Concluding the week with some tasty bite-sized chunks of positive news.
Young Star Cluster
The European Space Agency released this gasp-worthy photo, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, last week. The image shows the young star cluster NGC 602 inside of a large nebula of gas and dust. If you stare at it long enough, it’s easy to get lost in the stars! It is located near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy roughly 200,000 light-years from Earth.
Women's Soccer UK
Sky Sports and the BBC have agreed a new five-year, shared domestic broadcast rights deal to show almost every Women’s Super League football match live on television from the 2025-26 campaign. The rights fee is worth approximately £65m ($84) across the duration of the five seasons, plus production costs, taking the broadcasters’ total investment in the women’s game to comfortably over £100m ($130m). The new agreement represents a huge increase on the current deal, which is understood to be worth in the region of £7m to £8m a season.
Half-Marathon Record
A second can change everything, and that’s especially true for 27-year-old Yomif Kejelcha, who set a new half-marathon world record by the skin of his teeth. Clocking in a time of 57 minutes and 30 seconds at a race in Valencia, Spain, Kejelcha finished just 1 second faster than the previous record, set by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo in 2021. For those of you doing the math in your head, the Ethiopian athlete blazed through the course averaging roughly 4 minutes and 23 seconds per mile. That pace was as challenging as it sounds: “This race wasn’t easy,” he said after crossing the finish line, per World Athletics. “Today I told myself to do it in 57 minutes, and I saw from the clock on the lead car that it was possible, despite the rain. I wanted to break the world record and I’m really happy I did it.”
Landing Sites
NASA has identified nine possible landing sites for its Artemis III mission in 2026 that will return astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. "Artemis will return humanity to the moon and visit unexplored areas. NASA's selection of these regions shows our commitment to landing crew safely near the lunar south pole, where they will help uncover new scientific discoveries and learn to live on the lunar surface," said Lakiesha Hawkins, assistant deputy associate administrator, Moon to Mars Program.
New Amazon Park
The Giant Trees of the Amazon State Park in Pará will protect some of the oldest and most majestic trees in the Amazon rainforest. Spanning 5,600 km2 (1,384,000 acres), the park will protect a rare tropical forest which is home to angelim vermelho, the tallest tree species in the tropical Americas, reaching 88.5 metres. These trees are unique; their carbon stock is equivalent to 500 average sized trees and their age may be somewhere between 400 to 600 years old according to researchers.
“The Amazon Giant Trees State Park is a milestone in the preservation of our biodiversity, guaranteeing that unique species of great ecological importance will continue to exist for future generations,” states Ideflor-Bio president Nilson Pinto.
World's First
As Candela’s P-12 gracefully flew over the waterways in Stockholm on Tuesday morning, the event marked the first-ever commercial operation of a hydrofoil electric ferry. It’s been a long time coming for the P-12, with years of development resulting in the first images of the boat released over two years ago and testing getting started only last year. Now the first Candela P-12 in commercial operation, named “Nova”, runs from Tappström to Stockholm City Hall. The 15 km (9 mile) journey takes just 30 minutes, or around half the time it normally takes by car or public transit.
“Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later.” Bob Goff
On This Day
1 November 1512: For the first time, the general public was able to view Michelangelo's fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace.
Today's Articles
Ultimate Hoarders: The remarkable multi-generation private granaries of Acorn Woodpeckers, ready for winter.
Cyclist Safety: New multi-light handle bar system that serves as headlights, tail lights and turn indicators.
White Dragon Satellite: Perhaps remarkably, clouds are said to be the least understood aspect of our climate. Not for much longer.
Mood Boosting Video
Time For a Laugh? 5 minutes of funny animal commercials.