparent "acknowledgments" to the team in Texas. FIRST COMMERCIAL MOON LANDER 'ODYSSEUS' LANDS ON MOON NASA and Intuitive Machines ended the online live stream and announced that they would hold a news conference on the status of Athena later on Thursday. PRIVATE LUNAR LANDER BLUE GHOST LANDS ON THE MOON WITH EQUIPMENT FOR NASA Last year, Intuitive Machine saw its Odysseus lander make it to the moon, only to end up landing sideways, putting extra pressure on today's landing. Athena is the second craft to land on the moon this week after Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost made touchdown on Sunday. "You all stuck the landing. We're on the moon," Firefly's Will Coogan, chief engineer for the lander, said. Blue Ghost's landing made Firefly Aerospace the first private company to put a spacecraft on the moon without it crashing or falling over. Fox News' Landon Minon contributed to this report. Private lunar lander Blue Ghost lands on the moon with equipment for NASA A private lunar lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other equipment to deliver for NASA touched down on the moon on Sunday, the latest of several companies seeking to kickstart business on Earth's natural satellite ahead of astronaut missions.Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, targeting the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the moon's northeastern edge of the near side.The company's Mission Control, located outside Austin, Texas, confirmed a successful landing. SPACEX LAUNCHES FALCON 9 ROCKET TOWARDS LUNAR SOUTH POLE IN SEARCH OF WATER "You all stuck the landing. We're on the moon," Firefly's Will Coogan, chief engineer for the lander, said.An upright and stable landing made Firefly the first private company to put a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over. Some governments working on space flight have failed in the past, as only five countries - Russia, the U.S., China, India and Japan - have been successful.Blue Ghost, which was named after a rare U.S. species of firefly, is a four-legged lander standing 6-foot-6 tall and 11 feet wide, offering extra stability, according to the company.About half an hour after landing, Blue Ghost started to send back pictures from the surface. The first image was a selfie somewhat obscured by the sun's glare. SECRETIVE US SPACE FORCE PLANE SHARES RARE PHOTO OF EARTH FROM ORBIT Two other companies' landers are making missions soon, with the next one expected to join the Blue Ghost on the moon later this week. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Mars' red color may be related to a habitable past: study Mars' distinctive red color comes from the mineral ferrihydrite, which only forms in the presence of cool water, a new study claims. Ferrihydrite also forms at a lower temperature than other minerals that make up the aptly-named red planet's surface, like hematite, which had previously been considered the main reason for its rouge hue."This suggests that Mars may have had an environment capable of sustaining liquid water before it transitioned from a wet to a dry environment billions of years ago," NASA said in a news release this week. NASA partially funded the study.  GRIFF JENKINS: 'THE RACE TO MARS IS ON' Researchers in the study, published in Nature Communications this week, analyzed data from several Mars missions, including several Mars' rovers, and the findings were compared to lab experiments "where the team tested how light interacts with ferrihydrite particles and other minerals under simulated Martian conditions," NASA said. "The fundamental question of why Mars is red has been considered for hundreds if not for thousands of years," the study's lead author Adam Valantinas said in a statement. Valantinas is a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University who began the study as a Ph.D. student at Switzerland's University of Bern. He continued, "From our analysis, we believe ferrihydrite is everywhere in the dust and also probably in the rock formations, as well. We're not the first to consider ferrihydrite as the reason for why Mars is red, but we can now better test this using observational data and novel laboratory methods to essentially make a Martian dust in the lab." NASA'S MARTIAN HELICOPTER PROMISES UNPRECEDENTED VIEWS OF THE RED PLANET Senior author of the study, Jack Mustard, called the study a "door-opening opportunity." "It gives us a better chance to apply principles of mineral formation and conditions to tap back in time," Mustard, a professor at Brown University, said. "What's even more important, though, is the return of the samples from Mars that are being collected right now by the Perseverance rover. When we get those back, we can actually check and see if this is right."The research shows that Mars likely had a cool but wet and potentially habitable climate in its ancient past.Mars' atmosphere is too cold and then to support life now, but billions of years ago the planet had an abundance of water, NASA said, which is also evidenced in the ferrihydrite found in its dust. "These new findings point to a potentially habitable past for Mars and highlight the value of coordinated research between NASA and its international partners when exploring fundamental questions about our solar system and the future of space exploration," Geronimo Villanueva, Associate Director for Strategic Science of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, and co-author of the study, said.