What an astronaut could see from space that changed him for good

The advice that NASA astronaut Christina Koch recently shared with CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta in his Chasing Life podcast was this: Create milestones for yourself that help mark the passage of time. For Koch, who spent a record-breaking 328 days in space, that included spacewalks and celebrating Christmas among the stars. 

Defying gravity

European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet believes that “if we can make a space station fly, then we can save the planet.”

Pesquet, who recently returned from his second trip to the International Space Station in November, had a unique perspective of our world as “the blue ball we call home.”

But Pesquet, a UN Food and Agriculture Organization Goodwill Ambassador, believes that lessons of resource conservation learned in the space environment could be applied on Earth.

A long time ago

While restoring a temple damaged by ISIS, archaeologists were excited to find evidence of ancient hybrid camels within a piece of artwork.

The Temple of Allat, which dates to the second century AD, is located in the city of Hatra, the once sprawling capital of a small kingdom in what is now northern Iraq.

This hybrid animal would have been stronger and more resilient — and even helped the king flex his power in the shadow of the massive Roman empire.

Across the universe

There is a strange, blinking object about 4,000 light-years away from Earth.

It could be a remnant of a collapsed star — or it could be something else entirely.

Force of nature

When an underwater volcano near Tonga erupted on January 15, the resulting blast was hundreds of times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb, according to experts at NASA.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano sent material up 25 miles (40 kilometers) into the atmosphere. It also created tsunami waves cresting up to 49 feet (15 meters) high that slammed into parts of the Pacific nation’s archipelago.

The massive blast also completely altered the land mass of the volcanic island.

Fantastic creatures

An African clawed frog with an amputated leg was able to grow a new one, despite the fact that it’s not a creature known to regenerate entire limbs like some salamanders, lizards and newts.

Scientists applied a mixture of drugs to the frog’s stump and sealed it for 24 hours. About 18 months later, the frog had an almost fully functional leg and was able to swim and respond to touch.

The researchers are encouraged by this result, however, because it suggests that some animals may have dormant regenerative capabilities — they just need a trigger to kick-start the transformation.

Curiosities

Here’s a little more to explore: