Science & Nature
Monocled Cobra
Monocled Cobra, named for the single ring on its hood, is a highly venomous snake of South and Southeast Asia often found near water and rice fields.
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.
Pygmy Hippopotamus
Pygmy Hippopotamus, a shy, forest-dwelling relative of the common hippo, is an endangered West African species far smaller than its famous cousin.
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.
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.
Olive Sea Snake
The olive sea snake's "attacks" on divers aren't attacks at all. Discover the venomous Great Barrier Reef serpent and the surprising truth behind its behavior
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.
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.
Animals With More Than One Heart
Various animals have different heart structures; some, like octopuses and earthworms, have multiple hearts, while others use alternative systems.
Asian Black Bear
Asian Black Bear, or moon bear, is the most tree-climbing of all bears, marked by a pale crescent chest and now Vulnerable to logging and the bile trade.
Black Panther
Black Panther is not a species but a melanistic leopard or jaguar, its rosettes still faintly visible as ghost markings beneath the all-black coat.
Which Planet Is The Smallest?
Although the context can change the answer to this question, Mercury is the smallest planet, circling closest to the Sun.
How Long Would It Take To Travel To Each Planet?
Moving at a speed of 50,000-miles per hour, it would take 32-days to reach Venus, the closest planet, and 2,250-days to reach Neptune, the furthest planet.