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Valantinas said what the researchers "want to understand is the ancient Martian climate, the chemical processes on Mars - not only ancient - but also present."He continued, "Then there's the habitability question: Was there ever life? To understand that, you need to understand the conditions that were present during the time of this mineral's formation. What we know from this study is the evidence points to ferrihydrite forming and for that to happen there must have been conditions where oxygen from air or other sources and water can react with iron. Those conditions were very different from today's dry, cold environment. As Martian winds spread this dust everywhere, it created the planet's iconic red appearance." Scientists link gene to emergence of spoken language Why did humans start speaking? Scientists suggest genetics played a big role - and they say the evolution of this singular ability was key to our survival.A new study links a particular gene to the ancient origins of spoken language, proposing that a protein variant found only in humans may have helped us communicate in a novel way. Speech allowed us to share information, coordinate activities and pass down knowledge, giving us an edge over extinct cousins like Neanderthals and Denisovans.The new study is "a good first step to start looking at the specific genes" that may affect speech and language development, said Liza Finestack at the University of Minnesota, who was not involved with the research. ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER ANCIENT 'CITY OF THE DEAD' IN ITALY: 'PERFECTLY PRESERVED' What scientists learn may someday even help people with speech problems.The genetic variant researchers were looking at was one of a variety of genes "that contributed to the emergence of Homo sapiens as the dominant species , which we are today," said Dr. Robert Darnell, an author of the study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.Darnell has been studying the protein - called NOVA1 and known to be crucial to brain development - since the early 1990s. For the latest research, scientists in his lab at New York's Rockefeller University used CRISPR gene editing to replace the NOVA1 protein found in mice with the exclusively human type to test the real-life effects of the genetic variant. To their surprise, it changed the way the animals vocalized when they called out to each other.Baby mice with the human variant squeaked differently than normal littermates when their mom came around. Adult male mice with the variant chirped differently than their normal counterparts when they saw a female in heat.Both are settings where mice are motivated to speak, Darnell said, "and they spoke differently" with the human variant, illustrating its role in speech. 'DRAGON MAN' CLAIMED AS POTENTIAL NEW HUMAN SPECIES AFTER ANALYSIS OF CHINA SKULL This isn't the first time a gene has been linked to speech. In 2001, British scientists said they had discovered the first gene tied to a language and speech disorder.Called FOXP2, it was referred to as the human language gene. But though FOXP2 is involved in human language, it turned out that the variant in modern humans wasn't unique to us. Later research found it was shared with Neanderthals . The NOVA1 variant in modern humans, on the other hand, is found exclusively in our species, Darnell said.The presence of a gene variant isn't the only reason people can speak. The ability also depends on things like anatomical features in the human throat and areas of the brain that work together to allow people to speak and understand language.Darnell hopes the recent work not only helps people better understand their origins but also eventually leads to new ways to treat speech-related problems.University of Minnesota's Finestack said it's more likely the genetic findings might someday allow scientists to detect, very early in life, who might need speech and language interventions."That's certainly a possibility," she said. Newly discovered asteroid turns out to be Tesla Roadster launched into space Elon Musk's sense of humor is out of this world. Seven years after the SpaceX CEO launched a Tesla Roadster into orbit, astronomers from the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts confused it with an asteroid earlier this month. A day after the astronomers with the Minor Planet Center registered 2018 CN41, it was deleted on Jan. 3 when they revealed that it was in fact Musk's roadster. The center said on its website that 2018 CN41's registry was deleted after "it was pointed out the orbit matches an artificial object, 2018-017A, Falcon Heavy Upper stage with the Tesla Roadster. The designation2018 CN41 is being deleted and will be listed as omitted."  