Science & Nature
Killer Whale
Killer Whale, the ocean's top predator and the largest member of the dolphin family, hunts in tight-knit family pods across every sea on the planet.
Indian Cobra
Indian Cobra, the spectacled snake of snake charmers, is one of India's deadliest reptiles and a revered figure in Hindu mythology and folklore.
Why Doesn't the Moon Fall?
Gravity pulls the Moon toward Earth every second, yet it never lands. Tangential speed and Earth's curved surface turn that fall into a stable orbit.
Markhor
Markhor, the largest species of wild goat and the national animal of Pakistan, is famous for the long, corkscrew horns that spiral above its head.
Egyptian Cobra
Egyptian Cobra, one of Africa's largest and most venomous snakes, ranges across North African deserts and savannas and features in ancient Egyptian myth.
Which Planet Would Float On Water?
The massive planet of Saturn, a gas giant, has a density such that if you could place it in a giant tub of water, it would float.
Where America Watches For Asteroids From
Mountaintop telescopes, a Cambridge clearinghouse, and JPL orbit specialists share the job of spotting asteroids early in America.
Blue Whale
Blue Whale, the largest animal ever known to have lived, is a colossal baleen whale that filter-feeds on tiny krill across the world's open oceans.
Mozambique Spitting Cobra
Mozambique Spitting Cobra, one of southern Africa's most dangerous snakes, can spray venom into a threat's eyes and inflict a tissue-destroying bite.
Which Moon Is The Coldest?
Triton is frozen almost beyond imagination, but Earth’s Moon hides an even colder secret inside craters untouched by sunlight.
Scientists Discover The World’s Largest Snake Species
The green anaconda, now recognized as a separate species, is the heaviest and possibly longest snake, reaching over 21 feet and 200 kg.
The K2-18b Biosignature Debate And What It Actually Means
Scientists found possible signs of life on K2-18b, but the evidence soon weakened. Here is what the latest research actually tells us.
Which Planet Is The Densest?
Earth is the solar system's densest planet at 5.514 g/cm³. See how mass, volume, and rocky composition determine planetary density.
Puff Adder
Puff Adder, a thick-bodied African viper blamed for more snakebite deaths than any other snake on the continent, stays still rather than fleeing danger.
Birds That Start With B
Some of the birds whose names begin with B include the bald eagle, the barn owl, the blue jay, the bowerbird, the budgerigar, the booby, the bustard, the buzzard and the bittern.
What Is The Most Volcanic World In The Solar System?
Io has at least 400 active volcanoes, throwing lava fountains dozens of miles high. The cause is not tectonics but Jupiter's gravity.
10 of the Fastest Snakes in the World
These ten snakes are some of the fastest in the world, using unique slithering and movement methods to hunt prey and get away from predators.
Javan Rhino
Javan Rhino is widely regarded as the rarest large mammal on Earth. About 50 survive, all inside one Indonesian national park and none in captivity.
What Is The Largest Object In The Solar System After The Sun?
Jupiter isn't just the biggest planet; it's the largest object in our Solar System after the Sun, 11 times wider than Earth.
Which Moon Is The Largest?
Ganymede outsizes the planet Mercury and hides an ocean that may hold more water than all the seas on Earth's surface.
White Rhino
White Rhino is the largest rhino and, after the elephant, among the heaviest land animals, a grey grazer split between a recovery and a near extinction.
Porcupine
Porcupine is a heavily armored rodent cloaked in tens of thousands of barbed quills, which detach on contact but, despite the myth, are never shot.
Which Planet Is The Least Dense?
Lighter than water despite its size, Saturn measures a mere 0.69 g/cm3. Here is why the solar system heavyweight is really its lowest-density world.
Armadillo
The armadillo is the only living mammal wrapped in a shell of bone, an American digger that births identical quadruplets and can walk across riverbeds.
Which Animals Can Live Without Water For Years?
Learn about the special adaptations of six unique animals that can live for years at a time, some their whole lives, without drinking any water.
What if Earth Stopped Spinning?
See what would happen if Earth stopped spinning, from catastrophic winds and ocean surges to year-long days and a transformed climate.
What Animals Live In The Taiga?
The harsh environment of the taiga regions of the world limit the biodiversity in such places to species that can successfully adapt to the extreme environment.
Pallas Cat
Pallas Cat, or manul, wears the thickest fur of any wild cat, a house-cat-sized ambush hunter of Central Asia's frigid, wind-scoured high steppes.
Striped Hyena
Striped Hyena is the only hyena found outside sub-Saharan Africa, a shaggy, bone-cracking scavenger of dry country now thinning toward Near Threatened.
What Happens If GPS Goes Down
Pretty much everything we do with a phone today incorporates GPS at some point. If we were to suddenly lose our skyward helper, it would cause many issues.
The Fastest Birds In The World
The White-throated Needletail is the fastest in horizontal flight at 170 km/h, while the Peregrine Falcon reaches 389 km/h in dives.
South China Tiger
South China Tiger is the only tiger subspecies extinct in the wild yet still alive in captivity, with no confirmed sighting in about half a century.
What Animals Live in the Atlantic Ocean?
The Atlantic Ocean makes up about 29% of the total world ocean waters. It is home to a wide variety of aquatic plant life and marine animals.
Why Uranus Spins Sideways
Uranus is the butt of countless childish jokes, but there are truly interesting qualities to it. Here's why Uranus spins sideways.