DEBRIS FROM SPACEX STARSHIP STREAKS THROUGH THE SKY SpaceX launched the Tesla Roadster on the maiden flight of SpaceX's huge Falcon Heavy rocket in February 2018. The roadster was expected to go into elliptical orbit around the sun, going a little beyond Mars and back toward Earth, but it apparently exceeded the orbit of Mars and kept going to the asteroid belt , according to Musk at the time. When the roadster was mistaken for an asteroid earlier this month, it was less than 150,000 miles from Earth, which is closer than the moon's orbit, according to Astronomy Magazine, meaning that astronomers would want to monitor how close it gets to Earth.  POWERFUL WEBB TELESCOPE CAPTURES PHOTOS OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST SUPERNOVA EVER SEEN Center for Astrophysics (CfA) astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told Astronomy magazine that the mistake shows the issues with untracked objects. "Worst case, you spend a billion launching a space probe to study an asteroid and only realize it's not an asteroid when you get there," he said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital has reached out to SpaceX for comment.  Orbiter photos show lunar modules from first 2 moon landings more than 50 years later Recent photos taken by India's Space Research Organization moon orbiter, known as Chandrayaan 2, clearly show the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 landing sites more than 50 years later. The photos were taken by the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter in April 2021 and were reshared on Curiosity's X page - which posts about space exploration - on Wednesday. "Image of Apollo 11 and 12 taken by India's Moon orbiter. Disapproving Moon landing deniers," Curiosity wrote on X, along with the overhead photos that show the landing vehicles on the surface of the moon . Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, making Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first men to walk on its surface.  US PREPARES TO DEORBIT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION AMID CHINA COMPETITION  Astronaut Michael Collins, the third man on the Apollo 11 mission, remained in orbit while Aldrin and Armstrong walked on the moon. The lunar module, known as Eagle, was left in lunar orbit after it rendezvoused with the command module Collins was in the next day and Eagle eventually landed back on the moon's surface. Apollo 12 was NASA's second crewed mission to land on the moon on Nov. 19, 1969, in which Charles "Pete" Conrad and Alan Bean became the third and fourth men to walk on its surface.  The Apollo missions continued until December 1972, when the program was shut down and astronaut Eugene Cernan became the last man to walk on the moon.  NASA FINALIZES STRATEGY FOR HUMAN PRESENCE IN SPACE The Chandrayaan-2 mission launched on July 22, 2019, exactly 50 years after the Apollo 11 mission and two years before it captured images of the 1969 lunar landers.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP India also launched Chandrayaan-3 last year, which became the first mission to successfully land neat the moon's south pole.  NASA finalizes strategy for human presence in space This week, NASA finalized its strategy for sustaining a human presence in space. A document emphasized the importance of maintaining the ability for extended stays in orbit after the International Space Station is retired."NASA's Low Earth Orbit Microgravity Strategy will guide the agency toward the next generation of continuous human presence in orbit, enable greater economic growth, and maintain international partnerships," the document stated.The commitment comes amid questions of whether the new space stations will be ready to go. With the incoming Trump administration's effort to cut spending through the Department of Government Efficiency, there are also fears NASA could face cuts . INTERSTELLAR VOYAGER 1 RESUMES OPERATIONS AFTER PAUSE IN COMMUNICATIONS WITH NASA "Just like everybody has to make hard decisions when the budget is tight, we've made some choices over the last year, in fact, to cut back programs or cancel them all together to make sure that we're focused on our highest priorities," said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.Commercial space company Voyager is working on one of the space stations that could replace the International Space Station when it de-orbits in 2030. The company applauded NASA's strategy to keep humans in space."We need that commitment because we have our investors saying, 'Is the United States committed?'" said Jeffrey Manber Voyager's president of international and space stations.President Reagan first launched the effort to keep humans in space at a permanent residence. He also warned of the need for private partnerships ."America has always been greatest when we dared to be great. We can reach for greatness," Reagan said during his 1984 State of the Union address. "The market for space transportation could surpass our capacity to develop it."The first piece of the ISS was launched in 1998. Since then, it has hosted more than 28 people from 23 countries. For 24 years, humans have occupied the ISS continuously.The Trump administration released a national space policy in 2020 that called for maintaining a "continuous human presence in earth orbit" and also emphasized the need to transition to commercial platforms. The Biden administration maintained that policy. NASA ROVER CAPTURES SILHOUETTE OF A MARTIAN MOON IN STUNNING VIDEO "Let's say we didn't have commercial stations that are ready to go. Technically, we could keep the space station going, but the idea was to fly it through 2030 and de-orbit it in 2031," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in June.In recent months, there have been questions whether the policy would be maintained."I just want to talk about the elephant in the room for a moment, continuous human presence. What does that mean? Is it continuous heartbeat or continuous capability? While we kind of originally hoped that this would just sort of emerge from this process, we're still having conversations about that and understanding it," Melroy said at the International Astronautical Congress in October.NASA's finalized strategy took into account concerns from commercial and international partners over what it would mean to lose the ISS without a commercial station ready to go."Almost all of our industry partners agreed. Continuous presence is continuous heartbeat. And so that's where we stand," Melroy said. "I think this continuous presence, it's leadership. Today, the United States leads in human spaceflight. The only other space station that will be in orbit when ISS de-orbits, if we don't bring a commercial destination up in time, will be the Chinese space station. And we want to stay and remain the partner of choice for our industry and for our goals for NASA."Three companies, including Voyager, are working with NASA to develop commercial space stations. Axiom signed an agreement with NASA in 2020. The agency awarded contracts to Nanoracks, now part of Voyager Space, and Blue Origin in 2021."We've had some challenges, to be perfectly honest with you. The budget caps that were a deal that was cut between the White House and Congress for fiscal year (2024 and 2025) have left us without as much investment. So, what we do is we co-invest with our commercial partners to do the development. I think we're still able to make it happen before the end of 2030, though, to get a commercial space station up and running so that we have a continuous heartbeat of American astronauts on orbit," Melroy said.Voyager says it is not behind in the development process and is still planning to launch their starship space station in 2028."We're not asking for more money. We're going ahead. We're ready to replace the International Space Station," Manber said. " Everyone knows SpaceX , but there's hundreds of companies that have created the space economy. And if we lose permanent presence, you lose that supply chain."Additional funds have been provided for the three companies since the initial space station contracts. A second round of funding could be crucial for some projects. NASA could also award funding for new space station proposals. One prospect is Long Beach, California's Vast Space. The company recently unveiled concepts for its Haven modules. It plans to launch the Haven-1 as soon as next year."We absolutely think competition is critical. This is a development project. It's challenging. It was hard to build the space station. We're asking our commercial partners to step up and do this themselves with some help from us. We think it's really important that we carry as many options going forward to see which one really pans out when we actually get there," Melroy said. Complete mastodon jaw found in New York homeowner's backyard: 'Remarkable discovery' A homeowner in New York uncovered a  complete mastodon jaw in their backyard in what officials are calling a "remarkable discovery." The jaw of the extinct mammal , which was similar to an elephant, and several bone fragments were excavated from a property in Scotchtown by researchers from the New York State Museum and SUNY Orange. "The fossils - discovered by a curious homeowner - will undergo carbon dating and extensive scientific analysis to determine the mastodon's age, diet, and habitat," the New York State Museum said in a statement. "Once preserved and studied, the jaw and related findings will be showcased in public programming in 2025, offering visitors a glimpse into New York's rich Ice Age history." The Albany-based Museum said the homeowner first noticed the jaw when they spotted "two unusual teeth concealed by plant fronds and, intrigued, dug a bit deeper to uncover two more teeth just inches beneath the surface."  ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNEARTH 13,000-YEAR-OLD MASTODON SKULL IN IOWA   "When I found the teeth and examined them in my hands, I knew they were something special and decided to call in the experts," the museum quoted the homeowner as saying. "I'm thrilled that our property has yielded such an important find for the scientific community." The discovery is also being described by the museum as the first of its kind in New York in 11 years, and a "prehistoric treasure."  480-YEAR-OLD FIREARM DISCOVERED IN ARIZONA DESCRIBED BY RESEARCHERS AS THE 'OLDEST' FOUND IN THE US   "Excavation efforts by the New York State Museum and SUNY Orange unearthed a full, well-preserved mastodon jaw belonging to an adult individual," it said. "Alongside the jaw, researchers also recovered a piece of a toe bone and a rib fragment, offering valuable additional clues about the mastodon's life and environment." Museum officials said 150 mastodon fossils have been found across New York, but a third of them have come from Orange County, where the jaw was discovered. "While the jaw is the star of the show, the additional toe and rib fragments offer valuable context and the potential for additional research," Cory Harris, Chair of SUNY Orange's Behavioral Sciences Department, said in a statement. "We are also hoping to further explore the immediate area for more bones that may have been preserved."  Interstellar Voyager 1 resumes operations after pause in communications with NASA NASA has confirmed that after a pause in communications with Voyager 1 in late October, the spacecraft has regained its voice and resumed regular operations.Voyager unexpectedly turned off its primary radio transmitter, known as its X-band, before turning on its much weaker S-band transmitter in October.The interstellar spacecraft is currently located about 15.4 billion miles away from Earth and the S-band had not been used in over 40 years.Communication between NASA and Voyager 1 has been spotty at times and the switch to the lower band prevented the Voyager mission team from downloading science data and information about the spacecraft's status. NASA RECONNECTS WITH INTERSTELLAR VOYAGER 1 SPACECRAFT USING TECHNOLOGY NOT USED IN DECADES Earlier this month, the team was able to reactivate the X-band transmitter and resume collection of data from the four operating science instruments onboard Voyager 1.Now that the data can be collected and communications have resumed, engineers are finishing a few remaining tasks to return Voyager 1 back to the state it was in before the issue came up. One task is to reset the system that synchronizes Voyager 1's three onboard computers.The S-band was activated by the spacecraft's fault protection system when engineers activated a heater on Voyager 1. The fault protection system determined the probe did not have enough power and automatically turned off systems that were not necessary to keep the spacecraft flying in order to keep providing power to critical systems. VOYAGER 1 DETECTS 'HUM' WHILE IN INTERSTELLAR SPACE: REPORT But in the process, the probes turned off all nonessential systems except for science instruments, NASA said, turning off the X-band and activating the S-band, which uses less power.Voyager 1 had not used the S-band to communicate with Earth since 1981. NASA PUBLISHES NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS OF 'RAVIOLI' MOON ORBITING SATURN Voyager 1′s odyssey began in 1977, when the spacecraft and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched on a tour of the gas giant planets of the solar system.After beaming back dazzling postcard views of Jupiter's giant red spot and Saturn's shimmering rings, Voyager 2 hopscotched to Uranus and Neptune. Meanwhile, Voyager 1 used Saturn as a gravitational slingshot to power itself past Pluto.There are 10 science instruments on each spacecraft, and according to NASA, four are currently being used to study the particles, plasma and magnetic fields in interstellar space. Earth bids farewell to 'mini moon' asteroid set for return visit in 2055 Planet Earth is parting company with an asteroid that's been tagging along as a "mini moon" for the past two months.The harmless space rock will peel away on Monday, overcome by the stronger tug of the sun's gravity. But it will zip closer for a quick visit in January.NASA will use a radar antenna to observe the 33-foot asteroid then. That should deepen scientists' understanding of the object known as 2024 PT5, quite possibly a boulder that was blasted off the moon by an impacting, crater-forming asteroid. SCIENTISTS DISCOVER MASSIVE CAVE ON MOON THAT COULD BE USED TO SHELTER ASTRONAUTS While not technically a moon - NASA stresses it was never captured by Earth's gravity and fully in orbit - it's "an interesting object" worthy of study.The astrophysicist brothers who identified the asteroid's "mini moon behavior," Raul and Carlos de la Fuente Marcos of Complutense University of Madrid, have collaborated with telescopes in the Canary Islands for hundreds of observations so far.Currently more than 2 million miles away, the object is too small and faint to see without a powerful telescope. It will pass as close as 1.1 million miles of Earth in January, maintaining a safe distance before it zooms farther into the solar system while orbiting the sun, not to return until 2055. That's almost five times farther than the moon.First spotted in August, the asteroid began its semi jog around Earth in late September, after coming under the grips of Earth's gravity and following a horseshoe-shaped path. By the time it returns next year, it will be moving too fast - more than double its speed from September - to hang around, said Raul de la Fuente Marcos. NASA will track the asteroid for more than a week in January using the Goldstone solar system radar antenna in California's Mojave Desert, part of the Deep Space Network.Current data suggest that during its 2055 visit, the sun-circling asteroid will once again make a temporary and partial lap around Earth.

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